Taiwan - Sun Moon Lake

Photos coming...

2^nd January

Twinstar Hotel, Taichung – Qin Hai Hotel, Jiji  46kms

Had a superb breakfast at the Twinstar Hotel and great service to send us on our way. Another great ride through Taichung. Steadily rising towards Jiji through the very factory towns of Caotun and Nantou but cut it out pretty quickly. Stopped at a 7/11 on the way at Mingjian for lunch. Coffee at 85 degrees on arrival in Jiji and then rocked up to the hotel right on 3pm. It was great too.  Relaxed for quite a while and then later went to a very authentic Vietnamese restaurant for dinner which was fabulous.

3^rd January 

Qin Hai Hotel, Jiji  - Fisherman’s Homestay, Ita Thao 38kms

Not a long way but a big big big hill! And gorgeous once we got towards the lake. A few more hills on arrival at the dam and through a big tunnel. On the other side we were delighted to arrive at the Xiangshan Visitor Centre – just a truly incredible building – with a pond along it looking out to the lake. Truly inspirational architecture. Met a guide there who had lived on the North Shore in Auckland for 17 years – nice man. Very helpful. Then a beautiful cycleway and not far around the lake until we came to Shuishe Dam and then Shuishe Pier where we found a cool little café called the Moon Café and had a beer and coffee and the kids had waffles. Great. Carried on up to Wenwu Temple – quite a huge hill – had to branch off the cycleway as there was a closed sign saying Killer Hornet Nest!! We weren’t going there. The temple was gorgeous and late afternoon ‘golden hour’ weather. Just truly peaceful and gorgeous over all three levels of the temple. Such a focal point of the lake. Spent over an hour there.

Carried on around the road through gorgeous bush and lovely late afternoon to Ita Thao. Real jungle with huge Black Widow spiders weaving three dimensional webs above our heads. Arrived just on sunset at 5.30pm. Found our accommodation and after a lot of Google Translate from the owner we were shown our room. All good. Fairly basic. Went out and wandered the streets before going just next door for a meal which was great. I had traditional Ita Thao deer and we had seafood fried rice (by accident really) and this yummy beef stirfry. Nice to be able to have a beer with dinner – a rareity here.

Walked down to the waterfront then and looked at the beautiful lights on the water and the boats. Special place. Satisfying and grateful to have made it up there.

 4^th January Rest day at Ita Thao

Such a great place to have a rest day – though started it badly with iced black coffee! Bit of a mistake with the order! Beautiful day! Gorgeous. Hot.

Had the Chinese breakfast at the homestay and John had to be Google Translate for the lady which was all a wee bit awkward as a lady was trying to cancel on the phone.  She was very nice though and sold us cheap tickets for the boat as her tenant owns it.

Walked to the gondola along the awesome path with the huge Black Widows. The gondola/ ropeway was amazing and went right over to the Formosan Village. The jungle below us was amazing and lovely views of the lake.

Walked back to the township and caught the boat over to Shuishe Pier – lovely on the boat. Went back to the Moon Café and had some pizza for lunch. Back onto the boat and it took us over to another part of the lake and to the Xuanguang Temple. There were some Ita Thao buskers there and the temple itself was very peaceful and lovely and shady which was nice. Did some pretend busking of our own in a quiet spot when we managed to watch the boat leave without us as we thought it was a different boat. Stayed an extra half hour as a result.

Boated back to the township in Ita Thao and the kids went on an electronic pedal boat while we had a coffee – not iced this time. At 5pm we went to an Ita Thao Cutural Performance which lasted about an hour and was truly impressive and interesting – even if we were unable to understand the commentary. Difficult to describe in words but really energetic and fabulous live performance.

Had street food for dinner – scallion pies – spring onion pancakes with meat in them. It was yummy. Bought some owl souvenirs. Walked home and went to bed. Great day.