We had little rest in Taipei, which was our own fault for wanting to see as much as we could. That trend continued into our next day which was our tea farm area day. We took the 6:30am high speed train to Chiayi. Once we arrived I thought I was being smart and decluttering my purse by throwing away our tickets. Learn from our mistake, hold on to all train or bus tickets! When we went to exit we couldn’t because we didn’t have our tickets to scan, and the free shuttle bus to the train station we needed to get to for our connection wouldn’t be included. Luckily I knew which garbage I tossed our tickets into and went back and dug through it until I found them. The way to get to the next train station was slightly confusing and there was a man who was insisting the only way to get there was taxi. It turned out the couple in front of us was taking the same train so we just followed them. An older woman also was very eager to help us find our platform. Everyone was so kind.

Our next train was the Alishan Forest Train, an older train at the farthest possible platform. We made it onboard with 2 minutes to spare. We were so happy we were able to get tickets; I had to put alarms on my phone for when they’d be available and this was our second try. We rode the train about 2.5 hours through forests and mountains to get to Fenqihu. As we passed the train stations everyone on the platform would wave us off and film. Many older people would come to watch. They were adorable with their huge smiles and enthusiastic waves. We went through clouds and tunnels, across bridges, and past tea fields, young forests, old forests, and bamboo forests.

Once we arrived in Fenqihu we left our bags in a locker and headed down the old street to find lunch. The thing to do there is get a bento box. We went to Railway Mountain City Nostalgic Bento Boxes (鐵道山城懷舊鐵路便當). It seems like its hard to go wrong, but that place was great. There were many seating options with some inside an older dining area, some outside, and some along a balcony. It was quaint. I got the chicken and Nick got the pork. They both came with rice, a tea egg, sweetened soy meat, seaweed, vegetables, and other goodies. It was $8 for us both to have drinks and bento boxes, such a good deal.

We explored the old street, which didn’t take too long. There are many hikes in the area but we didn’t have time to do those unfortunately. Nick and I slowly made our way back to the train station just in time to see a train from Alishan come in. This station was incredibly scenic so I was happy to film that. We also enjoyed some soft serve ice cream cones. Mine was oolong tea and Nick’s was sakura flavored. Both were incredibly flavorful. They would not be the last incredible soft serve ice creams we’d enjoy in Taiwan.

After a quick 10 minute taxi ride to our hotel in Shizhuo, we checked into our room and prepared for our afternoon of hiking in the rain. We stayed in a bed and breakfast on a tea farm. It also included dinner, which was great as we were the farthest away from town we could be. Our room had lovely views of the forest around and in the back of the hotel we could walk up a short path to see the views of their tea plantation.

Our hiking was incredible, much like everything else that day. We combined several hikes and turned them into a longer loop, or as Nick described more like a lollipop. From our hotel we started on the Cloud Trail, which led into the Tea Trail, then Mist Trail, and Sunset Trail. Part of Sunset trail was on the road but then connected back to Tea Trail and Cloud Trail which we did in both directions.

Cloud Trail was an older forest. It was raining when we hiked up it, and the mist in the forest was stunning. We saw a toad and a huge frog. There were resting platforms and many side trails that led to the main trail from other areas. The trees were so tall, I felt as though I had to look down to not slip on the wet stairs, up through the misty leaves, and forward through the trunks to take it all in.

Once we made it to the plateau the trail merged into Tea Trail. There we hiked mostly through bamboo. There was thick mist when we hiked this section. Sometimes there would be a small side trail to a tea plantation where we would peak out for a view. The rows of tea bushes were gorgeous with the thick mist. There was an element of mystery and it felt like a thick blanket.

Once we were in the section where the trail started going downhill the path became narrower with bamboo on either side of the stairs. We got some great photos in this spot. We ran into very few other hikers, maybe around 10 in total throughout our 2.5 hours of hiking. The trail led into Mist Trail next which continued downwards. Closer to the end of this trail we got rewarded with panoramic views of the village and many tea farms. The mist had mostly lifted by this point and the rain had stopped.

We walked along the road for a short section to make it to the start of the Sunset Trail. Along the road we saw some people walking through the rows of tea, a few cute dogs, and a temple. Sunset Trail was another staircase leading up back into the forest. The views of the tea plantations on this trail were phenomenal. At the top of this we opted to continue through the forest to meet up part way through the Tea Trail. We continued all the way back to our hotel the same two trails we started on. It was nice to see the views with the mist lifted. We agreed it was more photogenic with the mist, though.

In the evening we were served around 7 dishes on a table family style. The food was Chinese and pretty good. There was kale, rice, soup, bamboo shoots, duck, pork, sweetened soy bean meat, and more. The pieces of duck were always served cold in Taiwan. These ones were cut almost all the way through in 3 connected pieces. Nick tried picking one up with his chopsticks but the duck fell apart when he did and landed on the table. Hilariously the waiter had walked by just as this happened and asked, “Fork?” Poor guy didn’t know Nick drops food with chopsticks and forks. It was pretty funny. We were the only western tourists there.

After dinner we walked to the small platform behind the hotel. It was dreamy watching the sky change colors over the rows of tea. We loved our experience in Fenqihu and Shizhuo. We also slept like logs after how busy our itinerary had been up until this point. It was just what we needed.