Megan Lael Yancey: Alishan 阿里山

After Green Island: When we got into Gaoshiung by train, we split ways. Devin, Erin, Libby and Katy spent the next couple of days there. And Allison, Kristi and I continued on to Chiayi. I did not want to miss an opportunity to go to Alishan before going back to America. We stayed the night in Chiayi before heading to Alishan.

Something is missing.
Similar idea to Floor 13 in American hotels.

The next morning, we met up with Lien and her brother and his friends Bobby and Tram. We all took a van up to Alishan. There were no seat belts, of course. They seem hard to come by in Taiwan. Anyway, I shared a bench seat with Kristi and next to me was an open space. I was very tired and fell asleep on the ride. The journey to Alishan was very windy. On a particularly sharp turn, I had a rude awakening, quite literally. I tumbled forward and out of my seat and into the side of the van. That was number one.

Making deals.

Hiring a taxi

In the taxi van, before I fell asleep.

Alishan is a mountain town. It was very chilly there. I had like 5 layers on and I was still cold. In all actuality, the coldest it got was in the low 40's F. I have just turned into a Taiwanese weeny.

Taiwanese 7-Eleven

Heading to our hostel.

In our hostel

After eating lunch, we started on the Alishan Loop Trail. The first attraction were the giant trees. There is a thousand-year-old "Three Generations Tree--a massive cypress crowned by a 10-foot-high second tree; and Tree Spirit Pagoda, which commemorates a stand of noble and ancient trees ignobly cleared in 1936." (NG Taiwan)

"The onion explodes the beef" Haha!

Heading to our first hike.

Kristi warming her nose.

Elephant Tree

They got in trouble for getting on the tree. Haha!

Peaking.

Kristi, Me, Allison, Tram, Bobby, Lien
This forrest reminded me of Twilight.

Hallow tree.
I think this is the Elephant Tree from behind.

I saw this really cool hallow tree. So, I asked Kristi if she would take a picture of me inside of it. As I got closer, I realized it was filled with spider webs. Well, maybe a picture in front of it. Meg wanted a picture. Meg got a picture. Meg saw spiders behind her. What followed was Meg's not so graceful tumble number two of the day. I was on a bit of a hill and jumped down, landed wrong and tumbled the rest of the way down. Or we could just say, I fell down a mountain. (It's more dramatic that way.) Anyway, when I tried to stand up, I couldn't. I did something to my ankle. It hurt so bad, but I couldn't stop laughing. Very quickly, I realized what this meant. We were only 10-15 minutes into our first hike and I couldn't put any weight on my foot. That meant no hiking for me. I felt like my trip was ruined, and I am embarrassed to admit, I got a little depressed about it.

I have misplaced "the picture." So you can look at this one instead.

I just made the realization.

Some French tourists helped call us a taxi to go back to town. Allison, bless her heart, opted to hang out with me. We first went to the small (very small) hospital in Alishan. 没有医生. (Méiyǒu yīshēng.) What kind of hospital has no doctor. They didn't have a wheelchair or crutches either. The receptionist was very nice and gave me an icepack and sent us on our way. We asked the receptionist what I could do. She just said, don't walk. We went back to the hostel and asked the owner what we could do that didn't require much walking. He said, nothing. This was a hiking place. That's what you do there. Allison got a bright idea. We could take the train up to Jhushan and watch the sunset. The hostel owner gave us a ride to the train station. We went to the ticket counter. There were no more trains running that day. 没有. Pooh.

At the hospital with my ice hand-shaped! ice pack.

We went into town and souvenir-shopped instead. I thought maybe I could find a walking stick. I found a cane instead. It is a pretty cool cane actually. It folds up and it says "Trail of Alishan" on it in Chinese characters. It was very hard and painful to hobble around everywhere, and the cane made it much much easier.

Souvenir shopping.

I was trying to get my ice pack to stay in my sock. It didn't work.

My new cane!

Later, we went with the others to a cute boutique for dinner. I ate clam and octopus for the first time. Not a fan, by the way. It's a texture thing.

Yummy pumpkin soup!

Kristi about to try octopus for the first time.
I was going to try mine after she went first.

This video did not inspire much confidence.

A whole shrimp covered in cheese!

The next morning, we were out the door by about 5:30am. We took the quaint red train up to the Jhushan to see the sunrise. The view was gorgeous with several mountain peaks framing the sunrise, including Yushan, the tallest mountain in Taiwan (also called Jade Mountain). I loved the way the sunlight bounced off of the many mountain-sides. We took a lot of pictures. Kristi, Allison and Lien got a kick out of my cane. In our silhouette pictures, you can always tell which one is me.

On the train to Jhushan

Haha! Potential jumping photo!

The gimp has attempted to jump.

Lien

Perfect form Kristi.

I love the red leaves on the trees!

Here comes the sun!

Allison

Guess who!

Kristi

I'm not sure who this is. Haha! Just kidding!

Allison

Taiwan Touch Your Heart

Proof that it was cold!

We got round-trip tickets, but I conveniently missed the train for the ride back down the mountain, with Allison and Kristi. It was what I wanted. I didn't go to Alishan to sit on my bum. I wanted to hike. I feel grateful to my friends for letting me be stubborn. The hike down was very pretty. The trees were dense filling the forrest with green. It reminded me of Washington. Kristi said that their hikes the day before looked just the same. That made me feel better about missing it. We took a lot of pictures and I got to be with my friends. I was a little slower going, but I think I kept up pretty well with my hobbling. My foot killed by the time we got down the mountain, but it was worth it!