Sun Moon Lake

This past weekend, Kaitlyn and I went to Sun Moon Lake (日月潭). It is north of us in the middle of Taiwan between Taichung and Hualien (remember, where we went to Taroko Gorge). The lake is the largest natural lake in Taiwan, one of the 13 designated national scenic areas and one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country. In fact, someone told me that it is the most popular destination for tourists from mainland China. The name "Sun Moon" comes from the shape of the lake, which is in two connected parts, one side looking like a sun and the other in the shape of a moon. In the middle of the lake is Lalu Island. Kaitlyn and I both really wanted to boat out to the island, so that when people asked us what we had done for the weekend, we could mispronounce the name and tell them we had boated out to "Lala" Island.


Once we arrived, we met up with Vivian (Fulbright staff) and Deborah, Monica and Kim (Yilan ETAs), in honor of Kim's birthday. The first night, we just all ate dinner and then crashed, as we were exhausted. Kaitlyn and I stayed at a different hotel from the others, called the Teachers' Hostel. It was a lovely hotel, scenically placed right on the lake, came with breakfast included, and had the added perk of giving teachers a discount. We were initially a little freaked out because Lonely Planet told us we could walk there from the tourist information center in the middle of town. Turns out that the walk is quite long down dark forested roads. Luckily, Taiwan is one of the safest places on earth, and we did not get jumped or mugged. The next day, when we went for an early morning run around the lake, the path no longer looked sketchy, but merely scenic and peaceful. It is all about perspective. :)

Our run was actually one of my favorite parts of the weekend. The lake was beautiful, especially in morning with the mist rising off of it and mountain-top pagodas in the background. The lake was quite large, so we did not make it very far around, just a few miles down before having to turn around and come back. We had to shower and eat breakfast before busing it over to the opposite side of the lake to meet the other people around 10am.
































Kim had heard about an aboriginal village/theme park which she really wanted to visit, so Kaitlyn and decided to go with them (it was her birthday, after all). However, aboriginal theme parks are not something I would recommend. Normally, one thinks of going to Sun Moon Lake because it is so peaceful and relaxing. Aboriginal theme park - not so much... It was incredibly crowded and very noisy. To get into the park, one had to take a cable car up over the mountains into a nearby valley. While the seven-minute cable car ride was lovely, providing excellent views of the surrounding area, it was not worth the two hour wait to get onto it, nor the one and a half hour queue to get out of the park back to the lake. The park itself was also an experience. Taiwanese aboriginal culture, traditional dancing, roller coasters, fried food, gift shops... Strange. The best part was an hour-long show we watched. Great singing and dancing, accompanied by men in loin clothes swinging across water on a rope - rather Tarzanish. Not sure I had ever seen a man up close and personal in a loin cloth (Discovery Channel does not count). Guess there is a first time for everything...





















Kaitlyn and I were quite worn-out by the end of the day, so we spent the evening wandering around the tiny lakeside town where our hotel was. The lake was so pretty at night with all of the lights shining. We even managed to avoid Taiwanese food for the night, finding an Italian place on the lake boardwalk.











Left: I do not know how Taiwan pulls off flying a "Nazi Party" sign...


The next day, we rounded out our lake adventure by going out in a row boat. Turns out Lalu Island was way to far to reach, but we still had fun trying to maneuver our rusty boat (maybe it is a good thing I never joined crew in college lol). It was the official start of our Dragon Boat training! :)