Taiwan 2
And some clever quip...
Sun Moon Lake
We have
family on Hong Kong that we like to visit every year. It's a
long flight from Vancouver so a stop over on the way there or back
is a welcome break from the monotony of transpacific flights.
We have stopped in Japan a few times and this is our second trip to
Taiwan. Last visit, we visited the south of Taiwan. This
time we picked Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan as a holiday within a
holiday.
We
visited Hong Kong first
this trip and reserved Taiwan for the final week of trip. This
has the advantage of getting rid of the Jet lag in a big city where
you can easily get food at 4am. We arrived in Taiwan around
lunch time and met Katie who had a bus rented that drove us right to
our hotel at Sun Moon Lake.
Sun Moon Lake is a big
vacation destination in Taiwan. It's a large lake for Taiwan
(8 square km) and the perimeter of the lake has been reserved for
forests and tourist facilities, unlike the farming and industrial
usage you see in much of the west coast of Taiwan. The lake
has a circle road around it and much of the lake also has a near
shore walkway.
Today the plan was to go for a bike ride around some of the
lake. The kids were up so we walked the hotel grounds a bit
and were surprised to see a troup of Macaque climbing through the
trees. Unlike the Macaque I have seen in other tourist areas,
these animals weren't looking for handouts and they didn't see us a
source of food. The large males watched us while the Moms and
babies slipped past behind. The kids and I felt fortunate to
see these animals.
We hopped on a bus and
went to the next town (maybe 5 minutes drive from our hotel) to rent
bicycles.Biking is often a distant afterthought in Asia. Sun
moon lake has an outstanding bike route around much of like which
has caused a thriving industry in short term bicycle
rentals. At least 3 times different young men came out
to encourage us into their shops. The shops had enough bikes
to outfit a tour bus and there was no shortage of tour buses.
We were a small party and went to small shop.
The next morning Nara and I got up for a walk just after
sunrise. Being a low latitude, the sun rises and sets quickly
here so there isn't much golden light. We had some luck
spotting birds and insects.
Yangmingshan National Park
Yangmingshan is a beautiful park North of
Taipei. It's a classic day trip from Taipei for
tourists. With a bit of help from Katy, we got a car and a
driver and went to make a day out of it. What we couldn't
control was the weather - in the spring the weather is often wet
and foggy so we knew we would miss some things.
Our first stop was the Floriculture Experiment Center - something
like a University botanical garden. This isn't actually in
the park, but it's an easy stop on the way up. The
Experiment Center is split into large plots, each specializing in
a broad class of plant like maple trees or Indigenous
Rhododendron. We were in the wrong season for the
highlights (Cherry Blossoms and Fall Colours) but we did have fun
walking the roads looking at plants.
When we then drove higher up the mountain
in the park proper. It was a rainy day so the crowds were
almost non-existent - just huge parking lots. We walked to
the local falls.
I was hoping to go to the higher destinations where you can see
lilies and views and steam vents but the fog was so thick you
couldn't see much more than a car length ahead on the road.
we decided to visit Lengshuikeng - a foot bath on the
mountain. Even crossing the road was dangerous because you
could barely see across it.
Walking Around Taipei
Tags: Taiwan(16), bird(2), biking(2), foot bath(2), hot spring(2), sushi(1)
People: Claira(6), Nara(5), Helen(3), Katy(3), Angela(2)
From: John Harvey Photo > Trips out of the Country > Taiwan 2
Last Modified Sunday, January 22nd, 2023 at 00:04:10 Edit
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