October 20, 2008

  • Big Gay Ali Shan

     

    Linn’s company – also
    my former place of work, back in the days when I was still living in Europe –
    had an outing down to Ali Shan, in central Taiwan. Ali Shan is famous for its
    tea, and its sunrises. As I had never been before, I said yes immediately upon
    Linn asking me if I wanted to go. It was – as the Americans would say – a
    no-brainer.

     

    Although I had been
    invited to stay over on the Friday night, I instead opted to stay home and ride
    down to Hsinchu on the Saturday morning. I asked Linn to call me to make sure I
    was awake, as I was having some problems with my cellphone. I was awake at 5:30
    when Linn called, already up and getting ready to head down.

     

    I took the quick route
    down, along the construction area of the new expressway, and was surprised to see
    a million Chinese bike riders all up and about so early in the morning. Don’t
    they have anything better to do at 6? Like sleep? I got to Linn’s place early –
    of course – and had to wait for her to get up. Her father came out of the house
    to go to his office, and apparently saw me. He then called Linn to tell her to
    hurry up, as her considerate boyfriend was already waiting.

    Linn finally made it
    out, jumped on to the Suzuki and we tonked in to the Science Park where the
    company is. We met all her colleagues, and I was introduced to them, and her
    boss, as the bus pulled up and we jumped on. The bus hit the freeway, and we
    were almost immediately met with a traffic jam, another bus hitting the
    embankment pretty hard and smashing in most of the front of it. Thankfully our
    bus driver was relatively good, slow and patient, so we did not have any scary
    moments.

     

    South of Taichung we
    came off the freeway and up in to the mountains, driving slowly along the
    winding road, and stopping off at an aboriginal village for a walk around the
    area. There was a waterfall, a river, woodlands…. all very beautiful but
    nothing spectacular. We had been told to be back at the bus by 1, so we started
    to hurry up a little, when a gorgeous green snake came out of the undergrowth right
    in front of us, hurrying across the path in to the grass on our right. I
    stopped Linn to make sure she was not frightened, and got out my camera – with
    a snake this close I wanted to get a good pic.

     

    Just as we were 100
    metres from the bus, the heavens opened and down came the rain. Our tour guide
    collected everyone separately, accompanying Linn and her colleagues under his
    umbrella. We then drove up higher, and I was thinking it would be a nice ride
    on the mountain bike. Lots of bed and breakfast places, and a good weekend
    trip. I don’t think Linn wants to ride a mountain bike that far. Or even at
    all.

     

    We stopped in another
    town for lunch, famous for it being the highest railway station in Taiwan where
    there is a lunch box available. Go on a train in this country, you can buy a
    lunch box with rice, meat and vegetables for your journey. Almost every station
    has at least one available, and this town’s was famous. Alas it was famous for
    its altitude, and not the quality of the food, which was boring at best. It
    needed spicy sauce, and even then it was nothing special whatsoever.

     

    After a walk around
    the town, and the station, which housed some old steam locomotives and a kind
    of museum, we headed back to the bus, and drove up to the hotel in Ali Shan national
    park. Dinner that evening was also far from memorable – I can not remember what
    it was at all! We needed to get an early night because we had a 3 AM wake up
    call for the train up the mountain to take us to the sunrise viewing area.

     

    When we had gone to
    bed, the weather was not nice, and so when the wake up call came I told Linn to
    stay in bed – whilst I checked the weather outside. If it was cloudy and/or
    rainy then we would go back to sleep. No point in waking up for a sunrise you
    can’t see. I looked out of the window and saw the spectacular sight of a million shining stars, all
    twinkling and letting me know it was time to get up. I was excited. Linn got
    up, and we headed out to the lobby where her colleagues stumbled out,
    dreary-eyed, in to the dark, cool morning.

     

    We got the tickets
    from the station for the train up, and waited for the rumble of this narrow
    gauge loc. The ride was only 15 or 20 minutes and although we could not see
    anything outside, we knew we were not really going very quickly. We got to the
    viewing area station and bought some breakfast from one of the many stands that
    had set  up early, eagerly awaiting the
    day’s influx of tourists. Such a shame they could not put on anything decent to
    eat, everything dripping in grease and with no other taste than the oil. Not
    even with the chilli sauce.

     

    The mayor of the town
    came out to greet us, and had a talk with the Chinese people, looking at me as
    he mentioned some Americans who had been there a few days previously. Everyone
    laughed at his comments, but I was not in the mood for anything other than
    seeing the damn sunrise, and then heading back to the hotel for more sleep. I
    was impatient for the sun to rise, but the spectacular colours forming in the
    valley below us improved my mood.

     

    In terms of absolute
    stunningly gorgeous moments, the sun appearing over Ali Shan tops everything.
    But that feeling lasts only a few seconds. For sheer beauty though, the view of
    the valley just got better and better. From the early morning light right up to
    when the sun had come up over the mountains, and climbed higher and higher, the
    mountains in the background to our left became ever more picturesque. It
    epitomised Chinese artwork for me, with layer after layer after layer of
    mountains. Quite simply put, it was breath-taking.

     

    As the excitement came
    to a close we all made our way back to the station for the train back to the
    hotel, and then had another hour or so of sleep before we had a walk through
    the forest, passing lakes full of frogs and frogspawn, with trees over 2000
    years old. We made it back to the hotel just before lunch, headed out to an
    aboriginal village where lunch was laid on. The veggie option was crap, so I
    left. Linn had her lunch and called me on the phone a little later, asking
    where I was. We then went over to get a stinky tofu – which was again ok, but
    nothing special – before boarding the bus to take us back down the mountains.

     

    They tried to stop at
    every single possible place on the way, mainly the tourist traps, but apart
    from one small cultural village and the occasional rest room break, we were all
    just tired and wanted to get home. Linn and I were the only ones who went
    around the cultural village, on our allotted 20 minute break, and it was very
    enjoyable.

     

    Once we arrived back
    in Hsinchu, everyone said their goodbyes, and Linn and I went to one of our
    favourite places – a Thai restaurant – for the first, and only good meal of the
    weekend (for me!). Despite the poor food that weekend, the stunning scenery and
    magnificent views made it definitely a worthwhile trip. And when the olds come
    back next time, it’s on the cards for them too!