Sun Moon Lake, Tainan, etc

After our day driving through Taroko Gorge, everywhere else was bound to be a bit anticlimactic...  Our next stop was an overnight at Sun Moon Lake, which is the largest natural lake in Taiwan, and reputed to be a "must see" place....  It reminded both Norma and I of Big Bear Lake or Lake Tahoe, or some of the more touristy lakes in the Adirondacks- "nice," but a bit over-developed.  We did have a cool visit to a Tea Plantation and processing factory that was neat, as well as stopped at one of the more impressive Confusionist temples we've seen...After leaving Sun Moon Lake, we headed back down to the West Coast city of Tainan.  Here we hoped to enjoy the annual "Taiwan Lantern Festival." Unfortunately, the festival was one of the big disappointments of our trip.  Norma had seen a Rick Steves travel segment highlighting the festival a few years back, and we planned our stop here based on that impression.  For better or worse, there was very little resemblance between what Rick Steves presented on TV, and what we experienced on site!  There were a few interesting lighting displays, but nothing we'd ever suggest going out of your way to see.  Actually having a few more lanterns might have helped a lot! C'est la vie ;-)

In lieu of spending more time wandering around Tainan, we headed out along the marshy coast north of the city for some birding. We visited a very good National Park interpretive center there, and then proceeded to see 15 new "life birds," including Black Faced Spoonbills, and Eurasian Curlews.  

Before leaving Taiwan, we spent one last night in Taipei at a hotel near the airport, and took the metro across town the the big exhibition center that was hosting the annual Taipei Cycle Expo.  This was something we discovered going on at the last minute, and unlike the lantern festival, it was HUGE.  Taiwan is currently the center of the global cycling industry, with a lot of the leading bicycle brands and component makers based here.
The expo took up of three whole floors in two gigantic convention center halls-- filled with all the latest gear & bikes.  A good way to wrap up our Taiwan segment of the trip!
Next up- Hawaii!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yes- we survived Saigon and the Scooterpocalypse!

Image
Saigon is big, busy, loud, stiflingly hot, and absolutely over-run by scooters, but still worth a visit... but 3 days was plenty! We learned a lot about the craziness of the 20th century here (and our uncomfortable role in it), layered on top of what we'd already seen in Hanoi and Hue.  I'm still amazed at how open and friendly everyone here is, but I suppose the obvious growing prosperity here has bred a very forward looking optimism.  Architecturally, Saigon is a blend of modern, French colonial, and a bit of traditional Vietnamese, with a strong NYC like feel to the central city.  There were several good museums, a really nice botanical garden, some great downtown avenues, and even more great food, at crazy cheap prices.  So no complaints, other than the heat.  95-100F at high humidity just isn't much fun for wandering around ba city on foot!   so... Tomorrow we are ...
Read more

...on to the Mekong and Laos!

Image
Having spent 7 days in Chiang Mai doing typical city things, mostly on foot, we began our nest part of trip with a 4 hour van drive to Chiang Khong, on the Mekong River along the border with northwestern Laos. We left Chiang Mai relatively early (8:30) after yet another wonderful breakfast at our hotel, and were quickly out into the Thai countryside. Initially, we drove along the flat Ping River valley through rice paddies and various exurban commercial sprawl until reaching the mountains that frame the valley and much or northern Thailand. After several winding hours of driving, we first reached a new "Wat" or Buddhist temple, completed only 15 years ago named WatSang Karw Photiyan. This included a rather striking garden full of ferns and orchids. Our guide, Suzy, was very helpful in explaining many of the traditional design elements in the temple and their significance in Thai Buddhist culture. After seeing this new Buddhist temple, we...
Read more

On to Chiang Mai

Image
We'll, we've been exploring Chiang Mai in the north west of Thailand now for three days, and thoroughly enjoying the change from both Ko Tao and Bangkok.  Bangkok was a typical Southeast Asian capital city - big, chaotic, bustling with energy and very hot and sticky ;-), Ko Tao was a typical beach town- very much like some of the places we've visited in Costa Rica. Chiang Mai is a busy city - the largest in the north of Thailand, but much less sprawling and developed in comparison to Bangkok.  More importantly, it's in the foothills of the Himalayas, so it's quite a bit cooler here!  Most days do far it's been in the high 70's to low 80's(F), so much more comfortable than at the beach or in Bangkok, where it was a humid 90F+ every day... We're staying in a small hotel in the old city - about a mile square area surrounded by the protective most built in the 14th century.  While much of the historic architecture has been lost, the many rema...
Read more