Fenchihu Old Town & Adagio Guesthouse
Trip Start
May 07, 2009
1
6
13
Trip End
May 19, 2009
Alishan, Taiwan
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The menu in front of the stall showed all the items they served. The price of the most expensive item was only NT$60 (less than SGD$3). We ordered pancakes with spring onions (葱抓饼) and black coffee. When the pancakes were served, we smiled at one another. It looked exactly like the Indian's roti prata except that spring onions were added but no curry. It did not taste plain though, thanks to the added flavour of the spring onions.
After breakfast, we went to the train station to buy two tickets (NT$158 per pax) to Fenchihu Station (奋起湖车站). The scheduled departure time was 9am. With half an hour to go, we took some photos of the surroundings to kill time. Not many people were going to Fenchihu, or at least, by forest train. Most tour packages actually skipped the small town. I had done my homework and knew that there were many interesting things to do there, so I had planned to spend a day to explore the small town. At 9am, we departed from Alishan Station.
It was an hour's ride and we alighted at Fenchihu Station. Fenchihu Old Town (奋起湖老街) was right at the exit of the train station. We were disoriented by the narrow meandering lanes after exiting the station. But luckily for us, we had spotted a big map on a wooden signboard by the railway-road intersection earlier and used it to find our way to the guesthouse that I had booked, which was beside the Catholic Church.
Adagio Homestay (缓慢民宿:www.theadagio.com.tw) had some interesting things and I made sure I got a room by booking over the Internet a month ago. The Chinese name for Adagio, 缓慢, means "slow" literally but it did not mean they were slow. They had a culture to work at a leisurely pace to achieve gratifying results. They focused on an inner state of calm. Ultimately, it was to instill a relaxing mood for the guests.
[Note: At the time of this rewriting, Adagio had closed its guesthouse in Fenchihu due to a decline in tourism after the August 2009 landslides that damaged the forest railway and roads. However, Adagio has another guesthouse in Jinguashi (金瓜石), near Jiufen (九份), in Taipei. Recently, it had opened another guesthouse in Hokkaido (北海道). Nevertheless, Fenchihu Adagio had left a wonderful imprint in my memory. Read on to find out what you had missed if you have never been there before...]
Adagio had two buildings in Fenchihu. The one closer to the old town was called Adagio Spa, our's was situated further down the road, just passed a church. We walked into Adagio at around 10.30am and was shown to the dining area by a staff (they called themselves housekeepers, 管家) where we were being seated at a dining table. Then, we were served cups of tea with some biscuits. Registration was then carried out at the dining table. Wow, I was really really impressed! The room was NT$3,000 per night, including breakfasts. And we also reserved two seats for dinner (NT$450 per pax) that night. The name of Adagio's cuisine was called "Dinner at the Mountain Moon" (山月慢食), which was limited to about 28 guests per night and would start exactly at 6pm.
After registration, we were taking our time sipping the tea when we saw a lady guest, with her son, checking out of the guesthouse. As they walked out of the door, a lady housekeeper walked out behind them and waved goodbye to them using big mickey mouse gloves. We got up immediately, ran out, and requested the housekeeper (her name was Xiaoci, 小慈) for a picture. We also chatted with her briefly and understood that it was in their culture to make Adagio a fun place for its guests. The check-in time was 3pm, so we left our baggage in the dining hall and went towards town. It was only 11am.
We started with the Square Bamboo Forest (四方竹) just next to the train station, opposite to the old town. It was not a very big "forest" and was fenced up using dried bamboo stems. The square bamboos were so-called because of their squarish stems but it was not easy to see whether the stems were actually squarish just from looking at the exterior. Luckily, the bamboo fencing were cut to length and it was easier for us to see the squarish cross-section.
The Logging Track (木马栈道) was located on a small hill opposite the train station. The beginning of the track was behind a cafe called Good Point Coffee & Tea (好望角咖啡). There were actually two walkways, one was the Logging Track which led deeper into the forest towards a spot called Green Bamboo Slope (翠竹坡); the other path was an uphill stairway, which was part of the Fenci Walking Trail (奋起步道). We decided on the uphill path to see if there were anything of interests.
Both sides of the stairway were tall trees. There was an observation platform up the hill where we could see the whole of Fenchihu town. Further walk up the stairway led us to Torli Ruins (神社遗址), which was just a barren patch of land which showed signs of something being built there before and a big tree behind. We made a U-turn here and walked back to the observation platform to have a short rest. Knowing that forest trains from and to Alishan would stopped at Fenchihu Station at around 12.45pm, we would not want to miss them. Two days ago, we were passengers going up-mountain, today, we were photographers to capture activities at the train station. It was a matter of perspectives.
We reached Fenchihu Station 20 minutes before the forest train was scheduled to arrive and walked into Fenchihu Train Garage (奋起湖车库). Two old-modeled engines were parked head to tail on one side, leaving an empty track, presumably for servicing or parking of the current forest trains. 10 minutes later, we were on the station platform waiting for the train to arrive. All were quiet.
The Alishan-bounded train arrived and, as expected, there were sudden activities as tourists and vendors appeared on the platform to buy or sell lunch boxes. We used the opportunity to take some photos. Few minutes later, the Chiayi-bounded train arrived on the other side of the platform but there were not many tourists. After the trains departed, the train station became quiet again. So quiet I could hear my stomach grumbling.
We walked through the old town, which had lesser crowd on a weekday, in search for Ah Liang Railway Lunch Box (阿良铁支路便当), which was highly recommended online and in most travel books. The old town was not very big and we found a signpost that directed us to where it was located - outside the old town. There were long benches outside the eatery, for long queue, but not today. We went in and seated ourselves at a table. There was only one kind of lunch box, so we ordered two at the counter. The price was NT$100 each, same as those bought at the train station.
When the lunch boxes were served to us, our jaws almost dropped. We counted ten dishes in one lunch box, including a stewed chicken drumstick and a piece of red pork chop. Most important of all, they were good. It was really value for money. No wonder Ah Liang's lunch box was highly recommended.
After lunch, we walked back to the old town and started exploring the shops. Fenchihu Old Town was really old and rustic. It was as thought we had traveled back to the 60's in a time machine. It was exactly this kind of nostalgic scene that I was hoping to see. Almost all the shops that were opened for business today sold foodstuffs. We were very full and gave most food and dessert shops a miss, except one. This shop sold a type of jelly-like dessert, called ice aiyu (爱玉冰) in a cup, added with passion fruit juice. We could observe the making process right outside the shop. Aiyu (nobody knew the actual name) was a type of fruit that was named after a girl, named Ai Yu, who had made the fruit into jelly-like form and sold it in the market as a thirst-quencher, during the Qing Dynasty.
It was only 2.30pm after exploring the old town, still had some time before check-in. So we went back to the Logging Track and hiked towards Green Bamboo Slope (翠竹坡). For 20 minutes, there were only tall trees and more tall trees until we came to a bridge before the Green Bamboo Slope. The scenery became more fascinating from here onwards. There were tall, green bamboos everywhere. The bamboos were about 10 times taller than Mark.
Exiting from the forest of bamboos, we came to the Fenchihu Giant Tree (奋起湖巨树), right at the end of the track. It was just another giant tree. What was more interesting was the railway track besides the giant tree. We took up positions beside the railway track and waited for the next forest train to pass by in 15 minutes' time (I had a copy of the train schedule with me). We took some photos of a forest train going into Fenchihu Station and another train coming out of it. Then, we took a shortcut back to Adagio.
We were back at Adagio at 5pm. Again, we were seated in the dining hall with a cup of tea and biscuit. Then we were asked to choose our preferred flavour of shower gel, shampoo and body lotion. We opted for lavender. Next, we were asked to choose a stuff toy from a pool that had only three items left. The housekeeper explained that it was a game to find our room. It had only three items left because most of the guests had played the game at 3pm. We had missed some fun. Anyway, we picked a walnut which was then attached to our room key. Then the housekeeper disappeared and returned after a few minutes, he told us to find our room using the walnut as a clue. We had to find an animal stuff toy, on a door, that matched the walnut and that would be our room. We found the squirrel on the third floor (I knew it was on the third floor because it was stated in the correspondence email). All the doors were really unmarked.
The room was dimly-lit with a scent of lavender. Two big furry teddy bears sat on two beds, leaning against the pillows. There was actually a third bed in the room - we were given a 3-bed room. Each of us were also given a pair of room slippers (it was actually a free gift but we did not know that and actually left it at Adagio after check-out). The bathroom was equipped with dehumidifying, warming, cooling, ventilating and timer functions, all centralised in a control near the bathroom door. Three bottles of lavender-flavoured gels stood near the wash basin. What was more interesting was the automated toilet bowl. It had both seat-warming and bottom-washing functions. We could not believe that Adagio only charged NT$1,500 per person per night for all these features. We busied ourselves with our cameras until 10 minutes to 6pm.
Seated in the dining area, we waited patiently for the dinner (山月慢食) to start. Adagio's cuisine was the real highlight of our trip to Fenchihu. The chopsticks on the tables were actually made of bamboo. The dishes were served in fine-dining style, one dish at a time, and the housekeepers would introduce all of them. Most of the ingredients for the dishes could be found in Alishan. The dishes were as follows:
1. 迎宾醋 - Lavender-flavoured vinegar to clear the senses and get ready for subsequent dishes. The wine-soaked plum was to be eaten along with some sugar.
2. 在地前菜盘 - The three-flavour welcome platter was prepared using ingredients that could be found in Fenchihu. From behind: Alishan wasabi salad, river prawn and cold 仙草 (a type of plant used to make grass jelly) noodle.
3. 茶香豆腐 - This ultra-soft tea-flavoured beancurd was the diners' favourite.
4. 酱筍清蒸香魚 - Steamed sweet fish. A housekeeper even taught diners how to eat the bony fish.
5. 猪肉盖饭 - Wild pork on rice with several different spices, each giving different tastes.
6. 汆烫时蔬 - Self-service boiled vegetables. We Boiled the vegetables for 3-5 minutes and added our choice of sauces. The housekeepers recommended the minced meat sauce.
7. 山葵根鸡汤 - Chicken soup with Alishan wasabi roots.
8. 米麸 - Dessert for guys. Housekeepers would add hot water to the rice bran powder and stirred before eating. It looked like peanut paste but taste different.
9. 桂花茶 - Dessert for ladies. Osmanthu tea with biscuit. The dried osmanthu petals were edible. Housekeepers would add hot water to the tea before drinking. (Special thanks to the lady at a table next to us. Seeing that we guys did not have this dish, she offered her's for us to take photos.)
We were really full at the end of the dinner 1.5 hours later. Most of the guests dispersed to their rooms while some stayed back for some tea. Not many people went out even it was only 7.30pm. There was a small area next to the dining area that displayed mostly lavender-made products, which were suitable gifts to bring back home. Mark bought some shower gels.
We walked out into the night and realised it was cold outside, but this time, there was no clock tower to tell us the temperature. We saw some fireflies just outside Adagio and attempted to photograph a few - unsuccessfully. We gave up and strolled to the old town. The reason why none of the other guests came out for a walk was because it was very cold and all the shops in the old town were closed, except 7-Eleven. We had the whole town to ourselves, except for a couple of intruders here and there. We did some night shooting in the old town, and patronised 7-Eleven since we had nothing better to do, before returning to Adagio.
It was only 8.30pm while we were on the way back, we suddenly thought of shooting the starry sky but we did not bring out our tripods. I tried using some low structures to stable my camera in order to shoot the sky with long exposure. I was like a monkey climbing and jumping off a low wall repeatedly to adjust my camera (because of interfering lights from nearby lamp posts) when three lady Adagio housekeepers passed by and laughed at my silly actions. After I explained what I was doing, they pointed out that we could go to the rooftop of Adagio to shoot the sky. Then, they bid us goodnight and headed towards town, presumably to Adagio Spa.
We went back to our room to get the tripods and went up to the rooftop. It was dark up there. We located a switch and turned on a couple of very dim lights. There were two chairs meant for guests to enjoy the scenery. We setup our equipment and composed the night sky in the viewfinders. At least, the stars looked bigger from the rooftop. We busied for about 10 minutes before we realised that it was freezing cold up there. It was after we retreated below, into the lights, did we notice that our fingers had turned dark.
Back in our room, we turned on the warming function in the cold bathroom for 10 minutes before going for our hot showers. I was the last to shower so I could wash my dirty clothings and hanged them in the bathroom. I switched on the dehumidifying function before going to bed.
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