Journey to Mount Ali, Taiwan -Searching for the Sun...

Watching sunrise and sunset have always been activities that most of us love to do when we are traveling. Despite the old saying that there is only one sun in the world, and it looks the same regardless of where you are. But then, why does the sun look incredibly amazing when we are somewhere away from home?

Perhaps it is due to the setting, the atmosphere, the feeling that it has created, making us feel the difference... making us feel its beauty ...

In fact, that was exactly what we did when we visited Taiwan lately, my hubby and I were up at 3:00 AM (yes, you read it right? 3:00 A.M :-)) And it was cold out there despite being in the middle of the Summer. It was chilly and rainy outside. At 3:30 AM, we stepped outside of our hotel and guess what?! We weren't the only people, they were myriad of folks out there, young and old.

Fearing that train tickets may be sold out, we ran like crazy. As we arrived at the ticket booth and purchased our tickets, our excitements surged to the roof but worrisome seemed to creep in--we may not make it to the first train. The train didn't arrive for another hour or so, but the line was already jam-packed like our typical lines at the amusement parks, Disney Land or Disney World. Standing inside the ancient train which climbed about 2000 meters upward gave us the excitement--made it to the first train-- yet puzzling feeling --whether we would be able to see the sun in that weather.

It took about an hour or so before we found ourselves standing at the top of the mountain. To our amazement, there were already many stalls of food vendors, selling warm soup, tea, noodles and breakfast. And lucky us, we managed to snatch a good spot for our camera to snap some potential sunset photos and the indescribable scenery at that moment...

Me, buying ticket at 3:30 am in the morning

A proof that I lined up ...

Check out the crowd!

The train and I

That guy was quite an entertainer --keeping us from looking at our watch and feeling at ease while waiting for the sun to peek out ...

And the sun?

Where was the sun? The question that was asked by thousands of tourists on that day. The sun didn't manage to show her face but instead she was hiding behind those thick cloud sending the rest of us home with disappointment. Perhaps the sun had decided to play a joke on us by playing 'peek-a-boo' game... Perhaps that Mount Ali wanted us to come back to uncover more of his hidden beauty ...

Whatever the reasons might be ... I hope you enjoy this journey with me and ...

Until next stop,
Journey of Life