Mom and Dad Chu Visit Taiwan 2006

Sunday, October 8, 2006 - Day 3

Alishan Recreation Area. That's the destination today. We left at noon heading straight for the mountains. On the freeway, Mike forgot to stop at the last rest station before exiting so we had to settle for lunch at the Family Mart convenience store. At the half way mark, we came to a small town that had an interesting building that Mike took notice of as we passed. He tends to do that but after mom mentioned that it was a tourist information center (entirely in Chinese of course), Mike spun J.J. (our VW Jetta) around resulting in a much needed bathroom break for all.

The joy of literacy! Supposedly, to read a Chinese newspaper, one needs to know approximately 20, 000 Chinese characters...by heart! Since Chinese offers no phonetic ability to recognize a character, the language requires pure memorization. That's why Mike's parents can remember EVERYTHING!
So we stopped for some maps and detailed information about where we were going. Amazing the things that are revealed when you can read!

We continued our journey into the heart of the mountains. Needless to say as it being a long weekend, the roads were extremely busy. Busy roads only perpetuate the idiocy of most drivers. Especially those with BMWs and Mercedes. There is something about owning an expensive German automobile, driving in the mountains and forgetting about the existence of other motorists that seems to gel so well together. It's astonishing really.

After a good hour of climbing through mountain roads, we stopped at a small village for a much needed break. It seemed we had only reached the half way marker. So up, up and away we went until we passed a vague sign for our hotel. Again on a narrow mountain road, Mike throws us into a U-ey to seek out this mystery marker. The access road to our hotel was as wide as one typical driving lane. We had no idea that this access road was also an exit as well. It was designed for two way traffic. Did we mention we are on the edge of a mountain cliff on this road? Mike managed to squirm around four cars leaving the hotel. Unfortunately, depending how you look at the situation, there was no dinner at the hotel so we needed to take the access road to the town site up the mountain about 10 minutes so we could eat.

Upon conclusion of our dinner, we had an early return to bed for our planned 3:00AM awakening.

Next day.