Part 19: Taiwan (#2)

The water taxi to Ita Thao, Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan.

Sun Moon Lake:

We were originally torn over whether to include Sun Moon Lake on our itinerary, after reading how crowded it gets, but we were so glad we did. This wound up being a definite stand-out location. We chose to stay in Ita Thao, the smaller village on the far side of the lake. Getting there on public transportation was definitely part of the adventure, especially with bags in tow. We took a car, a bus, and a boat to get to our B&B. We met a really nice Canadian man (his name was David, too) on the bus ride, and were super happy to converse in English for a couple of hours. We were immediately awestruck when we finally arrived. The incredibly beautiful mountain lake definitely lives up to the hype. After checking in we went out to explore. Much of Ita Thao is all about food, with blocks of restaurants and street food vendors clustered along the lakeshore. It was like a country fair - and so awesome! During our stay there we feasted on sausage on a stick, onion chive pancakes with grilled boar, Tiawanese hamburgers (one pork belly and one fried chicken with fried egg, pickled cabbage and cheese on homemade bao buns - omg), President Fish rolls (saucy fish on a stick sprinkled with cilantro), brown sugar bubble tea, and more.

We decided to walk the boardwalk extending over the lake to the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, that runs from Ita Thao to the Formosa Aboriginal Cultural Village (a nearby theme park that we didn't visit). I swear it was at David's insistence that we got the "crystal cabin" with the glass floor. I can only imagine how beautiful it must be in Sakura season. As it was, David's experience was enough to keep my attention. With his fear of heights, if he had known the ride was over a mile long, and draped like a necklace between two ridges, he might have chosen not to see the canopy of trees receding beneath our feet... 😱. At some point, the laws of physics were loudly questioned. He's such a trooper! Such beautiful views, of course. At the other end, apparently every school in the country was on an outing that day to the theme park. We were surrounded by hundreds of shouting kids while waiting for the return trip, but somehow I don't think that David minded the delay, lol.

The next day we set out to discover why Sun Moon Lake is rated one of 10 the best bike routes in the world. David got an electric scooter, but I was quickly deemed a menace to myself and others, and was relegated to e-bike status. With the language barrier, we were happy to take whatever we could get. We started with some trepidation and confusion as to approved bike routes around tunnels and road-sharing on narrow mountain roads full of large vehicles. Fortunately that proved not too much of an issue. Going counter to the flow of the tourist bus routes helped us get a feel for the steep and winding roads without overwhelming traffic. We went clockwise about halfway around the lake, visiting Xuan Zhang temple (complete with a Buddha relic, and offering incredible views overlooking the lake) and then up a large hill to climb the 46 meter, 12-story ascent up Ci’en pagoda, for even better views. We finished off this part of the trek at Xuanguang temple - a popular pilgrimage site. By now it was lunchtime, and we would have to double back in order to get food.

Back at Ita Thao, we scarfed on street food for lunch, then rode counter-clockwise to the mind-blowing Wenwu temple. Our crazy back-and forth route had added some extra miles, but it meant that we missed the worst of the crowds at this amazing place. It's not very old, but is incredibly beautiful - both in setting and structure. Dedicated to the God of Literature, the God of War, and Confucius, it blends elements of a temple, a palace, and a fortress. An elaborately decorated and painted entrance hall leads to a massive stair case fountain, covered with relief carvings of battle scenes. At the back are a series of towering totem poles depicting the life of Confucius, on a grand avenue lined with stone lanterns and sacred turtles. Rooftop platforms gave incredible views of the lake and mountains below.

From there, we had a dilemma. It was later in the day, and we would have to continue all the way around to the opposite side of the lake to get to the best bike trails, and the Xiangshan visitor center. But by now we were determined not to leave anything out. We pushed onward, hauling ourselves up steep stairs, down precarious switchbacks, crossing a dam, and down paths stretching over the lake. Zooming out over the water felt like flying. The visitor center was a crazy cool stop - its ultra modern concrete shapes made for equally awesome photo ops and echoes. Finally we had to duplicate the ride from Xuanguang back to home base, for a grand total of approximately 27 miles, and 1.5x's around the lake.

After some well-deserved and awesome beef noodle soup, it was all we could do to keep from passing out. But we had also discovered that we were in Taiwan during firefly season, and this would be our best chance to see them. Growing up in the Midwest, fireflies were such a nostalgic part of childhood and home for both of us that we couldn't pass it up. We weren't able to get to any of the designated viewing areas, but we thought we would try our luck along the lake path into the woods. Dragging ourselves out of bed, we made our way past the edge of town, to be swallowed by the dark foliage and the sounds of night creatures. Floating among the trees, the tiny blinking firelights brought back distant memories from a lifetime ago.

The next morning, we were ready for an easy day. We set out once again on the Ita Thao lake trail to the Nine Frogs stack, a sculpture used to measure the water level in the lake. It was pretty low, since we were able to count 7 of the 9 frogs. Then it was back to devour some more of our long list of must-try street foods for lunch. We had a pretty lazy day, and eventually made our way to weird fun at Lien Pub for Karaoke with the owner, her 4 massive Main coon cats and a nice Japanese man. God knows we aren't karaoke-ers, but it was pretty much the only game in town. And who could pass up a tiny karaoke bar with 4 Maine Coons? We made new friends - both human and feline - sang songs we've never heard before, and had a great end to our stay in Ita Thao.

Kaohsiung:

We painstakingly re-traced our steps, dragging our bags to the boat to bus to the Taichung train station, and rode to Kaohsiung at the southern end of the island. With a couple hours until check in, we locked up our bags at the station and walked to the nearby Zuoying Lotus Pond. This felt like a surreal, spiritual theme park. At the Dragon and Tiger pagodas, huge brightly painted beasts form bridges to their respective towers. The internal walls of the creatures are covered in a 3-D relief of religious scenes. Entering the pavilions through the dragon and exiting through the tiger is supposed to bring good luck - I hope we did it right, haha. We also explored the Chiji temple across the street. Sadly we didn't have time (or energy) to explore all the various other temples lining the lake, populated with more giant technicolor figures. We did pass a "tele-ski" water park (apparently that's a thing) and were entertained watching this wakeboarding version of a skatepark. Riders are pulled from a tow rope overhead, hopefully navigating various ramps and obstacles. After making our way back to the station, we continued our trek with 2 subway lines, and another walk with luggage (this one’s for you Dad Pleva) to our rental, to finally end the travel day (whew). We inhaled some really spicy Indian food across from our hostel for dinner, and were promptly unconscious!

Day 2 focused on outdoor art, starting with a train yard sculpture garden, on our way to the Pier 2 art center. This neighborhood of reclaimed warehouses has tons of awesome street art of all kinds, with various museums, galleries, and pop-up exhibits. We especially loved the demon dog, a giant mech robot, the huge murals, and my favorite - a mosaic of a little boy going pee, complete with motion activated spigot. We were entertained by a group of young, beautiful models in wild regalia artfully prancing about near the design center. They congregated like exotic gazelles at the watering hole of the public bathroom, just down from the stage door, practicing for a fashion show. But the largest art installation was the Great Harbor bridge. Its sleek ribbons of gleaming white steel are meant to resemble both a shell and a dolphin, and the observation deck in the center gave a beautiful view of the port.

We decided to jump the subway to the Formosa Boulevard subway station which houses the stunning Dome of Light there. It's the largest illuminated glass-art dome in the world, created over 4 years by artist Narcissus Quagliata, telling the story of humanity in 4 sections. His innovative technique of fusing glass without lead results in amazingly intricate stained glass. It looks like a giant, glowing watercolor painting. Of course we had to stop for Zhuang Yuan, or scholar cake in the station. Powdered rice pellets and fillings are poured into a little wooden mold, with a small pipe extending into the bottom. The mold is capped, and steamed from hot water below for piping hot delicious treats that I just couldn't pass up.

That evening, we walked our neighborhood street market for crèpes and various street foods, then wandered back down to the pier to see the bustling scene lit up for the night. What was impressive by day was captivating in the darkness. At the far end of the pier, a large and bustling night market was tucked under the elevated metro line curving its way to the Kaohsiung Music Hall. The giant honeycomb shapes of this surreal building were illuminated in ever changing technicolors, towering over the riverfront. We got more glimpses of strutting models behind the design center, with the fashion show now in full swing. But once again the bridge stole the show. Lit up, it was so beautiful that at first we didn't notice it was now parallel to the shore! We happened to get there just as it was half-way through its full rotation, which happens once a day, and once a night on weekends. After all that, we went "home" and sacked out to bad movies on TV (Ghost Rider 2 anyone?)

Day 3 started with an early walk to the ferry terminal, for the approximately 5-minute ride to Cijin island. Once there, we paused at Tien Hou Temple. Next to the temple was a small pagoda that was actually an elaborately decorated furnace, with a tall chimney extending from the top. We were curious about the people buzzing about there, but it was already too hot to delay our uphill journey to the Kaohsiung Lighthouse. The climb was no fun in the heat, but the quaint lighthouse (last renovated in 1918), the beautiful view, and the ocean breeze were all worth the effort. We explored the remains of nearby Cihou Fort (built in 1876), then made our way down the hill and through the Cijin Star Tunnel to see the impressive cliffs and beautiful beach on the far side. This long passage was once part of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, but is now covered in murals and synchronized LED lights - and a great break from the heat. From there, a long walk along the coast trail brought us to an empty cabana to catch some shade, before much needed refreshments back at the beachside Sunset Bar. Finally we made our way back to Old Street for wah kueh (steamed rice cake bowls - yummy local comfort food), at a second generation owned shop in operation for over 40 years. We had no idea what we were eating, we just knew it was good!

On the way back to the ferry, we stopped again at Tien Hou Temple to finally decipher the activity there. One by one, people brought large stacks of prayer papers to the glowing mouth of the furnace. They would either quickly throw their sheets into the flames, or simply set a whole stack on the threshold. The heat of the fire hungrily sucked each stack, sheet by sheet, into the inferno - prayers drifting to heaven in the smoke rising from the tall chimney. I couldn't imagine being that close to a raging fire on such a hot day! The relatively short walk home from the ferry terminal on the other side felt long and exhausting, but once again it was a great end to our time in Kaohsiung.

The next day, we took the train to Taoyuan station, back at the top of the island. The hotel that we had booked in a hurry turned out to be a small apartment, which allowed us to slow down and try to catch up with ourselves. We visited nearby Jingfu temple, and swung by some remaining Japanese style houses at Wenhua village, but mostly spent time getting ready to enter South Korea. When we couldn't get our next hotel to show up on a map there, let alone a find route to it from the airport, we discovered quickly that we needed all new applications for maps, translation, and transit. Not to mention navigating the convoluted process of submitting the SK arrival cards, hoping they wouldn't be rejected for a simple mistake. This was the first moment where we truly felt like strangers in a strange land, and how far we were from home. It was a little bit daunting, especially for me. But we powered through, thanks to our beautiful families and friends sending love from afar!

Next stop… South Korea.