J-emine's reflexionando

The sunrise was breathtaking and with the beam of early morning glow on our faces we embarked on the 2 hour trail down the mountain.

I was surprised majority of the sunrise-seekers boarded the train down to the foothill (i.e Alishan Rail Station/ Visitors Centre) once the sky turned a calming hue of blue, amongst the beautiful sea clouds with the sun nestled somewhere afar and beyond the peaks of the Central Range. The warm welcome of a local breakfast and a nap over the cool, thin mountain air (it was probably around 9-11 degrees) was probably a given choice for many – clearly not us three 🙂

The forest trail at Alishan is not a difficult trail to walk and can easily be covered within 2-3 hours – hence many would rather go late morning and head back down in time for lunch at Alishan or neighboring areas. The main attractions of the forest trail is the old Alishan forest railway , three sister ponds, sacred cypress trees and dependent on the seasons : the blooming flora (unfortunately, we missed the cherry blossom period).

My favourite bit of the trail walk was the serene morning (in the absence of masses of tour groups) to explore, to soak up the refreshing mountain air, be awe by the majestic sacred trees and to merrily slowed down our pace as we took in the natural habitat, beauty and music Alishan alluded to us.

It was truly enchanting.

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After breakfast we were off to Cinjing – our next destination, where we’ll put up for a night. We took the scenic route and stopped at  Sun Moon Lake for a drive about. This was my parents’ honeymoon destination, a good 33 years back, so thought I took a pic for memory sake’s for them – for all I know I was probably “made there” hur hur. Oh yes, along the way we also saw ‘the husband and wife’ trees along Yushan National Park expressway – which attracts many passerby to take snapshots of the “couple” that seemingly looks like they are holding hands on the side of a road…hmm, hailing a free ride? Hur hur *lame joke*.

Lunch was at this roadside Beef noodle restaurant that comes highly recommended amongst the locals – I usually refrain from beef but I must have had more beef on this trip that I did in the last two years combined. The beef dumpling soup was so good – the dumpling skin was moist and “q”, the beef and vegetable filling was full of flavor. Totally drool-worthy!

[Next up: Cinjing]