Trip to Alishan and Fenchihu

6-30-14 6:07am Mon.

   

     Leona and I are going to Alishan this morning. We will take a taxi to the train (I'm not sure if it's Taiwan Railroad or HSR) and get off at the station down south to take the narrow-gauge railroad up the mountain. We will be there for three days and two nights. I won't bring this laptop but write notes freehand to write entry when we get back or find a hotel lobby computer to send myself the journal in an e-mail. 

    

7-4-14 8:06am Fri. (4)

      Leona and I had nice days in Alishan and Fenchihu but the evenings and nights weren’t so great. That was so because the first night in Alishan, the beds were so hard that we could hardly sleep. There was no though of making love or partying. The second night, the bed in Fenchihu was softer but Leona was suffering from a heat stroke she’d gotten on the second hike of the day; the first hike was in the morning in Alishan. The evenings weren’t much fun either; we didn’t go out after 8pm and there was nothing to do but watch shitty television in the hotel room. Despite the evenings and nights, the mornings and afternoons were fine. Despite the Chinese tour groups, Alishan was nice. They had built pedestrian walkways since Leona and I last visited ten years ago but the village was just as ratty as it was back then. We were only on the train for two five minute rides as the line was out from Alishan to Fenchihu. We didn’t even take the mountain train from Chiayi to Fenchihu though it was running; we were in a mini-tour bus through the severely winding road. Now that I’ve gotten Alishan out of my system, I’ll probably not go up there again except to ride to train when the last section is finished in two years; aside from the tall old cedar trees, there are better places in Taiwan to hike without running into so many tourists, crowded even though it was on weekday mornings.

      We marched around about five hours Monday and it took its toll on Leona who had painful calf muscles by Tuesday nights; we had to forego the evening firefly walk in Fenchihu. She had diarrhea and a headache Tuesday night, too. But by Wednesday, she felt good enough to take another more level Fenchihu walk around the cliff perched village. We had a lot of little snacks but no big dinners besides the hot pot the first night in Alishan. Fenchihu was great for homemade snacks and we bought many to eat there and bring home. I took a lot of photos. We got home 8pm Wednesday.