Sun + Moon Lake

oh what a day! i had been completely stressed out + frustrated + and just in general out of whack, but this day was very therapeutic for me. it was the thursday right in the middle of the NCKU workshop. again, retarded planning as it was right in the middle of the work we were trying to get done for our presentations. but whatever. it was nice... and probably better for us this way after all as i think a good number of people were pretty stressed out already too.

so we have more professor presentations in the morning until about noon. at noon thirty we hop on a bus with to-go lunches (of sweet bread... not my favorite sustainance wise, but whatevs) and head to sun + moon lake. it was basically a nature park complete with boat rides, gondola cable car rides, and an aborigine theme park (which we did not get to go into as it was too late and too expensive).

our first line of action was to purchase tickets for the boat + cable car + bus ride loop... that in itself was a bit of a headache... getting the wrong tickets and all, but again it worked out in the end. so we took the ferry to the other side of the lake where we walked around for a bit while we waited for our tickets to be exchanged for the cable car. amanda and i walked up a quaint little walkway for a better view for pictures, and along the way some taiwanese women got really excited and asked for pictures with is. it's pretty adorable being treated like a celebrity just because you're different.

we were on the cable car about 3o minutes later, and it was awesome. we pretty much went up and down about 4 different mountain/hills. from the cable car we could see the stairs that wove up and down them too... crazy! we got to the other side and saw the entrance to the theme park we couldn't go into... it was too late anyways. we only had a few minutes there too since the cable cars stopped running at 4 and it was already 330... so weird. so we got back on and rode back to get on the bus.

along the way back to where we started we made a pit stop at some temple with a little market set up outside it. we found these necklaces made from this crazy stone with flower formations naturally occurring within... they were pretty exquisite (+ cheap :), so arissa, amanda and i each got one :). the little market also had grilled pork sausages and boiled duck egg for food... apparently taiwan is very famous for the duck egg, so i got the egg. it was ok. it was an egg. the temple was wonderful though! beautiful. apparently it was a temple/shrine to the god of 'testing'?? arissa asked a question through a series of stones and manuscripts? it was interesting. very pretty.

we also saw the CUTEST little girl blowing bubbles on the steps of the temple. everytime she noticed we were looking at her and taking pictures she would run a little further away and start blowing bubbles again. her parents kept telling her not to be shy... i think. but i think they thought it was cute how we thought she was cute. so funny. she was precious though.

after meandering about a bit we headed back to our start location... where the buses were. i was a little hungry but not so much, so i just got some papaya to eat... sadly it wasn't that good though. i missed shu-te fruit :(

the girls and i had all been pretty pumped when we arrived at sun + moon lake after seeing a sign for spa. the prices here are AMAZING! like $30 for an hour / hour.5!! and after all the stress and frustration i was really pumped about this. but by the end of the day when we got back there really wasn't much time, and at this time i was feeling much more relaxed anyways.

it was a pretty amazing day in nature :)