~ 21st March 2014 ~
After having our breakfast prepared by the resort hotel which looked more like a motel, we dragged our luggage and crossed the road. The bus station to Alishan was just opposite, a few steps away from Tanxiang resort hotel. Not bad, eh. So near. Seriously, where's the photo for the breakfast? How could I have none of it at all??
We have bought the tickets the day before when we first arrived. There's no seat number, it's free-seating. We thought there won't be many people but suddenly there's a throng of humans who appeared from nowhere taking the same bus.
The bus was packed so we took the back seats. Look at how squashed my travel buddy was with all our luggage and other people's luggage as well. But at least we're not squashed by humans. We're okay squeezing with non-breathing objects. Why must the buses be so mini? Can't they have bigger buses with more breathing space?
Just when I was about to get comfortable in the mini seat, the mini bus stopped at somewhere. Through the window, it looked like it's a dead town. The driver asked everyone to get down to stretch our legs as the journey up to the mountain would take some time still. I think he didn't want anyone starting to puke and faint in the bus. Nobody will want that to happen. So, yeah... we got down to the dead town. We totally had no idea where we were. Never seen this place in any websites at all.
Praise the Lord for wonderful drivers and strangers~! This place was one that I wouldn't want to miss. The decorations all around with life-sized copper cartoon characters of the tribe of Mei were really cute. I love that long snout doggie especially~! According to my translators of sort, this place must have been set up by the tribal people of Mei to promote their specialties. Is that so? But there's another huge sign placed beside the floor map that somehow or other showed the organizer of the place as Shin-Yi Hsiang Farmers' Association. Don't know... seriously don't know. And then 'Mei' in another word means plum.
So are those unripe plums? I don't know must about fruits grown on trees. I know fruits already plucked and ready to be eaten. We ventured around the place which was mostly close. The driver said the whole place lacked of human workforce. There's not enough people to mend the stalls and run the stores, so they will only be opened during the weekends. We were there on Friday. Or was it because we were there too early?
I would really love to enter that Carton Zoo. All the animals were made of carton boxes. Something like the Carton King in another county which wasn't in our list of places to visit. We did not have enough time to place our footsteps in every corner of Taiwan. Getting to sit outside Carton Zoo was considered as good enough. We peeped inside and saw quite a few animals. I have a picture of a llama made of carton cardboards.
Really cute cartoon characters. Taiwanese men must be afraid of their wives? Hahahahaha.... Pity the man being tied like a dog.
There were so many cute huge figurines all over the place. But lazy me started becoming lazy to them each one by one so just took a snap shots of a few of them together. There were a few souvenir shops opened but poor us couldn't afford anything. I couldn't even remember what were they selling.
We, the adventurous people who didn't want to get down suddenly became truly adventurous. The path less taken was explored by us. We went to the back portion of one closed bakery and saw the scenery at the back. What was beautiful stayed in front. The ugly sight stayed hidden. The misty hill was beautiful on its own but there was something mysterious with this place.
What's with the barren land? Or was it a land for plantation? I'm very curious... I just want to know what's that for. I don't like that feeling that your eyes are only allowed to feast on those lovely views when there's another side of the story that's more real. Curious.... curious.... very curious....
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