The Ninth Sense: About Nature and Altitude 1

It took me quite some time to sort out all those photos and most importantly, to edit each and everyone of it. Gosh, for the first time since I start blogging, I was having thought block as to how and what to blog about our weekend trip to Alishan. Finally decided to split the entry to two, and so, part one is here, and will try to be as informative as possible.(Well, was suppose to be a food and travel blog afterall~)

We have long planned this weekend trip, even way back to the time we was first accepted for Taiwan electives. All the accommodation and transport together with those interesting attractions was decided ages ago. Some brief introduction about Alishan, it is a Taiwan National Reserved Forest with forest, ponds, pagoda, and temple just to name a few~

Ordinary day, was suppose to be a great trip with tranquil environment, breezing fresh air, and breathtaking scenery. Too bad we went on wrong timing~ IT IS RAINY SEASON!

Woke up at 5am and start walking to Kaohsiung Main Station to catch the 6.20am train to Jia Yi Train Station~ （嘉义）Everyone seems so distress eh~

Quite a comfortable journey~ Cost 189 NTD and took around 2 hours to reach Jia Yi.

I started fallen asleep as soon as the train start moving~

Around RM20~ Erm...consider cheap I guess?~

Free hot water in the compartment

LOL~ No disrespect~ =P

Reached Jia Yi around 8.30am, gona grab some breakfast before boarding the shuttle bus to Alishan~ Whats most famous food in Jia Yi?

Turkey Rice~

They said is a must try~

Totally uninteresting~ overated and mediocre~ duh~ wasting my time~

Waiting for shuttle bus to Alishan, 221NTD with a 2 1/2 hours ride~

Slept through the journey~ Everyone is the same I guess~ The entrance ticket to the National Park cost 100 NTD with student card~ (Half Price)

Before coming, was forewarned about the cold weather, but was way beyond our expectation~

13 degree with cold wind constantly blowing....

Our accommodation ~

Suppose to be a church, 400 NTD per nite per person~

Only 4 of us in that 6 persons room~ So very spacious~

Few interesting facts about Alishan~

To tour the National Park, you can either walk all the way up the park(Quite some distance, with slops and winding road), or you can just take a 7 minutes train to reach the scenic area~

Miss this train we will have to wait another 1 hour, so....RUN!

During Spring seasons, there will be alot of Sakura along the way....would be nice to view these scenery with a cup of coffee and nice music~

Rather empty~

Sigh~ Starts raining.....hot coffee~~~

Raincoat checked~ Ready to roll off~

Lotza traveling group from China~

Actually the reserved forest was re-planted in the 70's....... The original one had been deforest during the era of Japanese Colonization~ Hence, besides all the new trees, we could also see alot of such tree stumps all around the parameter.

The sisters' pond - this is the elder pond if I' not quite mistaken~

Quite some scenery eh?~

The temple (受鎮宮 ) was under renovation...... but whats so special about this temple?

The statue and inner structure was built of solid gold~

Would have been long gone in Malaysia~

This sign was somehow intimidating~ as if it is not strong enough to hold greater weight~

I thought 6??!!!

Another stump

The Japanese who deforest the whole area believed that these trees are sacred with soul and hence they built a pagoda as a memorial for these sacred trunks~

Photo taken infront of the award winning sacred tree in Alishan... There aren't much of such trees remaining since the Japanese Colonization and this is allegedly the best of all~