Alishan Forest Railway to Fenqihu

Aah! I'm days behind. Hopefully tomorrow I can add pics from the train ride to this post!

Thanks to our MONSTER hike to the Buddhist temple on Tuesday, we got back to the Youth Center where our car was at about 5pm. The plan HAD been to drive from Sun Moon Lake all the way to Fenqihu that late afternoon/evening, but we were rendered too exhausted to make the 3 hour journey, especially in the dark, and considering our GPS system wasn't registering the destination.

So we did the next best thing: we drove to Chiayi, a town at the base of our mountain destination. And it turned out a blessing we did. I thought we would drive to Fenqihu, nearly all the way to the top of Alishan, and take the train for the last bit. As it turns out, the train STOPS at Fenqihu due to many years of repeated typhoon damage, and so had we driven, we would have missed the train experience all together, and it just might be my favorite thing so far!

But this was the first moment of truly winging it on the trip. We left our amazing accommodations at the youth center to stay anywhere near the train station we could find. Using the Lonely Planet guide and some creative maneuvering, we "found" a hotel for the night. We were actually looking for another one, but I couldn't read the Chinese street signs, and this one seemed "close enough." We got 2 rooms, VERY TINY, for $125, but they included breakfast, and free parking for the van, which has been huge because we will be leaving it for 2 nights to stay up in the mountains. The beds were hard, and the AC in the kids room didn't work well, but maybe we were all too exhausted to care. (This was a non-descript hotel room, so I didn't think to take pictures and don't regret not recording the brief stay. They DID let us unload ALL our luggage in the lobby and repack for our 3 day adventure. I wish I had grabbed a shot of all our stuff vomited all over the hotel entrance, but I was too busy trying to frantically sort bags and not leave anything necessary behind to pause for a picture.)

Anyway, Q and I walked to the train station in the morning (again, me panicking about there being room) and this time I was justified. When we arrived at 7:15, there was already a woman in line, and the office didn't open 'til 8am. The woman in front of me explained there were only 15 seating seats on the whole train left. (20 if you wanted to stand, but who could STAND for over 2 hours?) She was INCREDIBLY kind - good Samaritan kind. After swapping her tickets, she stayed and explained our needs to the train lady, needs which had taken me the whole wait of 45 minutes to communicate clearly and understand that I HAD been understood. So I was able to quickly buy our tickets and return to pick up the kids and Q (who had left me at the station) and Rachel and our smaller haul of luggage for 3 days. (We left all the rest but our backpacks in the car.)

Squatting at the train platform. I should note these were the only squatters.

Once we were on the train platform, this same woman made sure we got safely and securely on our car, and then helped us off of THAT car and on to the correct car because I'd read our tickets wrong! So it was a bit rushed at the end, but we made it, we were all in the SAME train car, and oh, MY, was it a lovely ride. The pics can do that part of the talking.

Here you can see the train. It was a 2.5 hour ride from sea level and up into the mountains.

All the views were breath-taking. There were fabulous drop-offs that were harder to capture the beauty of. Before we got so high, we also passed fields and learned a bit about produce we didn't know. Pineapples, for example, grow on a bush, not a tree! Guava comes from a vine.

We could not have asked for better weather! I can't imagine the disappointment I might have felt if it had been overcast.... Maybe I would not have known the difference.

Q thinks the palms that in some places DOMINATE the mountain side are beetle-nut palms. He may be right. In this shot they appear more natural, but in many places you can tell the whole mountain is cultivated.

This is a whole, cultivated palm mountain, though it may be difficult to make out the detail.

Stew was content because he got a nap and holding time with mom and dad!

Rather than needing to turn the cars for the return trip, they just make the seats so they can flip 180 degrees. When Q discovered this feature, we were able to enjoy the scenery without craning our necks!

Some chose to work on sticker books other than LOOK OUT THE WINDOW!

Those who looked out the window

After arriving in Fenqihu, we got lunch and then hiked down to a Catholic Hostel to leave our things. At least the plan was to drop stuff off, then head out adventuring. Then two things happened. The first thing we discovered is that we were completely out of cash. After paying for our room (about $66 USD), we had only about $20 left in change. But before we had energy to fix THAT crisis, we hit a wall and I, Big Bro, and Rachel all fell asleep. Q took the little 3 to the chapel where Veeve was able to practice piano on their organ and Stew and Weese pretended to practice as well.

The walk to the hostel through the streets of Fenqihu

Rear view of hostel

Our room. The kids LOVED "the upstairs."

When I woke up, Q took his nap while the girls worked in their sticker books. I took Stew to hunt down an ATM and Rachel and Big Bro slept on. Only Stew and I weren't able to find an ATM. The only one in the entire town usually is in the only 7-11 in town. But that 7-11 is being remodeled, making us instant poppers, with 2 days in front of us, another night, and only enough money for one more meal or two if we really stretched it.

The blessing was that before venturing out for the ATM I asked our hostess, Sister Wu (from Switzerland) what we were hunting for, and she told me if we could not find one, then perhaps Father William would take us to the next town's 7-11 to use theirs. Seriously, thank heaven for 7-11, AND Father William. When we came back without money, I was able to find Father, and he took Q to the next town (a fast ride down misty, foggy roads was exciting to Q) and he returned with SWEET moula.

Having solved that problem, we knew we could EAT, and so we trekked back up and scored 40 pot stickers which satisfied the crew. We purchased from a shop selling stinky tofu. Interestingly, I hadn't even mentally noted the scent until Rachel asked what it was. It was her and the kids first whiff, and it's called stinky tofu for a reason. I told them it can get so smelly at times that it almost burns one's nostrils. As we passed the same shop a few days later, it WAS that nostril burning, horrid scent. Yummy! Just kidding, it tastes much like it smells and I never got used to it. But I compared it, for Rachel's sake, and for the kids, to blue cheese - I'm sure it's just an acquired taste.

Anyway, we sat outside in the back and away from the smell.

Square Bamboo grove on left

After feeding our people, we hiked around a bit and found the grove of square bamboo. The angles were not as sharp as we had imagined, but sure enough, there were 4 corners and 4 equal sides! I wished we found a bisection of a piece, but we didn't. Because we were all feeling pretty pooped, we went back at the hostel and turned in fairly early. Our accommodations are a lot like camping - communal bathrooms, hard sleeping mats that feel a bit damp from the mountain mist, and the gorgeous mountain views in every direction - but the pictures tell that story better than I could. Enjoy!