weekend spent surrounded by nature

Last weekend (March 6-7) I traveled to Sitou and Sun Moon Lake, which are located in centralish Taiwan in Nantou County. I went with other exchange students, most of whom are also in the College of Management. We rode in a coach bus, which essentially was a party bus--equipped with KTV (karaoke), surround sound, microphones...and best of all, the seats were extremely cushy, plenty of leg space, and I could lean the chairs back :) After a windy road up the mountains, we arrived in Sitou 溪头. NTU owns part of the mountain, which is pretty cool. Thus, it was free for us to enter the park/hiking trail. Here are some photos from the (painful--too many stairs, and it was icky humid!) nature walk on Saturday:

those are trashcans! thought they looked funny

On Sunday, we visited a temple that was devastated by a powerful 7.6 earthquake 10 years ago. The temple is located in the epicenter of the 9/21/99 earthquake. It's scary to see damages by such a massive earthquake. I've never seen anything quite like this. I even got a peek of the rubbles of the interior of the temple. 

 武昌宮 Wu Chang Temple

Later we headed to Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 area. We first stopped at a beautiful temple that overlooked the lake.

that's all made of paper!

look at the ceiling! it is amazingly detailed and colorful.

you write your wishes and/or blessings on these things.

this guy was quite an attraction. he even posed for me haha.

Then, we had a delicious traditional/aboriginal Taiwanese lunch by the lake. The food was pretty interesting. They really like to cook with bamboo! Afterward, we rode a speed boat in the lake, which was a bit nausea-inducing, but after one dramamine, I felt much better. Sun Moon Lake is most beautiful during sunrise and sunset. Unfortunately we wouldn't have made it to either, but the lake is beautiful nonetheless. I hope to go again to see the sun set.