Breathtaking Alishan! Day 1

Alishan!  Alishan!  How beautiful thou art!

On Saturday morning, Karyn and I caught a train to Chiayi and then got on a bus to Alishan.  (The bus which we had all to ourselves.)  (We would have caught a train to Alishan, as it is a very famous and beautiful train ride, but as you can tell from this picture the train ride up was unavailable;)  It took a little over two hours on the bus to get from Chiayi to Alishan.  We went up and up and up on windy mountain roads.  It was so beautiful!  
 

When we arrived at our destination, we got a map and planned out where we wanted to go.  We found the hostel we had booked a few days before and unpacked a few of our things and then went exploring!  It was beautiful, peaceful and the air was so clean! 

Look at this awesome stump!

“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.”  Alice Walker

 

Beautifulness!

This is Giant Tree #28. (Yes that was its name).  It is huge and it's over 2000 years old!  If this cypress tree could talk I wonder what kind of story it could tell us about its life and observations. 

“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.” George Washington Carver

One of the many trails in the forest!  This was on the Giant Trees Trail!

I couldn't resist lying on the train track at the end of the line.

 I look dead in this picture ;) 

Divine Tree! Look at the picture below to learn more about this tree!  It's hard to tell from this picture, but this tree is quite ginormous lying on the ground! 

Divine Tree description!

It's a little hard to tell but I'm standing inside of the tree!

Another trail though the forest!  Aren't the trees beautiful?! 

Tree Spirit Pagoda!

So I was taking a picture of Karyn with the Tree Spirit Pagoda and this big tour group came up behind us.  They saw Karyn up there getting her picture taken and the whole group precedes to have their picture taken with her and the Pagoda! They were more excited about getting a picture with her than with the Pagoda.  It was so funny!  We were laughing about that one for awhile!  A few of them got a picture with me too!

Just pondering in the forest inside of an old tree stump! 

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”  George Washington Carver

 

Red and orange leaves!

A cemetery in the forest!  The picture above was the view from the cemetery! 

Karyn and I near the cemetery in the above picture!

Do you see the elephant trunk and eye?! 

This is the other side of the elephant tree!

This is inside the elephant tree looking up!

Read the description about the Three Generation Tree!  It was pretty awesome!

Three Generation Tree! Sadly I didn't get any really good pictures of the tree, but here I am in front of it! 
The first generation is the log underneath.  The second is the part that makes the arch.  The third is on the top that looks like a normal tree.

I love this shot with the old tree stump and the sun shining through the trees!

Forever One Heart!  These two trees grew together in the shape of a heart!  How beautiful is that?!

Happiness From Golden Pig!  I hope you see the pig :)

Sister Ponds!  This is Elder Sister Pond. There's a legend about these ponds, which you can read about in a couple of pictures down. 

I love this place!  Karyn and I sat and contemplated on that pavilion you see in the picture!  It was so peaceful and lovely! 

Elder Sister Pond!

 Younger Sister Pond, which was not quite as nice as Elder Sister Pond, but still lovely in its own way!   

The story!

Four Sisters!  I like these trees called four sisters, since there are four sisters in my family, including myself.

This is what the sign said about the Four Sisters: "On top of one big stump of cypress trees after its falling, four natural seeds of the same species happened to be air-delivered there and grow into four rather closely gathered trees reminding people of four end endearing sisters."

Our hostel!  We stayed at a Catholic hostel near the entrance of the Alishan Recreation Area!  The price was good.  The beds were soft and the blankets were warm. 

It was a marvelous first day on top of the world in the majestic and magnificent mountains and forest of Alishan!

I am Grateful For...

-Uncle Joe fixing my bike seat :)
-the window in my bedroom looking outside
-the internet to get directions
-mapmakers
-thinking time at the temple without distractions
-talking with and seeing Lara, Emma, Adam, and Ellie on Skype tonight
-Christmas decorations at school
-seeing Stanley comfort Scott after he didn't get super student
-Trans-Siberian Orchestra
-my rabbit blankie
-the NCUE (National Changhua University of Education) track and field events tonight
-laughing a lot today

These are some of the things I have written in my gratitude journal the past couple of weeks!

National Palace Museum and Taipei Flora Expo!

Yesterday I took the 7:30 AM bus to Taipei by myself.  (Karyn, Kailey and Liz went to Kenting this weekend and I decided not to go with them.  I went to Taipei instead.)  I loved it!  I first went to the National Palace Museum.  It was huge! 

I love this picture because the man is totally posing for it!  After I took the picture he smiled and laughed a little at me :)

The National Palace Museum was originally founded in 1925 in the Forbidden City in Beijing.  In 1931, they packed up the collection and moved it somewhere in the middle of China to avoid the items getting damaged in the impending Sino-Japanese War.  In 1949, China shipped the items to Taiwan to store them safely.   (I've heard that Chiang Kai Shek brought the items over when he moved to Taiwan.)

Just so you know, I got this information off the back of my brochure I got while I was there :)

Me in front of the National Palace Museum!

The museum is in a beautiful location!  The inside was beautiful too but we were not allowed to take pictures inside.  This place is huge! There were thousands and thousands of items. Some of the items were super duper old.  Some dated back to 2200 BC.  Most were not that old, but there were a few.

I was amazed at the good condition of some of the items for how old they were. Some were not so nice too, but some were.  But I guess since they've been preserved pretty well in palaces for a long time, it makes sense. 

 I loved the museum but I must admit it was a little overwhelming.  If I ever go back there (which I totally would) I would get a headset and go around with that.   Of course I didn't find out about the headsets until on my way out. 

After the National Palace Museum, I hopped on the MRT and went to the Taipei International Flora Expo!  Can I just say that I loved this place?!  Well I loved it!  I didn't quite know what to expect.  Of course I expected lots of flowers, but I had no idea how huge and how awesome it would be :)

Look at this awesome arch and the two people playing a game!

 

There were lots of lines at the Expo.  This is one of them.  The wait time for this one was an hour. I'm pretty sure there were some awesome things in there, but I decided to stick with things that I could do without waiting in line.  I only had a few hours there.

This sign is talking about the building that the people are waiting in line for in the picture above.

 

Here's a view of the building that the sign is talking about above.  It's pretty cool looking!

Look at all those beautiful, colorful flowers!  It's called the Melody of Flowers!

Some of the flowers from the Melody of Flowers upclose!

I love the name of this plant!  And it's pretty awesome looking too! 

I love the sun in this shot!

They had floral and plant exhibits from many different countries!  This one's from Taiwan!  A bamboo tunnel!

Inside a bamboo structure at the Taiwan exhibit!  Shown from the outside in the picture below! 

The awesome bamboo structure!

The Holland Exhibit!  

The Thailand Exhibit! 

Isn't that elephant awesome?! 

  

With the elephant! That thing was intense!

 

The Thailand exhibit again!

  

Of course I have a picture of a cool tree!

 

 A cool walkway where the lights changed colors every few seconds! I stood and watched it for a few minutes :) 

  

I loved this walkway too.  It's called the Floral Tunnel! This might have been one of my favorite parts!  I'm not quite sure why, but I really liked it!  It was pretty awesome!

  

 Some nice young man, who spoke English well, was nice enough to offer to take this picture for me!

 This was my last stop on my tour of the Expo! When I walked into this huge courtyard, I was in awe!   

 Upclose of some of the flowers!  This was also one of my favorite parts!  (OK so maybe all of the expo was my favorite part.  I can't really choose a favorite part :) 

  I like this picture mainly because of the man to the left of my head looking at the camera!

 The Expo Dome! Look at the awesome design on the building!

 These last arrangements were inside the Expo Dome!  I was kind of in a hurry at this point so I didn't spend as much time in here as I would have liked.

 But I loved it, nonetheless!

 Flower balls!

 Flowers inside of a piano!  I think all of the displays in this part of the dome were telling a story of some fairies!  If I would have had time, I could tell you, but I think that the fairies turned into musical instruments :) 

 This had nothing to do with the fairies, but I liked the dress made of flowers!

 At the Expo, I probably didn't even see 1/5 of it, because it was so huge!  I loved it and it was totally worth it, though!

The end of a tiring day!  I loved it! The museum, the flora expo, the bus rides to and from Taipei, the walking, the MRT, everything!