Taiwan: Sun Moon Lake (7~8 Jun'13)

To go to Sun Moon Lake (SML), we'll have to take Nantou bus from Taichung HSR Station cost us NT190 per adult. Take Exit 5, Platform 3 from the station, and you'll be able to buy DIRECT bus ticket to Sun Moon Lake (no transfer required at Puli). For the bus schedule, refer here. There are bus on hourly basis.

That's where we waited to the bus

Bus tickets



It was comfortable although IZ was sitting our laps, he could fall asleep too.

The bus would route to Chia Nan University which is high above on a mountain (how cool it is to study there?), before making its way to SML. The entire journey took us an hour. We were expecting an hour and 20minutes. I felt something was wrong somehow, and when hubby checked with the driver, we had arrived at SML!

Where the bus stopped, at Shueishu Visitor Centre, the boy just woke up from his nap

I didn't know where the pier was and so I called the owner of Cherng Yuan Hotel where we'll put up for the night. As I was told it was easier to take a boat to Itathao where the hotel was situated, we went to the counter to buy boat tickets. To be told the boat was about to depart! We had to run to chase after the boat.. the thing was.. the pier was quite a distance away (though still walking distance). I had no chance to see see look look Shueishu at all. Boo! She should have given us the next boat ride so that we could sightsee a little, I didn't even had the time to take ONE photo. Boo boo!

It pissed us even further later on, as we get to know from hotel, that there were actually multiple ride tickets available! The counter didn't tell us about it, and sold us One Way Ticket, so we decided it would be too costly to buy more tickets just to further wobble our legs.

NT100 per person, including children - for a 10mins ride (pardon the rotated pic, I have no idea why it's not upright when the original is.. )

Quick snapshot of Shueishu Pier



Didn't look like I was on the go eh?



Chased after our boat!



Finally could relax on the rocky boat



Although there wasn't big waves.. spectacular view from the boat



Memories.. IZ's first real boat ride (those in amusement park not counted ya?)



Itathao pier



He was happy



Overlooking Itathao from the pier



Happy having ample of space to roam about.. could see our hotel sign from here



Little helper at work - he was complimented by a Chinese family



There we were.. sun, moon, lake

As check-in time was 3pm, we were a bit early. We checked-in Cherng Yuan hotel (click on the link for review and photos) to drop our luggage to wander around Itathao which has only 3 streets overall.

It was a very quiet place. There was no tourist in the streets, every restaurants were so quiet. We were surprised actually. So we thought it would be livelier at night. Boy, we were so wrong.



Random shot of what's there

  


We saw 2 people bought BBT from this stall. Although there was picture of celebrities, we had our reservation. And we thought to patronise at night.. gosh.. they were closed! :-( And the next day, when our car passed by the stall, there was horrendously long Q..



Ice-cream from 7-11

 We decided to check Si En Pagoda out but the bus was so rare, we had to wait up to an hour, for a bus that we missed by 10 seconds. If only we walked slightly faster.. but then, things happened for a reason. We were told the next day that Si En Pagoda was closed as there was risk after the recent earthquake.



While waiting for the bus that never arrived



So we had dessert again



So we thought evening would be livelier?



That's how peaceful, quiet, serene SML was on a Friday night




Except for the sound of saxophone - he played really well



How else to have relaxing life eh?

 The next morning after breakfast in the hotel, we decided to give cable car a try. We didn't manage to take the day before as it was closed for maintenance. Suggest whoever going there to check on their maintenance schedule otherwise you'll be making a fruitless trip to SML.



From the sign, it was about 720m from the Itathao street



In actual, it looked further than that



There was a promotion for cable car + entrance fee to Formosan Aboriginal Village that day, original was NT780, we paid NT580 for per adult, no ticket required for IZ as he was shorter than 100cm (by less than 5cm, PHEW! haha!)



The boy was very excited



Tt was all worth it seeing the boy's happy smile



He didn't know what to expect - while I started to shiver as I had really bad experiences in the past



Spectacular view, but my feet are wobbly nonetheless



The lake from high above



Then we had to transfer cable car, to the village



The village from top - started to look really interesting



But very quiet as we were there at 10+am, they were opened at 9am (you could take a shuttle up here if you do not wish to wait for cable car that operational only from 10am onwards on weekends, and 10.30am on weekdays)



Looks really exciting



Reminded me of USS



360deg UFO - nope, we didn't take that



We headed to the amusement park instead



Space was the theme



Queued for the 3D show



More planets



Was disappointed as the 3D was in Japanese while subtitles were in Chinese.. I don't understand a single thing!



The characters in the show

Italian Carousel

My prince charming on the horse

  

Then we took the mini tram



Really interesting that the tram brought us to different themed tent



Nice themes



Nice themes



Other tram



Nice themes



Nice themes



Jurassic Park



For boat ride



We took monorail too



On monorail



You could see it was not crowded at all



Then we took a choo-choo train ride



Timing was just nice - no long Q



The view from the train



Finally made our way back to Itathao as we arranged for car pick-up at 4pm (rescheduled from 2pm! haha!)



And the boy concussed in the cable car

Checked with Misty Villa where we'll put up in CingJing that night, I was given choices to commute from SML to CingJing Farm (our next destination)
1) E-go bus (NT450 per adult)
2) charter car (from a designated point to villa) NT1800
3) charter car (door to door) NT2200

I know I would sound stupid to choose the last one, but anyway I've learnt since.



Recharged as we waited for the car pick-up



He told me he felt giddy when the car going down the mountain route, asked him to close his eyes and the smart him fell asleep throughout our journey to CingJing which was 1750m above sea level


All about our Taiwan trip:
Part 1: Taiwan: Taichung (6~7 Jun'13)
Part 2: Taiwan: Sun Moon Lake (7~8 Jun'13)
Part 3: Taiwan: CingJing (8~10 Jun'13)
Part 4: Taiwan: Taipei (10~12 Jun'13)