Because the high speed rail system is relatively new it would've been almost impossible to integrate it in with the railway stations in all the towns and cities on the way down the coast because of existing roads, buildings and infrastructure. This means that a few of the high speed rail stops we used (Tainan and Chiayi) are a fair distance from the connecting train and bus networks for the local area. So, once we got to Chiayi we had an hour and a half to get to the train/bus station to catch the last shuttle service for the day up to Alishan.
Easy? Yeah right!
When you step out of a high speed train station and know you have a free connecting bus ride to the train station, you say to the Taiwanese (no speaking the English) bus driver "bus station" and he says yes, it can still all go wrong.
And it did! We ended up going the full length of his bus route, hoping it was just the long way around, until we got ejected at a sports stadium without a clue where we were.
From there we walked, luckily in the right direction, until we asked a local girl where the bus station was. Once we got to the bus station we realised this wasn't the station we were after and and asked about the Alishan shuttle.
After the obligatory photos (it was me and the girl in the bus station info this time) we were on our way again.
This is where we found out how far off the mark we were. The bus ride to the bus station we should have been at took an hour.
It is only
2PM, so we have plenty of time to make alternative plans, and I am getting a kick out of the fact that we got it so wrong that I keep laughing, but this just making someone else's mood darker by the minute.
Long story short, there is a late service that leaves Chiayi every afternoon, probably for clowns like us, and we made it with seconds to spare.
That night we were back on Alishan again repacking because we've just been loaded up with Xmas presents to take home to the Philippines with us.
Philippines means warm weather, Busuanga and diving.....bring it on!
