Day 2: Alishan/Fenqihu/Jiayi Wenhua Road NM

Day2:
Alishan/Fenqihu/Jiayi Wenhua Road NM

Checked out and bought sandwiches/soya milk near the train station. Milk tasted a little odd and funny.

Before going to the bus station, took some pictures of area around the Jiayi Train Station and our motel. This is 嘉義市中山路 in the very early morning 530am

This is the very basic motel we stayed 新高大飯店

Jiayi Front Railway Station 嘉義前車站


Jiayi Bus Station - we took bus from this bus station to Alishan. The journey took ~2.5hours.


Near the bus station

Slept most of the way. There was a longer break at Shizuo 石桌 stop. Reached Alishan around 830am. We paid an entrance fee of NT200/adult. My daughter paid NT100. She left the Youth Card in the motel but the gentleman at the entrance to Alishan gave her the discounted rate anyway! Roamed around the visitor centre, post office and shopping centres - pretty commercialized.
Alishan Shopping Street with Alishan Station in the background




Starbucks and 7-11

Inside the shopping street

阿里山 Visitor/Information Centre


Alishan Station built with wooden structure and staircase







Shops near the station

Back of train station

Looking down from the Alishan Station


Alishan Post Office

We choose to walk the giant tree trail巨木群棧道 . Took a van to the start of the trail where the Elephant like trunk is at NT50/person.
Elephant like trunk. Starting point of 巨木群棧道

三代木-第一代

Thousand Year Cypress Tree

Xiang Ling 神木


Xiang Ling 神木

There was a little museum where the exhibits are made from cypress. The smell was nice and strong.


Pagoda of the Tree spirit built by the Japanese

Gaint Trees Wooden trail - 巨木群棧道

Our trail was going downwards - thanks to my colleague who advised me to start from the elephant trunk.



There are many Gaint Trees along the trail and they were numbered.



End point was the Alishan's oldest fallen tree 阿里山神木 is and 神木站。

神木站 ticket booth in the background

神木站 Shenmu station

Took a ride on the wooden train back to Alishan station (NT50/trip/person).


阿里山Train Station



阿里山小火車 The small Alishan train, the world's remaining three!


The fallen tree at Alishan Station, 阿里山神木

Took the Alishan train down to Fenqihu. The train ride was very rocky and super cold, colder than the temperature in Alishan. Sleep again most of the way. Only experience the pull-back for the 1st part of the journey. Ticket was at NT158/person


Reached Fenqihu after one and half hours. The familiar station.



Had lunch at 阿良鐵枝路便當 -very delicious and yummy. Soup so so. Shop is closed on Thursdays.
阿良鉄支路便當




After that, visited the 奮起湖車庫 or 奮起湖文史陳列室 and 老街.
奮起湖車庫

奮起湖老街






Part of the old street was burnt down due to a fire! So tents were used to shelter the shops! Also tried 草仔粿 - first stall under the makeshift tent - quite nice! Also tried the 愛玉. Very refreshing!

Walk around 四方竹, 好望角咖啡旁邊的步道, 木馬棧道. However, 台灣肖楠母樹林 was closed. Would have walked more if not for the hot sun and heavy backpack.
木馬棧道 - Horses used to use this trail to carry goods.



好望角咖啡屋

Another cafe

Initially wanted to take the bus to Jiayi town but since the bus was coming at 5 plus, decided to take cab down to Jiayi town for NT1200. On the way, stopped over at one of the many 石桌 tea plantation。
Bus Stop





Also visited 天長and 地久橋.





Cab driver was kind enough to let us take our luggage from Shingao Motel and drove us to Chinatrust Hotel without additional charge
Spacious, clean, bright and big room with 2 queen beds

There is a fridge, kettle and it came with a sumptous breakfast

文化路中央噴水池

文化路






Took turkey rice 郭家雞肉飯, glutinous rice sausage 郭家糯米腸 and 粿仔湯 at 郭家 - Quite nice and delicious

Also took wanton mee at 好味道。 Wanton were were good, cheap and tasty. The noodles not so nice.


These 2 shops are next to each other.

Sky getting dark

Took mango ice and chocolate ice. Mango ice is nicer. Can't remember the shop's name


This is the famous 阿娥豆花. Stall is closed on Tuesdays.


Tried the original one with brown sugar nicer than the one with soya milk.

Night Market continues ...



This is 阿岸米糕 shop
Also took the 阿岸米糕。 Hubby loved it very much. It is exactly like the 魯肉飯except glutinous rice is used instead. Meat ball quite nice but complimentary soup very salty!




Also tried the famous yam desert - so so only. No photo though. End of Day2.