From Taipei to Kenting

To experience Taiwan you have to go around the island since culture and climate changes quite a lot from north to south. So we went on tour again and were already curious about the tour guide and our fellow travellers.

The guide turned out to be very funny, although sometimes unintentionally because of his exaggerated carefulness. The group consists of 14 people from Malaysia, China and the US. That's great since it's always fun to have such a diverse international group!

The tour guide talked a lot about the country on the road making the trip interesting and we had a lot of fun getting to know the other groupmembers and talk with them.

Parts of our fun tourgroup

Our first destination was already one that we were looking forward to for a long time. The scenic sun moon lake.

But first we drove to a very nice restaurant on the way and had a very rich lunch with locally grown water bamboo dishes and interesting, very tasty, new and formally unknown dishes - great experience.

We arrived at sun moon lake and without much waiting directly hopped on a boat and drove to the island in the middle of the lake. What a beautiful scenery there, the small island is a popular wedding location, we can totally understand why it must attract a lot of young couples because of its beauty. Unfortunately we couldn't get on the island as it is very fragile after a major earthquake a couple of years ago.

Our boat - can you see the hello kitty on the top? ;)

Soon we drove on to a tao temple on the other side of the lake where I bought some betel nuts on the way since there was a lot of rumor about strengthening effects ;) I tried them and they are definitely NOT tasty, not sure on any of the promoted other effects though. Hard to believe that anybody can get addicted to it....

The following picture is interesting since we actually do not know the other people on it. Quite often when we walked around other people asked us to get on a picture with them, we wonder why and guess that not too many Europeans can be found around here so it seems we are a sight on its own :)

On a peninsular largely visible from most places around the lake is a beautiful pagoda which was our next stop. Up the hill leads a small path through dense jungle with absolutely amazing wildlife (butterflies, lizards, birds, ...). This spot would definitely be worth an episode on the discovery channel!

Particularly the lizards don't seem to be shy and even seemed to pose for pictures

Finally we climbed up the pagoda to ring its bell and enjoy the great view on such a beautiful day.

On top of the pagoda

In front of the pagoda together with our new friend from the US

As a last stop of the day we visited a large and impresisive confucius temple on the way back to the hotel.

Impressive temple guard

Really enjoyed the marvellous dinner at night at the hotel's terrace facing the lake!

On the hotel's terrace before leaving again in the morning

On the next day we headed further south to Kaohsiung where we visited the love river.

It turned out the "love" river got its name for marketing only since it is rather murky and stinky, the name is clearly misleading so we drove on quickly to get some food on the night market (which turned out to be the 1st market we've been to that is not just touristy, but already calls itself "tourist night market"). It was amazing, that nearly every stand offered some other kind of food. Sadly sometimes the food was still alive when being put on the grill :(

Day 6

Today's highlight: Kenting National Park! This is said to be a highlight on every Taiwan tour since Kenting offers a lot for every perfect holiday. Beaches, rainforest, diving, etc.

Park sign at the entrance

And it seems to keep up to what is promised...

Great coastline!

As said the climate here on the southest tip of Taiwan is different. Currently (it's April) we have already 31° Celsius! Hence many asians protect their bright skin from the sun using an umbrella.

Umbrellas help against the heat

Because it's so nice: again the coastline

That was the trip down to the south, currently we are already on the way up to the north again and will update soon!