Day 4 - Alishan to Kaohsiung

So the main reason we went all the way to Alishan was to see the infamous sunrise. So again, we woke up early to take a shuttle bus to the train station, where we would take a train to the top of the mountain. It took every ounce of me to wake up at 4am, get dressed, and stand in the train for 30 minutes. When we got to the top of mountain, it was still pretty dark, but from the looks of it, we knew that the sunrise wouldn't be spectacular. There were simply too many dark clouds. After the sunrise, we went back to the hotel for our complimentary breakfast, and headed to the bus station to get tickets. Well, the earliest bus was for 11:45am, and the group wasn't willing to wait 2 hours. So we (although myself unwillingly), paid a van driver to take us back to Chiayi. After that, we took a bus from Chiayi to Kaohsiung.

When we got to Kaohsiung, we immediately set our stuff down and headed for Cijin Island. We took a 50 cent ferry to get to the other side, and picked a random seafood restaurant. I loooove the set meal that we ended up choosing, as it had some of my favorite dishes: fried oysters, basil clams, fried fishies, boiled shrimp, basil fish, scallops, and green veggies. After that, we were happy campers, frolicking along the beaches (that we thought were beautiful at the time). It was starting to get dark by this time, so we headed to a famous shaved ice restaurant and the others indulged. Then, the group went back on the ferry, went on the subway, and came out at one that was very close to Love River 愛河。We walked the short distance there, and sang songs and danced under the city lights. The rest of them told me that they were interested in walking to Liuhe 夜市，so I led them past my part of town. It was fun being able to point out the places I've been to and have grown up with. Liuhe was not very fun. The stands sold food that looked stale and boring in comparison to the night markets we were familiar with. After an hour, we went back to the hotel to crash.

The sunrise was not very exciting. This is what the view was like when we got there.

What it looked like 15 minutes later.

I believe this was the "best part" of our experience.

Our breakfast at Alishan was the most basic breakfast we had eaten. However, I could eat porridge for breakfast for the rest of my life. 

The ferries!

The ferry ride was so relaxing. Even though the view wasn't as spectacular as Hong Kong's, it was very comforting to be reminded that the Taiwan lifestyle is very down-to-earth and low-key. 

Don't make me leave! :'(

This was the first time that we had seen the beach. At the time, we were a little overexcited.

This picture isn't very clear, but the building smack dab in the middle is the HanLai hotel. The tallest building on the right is the 85 building.

The shaved ice restaurant we went to had thousands of messages left by previous customers.

My little message