Sun Moon Lake

Keen to explore some of the more natural sights in Taiwan, Vela booked us on a day tour to Sun Moon Lake. Sun Moon Lake was named this because if you split it down the middle on a map, it looks a little like one half is the moon, and the other half the sun.

We were picked up at about 8am in a van and whisked away into the mountains. Just over an hour later we emerged at our first stop, Wen Wu Temple. The temple was pretty large with lots of detailed stone reliefs and artwork, not to mention a pretty decent view of the lake. We paid our respects and lit some incense to wish for good luck, good fortune, and good health. Perhaps there's something to this temple, as pretty shortly afterwards Nathan received an email for a job interview...

After the temple, we took a cable car over the mountains for an aerial view of the lake. The cable car is designed to take you to a theme park based around the local Aboriginal Formosan people, but we stopped halfway and returned to the lake. It was interesting to see some of the artwork on the entrance to the theme park, you can definitely see the beginnings of Polynesian culture (the Pacific islands were likely populated by people originating from Taiwan)

After lunch, we took a ferry to a couple of small stops on the lake. Nothing too much to say about these, but we did get some black tea ice cream (something the local area is famous for) which was very nice on a hot day by the lake.

And to round out our tour, we hired bikes to check out the waterfront bike trail. This was probably the highlight of the day, with nice views of the lake, flat and shaded trails, and a nice breeze to keep us cool. We even spotted a couple of turtles chilling on a floating log, but they jumped off as we approached.

Costing us a grand total of about $125nzd for both of us, including lunch, all transport, and the bike hire, it was a very easy and cost effective way to check out the lake.Læs mere