Hongkong : plane ride sunset and the moon

阿里山 alishan sunrise

Woke up early to catch the sunrise. The cab driver drove us up the mountain. It took around 45 mins.
It was freezing, around 0 degree.

 We went to a corner to catch the sunrise, avoiding the large crowds.. There was only a handful of us

Took the Alisan train, 阿里山小火车 to catch the sunrise both to and fro.

Me and my sister enjoying the sunrise

Taiwan free and easy : Alishan

Visited Taiwan last year 2011/2012, was in Taiwan for new year..

We actually went Taichung to stay for a night before taking the train to Chaiyi.

It is cheaper to book the tickets in advance as it will be much cheaper.

http://www.thsrc.com.tw/en/ticket/tic_how_online.asp

The train ride was fast and comfortable.高速铁路,

We booked a package with seasonstar,四季星空. 

http://www.seasonstar.com.tw/

3 days and 2 nights.

The package includes almost everything transport to and fro the minsu, dropping by some spots on the way up, trip to see the clouds, sunset and sunrise and some meals. The owners are very friendly and kind people.
The owner discuss our itinerary with us and also highlight when are the interesting things to look out for after dinner.

The taxi driver picked us from the Chaiyi HSR station. We manage to liaise with him because I bought a 3G sim at the airport. 

No fanciful or touristy place.

The taxi driver bought us to eat Chaiyi famous chicken rice.

Our version looks a bit bland as we don't take fried onions and it was the highlight of the  meal. However, the chicken rice was good. Nothing like singapore version of chicken rice.

Along the way, we stopped by a roadside fruit stall. We were curious as some of the fruits are not found in Singapore. We bought the yellow peach to try, the stall owner helped us to cut it up.

the fruit is creamy and sweet!

We did some sightseeing along the way to seasonstar.. 

Pretty flowers everywhere.