阿里山 (Alishan Journal Entry)

This is going to be a fun post to write. The bulk of this entry was written while actually on Alishan, but this'll be a polished version of what I jotted down.

Alishan is a pain in the ass to get to, but it is very much worth it. The most popular gateway city to Alishan is Chiayi, and once you get there, it's a 2+ hour taxi or a 3+ hour bumpy bus ride. My buddies (John, Jaden, Remi, Ty, and Zane) and I called a taxi at 9:15PM and endured a nauseating car ride up mountain roads, doing the best to catch whatever sleep we could.

Once we got into the park at 11:30PM, we stopped by a 7/11, got some food, and got on our way. The hike wasn't too bad. It was only about three miles and the terrain wasn't particularly treacherous. Some of it was car roads and the rest of it was paved trail, nothing too dangerous for the dark. As we got farther away from the town, the night sky naturally got darker, and once we looked up, we were greeted with a spectacular sight of stars.

My God were they wonderful. All of us sprawled across the middle of the road to look up and enjoy their sight. Jaden, Zane, and I spent a few minutes doing our best to capture what they looked like on our phones, but eventually gave way to just being in awe of their beauty. While gazing, Remi presented us with his extensive knowledge of constellations and galaxies (he's doing aerospace at MIT). We continued hiking, chatting about whatever came up, and soon enough we got to the sunrise platform at 1AM.

Here's where the story gets kind of funny because we didn't bring any sleeping bags or sleeping pads. On paper 55 degrees Fahrenheit doesn't sound too bad . . . right?

Wrong

A few years ago my brother Edwin and I braved a night in Coconino National Forest thinking that the cold wouldn't be that bad (we were mistaken☠️). This time for Alishan knowing we weren't bringing sleeping bags and sleeping pads, I brought two hoodies and a rainjacket, but I still knew I was going to freeze my ass off and the night was going to be miserable. Some of my buddies did not bring as much clothing. Regardless, we all froze.

Maybe for the first thirty minutes everything was alright because we had worked up a bit of a sweat from the hike, but the next four hours . . . yeah it was pretty chilly. The worst was at 4AM when our bodes were at an all-time low from the circadian rhythm. I got no sleep. John, Remi, and Zane were snoring for a bit before the realized it was really damn cold outside. Ty was bundled up in fetal position in the corner, and Jaden talked to his girlfriend for like three hours straight. The lack of sleep didn't really bother me thought. I journaled, listened to music, watched the ocean of clouds beneath me, and stared at the Milky Way above me.

Since I couldn't sleep, I just sat on the platform by myself for a while. It was nice. It was so quiet. For a few moments there was nothing on my mind. I didn't have any Chinese homework. I didn't have to go back to school in the fall. I didn't have to leave Taiwan in two weeks. It was calm and it was still.

Under the stars it's hard not to think about how perfect everything had to have been for life to have been created. Whether you believe in God or just acknowledge the physical universe has natural rules it must abide by, somehow everything worked out in such a way that you're here and this point in time, and that's so wonderful to think about.

Anyway there were plenty more thoughts in my head, but I'm sure y'all don't want me to ramble on about ontology or whatever junk goes through my head at 3AM when I'm freezing my ass off.

Eventually, the sun started to rise and we could finally enjoy the long-awaited sunrise.

This conclude my Alishan Journal. I hope y'all enjoyed the blog post!