After learning our lesson about proper planning from our trip to Taroko Gorge, my friends and I came up with a true plan to visit beautiful Sun Moon Lake.
Sun Moon Lake is the largest body of fresh water in Taiwan, and it’s a popular weekend destination for Taiwanese and foreigners alike. We took a bus from Taichung and were proud of ourselves for arriving at our destination at a decent hour. It was still daylight, so already we’d made progress.
After a lovely lunch of assorted vegetable items (we have two vegans in our gang), we sauntered down the cobblestone streets of Shuieshe Village to the docks. A little old lady sold us tickets for the hop-on-hop-off boat tour, and off we sailed.
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| Sailing on Sun Moon Lake |
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| Dock |
At the first dock, we squirmed through throngs of tourists and photogs all trying to get the perfect pic of the lake. I saw a trail marked on a map that lead to a temple, and it was surprisingly easy to convince everyone to start walking!
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| Looking out over Sun Moon Lake |
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| The trail to Syuanzang Temple |
The trail took us up and around part of the mountains surrounding the lake. At one point, we walked through a betel nut farm. But we dared not steal a single nut.
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| Danger, Will Robinson! |
Finally, we reached Syuanzang Temple. The courtyard of the temple held a fortune-telling machine, a la the Zoltar machine in Big. I put my money in for a wish, but I have no idea what my fortune says. Another reason to learn Chinese......
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| Zoltar |
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| At Syuanzang Temple |
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| Syuanzang Temple |
We boarded the boat again and rode to the next stop, the Aboriginal village of Itashao. I’m not sure if we just missed the Aboriginal area or what, but mostly it was food stands and souvenir shops. No problem, though. We loaded up on street food and millet wine :)
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| Millet Wine Rainbow |
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| Aboriginals? |
Ahh..those abodiginals sure know how to live! :)
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