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We made our way out of Long Dong and went to the Shi Lin Night Market (市林夜市)。 It was definitely a large night market, but we were not impressed with the lack of food there, especially lack of sweet potato fries. Things were reasonably priced there though, and we bought some t-shirts there for 250 NT a piece. Then we made our way to eat sushi. We went to one of the conveyer belt sushi bars. I enjoyed the food, but I am not but of a sushi expert. We ended up eating 43 plates of sushi between the three of us. Then we stayed at the Shen Went Hotel (神旺飯店). It was nice to have a real shower for once.  On Thursday we took Matt to the airport. He seemed to enjoy his stay and the food grew on him overtime. Then we made our way to the Taipei Zoo. The most unique part about this Zoo it showed all of the Formosan big game animals, and it had pandas. It also had the usual insects, lions, elephants, giraffes, penguins, and children. We wanted to go on the gondola, but it happened to be closed, and the National Palace Museum that we planned to go to that evening closed at 6:30, so we went to the 101 instead. It was impressive to see at night, but not much different from the 85. And we hadn’t ever lived in Taipei so we didn’t really care to be honest. That ended our day. We stayed at our friend’s house that night, then in the morning returned the car; the rental company charged us an extra 700 NT for driving on the highway, but didn’t mention any tickets. Then we took a bus to Kaohsiung, our home, through Ubus 統聯客運, which was about 200 NT cheaper than the train. 
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Next we went to Sun Moon Lake. It rained the whole time, and it was foggy. We checked out the shops there, but didn’t find anything we particular wanted to buy. We went to the 慈恩塔(Ci En Pagota), but we couldn’t see much because of the fog. And we took a power nap there. Then we went to the main temple on the lake, which was impressive, but not unlike any other temple we had seen. We had enough time, so we decided to go to Lugang （鹿港） from there. It took a while to find the night market in Lugang, but we eventually did. There we found a scroll shop and each bought landscape painting scrolls and had fun bargaining with the owner, and ended up buying scrolls for 500 kuai a piece. We had some delicious shrimp and some good 便當。Then we made our way back to Nantou for the night.
Next we made our way to a Buddhist monetary with a nice view of Nantou, but which we agreed shouldn’t have been the place of a certain mission Christmas picture. It was not that special. Then we went to the sky bridge in Nantou; there was nice views of Yuanlin and the high speed train there (猴探井天空之橋Houtanjing Street, Nantou City, Nantou County, 540). But it seemed like a place just to take advantage of Chinese tourists. Finally we ate a fine hotpot in Nantou and called it a day.  Tuesday we made our way to Puli to see the Zhong Tai Shan （中台山）. It was an impressively tall Buddhist temple made by the same architect who designed the 101. We had to wait an hour for the guided tour, but it was worth it. There was a monk there who gave us an English tour. It was interesting to hear the meaning behind the many statues and emblems in the building. We got to go to the upper levels where people normally don’t get to go, probably because we are white. There was an impressive white room as well as a full size wooden pagoda behind a glass curtain. Toward the end of the tour, another monk took us aside and told us the tour was over. We didn’t know if it was because they promised the tour would only be an hour or we were being too disrespectful or because we weren’t Buddhist. We will never know, and we will forever be wierded out.  On Monday we went to Xitou (溪頭) which was similar to Alishan but in Nantou. I think the scenery was prettier here. There was a nice rainbow bridge and lots of unique plants. The sacred tree was not as impressive as the one at Alishan though. There was also a nice fishpond and bamboo forest. We didn’t spend any time at the shops, though personally I think the shops at Xitou had a more unique feel than Alishan. Also there were no Chinese tourists here, only Taiwanese people on their regular morning walks.  |
Author 作家I am an American expat who has extensive experience living, working, and traveling in Taiwan. In my day, I had to learn many things about Taiwan the hard way. But I have come to learn that Taiwan is one of the best places in the world for Foreigners to live. This blog does not represent the opinions of every foreigner in Taiwan. I am just trying to help others learn more about this beautiful country. Categories
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