{"id":1073,"date":"2010-12-12T14:24:54","date_gmt":"2010-12-12T07:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/?p=1073"},"modified":"2010-12-12T14:24:54","modified_gmt":"2010-12-12T07:24:54","slug":"sun-moon-lake-ri-yue-tan-on-a-not-so-sunny-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/2010\/12\/12\/sun-moon-lake-ri-yue-tan-on-a-not-so-sunny-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun Moon Lake (Ri Yue Tan) – on a not so sunny day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit:\u00a0 http:\/\/120.107.96.101\/~nea\/index.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Miles Traveled: <\/strong>43,199<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Via car it\u2019s about 4 hours south of Taipei.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The lake is actually 2 adjacent lakes \u2013 Sun Lake and Moon Lake, shaped like – you guessed it, the sun and a crescent moon.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 It\u2019s also a huge hit with Chinese tourists.\u00a0 Therefore it can get really really, busy and is VERY touristy.<\/p>\n

We decided to go during the week to miss the crowds.\u00a0 We stayed in Shui She town at an interesting little boutique hotel overlooking the lake.\u00a0 As you can see we had quite a view – even if it was cloudy!<\/p>\n

\"Sun<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The town itself is quite small and consisted mostly of small tea shops, restaurants, or souvenir shops. \u00a0But its location on the lake makes up for the touristy-ness.<\/p>\n

\"Sun<\/a><\/p>\n

The next morning, despite the fog, we took a boat ride that ferried tourists around to several ports on the lake.<\/p>\n

The first port we stopped at was Ita Thao. \u00a0This is a very small town with a few restaurants, hotels, and many many cheesy souvenir shops.\u00a0\u00a0 Really not much to write home about. \u00a0 However, we came across a sausage vendor and so \u2013 of course \u2013 stopped to have one.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Tony eating a sausage next to a \u2026. sausage dog! \u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

\"Wrong<\/a><\/p>\n

There are other ports that one could stop at and a cable car that goes to an aboriginal cultural village park.\u00a0 But given the weather, we opted to enjoy the view from the boat.<\/p>\n

So what did we think of SML?\u00a0 Meh.\u00a0 It\u2019s 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. \u00a0If 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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Via car it\u2019s about 4 hours south of Taipei.\u00a0 We took a quick 50 minute High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}