Sunrise will be at 5.23am today.
Woke up at 3am, had breakfast and waited for our pick up (arranged the day before) to drive us to Da Dong Shan base at 3.30am. We reached there about 4.30am and started the climb which I innocently thought would be paved and takes less than 15 minutes to reach the peak. I was sooo wrong.
It was pitch dark and luckily the driver lent us another torchlight. It was like climbing 1/3 of mount KK and we have less than an hour to reach the peak. We couldn't tell if we were heading the right way except to keep on moving according to the direction. Than the sky starts to brighten up and we knew we were going to miss the sunrise. We couldn't see the end ahead of us.
Since we were in the middle of nowhere, we had to continue moving forward. Than, we hear human voice.... it must be just round the corner.... soon... but after 10 minutes we could only see endless mountain trail. It's already 5.30am and we knew we have missed the sunrise. After climbling for another 5 minutes, we finally see the platform.
I think I must be climbing very slowly. Our driver keep telling us to take our time to climb the mountain which means all the other people managed to climb up Da Dong Shan in less than an hour. I like to think that I could have done it in half an hour if not for my Birkenstock lookalike sandals that I'm wearing.
A group of mountain climbers (lookalike only) were already there enjoying the sunrise and drinking coffee. While on our way down, one of them took a second look at my scandals! He must be so ashamed of himself... tsk tsk tsk...
Too tired after climbing down and skip the 8.30am free tour. Bought train tickets to Chiayi.
Had to check out by 12 noon as they are expecting lots of guests today. Had our last railway lunch box. Hang around 7-11 until it's time to board the train.
The train ride was rather boring... not even scenic. Most of the time people are sleeping.We reached Chiayi around 5pm. Wanted to take a bus to the HSR (to main station) but the road route seems complicated and the weather is so damn hot that we decided to take a cab instead.
When we were approching Taipei HSR station which is the last station, we saw people carrying bags standing neatly in rows at intervals on the platform. When all the passengers have alighted, they move in quickly but systematically to clean the train.We bought the MRT store value card and check into our hotel - nei jiang hotel at Ximen. Went to Shilin Night Market. Not much people on a weekday unlike Sat when we re-visited again. Didn't take much pictures because I'm running out of space! Going to find an internet cafe or buy another SD card.
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