ALISHAN, TAIWAN

If there was one thing that stood out in Taiwan, it was the hospitality from their locals. Some spoke very little English but did whatever they could to help us. When we arrived in Alishan, it was no different. It was already late in the evening and the place seemed quite remotely located. The hotel host asked (well.. hand signalled) whether we had eaten already. After finding out that we hadn’t, she took us in her car and drove us down to a restaurant in the village. There she waited until we were done. At the previous hotel, the owner drove us to the bus stop after we checked out and helped us with buying bus tickets. After making sure we safely got on the right bus, he went back to the hotel. We sat in the bus for a while, waiting for the bus to leave, until the same hotel owner rushingly came into our bus out of breath, with a pair of glasses in his hand. He thought we had forgotten these glasses in the hotel.. but we had to regretfully tell them that they weren’t ours.

Alishan is famous for its morning sea of clouds. However, making it in time for the sunrise meant leaving at 3am, which meant that the day after was likely to become a little less productive – to the displeasure of my mum and auntie. So I had to make do with a day hike and I was still slightly rewarded with a kindof almost sea of clouds underneath the evening sun from a very challenging position.