We arrive late afternoon in Fenqihu the mountain village where we were able to find a reasonable accomodation in the area. We looked in quite a large area around famous Alishan park but many were already booked or didn’t allow reservations with credit cards and so on until we discovered this hostel. It is a hostel more in name as there is a private room with bath and supposedly it has parking. Which is a bit iffy as it is on the street but we find both days a good spot. And right next to it is a bento restaurant that we eye for later as we are quite hungry.
The room while having a private bath including a bathtub is quite small, we barely have place for one suitcase open and are careful getting into and out of bed.
But we are quite hungry so soon we are out exploring the nearby restaurant, there don’t seem to be many things open here in the evening. But the restaurant is with a group of people speaking to the owner but nobody eating. However the owner points to a table and then with sign language we let him know we want to eat.
There is no menu here the choice is bento box or bento box so we choose…a bento box. And we get a typical one with a charcoal filtered water free on the side. In fact Fenqihu is famous for bento boxes so it is great that we are able to taste one, it is quite good and we enjoy it before it is time to go out and explore and find fireflies.
Besides bento boxes Fenqihu is also famous for its old town and fireflies. The old town we expect to be closed in the evening but fireflies we have a chance of seeing. So we decide through walk through the village down towards the forested area where we hope to see some fireflies according to our research.
Our bet works out great, the shops in town are closed but the fireflies are out in force, we have never seen this many fireflies all around us. Quite mesmerizing.
Returning we pass through the more modern old town area, this one around the train station. Everything is closed here too including all the bento shops, we are happy that we have eaten at the restaurant already.
We visit also the train station, which is the reason this town is still going strong. And also the reason for the bento boxes fame. Supposedly it is half way between Chiayi and Alishan, which is not true according to the sign in front of us, and when the train arrives here the workers previously and the tourists now will exit and buy bento boxes for the rest of the ride.
In the morning we eat breakfast, the host takes a liking to us and even provides us some extra pancakes bought by her, nice! The food is quite unusual, for breakfast, but good and now full it is time to drive into the mountains, today is our time to explore them on our own.
