OK, a piece of advice speaking from experience. Tourists should give Alishan a miss in their itineraries at least for these few years. Reason? There's too much road recovery works in progress, resulting in a lot of inconvenience on the travelling.
Nevertheless, here's the updates.
We took the HSR from Taipei to Chiayi at 10am. The ticket is NT$1,080 and travel time is around 1.5hrs.
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| HSR ticket |
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| greatest thing in Taiwan, all the public transport are very punctual per schedule |
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| the mango loaf and apple milk which I've brought along to eat during the ride :) |
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| floor map of the HSR |
Arriving at Chiayi HSR Station, go to Exit No.2 to take the BRT bus to Chiayi Railway Station.
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| BRT bus stop |
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| BRT route and stops |
The BRT bus ride is free, you just need to show the driver your HSR ticket and he will provide you with this card.
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| BRT free ride card |
The ride from Chiayi HSR Station to Chiayi Railway Station is around 25mins.
Initially we were supposed to head over to the Chiayi Bus Station (across the road via bridge) to get on the bus that will bring us to Alishan Forest Recreation Area (around NT$210~220 forgot the actual price, 2.5hrs ride). But we arrived late and were unable to make it on the 12.10pm bus. The next bus would be 2.40pm which is really late ><"
Then came this old lady whom I thought was a little rude as she kept nudging me to take her private van for the trip. Since we've already missed the bus, we had no choice but to check out this alternative.
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| name card of the private mini van transport |
She quoted NT$250 per pax in a mini van. Well, it sounded reasonable. My friend was a bit reluctant as we followed her to the main road for the mini van to route over and pick us up. Yah, I know this could be a risk especially 人生地不熟 we might get hijacked and extorted or robbed. (Thank God, we din... phew!) So came this mini van already with a group of 3 other tourists (sounded like either Singaporeans or Malaysians) so the 6 of us, including the driver comfortably drove up the Alishan mountain roads. The journey took around 2hrs, much faster than the bus.
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| the mini van stopping at 7-11 for a short break |
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| the view while taking a break from the mountain trail up to Alishan |
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| view of a hanging bridge on the way up to Alishan |
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| surrounding view of the recreation area |
After checking in the hotel (or motel?), we headed out for a quick stroll before the sky turns dark again. It seems like the day is even much shorter up in the mountains than in the city.
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| 阿里山高山青饭店 NT$1,600 double bed incl. breakfast |
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| directory |
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| trail to Jhushan for sunrise |
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| the trail, but only did like 1/4 since sky was turning dark |
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| many roadworks along the way |
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| Alishan police and fire station |
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| the sun is setting very early like before 5pm |
We had to head back to the recreation area since the sky was turning dark way before 5pm!
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| many restaurants in Alishan |
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| one of the restaurants |
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| another restaurant |
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| instant beef noodles, tea egg, and latte from 7-11 |
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| 5.15pm and it's turning dark |
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| 14degC |
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| apple milk |
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| various tidbits to last thru the night |
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