Day 2 - Shui Li, Sunny

We woke up at 845am, in time for the free breakfast provided by the hotel. It was a simple breakfast with toasts, eggs, plain porridge, dumplings and some other side dishes It was edible, phew. So far, nothing not nice in Taiwan yet. Then, we packed and checked out of the hotel.

Next destination - Sun Moon Lake at Shui Li. We took a cab to Taichung train station and cost us $125. Not cheap for that 8km ride! We took the train to Er Shui then changed train to Shui Li. From Shui Li, we took a bus to Sun Moon Lake. The scenery on the train was quite good despite that food can be eaten on the trains, they were clean!! Singaporeans, better wake up your idea!! See how people can still keep their trains clean even when they eat!

Upon reaching Sun Moon Lake, we still had to find our way to our next hotel, which was Jiu4 Guo2 Tuan2 Qing1 Nian2 Huo2 Dong4 Zhong1 Xin1. (http://www.cyh.org.tw) It was actually on top of a mountain! It was very clean there. When we alighted form the bus, a man aged 62 approached us. He asked where we wanted to go and offered us $400 to bring us up to our hotel. Actually, it looked more like those small chalet, not really hotel. It was a mu4 wu1. CP then replied him that the resort also offered transport but only needed $300. The uncle was those chin-chye type, so he accepted $300 and said could fetch us up immediately. Thinking it would be safe (CP said 3 of us could easily fight him off if he did something funny), we boarded his taxi. Btw, Taiwanese are really friendly and polite. It was really different form the arrogant and rude people in Sg, esp. those people taking MRT, they dunno what is called li3 rang4!! The taxi driver even showed us his medal for being a responsible driver for never had a summon or driving penalty. He also offered to bring us around Sun Moon Lake the next day and willing to transport us to our next destination, but for a cost of $3000. We would consider.

We checked in our room and changed into some light clothings. We each rented a bicycle and wanted to explore the mountain. However it was already 530pm and need to return the bicycle before the sky turned dark. So we only visited 2 places - the Butterfly Park and Shui3 Wa1 Tou2. Riding on the bicycle was so tiring!! All the slopes and oncoming cars!! OMG. My legs ached man!! The Shui Wa Tou was great. Could see the whole lake and the sunset was very beautiful. The Butterfly Park was so-so.

Hungry and exhausted, we headed back to the resort by 7pm where the sky was only leaving 10% brightness. We walked into the restaurant there and was shocked by the prices! Needed almost $380 for a meal!! Hence, we decided to buy bowl noodles. I bought beef noodles, a packet of chips and an ice-cream. Cost? $70 only!!


Came across these 3 packs of Lay's chips. See the flavour? Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork and Crispy Crab flavours!!

Without even bathing, we cooked our mee and gobbled it down, while silly JH bathed first. While eating, we watched TV. The Taiwan programmes were really great! So many channels and different kinds of shows. The variety shows on the different channels could easily entertain anyone!

After further discussion, we decided to call the taxi uncle and engaged his services. Though much more expensive, we could actually stop at many places around Sun Moon Lake which was very inaccessible by bicycle. And Also, we need not carry the bulky luggage with us. Can put in the car mah!! Need to wake up early tom! Rest for day 2!