Fish's Underwater World: Road trip 4 July part one

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Road trip 4 July part one

Woke up early to catch train to Chiayi. Bought breakfast from 7-11. The convenience stores are everywhere. There are a number of other convenience stores run by other companies. We found 7-11 after asking the train master at the level below. We had checked in and found ourselves at the boarding area without food. So we asked the train master where we could buy food. He grumpily replied upstairs. Think many people had asked him this question before.

Received a free doraemon magnet with purchase of more than NT70 i think. I was looking at the packaging and realised that there was an expiry date printed. The magnet will expire in 10 years' time. I din know that magnets had expiry dates as well.

The train ride was comfortable. We travelled on the tze qiang train which was the best class. Enough leg space and seats were softer than those of China Airlines. China Airlines ones made my bum ache.

A scene from the train:

To get a feel of what I saw from the window, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE0jL8EwkPw

After travelling for 4 hours on the train, we finally reached Chiayi. The moment we stepped out to the arrival area, we were swamped by an auntie. She offered to take us on a van ride up to alishan for NT399. The forest train was already full for the day. We agreed after much consideration. Then another lady offered to help us buy the tickets for the forest train which travelled down alishan the next day. She was not earning from the sale cos she was selling the tickets at the same price as the train station. We paid her a deposit and were told to pick up the tickets when we reached alishan. After we had arranged our tickets, we set off to look for food. The van driver told us we could get food across the road. A place called fountain chicken rice.

We walked and we walked, but no chicken rice in sight. Then we asked a passer-by. She told us the stall was right at the end where the fountain was. Quite far. Very popular stall. We would not miss it. So we walked quickly cos we only had less than an hour left before we took the van. Along the way, we did not see any food stall, except for pastries. Eventually, we reached the fountain area. The chicken rice was so-so cos singapore chicken rice tasted better. The fountain chicken rice was more soya sauce based.

Soon, we were on our way in the van. We passed by a reservoir called lan2 tan2. It had a fountain show at various times. We din manage to catch it though.