Day 2 - Taichung, Xitou, Sun Moon Lake

@ Taichung

We stayed in Moon Lake Hotel in Taichung. At RM118 per night, the breakfast was surprisingly good. 

Free flow of porridge, buns, noodles, soya etc.

Walked 5 minutes to Gancheng Bus Station to get a bus to Xitou. Turned out that there was no station at all, but a number of little bus stands spread out along the street.

The bus company had a peculiar way of selling tickets... get your seat number first, then only pay for the ticket at the counter. We were glad that it was a weekday, so the queue wasn't long.

We are the youngest passengers in the bus. The rest were senior citizens heading to the Nature Education Area for some stroll and fresh air. We paid NT145 for the tickets, and their tickets were waived. 

@ Xitou Nature Education Area 溪头森林国家公园

We just took some photos outside the nature park. Entrance was NT200 and you could spend a whole day hiking in the park. We had luggages and was only planning to spend a couple of hours Xitou, so we did not enter the park. Again, senior citizens only needed to pay NT10 for their waived tickets. A great way to get the grey-hair folks to exercise.

Would probably come back for a half-day hike in another time.

Stalls selling fruits and vegetable outside the nature park.

@ Xitou Monster Village 溪头怪物村


This little themed village of sorts was just beside the nature park. It was recommended by our Airbnb host in Taichung.

Pinocchio guarding the fruit stall at the entrance to Monster Village.

The village was decorated in red, white and black, with Japanese styled lanterns and arches.

Cute monsters.

Rather than clearing the land for construction, the village had chalets built around pine trees, making the buildings blend in harmony with nature. Brilliant.

Souvenir shops and stalls.

Interesting decor in a hotel nearby.

@ Sun Moon Lake 日月潭


From Xitou, we took a shuttle bus to get to Sun Moon Lake. Journey was 1.5 hours. Checked into our lodge, which was centrally located just across the road where the bus stopped. Our host recommended that we spend the afternoon doing the boat rides, and go for cycling early morning the next day. Great idea.

@ Shuishe Pier

Boat tickets were NT100 for unlimited rides for one day. The boats would go stop at three piers across the lake, and we were free to hop on and off the boats that belonged to the same company. They stamped a red mark on our hands to signify which company our tickets belonged to.

It was a hot afternoon.

An interesting temple-style boat.

Thoroughly enjoyed the boat rides. The captain cracked jokes to keep the passengers entertained.

@ Xuanguang Temple Pier

Climbed a little hill to reach a temple with a view. This area was famous for its tea-leaf eggs, but I think it was over-rated.

@ Ita Thao Pier

Of all places, we bumped into Pastor Jerry, our church pastor who came with the Perpaduan Anak Negeri team to learn about culture-promotion from the Taiwanese aborigines. 

Look at how creative are the Taiwanese at marketing their aboriginal culture. They have the talent of making things look cute and artistic. Imagine the costumes of Sabahan natives displayed in such a way, it would look fantastic.

There were many stalls selling snack food, but we were looking for a proper meal. We settled for microwaved pasta in 7-11.

That's how they market wild board meat and lemang, with a classy front and attractive signboards. In contrast, the shabby sinalau bakas stalls (see below) in Sabah would turn off most tourist except the bravest ones.

About diversifying products... they packed glutinous rice and some flavorings into a grilled chicken wing, branded it as "must-try" delicacy in Ita Thao, and sold it for NT65. Genius.

Mix and match wild boar meat and then market them as a variety of "exotic meat sausages".

You never imagined a fried banana fritters (pisang goreng, ubi goreng) stall could be so attractive.

We walked into the souvenir shops and were very impressed with the range of products that the Taiwanese created out of little bits of wood. 

Beautiful wooden musical boxes, perfect gifts for the romantic at heart.

The boat rides ended at about 5.20pm. It became misty as the sun went down.

God gave them a beautiful lake, and they packaged it beautifully into a major tourist attraction.

@ Carton King Restaurant

There was this restaurant where the furniture (including tables and chairs) was made of carton material. They have an adjoining shop selling a variety of carton merchandise.