We woke early in the morning, before sunrise, to climb up behind our bed and breakfast to what we were told was a beautiful place to watch the dawn. We made it up just as the sun was coming out. It was not the sea of clouds, but it was a sunrise over hills and tea plantations, and the light was clear and beautiful.
After breakfast our driver and car arrived and whisked us off for the day, stopping first at one of Alishan’s many sakura trails, this one going down into a narrow valley with a walkway lined with different types of sakura trees, most in full bloom, and with other yellow flowering trees interspersed.
Next we went on to Alishan proper where there are a series of tiny trains that take you through the park. We took one about halfway in and then got off to walk through sakura still far from being in full bloom, which thoroughly miffed the Boddhisattva. It was a pleasant place though, with some beautiful ancient fallen trees and mossy stones. We came out into a very busy place, a large square lined with small restaurants and souvenir shops, the sort of place that tour buses are parked. On one side was a temple and we went inside to discover that on a particular day every year seven moths flew to the statue, but we had missed that day by a week or so.
Just past the temple was the sakura king, a tree which when it blossoms marks the real start of the season. It was not blossoming, which miffed the Boddhisattva.
The next phase of our exploration was through the ancient cypresses of Formosa, immense creatures hundreds or thousands of years old, and some very imposing indeed, and full of power. After a while, though (and there was a lot of climbing up and down steep stairs, this being Taiwan) the trees did start blurring into each other so when we finally arrived at the star tree (of which only half remains) it felt like checking a box. Certainly they were magnificent but we were all tired by then. We did pass one tiny forest shrine, with an entrance through a short circle of stone and tree root, and as we came into it we heard drumming in the distance, from the other, bigger temple.
On the way back we stopped for coffee and cake and then, on returning, had hotpot for dinner at the bed and breakfast. It was a rather large meal but enjoyable especially as we each got our own little hotpot and accoutrements.
After dinner a few of us decided to walk down to the road which curves overlooking the valley. The reason is, even in the early evening, it was lined with photographers waiting for the sea of clouds to emerge for a particular phenomenon: when the yellow and red and white lights of the town below get dispersed in the mist, making for a soft, strange effect that many came night after night hoping to photograph. The phenomenon was not occurring that night, but as we walked back up through the footpath between rice fields, there was another curious phenomenon: the silver full moon perfectly balanced by a golden sodium vapour light, like something out of the Silmarillion.
And then back, and then to sleep as the next day we leave.