testmeat photoblog

one of the common things to do in alishan is to take the forest railway train early in the morning to see the sunrise, and if you're lucky you'll get to see a sea of clouds from the viewpoint. it sounded like a lovely experience and i booked a train ticket for the following morning as soon as i arrived before i realised how early the sun actually rises in the summertime - so it felt like quite an effort when my alarm went off at 3:30am. i squeezed onto the train along with a lot of other bleary eyed tourists to take the short journey up the mountain, and then walked uphill to xiaoliyuanshan lookout. it was super misty, but as the sun began to rise it burned through the clouds to reveal the beautiful landscape. unfortunately there was no sea of clouds, but it's not uncommon to have the view completely fogged out so i wasn't too disheartened. most people took the train back down after the sun had risen, but with the glorious sunshine i decided to walk down through the forest and back to town to get some breakfast. it turns out that at that time of year the mornings are almost always dry, with the rain starting in the afternoon and continuing for the rest of the day. i probably should have realised this earlier, but my body clock meant that i usually missed this dry spell and only encountered the rain, so an offensively early alarm clock was what i really needed to appreciate the benefits of the morning world.

here's another shot from the alishan sunrise, you can see a few more on my instagram post