Next morning, we took a train from Kaoshiung (高雄) to Chiayi (嘉义）before transferring for a bus to Alishan （阿里山）. The train ride is NT$245 (around S$10). Note: this is not the high speed rail.
There's scheduled timing for the rides, so you may want to go to their website http://twtraffic.tra.gov.tw/twrail/English/e_index.aspx the night before to look for the train timing and cost, and manage and plan your schedule around there. If you missed a train, the next train may be a few hours after so it's better to make sure you catch the train you want. There're usually different trains that bring you from point X to point Y, but each train have different routes and timing so look at the name of the train, as well as duration of the trip carefully. You'll be surprised that some trains only take 1 hour to get to point Y while other trains takes 8 hours. :)
After reaching Chiayi, walk out of the train station and you'll see a mini bus interchange on the right. In fact, once you walk out of the train station, you'll probably see people coming to you, asking if you want to go to Alishan, if you want to see the sunrise next morning etc. My Alishan minsu boss has warned me before hand on this, and warned me to ignore these people. Taiwanese are generally nice and friendly people, but these touters I met at Chiayi and Alishan really irritates me. They keep asking and asking, and when you tell them "No", they keep on asking "then where are you going", "you sure you not going Alishan?", "you dunwan to watch sun rise?". Maybe I'm really lucky to meet a super hardcore touter. =_="'
Here's the timing/schedule of the bus to and from Chiayi and Alisha. You can also see on the sign below that says "No Touting". I think it says alot about how bad the situation is there. The journey from Chiayi to Alishan is around 2.5 hours though they will let you alight mid way to take a short toilet break.
Below is the route for the Alishan shuttle bus
Bus tickets from Chiayi to Alishan. Cost is NT250/pax
Warning: If you suffer from motion sickness, you may want to pop in some motion sickness pills before taking the bus. It's not the most easy trip of all, and the journey is pretty long.
Half way, the driver will stop and let you take a 10 minute toilet break. It's a nice break, as the fresh air is really refreshing and the sky looks stunning! You can easily feel the difference of the air quality between city and mountain.
Here's the place where we stopped for toilet break.
Before we enter Alishan, we need to pay another NT150 (adound S$6) for entrance fee. I dunno. Alishan feels too touristy for me.
Anyway, after we arrived and alight, we started to look for our minsu. I read that it's beside 7-11, and thought it will be somewhere nearby but I did not know that it's literally really beside it. Like right beside!
The minsu (homestay) we are staying is Shin Shin Minsu （欣欣民宿), located right beside 7-11. Once you alight from the bus, look out for the sign below and walk towards it.
Look to your right and you'll see this. If you don't look carefully, you may miss it, as it really doesn't look like a minsu at all.
Here's our room. I'll be honest. The room looks better on picture. It's a really simple and basic room, and is probably one of the most simple minsu I've stayed in, but still it's nice and cover my needs. My expectations for a room is very simple: Cleanliness & Security, both which are fulfilled so that's enough. and given how cheap it is (around S$50/night), really cannot be too fussy about it. We hardly stay in the room anyway!
Shin Shin minsu is located at a very convenient location. Not only is it right beside 7-11, it's also at the area where all the shops are (although the shops there are limited and very touristy), and most importantly, it's beside the train station. This is very useful if you plan to catch the sun rise, since you do not have to spend time travelling to the train station to catch the sunrise.
Warning: There's a long flight of stairs to climb to the station (left side of the pic). Definitely not baby or elder friendly.
Below is the timing of the train in Alishan
They will also tell you what's the timing for the first train, and timing for sun rise the next day.
The train tickets
Recommended Route Map
We took the train and alight at Chao Ping station (沼平車站) to walk around the park/recreation area.
We had dinner at one of the restaurants near our minsu. We ordered Sesame Oil Chicken (麻油鸡) and fried cabbage. It must be the WORST food I've every tasted in Taiwan and super expensive. =/
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