Alishan

This weekend was the first away from Berhan, and as such will live in my memory as the best so far. A few of us went to Alishan on Thursday afternoon. We had arranged to sleep there to see the sunrise Friday morning. This is the premiere spot to see the sunrise in Taiwan, I am told. Alishan is a town high in the mountains in the middle of the island. I must confess, it wasn't anything compared to the sunrise in Haleakala on Maui, and I'll tell you why. There is something about seeing the sun rise over a bed of clouds, which seems to cleanse the soul. You are standing a full 100 feet above the clouds, surveying the world from a bird's eye view. It's magical really. Alishan is surrounded by other mountains, with only a little valley allowing for clouds. I'm quite sure had we gone earlier, the sun's position would be in that little valley, but as it was the sun came up over a mountain slightly to the right of the valley. The world was lighted and bright for nearly 10 minutes before the sun actually made an appearance over the mountains. Not as magical as rising from high floating clouds, I grant you, but worth the weekend adventure. And I got some beautiful pictures just the same. It was quite cold as anyone would imagine the top of a mountain would be, which reminded me when I was on another mountain watching the sunrise. In Maui, I was wearing my Mandarin style coat, while in Taiwan, as Mandarin as you can get, I wore a blanket from the hotel. I thought I was over my loss, but clearly I am not, for it was a somber time. I may even have shed a tear or two. It was a beautiful coat.

We stayed in the Alishan House. I loved this place, because it wasn't totally a hotel, but a cabin! It was great! We walked down to the closest mini-mart where we got some hot chocolate. They had some hot chocolate available in cans, and I got some. It was a Snoopy brand. I didn't know Snoopy had his own brand of hot chocolate, but it was really good. And in the morning, we all made hot chocolate to drink as we took the 45 minute long train ride to the top of the mountain.

After the sunrise we took a walking tour around Alishan. It is gorgeous. There were several hikes to see the forests of Alishan. We took the Giant Tree Walk. On the walk we past enormous tree after enormous tree. Each tree had a little plaque stating how old it was. Most were 1,000 years old. It was amazing, however, after Giant Tree No. 4, it got redundant, and all picture taking stopped. We saw a three generation tree. I really liked this tree. It was interesting. The second tree is growing out of the first tree, while the third tree is growing off of the second tree.