My mom and I now understand why the other half live the way they do. A trip to Sun Moon Lake in Central Taiwan was arranged for us for today and tomorrow and just mom and I went because dad had to work. Our trip began with dad getting us mocha’s in the morning and the car that picked him up to go to the hospital also picked us up to take us a few blocks away to the Taipei Railroad Station. He dropped us off and we said goodbye to dad and we were off to find the HSR bullet train below the station. When we finally found the track they did not allow us down, so we waited on top with a few other people for them to open up the train for us to board. Exactly 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave, they open the train and we were allowed to find our seats and get settled! We were in a reserved car, #6, and had seats.
At exactly 8:54am, the train began to move and we were off speeding away. We were in the business class car and so during the one hour ride, we were served a few snacks and something to drink. It was such a quick ride that we didn’t have time to do much else besides for look at the countryside with the rice patties and the few towns and the many mountains.
We got off at the Taichung Station, where as we were coming down the escalator to the exit of the station the person picking us up called us to let us know where he was. He met us a few minutes later and took us to a black Mercedes private car with a female driver.
He told us a little bit of our itinerary for tomorrow and said today was full as well, but didn’t say exactly what we were doing. And then as quickly as we arrived, we were whisked off. Our driver was very nice, but didn’t speak much English. We drove for about ½ an hour and then she handed us a piece of paper that said, Earthquake memorial park from the landslide. We have two Taiwan travel books and I have read the area where we were planning on going to a few times in both books and neither of the books mentioned anything about this, so it was wonderful to go to a place that no one else knew about it. We were on a large highway for quite some time and then got off the highway and onto tiny, windy roads. This Park was high up in the mountains on a single lane (two way) curvy, steep, fun road to drive! I definitely was wearing my sea sickness bands for this one. We arrived at the memorial and our driver told us in her little English to walk up the hill.
So we got out of the car and started hiking up a very steep paved trail not really knowing where we were headed to. We keep hiking and hiking and took a few photos along the trail until we reached the top, where there was a house the was completely flattened on the edge of a ravine. We realized that the ravine was caused from the earthquake and the house (as we learned later) had moved 300 meters from where it once stood to the area where we were. The earthquakes epicenter was right where we were- it happened on September 21, 1999 and it was a 7.3 on the Richter scale. There was a huge landslide as well and many people died and even more were displaced from their homes. We walked back down the hill to the car and she took us even higher up the mountain to a place where the man in the shop told us some more information about what happened, all in Chinese, and then we went to the actual memorial, which we discovered was actually this man’s home that had moved all the way down the hill and landed where the memorial is now.
He was inside the house during the earthquake and survived. It was very interesting seeing this site. When we were ready to leave, our driver opened the doors for us and we were on our way again. This time the driver pointed at a monastery on a map and said that’s where we were going next. It didn’t seem that far away on the map, but 25 minutes later we arrived at the largest building I have ever seen: the Chung Tai Chan Monastery.
I also had never heard of this place and it was not in any of our guide books. Our driver said it would take us about an hour or two and she should be waiting for us. Neither mom nor I thought it would take us very long to explore the grounds, but wow, were we wrong. We walked in under a huge gate and went into the museum where we received some information about the grounds. Even though there were many mainland Chinese tourists there (from the 20 or so buses parked out front), we immediately felt a sense of calm and relaxation as we entered the grounds. It is hard to describe in words here but it was a wonderful feeling. The main building was the largest building I have ever been in and the statues were gigantic and meticulously carved.
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| Mom was asked to photograph this woman and her husband and we later found out she was 103 years old and still is wonderful shape! |
We walked all around in awe and calm of the place. We even went to a bell pavilion where we made a vow and a wish and then we rang the bell. It was so soothing.
The guidelines for practicing mindfulness in daily life according to the Chung Tai are: To our elders be respectful, respect subdues arrogance; To our juniors be kind, kindness dispels anger; With all humanity be harmonious, harmony overcomes rudeness and violence; In all endeavors be true, truthfulness eradicated deceit.
I think mom and I decided that we could go to a Buddhist retreat somewhere and really enjoy it. The rest of the buildings had more statues and were “enlightment” halls with huge Buddhas.
After almost 2 hours we returned to our black Mercedes and were told it was lunch time. She drove us about a mile away to a Buddhist restaurant where we went upstairs and were seated. They did not speak much English, but enough to help us order some dumplngs, a little soup and some fried tofu with veggies. It was the best food we’ve had so far on this trip. We couldn’t finish all of it, so they gave us a to go box and we ate the rest of it for dinner tonight.
When we finished our leisurely lunch, our driver said we were going to a Chocolate factory. Mom and I got very excited because we have not had chocolate since we’ve been here. About 15 minutes later we arrived and our driver came with us to buy some chocolate. Even she bought some. We bought some 99% dark chocolate bars and some chocolate ganache that is delicious and melts in your mouth. Mmm, I’m salivating just thinking about it! When we bought the chocolate they put little ice packs in with them so they wouldn’t melt- very thoughtful.
By this point in the day, it was almost 4pm and we were getting to be quite exhausted. Our driver said we were heading towards Sun Moon Lake now and about 15 minutes later we saw water. The road to Sun Moon Lake and around it reminds us of the Amalfi coast road- windy, small, a bit scary at times and busy. We had no idea where we were staying so every time we passed a hotel, we thought that may be ours. At the top of a hill, we came to a stop and our driver told us we were at a Temple. We got out and explored this magnificent temple and were even able to stand on the roof to take some photos.
Finally we were headed to our hotel, which we still didn’t know what it was until we were right in front of this beautiful log hotel directly on the water called the Richforest Hotel. I’ll let some photos tell the story for this one as I’m almost too tired to write anymore.
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| One of the views from our balcony. The hotel is sitting on the water. |
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