day 6 - tainan to chiayi to nantou to taichung

in the morning, we left the farm and proceeded to the alishan (mount ali) forest recreation area in chiayi county. apparently, its sister ponds, located 50m apart, are supposed to be the manifestation of two aboriginal girls who died for love. i like alishan primarily because it's cold up there, like having natural air conditioning. it was a great respite from the freaking hot summer we had to endure everywhere else. we had a nice leisurely walk through the trees, and because i don't usually go on nature hikes, it was a nice experience, but only something i'll do in cold weather, never in the disgusting weather of singapore. it wasn't anything special to luck-e and the girls though, because they have already taken many walks through forests similar to this one back home.

at the top of the alishan, ready to walk among the trees.


the sister ponds, one larger pond was called the elder sister pond, and the smaller one was the younger sister pond. i think this is the elder sister pond.


there were cool looking trees in the forest, like trees that grew out of the same tree stump, or extremely gnarled trees, etc. i really like this one, because it's heart shaped! it's such a pretty tree, and the heart is my favourite shape.


we walked out of the forest and saw the most adorable puppy on this path.

if only i could bring it home...

there was a school and a temple further down the path. there were also stalls selling souvenirs and snacks. the mountain is famous for its production of wasabi, and stalls were also selling that.


and so we left the cool, cloudy mountain after lunch and travelled down back to the scorching, humid lowlands.


i believe it started raining cats and dogs as we left alishan and headed for sun moon lake in nantou. i guess that was kind of a pity, because it was still pouring when we reached the lake, and nobody felt like leaving the warm, dry bus to venture out into the heavy rain. that, and also because the lake wasn't pretty that day. there was some work being done and water was drained out of it, so you could see the ugly brown banks all around; not the least bit scenic. so all of us decided to just go on to taichung and attack the feng jia night market.
on the way there...

mummy pointing at one of those silver water tanks that many of the buildings in taiwan have. i think the tour guide explained something about them; they have some use or symbolism besides the obvious storing of water. if there wasn't, i don't think i'd taken a picture of them. unfortunately, i honestly cannot remember what it is.

we reached taichung at sunset.

it wasn't raining but the sky was still very gloomy.....just the way i like my skies to be. hehe.

this was part of a doughnut queue that stretched down a long street and even snaked around the street corner. i guess singaporeans aren't the only insane ones who queue for hours just to get fat. i was, however, more interested in the cardboard cutout of mike he, my favourite taiwanese male actor.
there were so many cutouts and/or advertisements on buses of various taiwanese celebrities endorsing products, and i liked seeing them, because i don't see many in singapore (we mostly use our own local celebs, and i don't really like them).

the lift buttons in our hotel.
i noticed that there's no button for the fourth floor. in fact, there's no fourth floor. the fifth floor is the next floor after the third. it's obviously because 4 is deemed as an unlucky number as the sound for it in mandarin is similar to the sound for the word death. i thought it was interesting that the taiwanese went along with that superstition; i'd never seen that on lift buttons here.