Alishan 阿里山

6/4/12 This morning we depart from 台中火车站 Taichung Train Station 环島之星 for Chiayi Railway Station 嘉义. And from Chiayi we will travel on the mountain route up to Alishan Mountains by van. I organised this round Taiwan Island tour with EZ Travel when we were in Taipei.

I have been envisaging this epic journey all these months and so I am like .... "my dream comes through". Ya!

 台中火车站

 二号A月台

  Before boarding our 环島之星 train

Snacks for morning cuppa

We depart at 0832 and arrive Chiayi Railway Station at 0948 over a distance of about 140km; stopping at Changhua 彰化 and Douliu 斗六. We are then picked up by e-go Van and travel up Alishan Mountains. And Alishan is another 95km up around mountain routes which takes 2 hours。

I include here a rail map for Taiwan

Rest stop - I am a Rat

Lunch st this restaurant opposite the Alishan Post Office of 火锅 of chicken soup and 5 dishes; which we share with a Taipei couple. This couple is a typical 空巢中年人 very much like us and so we have quite a bit to relate to each other

台中 二

5/4/12 Today at Taichung we try to get around without using taxis. we resort to using public buses 空运 and enjoy using them! The fare is cheap, only at NT$20 per pax per trip, and the buses are frequent. Once we get used to finding the right bus stop and bus number everything flows.

From Le Parker we go to 台中公囩。So far so good.

There is nothing much interesting at this 公囩. It is just a normal garden

 I am amazed at how big these advertising signs are in Taiwan... they are everywhere.

Then we bus to 中友百货 for lunch and I can't resist taking photos of these delightful deserts and hand gifts being displayed in the basement food court much like what we see in Japanese department stores

Big ads again

The kitchen staff MUST LIKE PASTA? Sounds like a good job to me.

And... we manage to bus to the Taichung 美术館 art gallery again since we could not get in yesterday as it was closed. Unfortunately no photography inside the gallery. It would appear the arts gallery are well run and manned by staff and volunteers. Again, entrance is fee free.

 Having a rest after a long day's walking and bussing around.

台北 三； 台中 一

4/4/12 Our last day in Taipei. We should have allocated more time in this interesting city. So far it has lived up to my expectations. I think it is a perfect vacation spot with the right blend of modern amenities (efficient MRT, buses, cabs, high speed rail system), culture (food that agree with us, the language, book culture, coffee culture, fashion and the civility of the people), and social conservativeness. And it is a democratic country.

We take the High Speed Rail HSR 高铁 from 台北 at 10.30am and we reach 台中 at 11.19am. At one time the train clocked 281kph. And we only pay NT$700 per pax. That's efficiency and service in action.

 The High Speed Rail carriages are so long that we could not even see the front or rear of the train!
 

 

This is an interesting ad at the Taichung HSR station. It must be at least 6.5m (22 ft) high. Needless to say I have never seen such huge advertising material before!

We check into Le Parker which is at 16 Lane 234 Chih Shan Rd, Shi Tung Area. It's in the west of Taichung near to the famous 逢甲Fengjia Night Market.

At the Taichung station we get some tourist info + maps from the visitor's info desk, on 台中. Taiwan has such info desks at every location frequented by tourists you can think of; including in each and every one of their MRT stations. Amazing. This girl recommends us to go to 無为草堂 on 公益路二段 because I ask her about the tea culture in Taichung; having read somewhere that it is huge here (and it's true!). We sit down in one of the cubicles shown to us by the waitress and look at their menu. Very quickly we know it is not for us because firstly we have to sit on this tatami bending our knees this way and that (which my aching body protests) and secondly SM is not keen because she cannot have her cup of coffee there as they only serve tea! Huh!

  Go look for somewhere else to visit

See the plants grown on the building walls?

So we move on to another place where we can get some lunch and coffee - the 勤美诚品 department store near to 草悟道。诚品 is the most popular bookstore in Taiwan where we find fantastic selections of chinese books. We have a lunch of ramen at 加部屋大口面。

At NT$210 a pax including drinks and dessert it is a steal. What we find is that there is a wide variety of foods at KL or lower than KL prices.

The 拉面， however is not that impressive. Maybe 出钱一定 is better then this.

 I like this advertising at the 勤美诚品 department store