Part I - From Taipei to Alishan {Travelogue}

I am trying to be better about posting in a more timely manner, but you know how life is. Or laziness....

Every year, I try to have at least one big trip to plan for so I have something to look forward to. Last year, it was Taiwan and Sapporo. The older I've gotten, the more into planning I've been into. I bought my ticket super early in the year - April. The trip wasn't until November. That left me with MONTHS to plan out what to do. But because I had never been to Sapporo before, or Alishan and Tainan on my own, the extra time to plan was welcome.

These entries are going to be a little longer, but there are going to be more pictures! So I hope you enjoy them. I get a lot of questions about food and things to do, so hopefully it helps give you some ideas. Taiwan is a small island, but there's so much to do. I go pretty often and I still have a long list of things to do that I haven't checked off! 

We arrived at TPE (Taoyuan Intl Airport) at approx 5:40am, 25 minutes earlier than the scheduled arrival time. Normally, I prefer arriving earlier, but when it's this early in the morning, there's usually not much to do yet. Luckily, I can kill some time working my way to Taipei where we are to meet a friend before heading down South, and get some breakfast along the way.

First stop - BREAKFAST!

Salty soy milk, oily stick wrapped in a flatbread, and some soup dumplings. You can easily find breakfast places like this in every city and they generally have the same items.

The salty soymilk here is one of my favorites. Ok, it's my favorite. It is savory and delicious. There are already pieces of oily stick in there, but I still like dipping freshly fried ones in there because it makes it even better.

This is a common scene, and a good way to tell what a breakfast place has. And, it's always a good sign if they are making it fresh.

On the way to the HSR station, I picked up some pearl milk tea. Small pearls, of course. None of that Quickly or Tapioca Express crap either.

My friends are the best. They buy me beer. Special beer in fact. Ones that celebrate the new president who is awesome.

After our hour long HSR ride to Chiayi, we hopped in our rental car and drove towards Alishan. I rented a car from Chailease. At each HSR station, there is a rental car area. If you need to rent one, it's a pretty painless process. I picked an Altis (Corolla for you 'Murcans) instead of something smaller so that I would have the power to make it up the mountain easier. We could have taken a bus or train up the mountain, but this way we get to be more in control of where we go and if we want to make random stops. Like here at Chukou. I don't remember the exact reason we stopped, but we did.

We hiked up these stairs to see what was up there. Breathless and bug bitten, we discovered it was a *surprise* temple. The view was okay, but we didn't want to hang out too long and let it get dark before driving further up. The roads are narrow and are not for beginners. Even for someone like me with probably thousands of hours of driving under my belt, it's still not fun to drive on narrow roads covered in a soupy fog. We walked back down and wanted to grab some drinks before continuing our trip. At the entrance to the Family Mart was this sad looking dog.

So many strays and they all make me want to just take them all home. My friend ended up buying some dog food and feeding them.

This baby here was terrified of getting too close. When the other dogs got closer, he would run away.

He was actually whining in this picture. He wanted to get closer but he was scared.

This poor guy was missing a foot 😭

The temple at the base of the hill we hiked up was much bigger. But, we were losing daylight and we wanted to get to the hotel, dump our stuff, and find some dinner.

For dinner, we met up with my aunt at 達官現炒 (located 嘉義縣竹崎鄉中和村石棹21之17號). The restaurant we actually wanted to eat at was closed for some reason. We didn't know why, as it was Friday at 7pm. It appeared that this was the only restaurant open in the general vicinity of the hotel. My aunt said it's the same type of food. I figured this would be a good way to have a comparison of the two places.

Fresh tofu with local Alishan Wasabi and soy. (100% vegetarian)

Quick saute mountain boar

Quick saute dragon whiskers

Day lily soup and mushrooms (100% vegetarian)

Bitter tea oil chicken

Sauteed river shrimp

Full and happy, we made our way to the hotel. The drive there was a mini event in itself. The hotel I picked was Alishan B&B Yunmingi Aliscenery. I chose Alishan B&B Yunmingi Aliscenery based on price and location. The thing is, there are two locations. The original location and the new remodeled one. When I called prior to leaving the States, they told me the address was the old location (阿里山淵明居客棧). When I arrived, they said that I'm actually supposed to stay at the other one - 山水清暉-淵明居新館 YunMinGi B&B. So many names on all of the different social platforms! Then there was the address that was given through www.hotels.com, which is completely different than either of these. So, my advice is when picking a place, be sure to ask the people at the hotel or the B&B for the exact address, and possibly directions. 

Also note that not all cell phones or wifi hot spots will have data access in these areas. I typically have very good luck with ChungHwa, but there are still spots with little to no reception. The mountains should be a good place to disconnect and recharge your mental self anyway, so if not, bring a GPS. As my luck would have it, I didn't have the most recent update so I couldn't use my own.

To get to that first incorrect location on the right, I drove on a few one way roads that were difficult to see as it was foggy, rainy, and dark. Turning around was very difficult and some turns I don't know that I would have felt comfortable making even during the day! Luckily we got to our destination safely. Dropped our things off, and relaxed with some tea tasting from their fields.

"So," you say, "what's so great about the mountains? I heard Taiwan is all about the food! I don't want to go out in the boonies and be away from the food!" It is, but it is also so much more. Taiwan is more than just Taipei, beef noodle soup, and soup dumplings (both of which are not even original to Taiwan!). I love Taipei, but don't discount what the rest of the island has to offer. Every city has their own specialty. I also love the peace and quiet of the mountains. I love my big cities, but it doesn't mean I love the mountain air any less. Also, Taiwan is so much more than just Taipei. A Taipei sunrise is nothing like one from Alishan. I'm not big on waking up early, but waking up for a mountain sunrise? WORTH IT. I wanted my peeps to watch the sunrise and see what it's all about. I was also counting on the jet lag to help me wake up in time. 

And, since I am doing the research for you, dear reader, know that Aliscenery is a fantastic hotel, but not great for sitting on the balcony to watch the sun rise. It is not by any means a bad view, but the angle is better for sunset. So if you want a great sunset, come here! We didn't get the sunset as the weather got pretty crappy the next day.

Waiting for the sun to come up, not yet knowing that we were facing the wrong way.

No amazing sunrise, but we were still treated to this fantastic view and got to watch the cloud ocean roll in.

The famous cloud ocean rolls in.

After our slow morning of watching the sunrise and enjoying a homemade complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we made our way to the recreational park area. Parking in the actual park area can be tough if you don't come at the break of dawn, so I ended up parking up the hill not too far away. Please check in for Part II to see the next leg of my Taiwan journey!