Depart from Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1 - 1.15am flight
Reach Taiwan, Taoyuan Airport (台灣桃園國際機場) - 5.55am
Touched down earlier than scheduled. It was too early that the shops selling the phone card for free data plan are not opened. Headed straight for the bus ticketing counter and got the tickets to Taoyuan HSR (台灣高鐵-桃園).
Although there are a few bus counters, they are for different buses. For non chinese readers, it would be better to ask and before you proceed to buy the tickets.
The ride to Taoyuan HSR was roughly 30mins (or less). At the HSR station, the counter staffs assist to help change my online booking since I reached 2 hours ahead from my pre-booked train. There were Mos Burger and 7-11 and I am sooooo happy just shopping at the 7-11. Because there were a WIDE variety of foods. From the oden to hot dog to onigiri to bento to sandwiches. Lots of choices.
The view outside Taoyuan HSR
After a 45 mins rest and breakfast from 7-11, it was time for my first HSR ride.
Our seat number
Here come the train!
I opted for the business class for the space and the vacancy and I am glad I did. There were snacks and beverages given in the cabin and the wider space between seats gave me freedom and comfort as compared to my 4 hours plane flight. Very impressed with the time estimation (99.9% accuracy)
snacks and beverage served in HSR
An hour and 30 mins later, we reached Chiayi station (嘉義高鐵) BUT it was another 1 hour+ of waiting for our driver for the ride to Alishan (阿里山).
We spent time at Starbucks while our driver arrived 10 mins before 11am.
I engaged the service from lets-go.alishan. Hence, my accommodation, transport and partial tour were all catered for. And luckily, they accepted visa payment as there were a 50% payment required while the remaining will be paid in cash to the coordinator on the day itself.
Our driver to Alishan acted as our partial tour guide too... Giving us information along our ride and stopping in between to let us have a short break, get some air, and also restroom breaks. The ride was 4 hours long but he was a good driver, hence none of us had any motion sickness.
A view of the tea plantation on our way up to Alishan. Alishan is well-known for their Alishan Wulong/Oolong Tea.
The map of Alishan
Once we reached Alishan, we found out that we have to transfer to another bus to reach our hotel. I was pretty upset with this arrangement because actually this hotel wasn't my original accommodation. If according to my original booking, it would have been Dafeng and it was at the location where we waited for the bus.
(Story goes like this... the coordinator called me a month before my Taiwan trip on the need to change hotel as Dafeng was going through renovation but when I reached the other hotel, they were also in the process of renovation works. A day prior to my trip, the service personnel informed me that my room for double bed was not available for 2 days straight which I accidentally overheard the hotel staffs saying that the hotel was booked only like 2 days before my arrival date?)
It was pretty cold when we reached Alishan despite it was around 12pm? There was a telco towards the right hand side (in the below picture) but as we reach Alishan on a Saturday, the place was not open for business, hence, only Wifi from our hotel.
The main location for food, transport and souvenirs
After waiting for quite some time for the hotel bus, we finally got to the hotel. In the end, I have to shifted room for my 2 days' stay because they don't have queen size bed for 2 days in a row.
The hotel itself is not very impressive. The hotel accommodation was priced at at $2600 NTD for twin room per night stay and the good part would be it is pretty near (3 mins) to the train station (chaoping) which is headed to the zhu shan station where you can get to see a very amazing sunrise (which... is not so for me... sigh...) but it is around 20 mins walk to the area where you can get food, transport, souvenirs etc.
Finally.. we reached the hotel around 1pm and took a short break before more walking down to the main area...
Misty day!
