Tranquil Stays and Typhoon Days

Tranquil Stays and Typhoon Days
Sun Moon, Taiwan

Sun Moon, Taiwan

After our last two stops in Taiwan we were beginning to lose hope and were just wishing away our trip and willing it to be time to return to Taipei, but things were about to change. After our train to Taichung we knew that we needed to get a bus to Sun Moon Lake but didn’t know exactly how or where so we headed to the Tourist information and suddenly things changed we met the most lovely girl who not only told us where to go and what bus to get but she walked to the bus stop with us and helped us buy our tickets. Before we knew it we had completed two bus journeys and were sat in the reception of our homestay having a conversation with the owner through the magic of google translate on our iPhones. We had a map, we had a list of places to eat and places to see and were generally feeling relaxed and comfortable for the first time in days.

Sun Moon Lake is a funny little place, it is utterly beautiful and is the largest Alpine lake in Taiwan. The east side of the lake resembles a sun while the west side resembles a moon, hence the name. It is visited mainly by people on day trips from Taipei and therefore the vast majority of the food available is from little street stalls which suddenly pack up and close at 5pm when the buses leave meaning that we pretty much had to change our routine having a huge lunch and relying on snacks from 7/11 for dinner which worked out pretty well. True to form the street food wasn’t very veggie friendly but Tim had the time of his life eating his way around the streets. His particular favourite was something called a Jenna Wing, which was by far the most popular stall in town and consisted of a chicken wing filled with rice and spring onions and sprinkled with chilli and salt.

Sun Moon Lake is split into two main areas and there is a bus between the two which stops at all the tourist attractions along the route so what better to do on our first day than to explore. We set off on the bus and our first stop was the Sun Moon Lake cable car. We were surprised to arrive and find not a single person in the queue and with our tickets in hand we hopped in our cable car and enjoyed the views back over the lake. Usually the whole purpose of a cable car is to take you up to the top of a mountain to get a good view back over the area you are in, but this was not true of Sun Moon. The cable car went up and provided some awesome views before quickly descending and pulling into the end of the cable car ride with nothing to see or do except hop into another cable car which takes you to a very expensive Aboriginal theme park. So we just stayed in our cable car, went back up the mountain and enjoyed the view on the way back down. We didn’t have the clearest weather to get the best views but not a bad start to our stay in Sun Moon.

We carried on our journey around the lake and were very happy to discover the main city bustling with cafes and restaurants and after a quick stop at Mos burger we were back on our bus and headed to Wenwu temple. Built in 1968 in the style of a Chinese palace, this temple is quite magnificent and the views from here were equally beautiful. There are three temples within Wenwu each dedicated to a different ancestor and therefore a different worship, from the god of literature, the god of war and Confucius. The prayer and blessing lanterns hung all around the temple were just stunning.

Our second day at Sun Moon, feeling confident in our abilities to travel around we decided to head to the Paper Dome. One of the most famous tourist attractions in the area this temporary church building is constructed from cardboard pillars and was originally built in japan in 2005 after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe and was gifted to Puli in Taiwan in 2006 as a sign of friendship between Japan and Taiwan. Puli was chosen as the home of the paper dome as it had been so seriously damaged in the 921 Earthquake which struck in 1999, this was the second deadliest quake in Taiwan’s history.

So here are the factoids about the paper dome:

From the cylindrical columns to the internal benches, Paper Dome is a giant hollow paper tube structure supported by a total of 58 tubes, 5 meters in height. The diameter of tube is about 33 centimetres and the thickness of paper is about 1.5 centimeters. It is built in a nomadic style which facilitated its dismantlement before its shift from Japan to Taiwan. The 58 tubes, together with the internal benches, are coated with an external water-resistant paper protective covering made in Puli Township, which is famous for its paper factories. Although each paper tube bench weighs no more than 60 kg, they are able to support weight up to 1500 kg each, equivalent to the weight of 20 people. As for the tall paper pillars, they are able to support pressure up to 6900 kg.

Getting to the paper dome from Sun Moon was pretty simple, we went to the tourist information office and bought a ticket and the lady kindly wrote down the stop we needed so we could show it to the bus driver. What could possibly go wrong…. Well about 20 minutes into the journey the driver stopped in seemingly the middle of nowhere and gestured for us to get off. We complied and found ourselves stood at the side of a very fast 4 lane motorway with no idea where to go. Thankfully with the power of 3G google maps directed us across the road and the driver was not having a laugh we were just a few minutes from where we needed to be. We found the dome, had a wonder around, enjoyed the view and the lovely butterflies and dragon flies which were everywhere and decided it was time to head back to Sun Moon lake. This is where things went downhill. We found ourselves stood at the bus stop at the side of the motorway with less than a foot to spare from the trucks, buses and lorries speeding past us as we peered over the brow of the hill at the oncoming buses hoping that they would see us and be able to stop to pick us up. We had no idea what bus number we needed or what time it was due and just to make matters worse there was a set of traffic lights further down the road so all the traffic came zooming past all at once all accelerating to get up the hill leaving us cowering for cover and willing anyone to take us home. After what felt like the longest half an hour of our lives I could have kissed the driver of the bus that slowly pulled up and welcomed us aboard and shipped us back to the safety of the lovely Sun Moon Lake.

Our last day at Sun Moon and after a few days of relaxing and enjoying the slow pace of life that the little sleepy town offered we were ready with our to-do list. First go back up the cable car to get some clearer views of the lake, then take a boat across the lake for lunch and get the bus back from the main town. Sadly as with all the best laid plans this was not to be. As we left for our day out the lady at our homestay managed to tell us that the cable car, the boats and buses were all closed. We thought that this was a bit weird for a Monday in such a touristy town so we took ourselves off to 7/11 for a coffee and when we googled it we quickly discovered that the reason that everything was closed was due to the fact that it had been declared a Typhoon day, as Taiwan was bracing for one of the biggest typhoons of the season. Reading the news we discovered that 2 days after we left Green Island all the ferries were cancelled due to high waves and the unbearable heat that we had endured in Kaohsiung was unseasonable and again caused by the oncoming typhoon. Thankfully we didn’t need to do anything on Typhoon day so we just relaxed and waited to see what our first typhoon would bring. Thankfully it turned out that the Typhoon changed course and didn’t hit Taiwan as hard as expected, we were in the perfect location in Sun Moon to be sheltered and aside from some pretty heavy rain during the night we didn’t really notice that there was a typhoon.

With the street food vendors closed due to the lack of tourists we resorted to Family Mart for our dinner, a strange concept but one that we were ver
y thankful of. Family Mart is a little convenience store much like Spar or 7/11 and sells microwave meals and has a little seating area so you can sit in the store and eat your dinner. How did we not discover this sooner?! Full from dinner we arrived back at our homestay and the lovely owners sat us down in reception and insisted that we drink tea and eat as many Taiwanese specialties as we could. Chatting through the power of Google translate we had the nicest evening and eventually discovered that so long as we kept drinking the specialty black tea that they were pouring they would just keep on pouring and pouring. Full to the brim of good food and kindness we headed to bed willing the buses and trains to be back to normal for our escape back to Taipei in the morning.

We woke to clear skies, sun and not even a breath of wind. Thanks for taking care of us Sun Moon Lake.

Back to Taipei for our final stop in Taiwan.