hi precious, this is going to be a v long post keke
we went in mid august. it was just like singapore, v hot. but in alishan, it was very cold. must bring extra clothes.
our itinerary was like this:
day 1 - 2 Taipei
Day 3 Taipei to Hualien by 6.45am train. (The 6.45am train is very very popular, fills up v fast).
If you cant or dont want to take the 6.45am train, there will be later trains with more seats, just that you get to spend less time in hualien.
When you arrive at Hualien train station, a lot of cabbies will be there offering taroko gorge tours. There is also a tourist info there, but you may get waylaid by a cabby before you reach the tourist info.
The cabby who approached us also ran a minsu. He asked whether we wanted to stay his minsu and offered to take us there to take a look. We found it ok, so dropped our luggage there and went straight for tarako gorge tour with the cabby. He also took us to Qingshui cliffs (for extra money) and to Chihsingtan Beach (for free). The only thing i didnt like about this was that he also brought us to a marble showroom and the salespeople there were very very hardsell. I would have anyhow bought something to get them off my back, but the things are not cheap either! so in the end, we thickened our skin and walked straight out. but felt v paiseh.
Day 4 Hualien to Taitung (chihpen) by cab
Chihpen in Taitung is famous for their hot springs.
The same cabby drove us to chihpen in taitung and showed us hualien sights along the way. But we found the sights not very interesting. Maybe not really worth the time. On hindsight, think we should have taken the train straight to chihpen, then we would have had more time to spend dipping in the hot springs keke.
Day 5 Chihpen to Kaohsiung by train
Day 6 Kaohsiung to Chiayi by train, and then by cab to Beimen train station to catch the train to Alishan
Beimen station is where you catch the Alishan train. It has only two trains a day, one at 9 something in the morning and the other one at 1 or 1.15pm. You have to get your alishan train tickets at beimen station, but must go early. i saw a lot of people standing on the alishan train cos they couldnt get seated tickets. the train ride is 3 hours.
you can't book alishan train tickets online. we did call up beimen station from singapore to book tickets over the phone, and the woman on the line said ok, ok. but when we reached the station, they found no records of our booking. luckily we were there early, like 11 plus, so we managed to get seated tickets on the spot.
To get to Beimen from Chiayi train station: When you reach Chiayi train station, there will be a lot of cabbies offering to drive you up to alishan, or drive you to beimen station, which is about 10 mins drive away.
to make sure you make your connection, check up the taiwan railway website, it shows the train schedules from the diff stations and the times taken to travel. v useful. and give yourself some time allowance oso, shd be fine.
this is the alishan offical website:
http://www.ali.org.tw/en/
it will tell you all about the alishan train schedules etc and a list of hotels.
For Alishan lodging, initially, we booked Kaofeng hotel. The hotel wanted us to fund transfer our deposit to them, but we told them we're Singaporeans, we donno how to do it, so they said never mind. But when we reached there, we found that they had given our room away. Instead, they offered us a pathetic little dungeon far away from the hotel. It was a lot cheaper, but the condition of the room was unacceptable. It was either this, or we take their deluxe room, which was a lot more ex. We argued that since they gave away our reserved room, they should offer us the delux room at a discounted price. However,
the hotel staff told us that we were free to go look for another hotel. we were v pissed and so we left.
When we were in the lobby waiting for them to sort out our room, there were another 2 taiwanese families who were arguing with the reception over their rooms too.
Anyway, we wandered around alishan village looking for another hotel when this woman approached us and offered to get us a room in Gau Shan Qing hotel. The price was reasonable and the room pretty nice, so we stayed there instead. the receptionists there were v friendly too, so we were quite happy with that.
Alishan house is abt 15 mins walk away from alishan village (which is where all the shops, restaurants and most of the hotels are). there are two parts to alishan house. one is the newly renovated part, which is very very nice and designer, but pretty ex. the other part is the old unrenovated part, but prices are better. the hotel has a bus that fetches people to alishan village at regular intervals.
Day 7 Alishan
When you check into your hotel, the recep will ask whether you want to see sunrise.
there are two places to see sunrise. one is at Zhushan and the other is at Yushan. If you go to Zhushan, you have to walk from your hotel to the train station (where you alighted the day before) and catch a train there yourself. After you've seen the sunrirse, instead of taking the train back from Zhushan, you can choose to walk down. a lot of people do that. its quite a pleasant walk.
If you choose to go to Yushan, there will be a minivan picking you up from your hotel. I feel the Yushan trip is more worth it because along the way, your minivan will stop at various stops for you to see scenery and monkeys and stuff and take pictures. Whereas for Zhushan, you just walk to the peak and see the sunrise and then go back.
must wake up v early to see sunrise, like 330am! ive never woken up so early in my life! it will be very very cold, so either bring enough warm clothing, or you can rent a thick jacket from your hotel. all hotels provide that.
But you have to pray hard that you will get to see sunrise. sometimes when there are too much clouds, you just cant see the sun, although it will get brighter and brighter. We went to Yushan one day and saw the sunrise, but when we went to Zhushan the next day, it was too cloudy to see anything.
By the time you get back from your sunrise expedition, you'll be v tired! after breakfast, you'll prob go back to your room and zonk out until lunch time keke. after that, can take a leisurely walk around the forest reserve, there are nice trails and walks which will take the whole afternoon. And should visit the alishan musuem too, its v nicely done up. its right in the village, wont miss it.
At night, you can take a steamboat dinner. almost all restaurants there offer that. can also browse around the one row of shops. they sell stuff like weird flavoured muahchee and other alishan products.
i think i enjoyed alishan the most, out of all the places i went in taiwan.
Day 8 Alishan to Qingjing farm in Nantou by cab, train and then bus
We met a cabby at Beimen station who offered to drive us down from Alishan to Chiayi, and along the way, she will stop us at Fencihu (which is halfway down the mountain) and let us walk around the old streets. Fencihu is pretty nice, its a bit like Jiufen in taipei.
then the cabby drove us to chiayi, where we changed trains and bus several times to get to Qingjing farm. Qingjing farm is this like pastoral holiday resort area. there, you can visit the qing qing cao yuan (green grassland). the scenery at the green grassland is like the swiss alps, and the air is cool and you have free ranging sheep there who will walk around you like you don't exist. it was fun!
but besides that, nothing much to do there. its mainly to relax. we stayed at this minsu which was english cottage style and the entire room was like a wood cabin and the whole atmosphere is v european countryside. can have breakfast in the porch too, which overlooks gorgeous mountains. but if you dont like sheep, wont really recommend going here because the transport is not v convenient.
Day 9 Qingjing farm
Day 10 Qingjing farm to Sun Moon Lake by cab
There is this Formosa aboriginal park which is near sun moon lake. It has roller coasters and other rides, and the other part is the cultural part, where they have aboriginal villages and performances. and can get a cabby to drive you there and back. We didn't go because our cabby told us it's for kids. but just when we were about to leave SML, we ran into a couple of british tourists who told us they enjoyed the park. donno what we missed leh. a bit regret not going.
Day 11 Sun Moon Lake to Taipei by long distance bus (leaves SML every hour, journey takes about 2-3 hours)
The long distance bus leaves from sun moon lake village, which is the main tourist area. most of the hotels are congregated here.
Day 12-14 Taipei
i really had a lot of fun in taiwan! will be glad to help you with any other questions if i can
