Alishan Forest Railway from
Alishan to Chiayi (2+ hours) Motorbike from Chiayi to Kaohsiung (about 2
hours) Ferry from Kaohsiung to Makung (11:38 pm - 6:28 am) Motorbike
from Makung to Dagigwong (25 min) Nap from 7a to 11a
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Today
should be a bit of a push - but it will start out very easy and casual
- much like it ended yesterday.
I'll
take the 1:18
pm train from Alishan down the mountain to Chiayi. Since it's
early I have no rush to get to the train station. Over to a
restaurant I went and ordered up a Chinese Omelette and a steamed roll
for breakfast. The omelette was mainly scrambled egg but it had been
wrapped up in what would be like a soft tortilla wrapper then cut into
bite sized pieces. Leaving the restaurant about 9:45 am I walked over
to
the station and got there at about 9:48am - such a long walk - but in
the fog yesterday you couldn't see between the two. The station crew
thought I was a bit odd showing up WELL in advance of the 1:18 pm train
but they didn't mind that I take a seat and wait.
The
platform for the train is spacious, covered with a few tents, and had
some seating available. While
it didn't rain while I was there it would spit a drop or two every so
often. A nearby steam locomotive was warming up and my train was where
it stopped yesterday. The steam loco is a Shay side tri-cylinder
design with the cyliners being vertical dropping down to an
external (on the right side of the locomotive) drive train. The drive
train connected to the axels via exposed bevel gears. From this prior
write-up I had traveled the Freeport Steam Society's steam locomotive
on their excursion line. It is a side cylinder design too - but they
are not vertical but rather slanted to the driveshaft that runs
underneath the locomotive along the center - between the wheels.
Occasionally
someone would want to take a photo near the loco and a train crewmember
would go and blow the whistle - making a nice cloud of
white steam above the engine.
While I waited I
worked on the trip reports - the same as what I did last evening - good
time available. While I was seated people started to arrive - perhaps
an hour beforehand. Not knowing how full the train might be, and
finding out that it had "assigned seating", I asked if I could have my
ticket changed from car 1 to car 4. The attendant simply took a pen and
"converted" the 1 into a 4 - no looking up in a roster to see if the
seat had been assigned. Assigned seating is a very loose term on this
train.
To me the train would be a scenic line -
where assigned seating really isn't an issue - and while it is perhaps
mainly for scenic purposes it is still a working commuter line. There
are perhaps ten stations along the 77 kilomter (48 mile) route. On the
way up people would get on at some intermediate station and get off a
few stations later.
With the seat arrangement "taken
care of" I set back to working with the laptop. A family came in -
father, mother, two kids, grandmother tending the baby, another adult
lady. Their little boy was getting a kick out of the train. I took a
few photos of him and one with their camera for them. In the end we
each had photos of each other so I pulled out the camera's memory card
and asked if theirs was the same - it was. I took the risk of hosing
their photos (minimal, but it did occur to me) and used their card in
my computer - transferring photos from my card to thiers and theirs to
mine. They were happy to have them - and you can see the one they took
of me.
With the train getting ready to leave I
packed my stuff and boarded. Four cars and one engine. Each car,
fortunately, is air conditioned. Air-con is
not really needed at the higher altitude so I shut the vents near me
and put on a coat. Later, descending to the warmer areas, I would be
removing the coat and eventually opening all air vents.
The
way up I was in the car closest to the engine - at the back of the
pack with visibility only out the side windows. Wanting to get
some photos I chose the car farthest from the engine as it had a
doorway in the end that had a window. There was no standing between cars while in
motion and there was no 'open roof' car on this train (that would be
nice) - so any photo would have to be through some window.
If
you enjoy railroads this one is an oddity. It was built to haul lumber
from the mountains some years back. There are numerous bridge
crossings, something like 50 tunnels, and perhaps unique to this line -
a zig-zag pattern at one mountain area. I'll take a picture of the rail
ticket as there is a "map" of sorts on the back of it - the line on the
map appears unusual but is a fair representation of the actual rail line.
The
start of the line is through the low, flat lands near Chiayi - and then it
starts to twist up the mountain. With the amount of trees, tied with
the hazy conditions, I doubt any photo of the "view out" from the train
- looking down a valley to get an idea of the hight or location -
will be useable. Part way up we spiraled on what seemed like one peak -
seeing the same valley views time and again - but from a different
elevation.
After the circling came the zig's - and
this is where the train needed two engineers. One engineer and brakeman
were in the engine. There was one conductor on the train (who did the
normal ticket thing, checking on people in the cars, making sure the
air-con was working, tending to passengers at the stations [though
several of the busy stations were also staffed]). The "second" engineer
was in the car with me. He would be in control of the train - if only
monitoring the conditions - when it was running in the "reverse" mode.
So
let's see, yesterday on the trip up, the engine started out "pushing"
the train but ended "pulling" the train into the station. It
pushed
up to zig-zag (for lack of a better term) switch #1 where it then
stopped, the switch was thrown, and we backed up. We backed up for
several minutes, engine
pulling the train to switch #2 where we stopped again, switch thrown,
and we proceeded uphill with the engine pushing again. One more switch,
#3, and the engine would be pulling the train the rest of the way to
the station. Where the engine is at the "back end" of the train the
second engineer would sit in the seat next to where I was standing.
When
he was "done" with his duties he showed me that I could sit in his seat
showing me what to NOT touch (emergency brake) and what I could touch (lights
for getting photos in a tunnel). I sat in the seat for a bit then moved
to standing so I could move about. Nice of him to allow me to sit there
though.
The camera went click-click-click for 3+
hours. And by the time I was down at the station I had space for 10
pictures on the card. Timed nicely.
Out of the train
station the goal is to get down to Kaohsiung for the ferry trip. I
stopped by a shop for some more water, over to the big-M "restaurant of
fine food" for some fish then over to the hotel for the bike. It was
still there - tripod laying on the seat and sandals, wrapped in a bag,
on the foot rest. I asked if the hotel would like any reimbursement for
the parking spot and they said no - it was fine. Many thanks to them
and I loaded up, tooted the horn and waved as I drove off.
Stopping
a couple blocks later to figure out where I needed to head I pulled out
the maps. South, yes, on Route 1 but where _is_ Route 1? It looks to be
on the other side of the tracks - so in that direction I head. Up, over
the tracks, down to the road on the other side - Yep -
there are the signs. I can take Route 1 all the way to Kaohsiung or if
I see the jump to Route 17 I could finish the trek on that too. Route
1 is mainly populated with stop lights - more frequent in
local areas but there would be no long stretch of rual area (which is
why Felipe told me to skip the whole western side of Taiwan - it's just
populated cities).
The route ended up taking about
1.5 hours for the distance of something like 80 kilomters (49 miles). I
commented before about the bikes weaving and bobbing through city
traffic - this would be slightly different. The open areas would be
almost a race to the next light while the higher speed populated areas
would be a "pick a hole and go for it". Friday at 6:30 pm in Tainan
perhaps takes the cake for the most crazyness so far. Cars, trucks,
taxi's, busses, and more bikes - scooters and manual shifts than I
cared to count. The "pack" of bikes would jump into the intersection at
their "scooter green" - which is also equivalent to a "2 second rule"
as some intersections have count down clocks - the bikes take off with
2 seconds of red light left. The pack would then need to squeeze
together at the other side of the intersection. Higher speeds when
navigating (40 to 80 kph) made it for an interesting evening.
After
going through three larger cities (Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung) the
exposed skin on my face and neck were noticeably blackened from the
pollution. I wonder what my lungs look like.... I now understand why people wear face masks and wear coats backwards.
In
Kaohsiung I found the hotel easy enough as it was waypointed on the gps
so I
just followed the pointer to right where I wanted to go. I didn't
check in as I wanted to pre-drive the route to the ferry for the 9:15
am ferry trip to Makung (Penghu Islands), Felipe's house. I didn't
waypoint the ferry landing but from the tracklog (that is used to make
the "lines" on the maps) I converted a data point into a waypoint for
the ferry. This gave me a
reasonable location for the ferry, and it was able to get me within 2
blocks, but I still had to ask for directions. The gas station
attendant
pointed in the general area and off I headed - then finding the ferry
easy
enough.
I found the ticket office for "people" tickets
and asked for a ticket - oye - they gave me one for the next ferry out
- 11 pm. Not what I expected but then I didn't specify - I just thought
the next one would be the 9:15 am. No sleeping at a hotel this evening
and I'm glad I didn't check into the hotel when I drove by it. Personal
ticket in hand I drove over closer to the ferry to see about
the ticket for the bike. An attendant was gracious to show me where
I could purchased it but to come back at 22:00 to do so.
Again with a little bit of time I headed back into the
city and found a place to get a snack. I also found
some batteries and DVD-R's to backup photos. The place I found was an
honest-to-goodness MALL!! I couldn't believe it. Something "like home".
Tasks completed and ferry time hearing I headed back to purchase a ticket for the
bike, drove on, parked it - and started to work on the laptop. I hope
this ferry goes to Makung.... (the thought crossed my mind a few times).
Day's
activity - Start at Alishan up in the mountains. Take the train down to
Chiayi and hop onto the bike. Ride down to Kaohsiung to get onto the
ferry. Overnight ferry ride to Makung and then back onto the bike to
get to Felipe's house. Looking at the map I wonder if there was a ferry
from Tainan or Tung-shih - would have been a shorter ferry trip.
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