Taiwan Trip 2012 Feb 6 ~ Day 3

On day-3 we backpacked what we need and left the other half luggages with May Rooms Hostel.  We were excited and ready to depart early to Alishan, the famous and well-known sightseeing spots in Taiwan.  We were hoping to see the beautiful forest climate landscape.  We walked acrossed a few streets, passed by a couple of blocks stroll to the TRTC to Taipei Main Station.  It was quite a rush due to we took a wrong route at one of the streets.  Nevertheless we managed to board on the earliest Taipei High Speed Rail at 9:30am to Chiayi HSR Station which took about 1.5 hours.  Sweat~~sweat~~

THSR ~ comfy, clean and convenient.

 Along the way, we saw lots of the Areca Palm that produces the areca nuts.  The ripe areca nuts wrapped with the Betel leaves can then be chewed ~ called 'Ping-Lang', very common in Taiwan.

We had our breakfast on the train ~bacon cheese bread, taste good.  Right after we reached Chiayi HSR Station, we bought some dairy foods before we board on Chiayi county bus to Alishan.  I love milk :)

 Arrived safely and checked-in to 'Xin-Xin' Hostel.  The owner was kind to upgrade our room to a bigger room without any additional charges.  Our room is the existing cost NT$1400 per night.

After rested, we moved on to wonder around Alishan National Forest Recreation Area.  The weather was a bit cloudy, dissapointed that we didn't get to see the sunset as planned in our itinerary.

Taking a slow walk around the scenic area

A few shots of flowers and maple leaves.  Cherry Blossoms is pretty as ever.  The others purple and white flowers, I am unsure what are the species.

These are our food and snacks that last us for the night.  We had steamboat which was nice at this cold weather.  After the dinner, we stayed in door as it was freezing and totally dark outside after 6pm.  I didn't take note of the temperature at that time but I reckon it was about 3-5 celcius.  The mini cakes with Doremon 3D design are cute and we ate them all!!   Doremon in my tummy hahaha :D