Sun Moon Lake--Owl Country

From Alishan, we took a bus to Sun Moon Lake.   The drive was through mountain roads, a lot more comfortable than the shuttle van from Chiayi to Alishan.  Most of the way we followed a winding river through the mountains,  passing road construction due to rock slides.   There were rice fields and banana plantations in the valleys, and the bus driver stopped once to show us a family of monkeys alongside the road.  It was as if they were waiting for us to pass by.

Monkeys!

Watch out for falling rocks!

Pretty scenery

A lot of construction

Sun Moon Lake is the largest body of water in Taiwan and a popular tourist attraction for Taiwanese and foreigners alike. Situated in Nantou county, the area around the lake is home to the Thao people, one of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan.   The lake gets its name because the east side of the lake looks like the sun and the west side looks like the moon. The bus dropped us off at the tourist center and it was a short walk around the corner to our hotel.

Harbor Resort Hotel is located in the center of the tourist section of the lake and our room had views of both the lake and the tourist drag below.  On-line reviews said that the rooms had small windows but it seemed to us that all the rooms had balconies with a table and chairs for sitting and enjoying the view.  There was also music from the boardwalk below and dancing by the local people.  A very enjoyable room!  Not too big but large enough to accommodate two queen beds, an easy chair, and a flat screen tv with English speaking programs. The room did have a nice western style bathroom with both hot and cold water--some hotel reviews mention no hot water so you do need to check for it.  Room amenities include slippers, toothbrushes with toothpaste, a razor, a comb, and soap, shampoo, and lotion.  We paid about $100 (US) for the night.  It included morning breakfast.  Breakfast is also put down in some reviews, but making allowances for it being Taiwanese, it really was not bad. 

Breakfast

Settling in, we went down to the drag and walked around the shops and food vendors before deciding to have dinner in our room on the balcony.  We had local food that included beef noodle soup, some kind of small fried fish, fried shrimp, and wild boar meat.  

Sun Moon Lake

The lakefront in front of the hotel

Shops and restaurants

In the morning we took the boat shuttle across the lake.  It actually makes three stops and you can get on and off as you please.  Getting the tickets at the hotel ($3 US each!) gave us a discount and the ticket allowed us access to the boats and a shuttle bus that also traveled around the lake.   The boat ride did not have an English-speaking guide so we were unable to follow the tour.  The Taiwanese are very friendly and a lady on the boat tried to explain several of the sites to us.  Of interest were the Ci En Pagoda built by Chiang Kai-Shek as a memorial to his mother, the gondolas that take you up the mountain (not running when we were there) and Ita Thao, a small aboriginal village across the lake from the resort.  We opted to get off at the village.

At Thao village

Ci En Pagoda

There were souvenirs and food everywhere and the plaza by the bus stop offered daily shows of the locals in costume singing and dancing.   From there we took the bus back to the hotel, passing another temple and a botanical garden.  Unfortunately we did not have enough time to make stops at these two sites, but they are on the list for next time.

Selling handbags

We returned to the hotel, picked up our luggage and took a bus back to Taipei.  A note about the tour buses:  They are very comfortable and come decorated with curtains on their windows. 

On the bus returning to Taipei