Sun Moon Lake

The remainder of our trip was spent at Sun Moon Lake. What a beautiful place! It is in the center of Taiwan, is Taiwan's largest freshwater body, and is surrounded by mountains.



We spent our first day relaxing, enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery, and taking a boat tour of the area.
Lalu island is in the middle of the lake and is considered to be the home of the Thao (aboriginal tribe) ancestral spirits.
Jadyn loved riding the boat (in fact we've been on "boat rides" on my bed just about every day since we got back), running on the dock, and playing at the different tour stops.

I love this picture of Jade; I love how excited she is to be running down the dock towards daddy! Her hair is just a killer!
Playing on the Chinese "year of the..." statues...
...and drawing lots of attention. We decided we need to have the video camera on standby for such occasions. We found it pretty amusing when we'd be walking somewhere and some old Chinese lady would suddenly jump out of nowhere and get in Jadyn's face and yell, "Hǎo kěài! Hǎo piàoliang!!" And proceed to touch her face. A little startling. A little annoying. A little hilarious. Pretty regular.

Ci En Pagoda was built by Chiang Kai-shek in memory of his mother.
Cody insisted we try the wild boar kabobs. And you know what? They were actually pretty good.
The next day we went to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village. To get there and back we took a gondola ride over the mountain.


Here's a video of Jadyn during the gondola ride. I wanted to include it because it shows the cute, fun side of her personality. She definitely has a not-so-cute, not-so-fun side, but I'll save the anger and frustration it causes for her parents.


We loved learning about the aboriginal culture by viewing the villages and watching the dancing.




It is amazing to me how much the dancing resembles a mix of Native American and Polynesian culture, and not at all Chinese. I guess it makes sense seeing how they are all descendants of Lehi (the Taiwanese Aborigines are of Austronesian descent, along with the Polynesian islanders, who are descendants of Lehi through Hagoth). In fact, most Aborigines are Christian, not Buddhist.



I thought the Aborigine part of the park was so cool. I couldn't help but think the Native Americans should have done or should do something like this! They could preserve their culture and make a lot of money while they're at it. It would probably help them out a lot culturally and financially.

The other part of the park was an amusement park. They had a couple pretty good roller coasters, but Space Mountain didn't even compare to the real thing. No waiting in line was nice though.

Jade's favorite ride was the train ride, complete with creepy dolls.

Of course on the way back through the real aboriginal village, Cody had to stop for more wild boar and a drink. What if I told you those floaty things in this drink were fish eggs? Would you try it?

How about if I told you they were really flower seeds? Not so bad, right? When hot water is added to the seeds, they become gummy. That's why the Taiwanese like them; they seem to like anything gummy, especially in their drinks! The seeds don't really have any flavor, so they are just added to your drink of choice. In Cody's case it was dong hua cha or winter melon tea. He says it tastes like liquid caramel. I don't know that I would agree with that, but I can't think of a more accurate description so it will have to do. It is pretty good.

Our Aborigine-filled day was made complete with a themed dinner on the harbor. The dish next to the rice is bamboo. I've never tried it plain before because Cody hates it and has scared me away from it. It actually reminds me of artichoke. I've decided I can't trust Cody when it comes to vegetables, because he doesn't like any of them!

Our last day at Sun Moon Lake was spent taking nature walks (they were way too leisurely to actually call it hiking).

The cool bamboo groves we trekked around in the heat to find.

One last picture of my hot hubby before we stopped for lunch and hitched a ride on the bus back home!