Taiwan: Day Ten

Day Ten started out with an awesome continental breakfast at our super dodgy hotel across from the bus station in Chiayi.  Upon check-in our hotel provided us with a lovely, heavy stock, technicolor coupon for breakfast the next morning.  When we went to redeem it the hotel clerk waved us over to a lovely banquet stocked with bread and spreads and two toaster ovens.  We enjoyed a lovely breakfast of toast and jam.

Afterwards, we jumped on a bus up Alishan mountain to Alishan Village.  The bus was small, maybe only 15 seats total, and we stuck out as tourists so we had a few people attempt conversations with us.  One gentleman in particular owned a hotel in Alishan and wanted us to stay with him.  Because we did not want to be rude, plus it's difficult to say no kindly in your native language let alone in a foreign language, upon arrival in Alishan Village we followed our bus friend to his hotel where he introduced us to his mother and showed us to our room.  It was a lovely room and super cheap, only about $60 USD for the night (plus we were checking in at about 10AM). 

After putting our bags down we headed out to explore the village (pictured below).  We stopped for some lunch and then went on a walk.

It was pretty cold outside and we hadn't dressed appropriately.  So, we headed back to the hotel to warm up, take a nap, and wait for the afternoon heat.  When we headed back out again it wasn't any warmer.  But, we were ready for a hike and hopefully that would warm us up.

The woods around Alishan Village are filled with old growth forests. 

After a day spent hiking, we headed back to our hotel.  And, although the hike did help to warm us up, we were still very cold.  Unfortunately, our hotel did not have heat.  Not because it was broken but because the hotels in Alishan Village just don't have heat.  According to our guidebook some hotels are beginning to install heat, but most are still without.  What's more, we're pretty sure our hotel didn't have hot water, either.  We started to regret our decision to stay in Alishan Village because, despite the beautiful forests, Desi hates camping and this trip was definitely beginning to look a lot like a luxurious camping trip.

At about 6PM we decided to just stay in for the night.  We huddled around the heat fan and watched TV until we fell asleep.  It was probably a good thing we called it such an early night since we had a 5AM wake up call the next morning to see the sunrise, which is de riguer in Alishan and something we didn't want to miss.