Sun Moon Lake

J. is visiting for a week. We do the city (Palace Museum, dumplings, flower and jade markets, etc etc) but the highlight is our trip to Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan. We take the high speed train, passing small towns and rice fields, to Taichung; and then a bus to the lake. We're there in about two and a half hours.



Sun Moon Lake has two sections, one is round and the other is crescent shaped, hence the name. Originally the home of the aboriginal ethnic group, the Thao, who still live in the area and work as fishermen, shrimpers, and farmers; and practice a long tradition of little "island" (floating) farms on the lake that grow vegetables and keep the lake ecology healthy. (In Chinese there is a saying, 有山有 水，"has mountains and water" which is meant to describe any place that is scenic, but here it is literally the case. The views are breathtaking; especially when the clouds hang over the mountainside in the morning and late afternoon.



I came here as a teenager with my parents and my grandfather; we stayed at a simple but elegant guest house and as I recall it was the first time I slept under a mosquito net. There was nothing of the development now evident at the lake (though the mosquitos are still around).
J. and I stayed at the Lalu Hotel (in Chinese 涵碧樓, han bi lou), which is sited on that spot on the lakeside where Chiang Kai Shek had his vacation villa during the 1950s and 1960s. One has to admit, it is the best spot. The lake had been enlarged by the Japanese during the colonial period and by the time of the Kuomintang arrival in 1950 one could get from one village on the lakeside to another only by boat. Chiang built a lake ring road in 1951. We took a boat tour across the lake to the Buddhist temple on the other side (the lower one; there is a bigger one higher up the mountain and a pagoda even further up, which are lit at night--see bottom photo.)


The Lalu is elegance and grace. Every room looks out over the lake; the length of our suite (sitting area and bedroom) was lined with floor to ceiling glass windows/doors to the balcony outside. Marble bathroom with rainforest shower etc etc. The 60 meter pool was "edgeless" so it really did seem (while swimming in it) to connect directly to the lake. (That's me above right in the teahouse, near the pool.)

The hotel had both Chinese and Western restaurants, food was good but best was breakfast buffet (Chinese, Japanese, and western style foods); we ate in the village one night for $10 and had little fried fishes and a delicious local leafy vegetable (likely grown wild) that the indigenous people call guo mao 過貓（roughly translated, over the cat?). The Lalu was the #1 hotel at the lake until recently as it's been surpassed by two new luxury resorts, none with the refined taste of the Lalu, the #1 (based on price) now being a monstrosity just behind the Lalu, with flashing lights, built with Dubai money. At least it is behind us; our view is of the lights of the temple across the lake.