day 2

morning in the valley

Before breakfast I decided to breath some fresh air and have a short walk around our hotel as the hot spring resort hotel,overlooking a green valley enjoys pretty scenery of hills and valley. But surprisingly when I was walking out, I quickly found several men of our group, sitting on steps outside and smoking. At sight of me, they asked me if they could get on the bus yet, since they had breakfast already.

It was still 7 am, one hour before our departure time. I explained to them our plan and as well, something about the valley and suggested to them they have some stroll and breath some fresh air. They nodded but obviously not so convinced though. Further away the hotel, I met one wife, waiting worriedly for her husband's return. Mentioning he had crossed the bridge spanning the valley and been away for a long while, I calmed her and suggested she return to the hotel, since he could did the loop walk.

I didn't have any mood to walk now and after two snap shots, I went to have breakfast. Over breakfast, some of group members mentioned about others on the same table for dinner. They didn't have any basic etiquette, refusing to use service spoons and chopsticks,and even disgusting with their own pairs of chopsticks for stirring salt and spices in and then tasting if the soup and food were salty or spicy enough. ( Horrible.)

After checkout, we set off for Alishan mountain. I gave some carsickness pills to some ladies, since it's doomed to be a long and tiring drive over 3 hours. Our bus first drove down this hill and began climbing another mountain, Yushan national park, which is the seat of Yushan, or Jade mountain, the tallest mountain in Taiwan, rising about 4000 meters above sea level. In spite of long drive, the view all the way was really pleasant, with blue sky, white cloud sea and green forest of cypress trees.

a 'husband' tree by locals