5.2 Fenqihu 奮起湖 + 嘉义Chiayi

We left Alishan at 12pm to Fenqihu(奮起湖),NT$400 per person.
Public transport is impossible to reach Fenqihu due to time constrain.Unless you are staying there 1 night.

On the way to Fenqihu，they are repairing the road and cause massive jam on the road for more then 40 minutes. We ended up reaching Fenqihu 3++pm which initialy need only 1 hour trip.

Fenqihu is a small town along the forest railway.

It is well know for the local box lunches (奮起湖便當, Fencihu bento) which were once sold to passengers on the rail line. Each lunch box is sold NT$100, which consist rice, vegetables, chicken and pork meat. TS love Fenchihu bento alot.



There are several old street, wooden houses selling sourvinor and foods.
The railway station that was stoped working due to the flood.




We continue our journey down to ChiaYi. We stop by the temple (龍隱寺).

And there are 2 Suspension Bridge.
The Tianchang bridge (天長橋) is closed.

But not the DiJiu Brigde (地久橋)


We reach Chiayi train station and we headed to 新高大飯店 and check-in our hotel in Chiayi. Room rates is NT$800 per night. The hotel is very near to the train station and the room is quite big.

On our way for dinner, we stop at Bosini and brought both of us 2 thick jumper jackets. 2 jackets only cost us NT$1400 which we will never get this price in Malaysia. The SA recommend me to buy a thicker one as I will be visiting Qingjing on the next few days.

The weather jump to as cold as 8-9°C at night due to the cold wind(寒流)blowing toward Taiwan island.

Our dinner is famous chicken rice nearby our hotel. Too bad I forgotten to snap the shop name.

After dinner, we wonder around Chiayi town. The weather is so cold and we stop to had some Taofufa (豆花) and you know what, the Taofufa went cold after 15 minutes. Oh ~! the weather is really really cold by now.

5.1 Jade Mountain 玉山 + Alishan 阿里山

Woke up at 5.30am. Why? To see the sun rise at Jade Mountain aka Yushan(玉山). Jade Mountain highest mountain in Taiwan. Each person is NT$250 for the trip to the Jade Mountain.

That morning, the temperature is only 9 °C. The homestay lady boss was kind enough to lean us thick jumper jackets.

Due to the rain last night, there is too much haze and we have no luck on enjoy the view of sun rise :( But we can see the beautiful scenery of the hills and moutains.







Lulin ShenMu(鹿林神木) an 2800 years old tree.There are several monkeys around the hill too.

We reach our homestay at 8++am ， TS was too tried and went for a nap, and I was busy taking some photographs of lovely pictures around there.






My breakfast from 7-11, green tea latte and snacks.

We were very lucky that we decided to visit the Alishan National Park yesterday. Today the weather wasn't that good and rains alot. A pair of couple in the homestay told the lady boss they can't see the beautiful scenery at Alishan hill due to the haze and the rain.
Was too boring and brought some postcard to post to my family and friends。

5.0 Alishan 阿里山

The next day (6th day), we headed to Alishan (阿里山). Alishan is located at Chiayi (嘉义) district. We took the 8am railway train from Kaohsiung Train Station (高雄火车站)to Chiayi Train Staion (嘉义火车站) for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Train ticket cost us NT$246 per person.

We reach Chiayi Train Staion and we brought 10am bus ticket to Alishan. It is a 2 hour journey and the ticket price is NT$221. The Famous Alishan Forest Railway had stop service since the 88 flood （88水灾） that hit Taiwan last year. The locals told us the Forest railway will be only available after 3 years from the flood. We saw alot of damage cause by mother nature.

The bus will stop us at the Alishan National Scenic Area (阿里山國家風景區) entrance. Each person will need to buy a ticket to enter. We paid $100 per person with the youth card(np$150).


We reach Alishan at 12 noon, the bus stop us at 7-11，and our homestay - 欣欣民宿is just beside the7-11, it is so convinent.

Decoration on the enterance of the homestay.

The lady boss is such a kind lady, she even borrow us thick jumper coat for us at the next morning due to the cold weather. Our room is NT$1200 per might and it is there have a heater in the room.

We ate our lunch at the near by stall near our homestay. We met a Singapore family of 4, after some chit chat, we found out that they are traveling at Taiwan for 26days! Whenever I tell my friend that I'm going to Taiwan for 17 days, they will say "Siao ar? go so many days for what ar?", "So many things to see mer?". After this trip, I can say "Yes, you need so many days if you plan to round Taiwan Island". Even 17 days for us is still not enough.

After our lunch, we started our journey at Alishan Hill. There is a native performance in front of the enterance.

Started climbing up the hill. Started to spot cherry blossom aka sakura flowers on the way.

Cherry blossom (sakura) season starts from 10th March until 15 April every year. We was at Alishan at 8th March and we are so lucky that this year the cherry blossom open early this year.

I must say, we really have a good exprience in seing beautiful white and red blossom around Alishan.


Alishan Forest Railway 阿里山铁路.




After the flood, tourist to Alishan decrease tremendously. We visit Alishan at Monday and the crowd was so little.

It's a huge park and we start to get lost.

Even the tree, forest looks beautiful with those sakura flower trees.

Here we reach the Two Sisters Pond (姊妹潭).


The we saw the Golden pig.
And the famous love tree.



The famous Shermuh (神木) - giant tree. We have climbed more then 100 stairs up from the Giant Trees Trail just to see this huge tree. The small Cihyun Temple, and the Tree Spirit Pagoda are along the way.


We walked thru the Alishan Park for more then 5 hours until the day got dark. We visited 7-11 on our way to have our dinner. Cute 7-11 Alishan mascot & T-shirt . I think the doll is the cutest among all.

Food:
Top left：Lunch: meat noodle肉庚面 - nice
Bottom left：mua-ci - taste good
The rest are the steamboat Dinner we had, NT$700 – taste so so....
There is nothing much to write on the food at Alishan.

Short Trip back to Penang

My brother was back from UK on someday mid March and our dad ask us to get back for a small gathering over the weekend.

He brought back alot of chocolates ~ yummy ones. One of my favorite is these Ferrero Dark Chocolates. And some dark chocolate Kit Kat too. Our family is a great fan of chocolates.

When to the market and saw some of our childhood snacks. My sister brought and gave my brother some. Which he will never find these at UK. The price shoot up high compare to those days when we were young.

Steamboat is our tradition dish on Chinese New Year. My brother couldn't make it back for this year Chinese New Year. So we gather and prepare one for him.

No photo's on my family~ why? Warn buy my sister not to put "ugly" un-edit pictures up online. Haha.

Here are some pictures on my dogs at home. It is so hard to capture a still picture of Browny.

Too much flash ~~

Lucky looks great on pictures ~!

Spotted a cute white puppy beside my friends house ~

Mum's garden

I know my Taiwan Trip is getting more and more boring.

But it is very useful for those who are planning to visit Taiwan in future.

Today I shall blogged some shooting I took back at Penang. ~ My mums Garden

She love planting them at the house compound. She is proud of her garden. Some plants become enormous big. The 'Kertas Bunga' plant is now even taller then me.

Some colorful and different types of flowers ~ Don't ask me, I do not know their name.