16th November 2014
Initially, me and CY wanted to take the early 7.10 am bus to Fenqifu, however, we both overslept and the next bus was afternoon. Since we couldn't catch the bus, we took our breakfast leisurely. The hotel breakfast was quite nice, I had a very Taiwanese breakfast, I ate porridge with fermented bean curd, fruits, coffee and drinks made from rice and peanuts called "rice milk", according to Wikipedia. Lol!
After breakfast, we walked to the bus station to ask about other alternatives to go to Fenqihu. Well, sadly, there were none. Then, we met the private transport provider that kept promoting his business to us the day before, he still have spaces left in the van, however, the trip was to go to Alishan, he agreed to detour to bring us to Fenqihu, but with a higher fees. We had to agree because we didn't want to wait until afternoon for the bus. (*Don't worry too much about the schedule, if you miss the schedule of the public transport to Alishan / Fenqihu, there are many private operators that offer transport to these 2 places!)
The driver brought us to Fenqihu Hotel, and told us to leave our bags in the souvenir shop next to the hotel. Apparently, the driver knew the owners and owners offered to help keep our bags while we toured around Fenqihu, I didn't see any lockers in Fenqihu Station. We were so lucky! It would be difficult to lug along a luggage to jungle trek.
We couldn't find travel brochures for Fenqihu, so we just read the travel information in the lobby of Fenqihu. After that, we started our Fenqihu trip. First we went to the Fenqihu Station, during that time, no train was scheduled to pass by, so it was quite quiet. It was a good thing though, we could take photos leisurely, didn't have to wait for the right time for the crowd to disperse.
There is nothing special about the Fenqihu station itself, it's just a normal building. However, next to the station, there's a wooden structure (阿里山森林铁路奋起湖车库 Alishan Forest Railway Fenqihu Train Garage) that houses some old locomotive train cars and a model of the Alishan railway. It's quite fascinating.
The driver brought us to Fenqihu Hotel, and told us to leave our bags in the souvenir shop next to the hotel. Apparently, the driver knew the owners and owners offered to help keep our bags while we toured around Fenqihu, I didn't see any lockers in Fenqihu Station. We were so lucky! It would be difficult to lug along a luggage to jungle trek.
We couldn't find travel brochures for Fenqihu, so we just read the travel information in the lobby of Fenqihu. After that, we started our Fenqihu trip. First we went to the Fenqihu Station, during that time, no train was scheduled to pass by, so it was quite quiet. It was a good thing though, we could take photos leisurely, didn't have to wait for the right time for the crowd to disperse.
There is nothing special about the Fenqihu station itself, it's just a normal building. However, next to the station, there's a wooden structure (阿里山森林铁路奋起湖车库 Alishan Forest Railway Fenqihu Train Garage) that houses some old locomotive train cars and a model of the Alishan railway. It's quite fascinating.
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| Fenqihu Station |
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| Alishan Forest Railway Fenqihu Train Garage |
After that, we went to the square bamboo forest, the bamboo species was not native to Taiwan though, the bamboo originated from China. Anyway, the view was nice. It's not a very big area though, one can walked round the forest in 10 to 15 minutes.
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| bamboo forest |
There're many trails in Fenqihu, we didn't have a plan, we just follow the route. Initially, I wore a jacket, but after awhile, the walking generated enough heat for me, so I had to remove the jacket, luckily I brought along a backpack, it could fit the jacket. Anyway, the trails were nice, we had a good time there. When we agreed to the van operator offer earlier, he kept trying to convince us to just directly go to Alishan, kept saying that there's nothing in Fenqihu. However, I think it's not the case, I think that Fenqihu is a quaint little town that worth a visit.
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| trekking trail |
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| greenery |
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| sceneries around Fenqihu |
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| water filtration system |
After that, we reached the "old old street 百年老老街". It's a small street with some old wooden shops. Not much activities here though, we just stopped for some photos and left.
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| old old street 百年老老街 |
While walking back to the Fenqihu Hotel, we saw a food stall that full of people. It sold some traditional Taiwanese buns, we got that too, not bad. On the way, also noticed a sign on a tree branch, so I stepped in front to read it, quite funny, the sign reads "I am sorry, I am prune flower, not plum flower!" LOL! Well, I have never seen prune flower, it would be nice if that time was their flowering time.
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| sorry, I am not plum flower! LOL! |
Then, lunch time. We had the famous Fenqihu bento in Fenqihu Hotel. The most striking differences was the bento came with a aluminium box. Well, the box only available for those who eat in the hotel, all the take away is normal bento box. The bento came with egg, pork, chicken, bamboo shoot, pickles vegetables, etc. Overall, the bento tasted good and the portion was ok, after all the trekking, I could finish all.
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| bento (famous in Fenqihu) |
One of the funny things was my friend CY saw some beautiful photos of tea farm in Shizuo 石棹. So, we decided to delay our schedule to Alishan and detour to Shizuo instead for two hours. There's bus services between Fenqihu and Shizuo, but the frequency not so high. When we dropped of the bus, there were many tea farms, but not as beautiful as the one in the photos, so we just ask some locals and they didn't seem to know where is the farm, they just told us that all the farms next to the main road were tea farms. They didn't know any special tea farm. Well, we just walked around and admire the tea farm, albeit not so photogenic. Later, when I read some travel blogs, then only I knew there are some trekking trails in Shizuo. Well, too late.
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| tea farm in Shizuo |
We went back to Fenqihu to retrieve our bags. Since the bus to Alishan was still 2 hours away, we went to the old street for some souvenir shopping. There're many things to see and buy, but at the end, I just bought a postcard to send home, it was too crowded and I didn't feel like shopping. During that time, a train stopped by at the Fenqihu Station, so the whole area was so full of human beings, luckily I was there in the morning where I didn't have to queue up to take photos.
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| around Fenqihu |
Anyway, when we went to the souvenir shop to take our bags, CY decided to buy the tea leaves native to Alishan. So, the owner brewed the tea for us, I am not an expert on tea, but I felt that the tea was easy to drink, not so bitter, so I bought one packet of Alishan tea also. It has a beautiful name, called 珠露茶, literally translate as dew drop tea. The tea leaves was quite fragrant, sometimes I would just open the tea canister to smell the tea leaves.
After that, we took the bus to Alishan. Bye bye, Fenqihu!
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