Taiwan (Western Part) – 9 days Free n Easy Journey; Day 4 (1)

Morning or good day to all!!! This is the 4th day of my e-travel to Taiwan (Western Part) of my 9 days trip. Hope that you re enjoying my e-travel series.

Today, we are on our way to Alishan Mountains. Yup, from Tainan, you can catch a train to Chiayi station and then hope on the bus or train to Alishan. For the train, for now, it only goes up to Fenchihu and you have to grab a van or bus up to Alishan Mountains.  For us, we took the bus as we did not manage to get the train ticket even though when we reached Chiayi station in the early morning. The train tickets sells like hot cakes. Do not worry, if you missed this, you can always catch a train down from Fenchihu. =)

The road heading up to Alishan Mountains is truly a winding road with a short stop along the way for a toilet stop in the van we took. The trip took us 2 hrs till we reach the Alishan town.

We left our bags in the hotel that we had booked as it was to early to check in. Saw other people’s bags which they left at the hotel front office. We did not want to waste too much time but to quickly started our walk along the forest trail of Alishan Mountain.

  

Lovely fresh air. We were quite lucky as earlier in the day before we arrived, it rained. The sky opened up (but I said it too soon)

This is what’s left a cherry blossom tree in winter. Bare!!! It was an easy walk with lots of wooden trails that were built for walkers.

A naked cherry blossom park.

This is totally naked!!!

If you researched Alishan on the internet, there are lots of walking trails which you can choose to walk. Most of them are easy walks. It just short or a long walk.

Walking along the trail, we can across the 3 Generation Tree…. and yes! They were really old! =P

By then, there were more and more tour buses coming up the later part of the morning. It can get really crowded with tourist in such a big place especially on the popular trail. Opps I am also a tourist. How silly of me. =P

Another shot of the old tree trunk and root of the 3 Generation Tree ‘family’. The root is really huge!

Well.. there’s more to see. So follow me on the next posting as I go in further into the walking trail and what’s more to offer. =)

Taiwan (Western Part) – 9 days Free n Easy Journey; Day 3 (6)

Hi there!!! Glad that you have followed me till this far. Hope that I did not ‘tire’ you out.

Anyway.. good news! Now it is time to catch some food to fill the empty stomach of ours. =)

First stop is stopping cooling after walking user the mid noon sun. Yup.. it’s the J-shape cone Korean ice cream; Jipangyi. This stall not only sell J-shape cones but also long spirals ones. Look at the whole load of stocks and size. Guess the girl in the picture ‘had’ the biggest of the biggest J-shape cone ice all for herself. HAHA!!! It’s even bigger and taller than her. Wonder how long it would take her to finish (or to even finish it) before the ice creams melts. =P
  Here’s a stall fried snack. Can’t remember what’s the name. Anyone?

Dried noodle with bean sprout, shrimps and hard boiled egg. This is yummy.

  Coffin Bread is a piece of remarkably thick toast that holds a seafood chowder pool with pork, mushrooms, peas, and carrots. It gets its name because it resembles a coffin.

  Fried oyster  omelet which is made up of sweet potato starch, oysters, egg and vegetables; bean sprout

Walking along Anping old street. It was a weekend and there were lots of people and also lot of food, snacks and drinks to choose from.

Something cool after a long walk; Anping Tofu pudding with sago. It’s worth trying if you have not.

Guess we had ‘filled’ our stomach. Now it is time to move on. Where to next? Wanna know? Then follow me……

Taiwan (Western Part) – 9 days Free n Easy Journey; Day 3 (5)

Hi! Welcome back. Where are we? We are still at Anping Tree House which is located Anping District of Tainan City. If you have missed out on earlier posting, do pop in there where you can get a brief history of this place.

Here are more pictures of Anping Tree House where the Banyan tree practically ‘occupied’ the whole warehouse.
  

Looks at those roots engulfing the whole place…..

What a sight, right?

  

The Banyan tree roots practically ‘clinging’ to the wall of this warehouse.

A panoramic shot….

Look at those roots!!! Old Tait & Company building is just next to Anping Tree House

What are these people doing here? Yup, they are ‘writing’ Chinese calligraphy on stone slabs with water. Well one thing for sure… the ‘ink’ will eventually disappear so that the next person can write his/her thoughts on stone (temporary).

Taking a (self) walking tour in the Old Tait & Company building.

Hope that you have  enjoyed the e-travel so far. In fact we are just only in Day 3 of the 9 days. So, if you do not want to miss out on this travel of mine, do follow me. =)

Taiwan (Western Part) – 9 days Free n Easy Journey; Day 3 (4)

Hi there! Guess you must be wondering why so much water/river views. If you have followed me on my last posting, we are at Taijiang Ecological Culture Zone in Tainan, Taiwan taking a taking a boat tour wetlands along Sihcao Wildlife Preserve and the Yanshui River.

What you see below pictures are Oyster farms at Qigu  Lagoon along the boat tour route.  You can see lot of the oyster farms partitioned by styrofoam and bamboo cranes standing in great numbers, as well as the oyster farmers busy shuttling through for harvesting.

What are these ladies and myself trying to photograph? Well, to our surprise, as we cruised along here, we could see pools of fishes jumping out and in to the water. I mean lots of them but unfortunately we can’t be seen in the picture else it would be great to share it.

The boat tour stopped clear the shore to show the visitors the wildlife living on the mangroves. You could see lot of crabs along the shore.

Well… after the boat tour we took a bus to our next destination. Guess on the bus I caught a teddy ‘hanging’ on tightly to the rail or was it doing chin-up exercises?

Our next stop was at Anping Tree House which is located Anping District of Tainan City. This is one of the sight where you see the interaction of human with nature or more like where you leave nature takes is course over human built structure over a long period. This building used to be the warehouse of Tait Marketing & Distribution Co., Ltd

The warehouse used to store all the goods ready to be shipped overseas but in the Japan Colonial Era, these companies were forced to close their business and Japanese government took over the building in 1911. The main building of Tait & Company was restored in 1981 but the warehouse was left untouched. What sort of tree you may asked that took over? It’s the banyan tree that actually took occupancy of this warehouse.

Then in 2004, the location was redesigned to be more walk able, with safety structure rebuilt in the building, wooden trails, and stairs, these make people to feel the atmosphere of the house. Looks cool right?

  They even built a platform that you could walk and see from higher ground.

  This is a panoramic view from the platform of the banyan tree taking occupancy of the warehouse.

Cool? More coming. Stay tune on the next posting. Where too? If you want to know, then follow me on my e-travel and hope you will enjoy the e-walk with me through my journey in Taiwan.

Taiwan (Western Part) – 9 days Free n Easy Journey; Day 3 (3)

Welcome back! Which part of Taiwan are you now if you just followed me? We are outside the Taiwan Salt Museum Qigu District of Tainan.  If you have missed my tour on the Taiwan Salt Museum, you can refer to my previous blog.

The museum has a nice structure which is like a pyramid shape. Worth the visit if you are there but do not expect super great expectation.

We are now heading back to Taijiang National Park to visit Taijiang Ecological Culture Zone. To get there, we are going to catch the tourist bus again. In fact, this is the last stop for the tourist bus.

Taijiang Ecological Culture Zone is the Sihcao Park which includes Dazhong Temple, Sihcao Artillery Fort, a small whale museum, walking paths, and the docks for boat tours of the mangrove green tunnel and the wetlands along Sihcao Wildlife Preserve and the Yanshui River just north of Anping. So you got a choice of what you like. On my previous visit, I have already took the boat tour on the mangrove green tunnel which was very interesting. It was a 30 mins ride. You can refer to my previous blog on this; Taiwan – Tainan; 2 Days Trip on History

This time around, I took boat tour to the wetlands along Sihcao Wildlife Preserve and the Yanshui River.  

This boat ride is much longer; 70 mins. We went on a much bigger boat, canopy-covered that spreads out into more open territory.  The first part of the trip is a little dull, but once the boat hits the Yanshui River, the ride really improves and also more sight to enjoy.

You’ll see a lot of fishing nets, mangroves, water birds and various other flora, fauna, and fishing activities. A guide, yes, a guide that gives an informative explanation of the trip, but it’s only in Chinese. So if you do not understand Chinese, do not worry. Just enjoy the view like what I did. =P

  

Mangroves…..

It pulls in close to many of the sandbanks that are home to dozens of bird species. Along with various egrets and ibises, many spoon-bills and other feathered creatures make their migratory stops here, especially in the spring and fall.

Stilt house long the river banks.

Well, the boat tour is still on. Has not ended yet. Follow me to see what we got to see next. IF you haven’t followed me on my e-travel, then quickly follow me. =)