Alishan 阿里山國家風景區

We managed to take the famous Alishan Forest Railway up to Alishan. The train service has been down for almost 20 days, and we were lucky enough to get tickets to its very first ride after repair! There were lots of VIP and reporters accompanying us on the ride as show in the picture here.


We sat in the first carriage of the train, which unfortunely had a broken down aircon. Although we were invited to move to a an aircon carriage, we decided to stay as the temperature will be getting cooler as we move upwards. What a great decision! They decided to open the train door for us to let in some fresh air! And this is the view of our carriage, with the front door open as the train make its way up Alishan! It was such a joy ride, almost like in an Indiana Jones movie, but without being kick in the ass for it :)


This is a photo of the hotel we stayed in - Shermun Hotel (神木) taken the day we left Alishan with all the mist surrounding it. Temperature then was 11 degree Celsius, at the height of 2.5km above sea level. The hotel cost us S$105 per night. We stayed for two nights.

One of the highlight of Alishan are the giant trees around it. The photo here shows the Giant Tree Trails. We were surrounded by over 40 giant tree which has been around for 800 - 1300 years! Can you imagine what it might be like to live that long??? The other highlight of Alishan is of course the famous sunrise. We woke at an unearthly hour of 3:30am to catch it, but the weather was just too cloudy to get a good view. Thankfully the night trip to watch the fireflies was much more fruitful :)


Lastly this is my fave photo of Alishan, the misty and mysterious forest of Alishan captured here in the photo. It was taken on our last day there when a heavy mist decided to cover the whole mountain white. It was lovely, and peaceful at the same time. This view is just a few steps outside of our hotel!

Taroko Gorge 太魯閣國家公園 - Final Post

What can I say? I love Taroko! And I promise, this will be my last post on it. Photo on the right shows hill side Lyushui Trails, only 2km, 40 minutes hike around the hills. Before there were highways of Taroko, the Japanese build these path for transportation. These are the original, and hiking thru them kinda give me The Bridge on the River Kwai kinda feeling. If you've seen that movie, you will know what I mean. There were many hanging bridges all over Taroko as well.


We also visit Tunnel of Nine Turns (九曲洞), 2km 30 mins walk, and Swallow's Grotto (燕子口) 1.3km, 50mins walk. It was literally like walking in a Chinese paintingm what with the mountains, the caves, the waters, and the occational swallow flying by! Very serene!


Unfortunately, my humble shoe died on me while I was walking thru Swallow Grotto. I though it was only fitting that I took this picture here, in memory of my shoe. It was disposed off at a famous Huelien Beach 7-Star Beach (七星). The boots actually only cost S$10, but I love it all the same as it has accompanied me thru many hikes in China, Melbourne, and Taiwan. May it RIP.

Taroko Gorge 太魯閣國家公園 - Baiyang Waterfalls

Day 2 and we gave up walking the whole of Taroko and decided to hire a taxi instead. We drove towards the other end of Taroko, and started our journey from there. First stop Baiyang Waterfalls. The trail started with a walk thru a tunnel by the highway.


It opens up to a path at the other end, and we made our way along winding roads towards Baiyang Waterfall, which is a 4km hike, taking us about 1.5hours to complete. Along the path there were signs that says: Beware of poison bees! I bet tour buses don't drop their customers here! We didn't see any at all!


The path went thru multiple tunnels, some so dark and so long that you can see just the light at the other end as shown here. Some were winding tunnels, at which you find yourself walking in total darkness, with water driping down the walls of the tunnel. You can either use the rail at the side of the tunnel to guide you thru, or be smart and bring a torch light!


We managed to spot a deer which somehow fell over and landed into the river waters as shown on the photo here. The photo below shows a close up of the deer. There were some guys who were serving their Taiwan National Service along the path, and their job was to survey the area and take notes of the surrounding. Thus we trust the deer was in good hands and someone would come rescue it soon.


The final path towards Baiyang Waterfall was thru a dark tunner with water falling all over! It was in total darkness, and total wetness! The park cleaner actually told us that people usually wear rain coats in. We didn't have any, and we though maybe our umbrella would do. Boy were we wrong! The path was narrow and slippery! And water was falling all over you! And you were just walking at the side of the tunnel cause in the middle was a bloody river running thru it! We were too wet and too shocked to take any photos, but we truly enjoy the exciting walk! Came out of the tunnel soaking wet, but was soon dry by the sun and wind as we make our way back towards the highway.

Taroko Gorge 太魯閣國家公園 - Shakadang

Probably my favourite spot of this trip to Taiwan is Taroko Gorge. We reach Huelien(花蓮)on 28 May by Train (3hours ride from Taipei, NT445, S$22.25 one way, and took a public bus straight to Taroko National Park (45mins ride, NT105, S$5.25). We stayed at a small private run Taroko Hotel which cost us around S$75 per night.


The first walk we took was to Shakadang. It was about 15 minutes walk from our hotel, and the whole trail is about 4.5km, which took us about 2.5 hours. It was our first look at what Taroko has to offer, and we were in love with it the moment we step on the Shakadang trail


The walk started off a side of a bridge, decending about 2 storeys down from the highway. At the bottom, we followed the trail inwards towards rocks and running water. The path were half covered by semi caves as show in the picture here. It was raining slightly as we made our way inwards. We didn't encounter much people along our hike as I guess, most tourist wouldn't bother spending half their afternoon hiking in the rain! Very peaceful, very beautiful.

As we walked deeper, there were some visible path leading down towards the river. It was stable looking enough, and we made our way down slowly. The water at Shakadang river was simple beautiful! Crystal clear! We should have packed a picnic and just spend the whole afternoon there just sitting by the small waterfalls all around us!

Deeper and deeper, the rocks got higher, and we were walking further away from the riverbed. The water got rougher as it got nearer the source, a dam at the end of Shakadang trail. But some of the places where there were caves as shown here, the water lie peaceful, undisturbed, and totally mesmerizing in their saphire dark blue colours.

We managed to visit the Eternal Spring Shrine (長春祠) on our first day as well, before making our way back towards the hotel. In total, we walked more then 10km on our first day there, in about 4 hours!

Naruwan Taiwan

Welcome to Taiwan. Visit daily as I'll be uploading my Taiwan trip photos here, as well as stories of the whole journey. For a start, some highlighted photos from the trip can be found to your right of this blog. I hope to upload everything by this weekend as some of my friends and colleagues are headed to Taiwan end of this month. Hopefully they can benefit from some of the entries here :)