17th November 2014
Arrived Sun Moon Lake in a very good weather. The sky was blue, the water was crystal clear and the air was fresher, hahaha!
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| Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 |
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| Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 |
The Taxi dropped us in front of our accommodation, which have a very interesting name, Sun Moon Lake Honeymoon Hotel. We left the hotel after check-in and dropped our bags inside the room. Me and CY were very hungry, it's almost 2pm and we haven't had our lunches, so we just had lunch in a restaurant nearby. We had minced pork rice 滷肉飯, something like bean curd 豆干 and kombu. The minced pork rice was nice, but I didn't like soy products, so I couldn't say whether the bean curd was nice or not.
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| Taiwanese lunch (minced pork rice, etc) |
After lunch, we rent a bicycle from a bicycle shop across the road from our hotel. Actually all the souvenir shops, hotels, etc were concentrated in that area, so it's quite convenient. Although I know how to ride a normal bicycle, I had never try the type where the top tube and seat was so near together. (Had to google to get the bicycle anatomy right, hahaha!). My normal bicycle was the type where top tube and seat was far from each other, the type that I could easily rest my feet. The first one I rent from the shop was a type where the top tube and seat was so close together and not even 3 minutes, I think, I fall down when tried to break before crossing a road, my thigh hit the top tube and after that, my knees and palms were bruised from 'touching' the tar road. Well, it's more embarrassment than pain though. I quickly pushed the bicycle back to the shop and requested to change to my normal bicycle type, the boss was ok with that and didn't charge me more. I changed into a pink bicycle with a rattan basket in front. Finally, I began my tour in Sun Moon Lake. I really appreciated that CY was patience enough to wait for me, I'm so clumsy.
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| around the Sun Moon Lake |
It's possible to tour most of the Sun Moon Lake area with bicycle (a detail explanation
here), however, we were never that ambitious, we just planned to cycle to Xiangshan Visitor Centre and back. Lucky, or else CY would have to do it alone (maybe better for her though), for that short distance, I really had a difficulty to keep up with the pace, CY had to wait for me after every ascending route. Shy! The view along the bicycle trail was breathtaking, if we saw anything nice, we just stopped and snapped photos. It's more difficult to do with car. Xiangshan Visitor centre was very grand from afar, near view was not bad too, but lack the "Wow" factor. Anyway, there's exhibition here, so we went and have a look.
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| Xiangshan Visitor Centre 向山游客中心 |
Sun Moon Lake is a very famous wedding photo destination. I could see brides and grooms in wedding attires around the area. In Xiangshan Visitor Centre, there's even a make-up room for brides, it's called Bridal Dressing Room in English, but a romantic name in Chinese, 愛的进行室.
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| a make up room for brides in Xiangshan Visitor Centre |
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| a canoe - a transport |
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| exhibition in Xiangshan Visitor Centre |
After visiting Xiangshan, we went back to return the rented bicycle. Then, we went to the Shueishe Visitors Centre to buy bus tickets to Taomikeng. We wanted to go to Paper Dome for the night view. When we got of the bus stop at Taomikeng, we didn't know that we had to give back the ticket to the bus driver, and he got angry, well, he could have ask for it nicely! Anyway, after we got off the bus, we were like in the middle of no where, no sign board or anything that can indicate how to reach Paper Dome. So, we walked to a nearby shop to ask for direction. After walking for a few minutes, we reached the Paper Dome. A ticket is required to enter the area, but the ticket can be used as coupon in the area afterwards, it can be used in the souvenir shop and restaurant, I used it on a dessert accompanied by a mug of lemon tea.
Then, we were off to see the Paper Dome, it's a small dome made of 'paper'. Seeing it from afar was more beautiful. The interior was so so only. Basically, the only thing in this area was Paper Dome, after snapping the photos, we could return back to Shueishe, but due to the very low bus frequency, we had to wait there for some time.
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| Paper Dome |
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| interior of Paper Dome |
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| a couple have their wedding photographs taken at Paper Dome |
Anyway, we left for the bus stop earlier because as a Malaysian who's familiar with the not on-time buses, we wanted to make sure we could catch the bus. Well, we were right, the bus was around 5 minutes earlier, so lucky! However, there were not many people on the bus, other than me and CY, there was only a school boy who was still in his uniform. Well, although the bus stop earlier didn't have any signboard, the one towards Shueishe Visitors Centre had a signboard. Well, it would be better if both sides of the road had signboards.
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| The obscure signboard in Taomikeng Bus Stop |
After reaching Shueishe Visitors Centre, we walked around Shueishe Wharf, there was illumination around the area.
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| Shueishe Wharf |
Then, actual dinner time. We had Taiwanese instant noodles, I think it's ok, but I still love the Maggie Curry Mee.
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| my dinner: bottled red tea & instant noodle |
18th November 2014
Next morning, after had breakfast in MOS burger. We went to the wharf to board the boat to Syunguang Temple. The boat operator told us that it's better to go to Syunguang Temple first because shops in Ita Thao haven't start operating yet.
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| MOS Burger in Shueishe Visitors Centre |
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| MOS burger - had to request tomato sauce separately from the counter |
The weather was nice that morning. When we boarded the boat, it's not full yet, but when we reach Syunguang Temple, the crowd was building up already. Anyway, we walked to the temple and prayed. Then, we hiked the trails behind the temple. However, we gave up halfway because we didn't know where the trail will end and whether we could walk back in time for our next destination. Along the way, we met three interesting retirees from China, they were so happy and we struck up a conversion with them. I wish I had that kind of stamina and money when I retire.
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| Shueishe wharf |
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| Syunguang Temple |
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| Syunguang Temple |
There was a famous herbal egg store (金盆阿嬷の香菇茶葉蛋) in Syunguang Temple, of course I had it. But I think it's too overrated, I think it's much worse than my mom's braised egg. When we boarded the boat to Ita Thao, the boat operator told us the amount of the herbal eggs the store sold was like thousands per day during peak travelling season. Well, the amount was known to public because the tax office sent officers over to count the sales. LOL! I heard these kind of stories in Malaysia too, a tax officer bought a bowl of cendol from a famous stall and sat there for half and hour, quietly calculating the amount of cendol sold during that period and then requested to stall owner to pay back all the back taxes for years.
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| the famous herbal egg in Syunguang Temple |
When we reached Ita Thao, the sun was really strong. Ah, should have apply more sun screen. It was not big and if anyone wants to buy souvenirs, this is the place, there are rows of shops waiting for the tourist to spend the money.
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| Ita Thao Wharf |
When we were on the boat, we saw some buildings floating on the water and the boat operator mentioned that before the government regulations, the aborigines from Ita Thao was living there. However, to reduce pollution or something like that, it was banned. We went for a free cultural show in Ita Thao too. The show was from the Thao peple and I was surprised that they have their own language, silly me, of course they have. I enjoyed the dances and songs. I left some money when the performers were collecting during the show, Personally, I think they should just charge for the show, let people buy the tickets, everything was fair and square.
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| previous dwellings for the aborigines in Ita Thao 水上人家 |
After the shows, we left and waited for the boat to go back to Shueishe wharf. CY bought a plate of grilled wild boar meat, well, I am not a fan of so much meat, so I didn't taste it at all. After reaching Shueishe, we boarded a bus to go to Wunwu Temple. It was a very rush moment. We need to go and back in one and a half hour to make it on time for our next destination, Cingjing.
I think Sun Moon Lake travel bodies can really make a big difference in travellers life if they would just put up a proper sign. When we got off the loop bus in Wunwu Temple Bus Stop, it was a hotel, no signboard and not a temple in sight, we had to go inside and asked a hotel staff how to go to Wunwu Temple. It was not near, a few minutes walk to the actual Wunwu Temple. I didn't mind the distance, putting up a signboard will be nice, at least I will know that I am walking in a correct direction. No wonder a lot of people just save the hassle by chartering to the travel agencies. Less thing to worry about.
Back to Wunwu Temple, it sure looks new. In fact, from the name plates, some were built that exact year and the financial contributors came from all over the world. The designs were quite intricate, the carvings was about the stories that I heard when I was small. Quite awesome, I think if I was not that rush, I could actually spend more time there. We just walked around and snapped tonnes of photos in our limited time frame.
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| Wunwu Temple |
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| Wunwu Temple |
Then, we ran from Wunwu Temple to the bus stop to wait for the loop bus to be back to Shueishe. Actually, we wanted to take the taxi, however, all the taxis waiting outside Wunwu Temple were booked for the day already. Anyway, we managed to catch the bus and reached the hotel on time, Mmmm, earlier for the taxi to Cingjing. Such an adrenaline rush!
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