Alishan is **renowned for its misty forests**, breathtaking sunrises, and the charming Alishan Forest Railway, making it a must-visit destination in Taiwan.

Travelled by high speed train from Tainan to Alishan was a little more complex than planned. The high speed train was a different station it was 30 minutes out of town (not the station we could see from our window). The hotel helped it was a 30:minute taxi ride. We had pre-booked seats so not as stressful as it could have been. The high train was fast and smooth. Just we before we arrived discovered the bus journey to Alishan which was also pre-booked due to limited seats was at the normal train station so we had to take a taxi to connect at Chianti City. Difficulty with the bus tickets I had not saved the correct section but the local staff were only too willing to help.

It the bus journey was 2.5 hours climbing up the hill so slow and crowded booking is essential.the bus climbs slowly up to 2000metres. When we arrived we put our luggage in a locker and found the tourist desk to ensure we understood how to get to our guest house and other details.

The air was clear and cool a vast difference from where we had come. We walked to the village of Alisan which was inside the national park.The national park had an app to help you get around excellent idea.

We checkout what there was in the general area and determined what hikes and took the little red train around the park to get the lay of the land.

We ended up getting lunch for the 7 11 a bento box cost all of which we heated great value at ~$8.00 AUD. As the day progressed the weather closed in with rain and cold.

We were there for the Cherry Blossom it’s earlier than in Japan it was a beautiful walk through the cherry blossom

We needed to get the bus back half way down the hill to a tea plantation to where we were staying. Getting the bus was a little disorganised but organised as they spoken in Chinese but luckily we meet some tourist from Hong Kong who helped us out. I’m not sure how everyone fitted in to the last remaining buses but we did. We sat in the entrance steps as we winded down the mountain hopping the driver understood where we wanted to get off. He did and worker from the guest house was there to take us by car to the Tea plantation (not sure if I’d have made the walk down a windy road. We should have stayed in the mountain would have been a good move but the accommodation was very expensive but in hindsight possible a good idea.

I think we were the only non Chinese at the guest house basically no English but it doesn’t matter with google translate. Dinner was a hot pot so delicious and warming there were bus loads of Chinese in the dinning hall. They were so very noisy but a lot of fun to listen to engage with.

Next morning the weather had come in it was very cold wet and at times sleet the guesthouse drove us up to the bus stop where we were told to put your hand out and they would stop if room this was a little nervous but the second bus stopped. Weather on the mountain was cold with sleet and not enough clothes to keep warm. I stayed at the rangers station for a coffee and snack my travelling companion climbed to a higher lookout. We were booked on the 12,30 tourist bus to Sun Moon Lake. as it was a tourist bus it was going to stop at various places of interest. But sadly due to the weather we drove straight to Sun Moon lake.