Dusk Till Dawn

April 9th 2019

As our schedule so far has been quite city-heavy, we head out into nature early today — to the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, to be precise. The Alishan Forest Train, a pretty old narrow gauge train whose intrinsic value as a tourist attraction Jan doesn't yet understand.
The train makes its way through steep mountainous landscape, rocking gently from side to side. Every now and then there is an announcement in Chinese regarding some sight along the track, upon which everyone bends their heads to look out the window. When we're not busy looking at the landscape outside, we read reviews of our hotel in Alishan — "Spend more money on living, don't abuse yourself" is one of them. Also, the breakfast is supposedly "unconquerable". We can only guess what that's supposed to mean in a one-star review.

Even though I'm not sure whether this train is only considered 'historic' because it is old and sways a bit, the ride is reasonably relaxing. Being the only European among the Chinese tourists does have a certain entertainment value.
We arrive at about 2200m above sea level and, despite the language barrier, our check-in is pretty smooth. Our tiny room has everything you need and little to complain about — if the electric heated blanket doesn't light us up in flames, at least.
After a quick break in our room, we get up to do what everyone comes here for: Hike. We do wear our hiking boots, but mainly to justify bringing them all this way to the other end of the world — most of the trails here are paved with wood planks and where they are not, they still aren't 'difficult' by any means.
The trails more than make up for the lack in difficulty with the landscape they run through (well and we're not here for the sport, anyway...): Where the trees slowly disappear above 2000m in Europe, there still is incredibly dense forest here full of huge, ancient trees, some of which were already around in Cleopatra's time.
There is something for everyone between the cherry blossom trails, holy trees, suspension bridges, and temples. One highlight: The Three Generations Tree — a tree growing on a dead tree that in turn grew on an even older dead tree.

We're almost done with our hike when we arrive at Ciyun temple — a Japanese-style Buddhist temple and monastery built here in the colonial era.
A friendly nun sells us two cups of black tea from one of the prestigious tea gardens of Alishan. In perfect English and with a voice so soft and gentle it leaves no doubt about her total inner peace, she says "There will be a really nice sunset today", and tells us from where best to view it.
We weren't planning to wait for the sunset here, but it's really hard to disregard the tips of Buddhist mountain nuns. We sit down at a table on the outskirts of the temple grounds, drink our tea, and unwrap the Onigiri we got from Seven-Eleven.
The woman next to us looks like she came straight from a tea commercial, and we feel a bit like that, too: In a remote monastery on top of a mountain, surrounded by dense forest, with a steaming cup of tea...

The rest at the temple with tea and a snack at 2200 meters above zero with a breathtaking view on the sea of clouds is one of the moments I'll never forget about this journey — the remoteness of the place and our surroundings really made us go into ourselves for a while.
And the Sunset really is spectacular — not that we doubted it. From a small viewing platform, we watch as the sun slowly disappears in the sea of clouds that Alishan is so famous for.
03:37 — Whose idea was this again?

The room is pitch black. The heated blanket has not managed to burn us in our sleep. It takes a few seconds to mentally process why the alarm is going off and that we really do need to get up now. But, like everyone, we want to catch the sunrise train to Zhushan at 04:30, and that's what it takes.
Following another tip from our favourite nun, we leave most of the crowds behind at the station and walk about ten minutes to a more remote viewing platform, where we watch as the sky slowly changes colours.
In the moment the sun finally peeks out from behind the mountains, a collective 'Ohh' goes through the crowd, in which we apparently are the only non-Asian tourists.
Unfortunately, I don't have a sunrise picture that I'm really happy with, despite the gigabyte of storage I invest. So instead, here's another picture of yesterday's sunset, hoping that you can't tell the difference.
We won't discuss in detail whether the breakfast passes as 'unconquerable', but if you stay away from the tasteless rice porridge (maybe it's supposed to taste like that?), it's pretty okay.
Next Stop: Tainan

10 am, 31°C, sunny, just 80% humidity. How could a day be any better? Again, those who know me will know: There's many ways.
We leave our wonderfully air-conditioned Japanese apartment behind (very pretty, with sleeping-on-the-floor and tatami, 10/10 shower) and, after grabbing breakfast around the corner, make our way to the National University History Museum. Finally, a museum in which we can learn more about Taiwan's history. If there weren't the tiny problem that the museum no longer exists — a fact Google unfortunately decided to keep from us. But with this weather, it's really fun to walk around the shadow-free campus of the National University, anyway.
We still manage to learn something about history — at least Tainan's history — in the several fortifications in the Anping district. Colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch and under Chinese control for several dynasties until Japanese colonization, the diverse cultural influences really show in Tainan. It's the former capital of the island and in many ways it's historic core. The distinctive cinder brick look makes it easy to spot the Dutch colonial buildings throughout the city.
A quick walk from Fort Zeelandia, we find the Anping Tree House — originally a salt warehouse used by the Japanese that, after being forgotten about for 60 years, is now completely overgrown with trees.
Today, there's some art exhibitions in the overgrown halls, some signs tell the story of the warehouse, and a pathway leads you across the roof through the bizarre forest created by trees breaking through the ceiling.
We end the day with a trip to a peninsula on the coast of Tainan where several large sculptures are erected on the beach as part of an art festival.
The most impressive one is a forty meter tall structure made from reclaimed oyster farms that invites visitors to rest in its shadow and take a few pictures.