Hiking Alishan

So we arrived in Fenqihu on Wednesday, and on Thursday planned to take a bus the final distance to the Alishan National Park. Father William offered to take us to the bus in the town over because Fenqihu, while it is right on the path of the rail that doesn't complete the journey, is a jog OFF the bus route. Had he not given us a ride, we would have needed to take 2 buses. This would have been especially inconvenient on the journey back because the LAST bus to Fenqihu left at around 2pm and that would mean leaving Alishan at about 12:30.

He also suggested we go early to beat the Chinese tourists. We gratefully accepted the ride and at 7:15 Thursday morning, crammed into his 5 seater to ride to ShiZhuo (Stone Table) to catch the bus. (Q sat in front with father while the other 6 of us sat laps in the back seat.)

As an aside, a 7:15 departure time did not stretch us at all. We have kept an adjusted jet-lag schedule which has worked well. We have been getting up at about 6 or 6:30 every morning. Perhaps Q is the only one for whom this is not a departure from the norm. But it has been nice to keep us all on his schedule. So by 8pm we are all pooped and usually hit the sack about then. Except for me. I blog 'til 9 or 10. Sometimes I do blog work in the morning too if the kids sleep in, but sleeping in for us is 'til about 7 or 7:30.

This was our return bus - much bigger, more comfy, and SLOWER.

Anyway, I have no pictures of the bus ride. I was focusing on calm breathing to make sure I didn't become sick. It was needed. The bus was rather small, and the beetle-nut chewing driver used this to his advantage, screeching around the winding mountain roads. At one point he passed on the left a larger tour bus, with cliffs on the right and a blind curve ahead!!!! Blessedly shortly after this maneuver, another passenger towards the head of the bus DID become sick and started ralphing. It might have been my imagination, but I think the driver slowed down a scoatch. At least I'm pretty sure he took it down by about 3mph when a second passenger began to puke.

Our crew took all of this in stride. Q laughed out loud when we passed the tour bus. When the puking began, we all just exchanged wide-eyed looks. Rachel had brought an essential oil, Motion Ease, which we applied behind our ears early on. I don't know if this was the difference maker, but all 7 of us survived the 55 minute ride without incident.

The ride was it's own adventure, but our destination was the lovely Alishan National Forest, and it was WORTH the journey. Again, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Here we all are, above the clouds!

Stew and Dad look over the mountains.

The train station had many of these beautiful wood sculptures. Here is Eloise making friends. The kids tore around the place with a rambunctious game of tag in the wait before the train.

       

View of the local trains. On Wednesdays they take the REALLY old ones. Sad I missed this delight! Also on Wednesday you can tour the vacation home of the Japanese Imperial family. The plan WAS to be here Wednesday. It was a good plan, but Thursday was lovely too!

Here is Weese, providing train entertainment for the other passengers.

From the Chaoping station, we hiked down to a place called Sisters Lake. Pictures below are on the way down.

This area was all developed during the Japanese occupation. They built the railroads to harvest the large cypress trees. They pretty much wiped those out, though the enormous stumps tell the tale. They replaced the forest they took with cedar.

Here are the kids posed by a cypress stump.

Stew, for some reason, had almost NO energy for the day. He rarely hiked, but thankfully is small enough, carrying him wasn't an issue. In this shot you can see a line of Chinese tourists about to descend upon us. They were loud and an obnoxious contrast to our serene surroundings. At one point, Q asked Weese why she thought they were so loud. She answered, "Maybe their leadership tells them to."

Here is Sisters Lake. I don't know how it got it's name. The Japanese Imperial Family would vacation here, so I liked to imagine 2 Japanese princesses coming here to relax.

Of course, it was far MORE relaxing once the tour group finished taking their pictures of the lake and of us. At least the tours stick together and move quickly. They came in waves throughout the day, always in a tight bunch, always following a leader holding a stick with some odd object at the top of it and shouting info to the group. They sure loved our family and Rachel.

Stew's preferred mode of transportation. Actually he preferred my smaller back he could look around, but my joints didn't like the extra weight as we went down the mountainside. 

Here you see the board walk cutting through the forest.

From Sisters Lake we continued down to the temple pictured below. Many of our trails were up and down wooden stairs and raised board walks. Q had come across the sign that was probably trying to warn of the slippery conditions. It said, "no striding." Since that sign, he had enjoyed calling out any time we are hiking, "No striding!" It almost gets funnier every time.

Anyway, the temple had AMAZINGLY ornate stone work throughout.

The stroller gave us a break from carrying Stew, though the stroller also had to be carried down the hundreds of steps. Here we paused to eat giant, hand sized dumplings and roasted sausage on a stick. Stew loved those and pined for more "hot dogs!"

Here is Weese by a stone lion near the entrance.

Here are the girls by one of the fabulously detailed pillars

From the temple, we descended through a grove spotted with what is left from the Japanese logging. 

These are like Taiwan's Redwoods. This entire area made us appreciate the National Parks in the US and their role in preserving the beauty for generations.

Big Bro started sliding down the banisters. It turned out to be a nice way to get Stew down the stairs too.

 Beauty abounded. We made it to the return train station, Sacred Tree Station, with 45 minutes to kill.

Stew still had enough energy to try to escape. Thank goodness for the monkey backpack.

The fam by the Sacred Tree. This tree is 3000 years old. It was cut down in the 50's because it was leaning and hit by hit by lightening TWICE!

Rather than sit around for 45 minutes, we decided to take a different trail through more giant trees and hit a Buddhist temple. The temple itself wasn't much to see. The Japanese buddhists built it here because the area reminded them of the place in India where Buddha himself lived and taught.

Here's the plaque with more info:

Here are my bonnie maidens by the statue

Meditation, Avatar-Engh-the-airbender style

More beauty in Alishan

This killed the 45 minutes, PLUS almost another hour so we got back in just enough time to catch the train back down the hill to our starting place. We found dinner, enjoyed decent food, and got tickets for the bus ride back to ShiZhuo. As I mentioned above, THIS bus ride was a lot better. Still, I'm still struggling with the heat combined with the greasy food, so again, I concentrated on relaxing on the bus. I made it just fine, got off the bus, and imediately needed to use the bathroom. Again, the 7-11 saved me, but I was back in for round two when Father arrived. Two rounds in the bathroom seemed to do it, and I didn't have any issues for the rest of the evening. 

So we got back to Fenqihu relatively early. I took a shower which wound up being surprisingly lovely and relaxing for a public, hostel shower. Q stretched and worked on his body. The kids played with the dog, Tutu, whom they loved. At about 7pm Big Bro and I decided a doughnut run was in order and hiked back into town. I was blown away that almost EVERYTHING was closed up! Who knew anything closed in Taiwan before 9pm!?! We'd been using doughnuts all evening as the bribe for calmer, quieter behavior, and I knew we couldn't return empty handed so we bought the next best thing to doughnuts at the only open shop: wasabi peanuts and a box of egg-flavored soybean milk for everyone. The milk had been one of my favorites on my mission, and sure enough, it was a HUGE hit with the kids. And for the record, wasabi peanuts are tastier than the peas. 

Stew and Big Bro loving Tutu, the wanpi (naughty) doggie

Big Bro and I prepare to head out on the doughnut run.

Wild life on the walk. We almost stepped on this guy.

After our snack we got ready for bed and read the blog for our evening entertainment. I'm embarassed by my many errors, but I'm also thrilled I've been able to keep up and get so many aspects of our trip recorded for our memories.