Photo Credit: http://120.107.96.101/~nea/index.htm
Miles Traveled: 43,199
Sun Moon Lake is the largest lake in Taiwan. Situated in Yuchih, Nantou, the area around the Sun Moon Lake is home to the Thao tribe, one of several aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. Via car it’s about 4 hours south of Taipei. We took a quick 50 minute High Speed Rail train (Gao Tie) and then transferred to the shuttle bus which took 90 minutes to reach SML. The lake is actually 2 adjacent lakes – Sun Lake and Moon Lake, shaped like – you guessed it, the sun and a crescent moon.
SML is the place where Taipei-ites go to get away, to breath fresh air, to look at pretty lake vistas and to hike around the many lakeside trails. It’s also a huge hit with Chinese tourists. Therefore it can get really really, busy and is VERY touristy.
We decided to go during the week to miss the crowds. We stayed in Shui She town at an interesting little boutique hotel overlooking the lake. As you can see we had quite a view – even if it was cloudy!
We learned that the lake was formed by a hydroelectric project started by the Japanese during the occupation in the early 1900s, which led to the water level rising and forming the lake we see today.
The town itself is quite small and consisted mostly of small tea shops, restaurants, or souvenir shops. But its location on the lake makes up for the touristy-ness.
The next morning, despite the fog, we took a boat ride that ferried tourists around to several ports on the lake.
The first port we stopped at was Ita Thao. This is a very small town with a few restaurants, hotels, and many many cheesy souvenir shops. Really not much to write home about. However, we came across a sausage vendor and so – of course – stopped to have one. Here’s Tony eating a sausage next to a …. sausage dog! As many of you know, Tony has a dog called Max – an adorable elderly dachshund… so Tony thinks this photo is just kinda of wrong.
There are other ports that one could stop at and a cable car that goes to an aboriginal cultural village park. But given the weather, we opted to enjoy the view from the boat.
So what did we think of SML? Meh. It’s probably much better and prettier on a sunny day and when one can safely ride a bike around the lake (which is supposed to be quite enjoyable, but unsafe on a rainy day) or to hike the trails. If you do go, try to get a weather forecast or better yet, call your hotel to see what the weather is like, because our weather forecast turned out to be wrong!