February 12. Oh, I did like Sun Moon Lake. I hired a taxi to take 4 of us to Nantou County and then over to Lukang. The taxi f
rom 7 in the morning to 7 at night cost me $4500NT dollars.... around $125-$130 US dollars, less than the train fare would have been for the four of us, and certainly more time to spend in Nantou. Myra, a foreign teacher from Chiayi County joined Jennifer, RJ and I on the adventure. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned my "cab driver, Clark" before... He speaks English and is a wonderful person. He even drives defensively, a unique trait for Taiwan. He's helped me out of a few jams in the past when I was riding with other cab drivers who don't speak English and couldn't understand my poor Chinese. In early March I hired him to take me to the Lantern Festival in Taibao. I was completely impressed with the way he was able to slip throu
gh the restricted area and drop me off at just the perfect place to view the sites. He even got me a map of the area and although there was no way I could have had him come pick me up after the festival, (far too many people) he promised to come back and hunt for me if I ran into trouble. Clark's efforts definitely helped make the Sun Moon Lake memorable. The early morning scenery was great despite the overcast skies. Although it was a bit late to capture any sunrise, the valley and the mountain off in the distance tranfixed me. At Sun Moon Lake we went into a Starbucks (yes, Taiwan has many Starbucks coffee houses) and
downed enough coffee to set our attention to the task at hand...a ride out to the island in the middle of the lake. By the way, this lake has quite a history behind it, including aboriginal territory rights and nearly complete devastation by the earthquake in 1999. Because the earthquake leveled most of the buildings around the lake, the government granted the area large amounts of funding to rebuild. Therefore, most of the buildings here are new. A few of the temples survived the earthquake. The quake even destroyed some of the forests, trails and roads. There is a Chiang Kai-shek museum here, but we never made it to that area of the lake.
rom 7 in the morning to 7 at night cost me $4500NT dollars.... around $125-$130 US dollars, less than the train fare would have been for the four of us, and certainly more time to spend in Nantou. Myra, a foreign teacher from Chiayi County joined Jennifer, RJ and I on the adventure. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned my "cab driver, Clark" before... He speaks English and is a wonderful person. He even drives defensively, a unique trait for Taiwan. He's helped me out of a few jams in the past when I was riding with other cab drivers who don't speak English and couldn't understand my poor Chinese. In early March I hired him to take me to the Lantern Festival in Taibao. I was completely impressed with the way he was able to slip throu
gh the restricted area and drop me off at just the perfect place to view the sites. He even got me a map of the area and although there was no way I could have had him come pick me up after the festival, (far too many people) he promised to come back and hunt for me if I ran into trouble. Clark's efforts definitely helped make the Sun Moon Lake memorable. The early morning scenery was great despite the overcast skies. Although it was a bit late to capture any sunrise, the valley and the mountain off in the distance tranfixed me. At Sun Moon Lake we went into a Starbucks (yes, Taiwan has many Starbucks coffee houses) and 
downed enough coffee to set our attention to the task at hand...a ride out to the island in the middle of the lake. By the way, this lake has quite a history behind it, including aboriginal territory rights and nearly complete devastation by the earthquake in 1999. Because the earthquake leveled most of the buildings around the lake, the government granted the area large amounts of funding to rebuild. Therefore, most of the buildings here are new. A few of the temples survived the earthquake. The quake even destroyed some of the forests, trails and roads. There is a Chiang Kai-shek museum here, but we never made it to that area of the lake.
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