Ali Shan

Okay...now that all my other teammates have posted about our trip, I will. :-) I had my reasons for waiting...because now, I can write whatever I want without stealing someone else's thunder. (I haven't actually read anyone else's description of our trip. So if I am repetitive, it is not my fault. I didn't do it on purpose.) (But after I finish writing this out, I plan on catching up on some blog reading.)

So, on to our trip...Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, the entire Kinmen team attempted to go to Taiwan on May 24-27. However, after sitting in the airport for a total about 5 hours, waiting for an available flight, we decided that the fog which had enshrouded the airport, was not going to let up. We went back to the dorm. With our plans temporarily defenestrated, we had a relaxing weekend of doing practically nothing in Kinmen. (btw, if you were watching the Kinmen news that week, and saw any weird foreigners, that was us. The TV people were pretty excited about the large group wai guo rens trying to get out of Kinmen.)

The next week flew by and before we knew it we were looking at another weekend. We packed our bags once more and decided to brave the Kinmen airport again. We prayed that the fog would not be a problem. It wasn't and we made it all the way to Chiayi. Upon disembarking from the plane, we boarded a bus and drove for about 5 minutes to the "baggage claim." Baggage Claim consisted of a pick-up truck from which they tossed your bag to the ground. You went up and claimed your bag and left. the nine of us piled into two taxis and headed for the train station.

After arriving at the train station and meeting up with Sandy (our former boss from KingCar), we discovered that we had missed the train we were going to take. But no worries, there is always the bus. We made our way to the bus station. Once we got there, we discovered another option. We could hire a van. Our choices were now...(1) take the bus (spend less money, but very possibly be crowded and might not even have a seat for a three hour trip) or, (2) hire a van (spend a little more money, be a little crowded, but always have a seat, and be able to stop whenever we needed to.) We chose the van. So, the nine of us, plus Sandy, plus the driver, plus all of our luggage, piled into the eleven passenger van. :-) Yeah it was a little crowded, but not too terribly. We had a marvelous time bonding as a team.

First stop was....MacDonald's, of course! After getting the grub, we headed out. Okay. Time to speed things up a bit. So... we are just going hit the fast forward button....aslfjoiwelfjeogwrfoiugowerf...Lauren! Don't fall out the window, a picture isn't that important!... slfoiwaogfj... iewoagjwifigt... hwoeruf... Is it possible for this team to be quite for just 5 minutes straight... asdofiuwt... giwflmoigtwoej... foijgtowerfiogt... oiwefmoigh..... No..... aowerigoif... I have to go to the bathroom!.... afoweifjowfm... owgijwlfewf.... Wo men dao le mai?.... wpfjwogiuweojf.... Wo men dao le mai?... awefjig;wefjwefwoijgoi.... souvenirs!!!!.... amoeiuogjwelfm.... lwegiwuelmvlhow.... ojvcfnbkhg;ojfmeg.... hg;haw;eofvjw... ofjgiawef....STOP!!!!!

Okay so we finally got to the hotel. Just as we arrived at the hotel, we realized that the sun would soon set. So we dumped our bags in our room and high tailed it up the mountain. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, we went to Ali (ah-lee) Mountain. After about 5-10 minutes of stair climbing, walking, and running, we made it just in time. The sun cast it's orange and pink rays upon our faces, giving it's last farewell before sinking beneath the mountainous horizen...ok...that was kinda sappy...

We came back down and fell into our beds completely exhausted. But sleep wasn't on our to do list for the weekend. So, up we were at 3:45 AM. In the van by 4 and off to see the sunrise. Well, we saw it rise...as we were riding in the van to the spot...When we finally got there, we were able to catch the last few colors and watch the sun come up over the mountains. It was still beautiful, just not what we were expecting. Despite any disappointment we might have had for the sunrise, the return trip made up for it.

On the way back, we stopped and looked at a giant tree. We went down the steps and looked up at the big tree. Then we took some pictures of us and the big tree. Then we climbed back up the steps. Then we got back in the van. But that was not the highlight of the morning. We kept going. We stopped again at two more trees. These were dead. I think it is a Taiwan thing to take pictures of large dead trees. According to tradition, girls would go to the one right, you would have a boyfriend for every time you touched it. Boys went and touched the one on the left and got a girlfriend for every touch. I didn't touch it at all. And if I end up an old maid, that is perfectly fine by me. But still, that was not the highlight of the morning...

We kept going. Finally, we got out and looked at some bushes. We looked in the trees and on the side of the mountain. What in the world were we looking for? Monkeys of course. There were four or five monkeys. They came down the side of the mountain, crossed the street, and walked all around us and climbed up into the tree. They were so cute. One even had a baby with her. The people around us kept saying "Bao Bao! hao chi!" (Baby! Yummy!) Apparently, baby monkey is a specialty in that area of Taiwan. Things got even more exciting when the lead monkey started attacking tourists. Rumor has it that he attacked the week before and even broke a guy's finger. We left very soon after. :-)

We stopped, and ate a interesting breakfast of watery rice, corn, rolls, green tea, and some other things which I wasn't in the mood for right then. We then crashed in our hotel room and tried to catch up on some sleep. I called my sister and wished her a happy birthday. :-)

After a short nap, we packed up our bags and checked out of our hotel rooms. We stored our bags at the front desk and hiked to the train station and took it up the mountain. We rode it to the end of the line and got off. Then we took a trail of steps that went up and down the side of the mountain. It went by about 36 different giant trees. It was a lot of steps. But it was good exercise and believe it or not, I did enjoy it.

We hiked all the way back to the hotel. Then we picked up our bags, and took the train down the mountain to the ChiaYi train station. We then boarded another train and road into Taichung. Then we got on a bus and took the bus into Nantou. Then, because we were tired, we hired a taxi for our luggage, and walked to Ying Pan Elementary School. (I got to ride in the taxi with the luggage. :-). Upon arriving at Ying Pan, we had a great time hanging out with the Nantou team, fighting over showers, and simply having fun. By one o'clock, I finally decided to scrape myself onto the mat that was to be my bed for the night. We woke up bright and early at about seven thirty-ish. Packed our bags once more and set out. We walked for about 20 minutes, and then ran for the last 2 to catch our bus. After successfully catching our bus, we rode all the way back to Taichung where we boarded our plane and safely made our way back to Kinmen.

Now, you are probably wondering, where are my pictures? Well, I did take pictures...Like 142 of them or so. And I was going to post them as well, but my internet is being difficult and not letting me. I have tried at least three different times. Therefore, I will either do it some other time when the internet isn't quite so ornery, or you will have to just come visit me and then I can show them to you. Either is fine with me. :-)

It was an exhilarating trip...and way to go for all you who had to read all this...If you want more information, or maybe a different perspective or want to look at someone else's pictures, you can look here...or how about here...and then there is also here....enjoy!

~Smiles :-)