Monday, June 23, 2008
Summer in Taiwan Day 2: Sun Moon Lake
Sun Moon Lake was our 1st official destination. After a night rest in Taipei, we took the Green Transit Bus from Zhongxiao Fuxing which send us direct to Sun Moon Lake. The bus ride was 4 hours long, but i guess out of the 4 hours, I only managed to take a wink for 1 hour. When the bus exited the highway and reached Taichung, the sights get "interesting". We passed by many Bin Lang Xi Shi (Betel Nut Girls), with most of them scantily-clad. But the bus was moving too fast for us to take any pictures. :(
After Taichung, the bus head to Puli and eventually stopped at Shuishe Tourist Information Centre, Sun Moon Lake. The surroundings was really cooling and comfortable. The smell of nature....
We stayed at Laurel Villa, located at Shuishe Pier. Laurel Villa was one of the minsu highly recommended by trip advisor. When we were there, we were greeted by Mr Wang and his family who were extremely hospitable. As we were the only group of visitors in their minsu, hence getting all the kind attention by Mr Wang. Mr Wang advised us on how to spend our short 1.5 days in Sun Moon Lake. As Sun Moon Lake is a popular tourist spot where most tour group will just stop by for a day or two, dont expect any night market or good eatery near by. We have our lunch of beef noodles at a restaurant. To our great delight, there's a 7-Eleven where we can stock up our instant mee, chips and bottled tea for the days to come.
We first began off with a walk at the Hanbi side walk, who was previously Chiang Kai-shek's favourite for his leisure walk.
Along Hanbi side walk, there's the Chiang Kai-shek's pavillion. It is a strategic location for viewing Sun Moon Lake. We also passed by one of Sun Moon Lake's most expensive hotel, Evergreen hotel (Hanbi Lou).
Interesting bug we came across? So unique eh?
At 2pm, we decided to go for the boat ride around the lake. The fee was covered under the minsu's package. The boat ride will bring us to the small Lalu Island in the middle of Sun Moon Lake, Xuanhu Temple and to another town opposite to where our pier is.
The Lalu island is really very small. During the 921 earthquake, part of the island sank and what we saw today were the remains of the island.
As Lalu Island belongs to the aborigines, symbol like owl (perhaps guarding over the island) can be seen.
As Xuanhu Temple is located at a high point, we were able to get a good view of Lalu Island and the surrounding lake.
By the time, we finished the entire boat ride, the rain began to pour and we were back to our cosy room for a short nap. haha! Thank goodness we didnt take the later boat ride. In the evening, we decided to go for a walk at the newer sidewalk before dinner started. The walk was so refreshing, with the cold breeze after the rain. Sun Moon Lake's tranquility and beauty made it one of the best place where you can just relax and "fa dai". (According to Mr Wang, that's the highest level of travel. Haha.)
It is a place where you can sit there and watch how Sun Moon Lake changes its look as the time passed by. My heart was at peace.
At Laurel Villa, we were served simple and homely fares for dinner. After dinner, we sat down with Mr Wang for a long long long chit-chat session, sharing interesting bits of info on Taiwan and Singapore. Mrs Wang made hot Assam milk tea for us. No no.. Assam is not the leaf you put in your laksa but it's a special Sun Moon Lake homegrown tea leaf.
As the weather in the mountainous area are always very unpredictable and according to Mr Wang, it's the plum rain season which would mean heavy rainfall. The news about flood in the western area of Taiwan also added on to our fears that our travel plan would be disturbed. In the end, we decided to remove Cingjing Farm from our plan and head straight for Alishan from Sun Moon Lake via transport provided by the minsu at Alishan.
On our 2nd day, we planned to wake up early to take the Mt. Maolan's trail. Whoops. But we didnt. We just went back to our bed and continue with our sleep.
Actually the view from our room wasnt too bad (above). Okay, lousy excuse. :P
However, we were very lucky. After our breakfast, Mr Wang decided to drive us up the Mt Maolan to have a view of Sun Moon Lake. I guess he felt bad that we stayed up late to chit chat with him. haha.The view at Mt Maolan was beautiful. Much beautiful as we were on higher grounds and the sky was clearer as compared to yesterday.
Byebye Sun Moon Lake! Our next stop: Alishan!
Labels: graduation, Taiwan, vacation
