Sun Moon Lake

A vacation journal

Sunday, September 18, 2022  4:45 PM.  We are back from a four day trip to Sun Moon Lake, perhaps the best 4 days of my adult life. We enter our apartment and within an hour are jolted by a strong earthquake, around 6.8. From our 10th floor apartment, this 11-floor building is hula-hooping, and for what seems a long time. We hold each other standing together in a doorway. I remain sanguine and carefully observe the room around me, feeling the structural soundness of the construction - or so I tell myself. When it stops, then I feel the tension in my guts. We laugh: welcome home!

As I type, we have a weaker aftershock. Ten seconds of swaying, and it’s gone.

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Thursday, September 15

We have a good drive here. “Good” in the sense that even though we got lost multiple times, we stayed calm, remembering, hey we’re on vacation! It helped when we finally got the Google Maps voice directions to work.

The lake is gorgeous. The bed and breakfast space where we are staying has one large room with an extensive bathroom area, including a huge soaking tub. Only three units in this building, very quiet.

For dinner we find a recommended local restaurant in a nearby town. Not sure where to park, we pull into an area across the road and ask some older gentlemen hanging out, all wearing the same kind of green shirt. You going there, they nod at the restaurant? Then, sure, here’s fine.

We walk in, it’s an expansive pavilion-like seating area, completely empty but with a lot of bustling going on. The spinning ceiling fans and red pillars remind me of the old Chinese restaurant in the heart of old-town Honolulu. We order a simple feast, consisting of a platter of chicken, three kinds of vegetables, and a ton of rice.

As we indulge in our leisurely meal, the room fills with more and more people, who all seem to know each other. We see the guys from the parking area, and more with the same colors. Soon the Mandarin conversations and human laughter resound off the ceiling and walls, creating a flowing music.

Then the drinking commences, and the decibel level goes up again. I had heard about this - back in the day I had a customer who asked me for vitamins to help him get through business meetings in China, Mexico, and other overseas locales, where success or failure of business negotiations could depend on how well one kept up with the drinking.¹

We and a few families eat our dinners, while the other tables become increasingly uproarious. The politician? businessman? mob boss? who is likely sponsoring this dinner stops at each circular table in turn, and leads a standing toast. Yao thinks he’s a politician. Did they carry him out on a stretcher at the end? Or is alcohol tolerance a major requirement to hold office in Taiwan?

We drive back to Yuchi Township and then walk down to see our lake entering her slumber.

Friday, September 16

We are up early, and head out for our first beautiful Sun Moon Lake hike, on the Maolan Mountain Trail. The sun rises as we climb steeply, past viewing platforms, the tea plantation and research center, and a weather station.

Back at the Bed and Breakfast, we are served a hearty breakfast including bacon, veggies, and a small salad. Unusual but it hits the spot.

Mid-morning, we head out to the lake, and catch a boat.

Across the lake, we take a trolley car up, up, up…

There is an aboriginal village and center up here, which we will visit on a future trip. We find an aboriginal-themed restaurant for lunch. Another huge meal, beef-tofu-onions, veggies, more veggies, and rice.²

We catch the 1 PM boat back here, and try out a long soak in the big bathtub. We rest, shower, and head out for dinner, refreshed. We had some recommendations for best restaurants, but the one we chose turned out to have moved. We settle on a small local place (as opposed to the restaurants next to the lake meant for tourists). Sidewalk seating, family run, the weather is perfect, and we enjoy another meal in languid vacation time, as the evening sky slowly releases layers of light into shade.

Back at the ranch, we crawl into bed and watch Escape from Alcatraz, starring a young Clint Eastwood.³ That movie came out a few years after I moved to San Francisco, and back in those days it was not uncommon to hear some guy claim he had seen Frank Morris - especially as the bar approached closing time. Sure thing, sparky.

Saturday, September 17

Again we arise early and head out. Yao leads now, early morning spider webs trailing from her hair in the morning light.

We hike long, up to a platform to watch the sunrise over the tea rows layered below us. We try to follow a 5 kilometer loop but get lost 3 or 4 times, so walk 7.2 km. Legs are still tired from yesterday’s exertion.

The trail is gorgeous, with a Muir Woods feel, familiar to me from when I lived off Panoramic Highway in Mill Valley and trekked down the back trails into the park. We lose count of how many beautiful bridges we find as we tramp across little creeks and ravines.

We ask for directions five times from five different friendly people. One guy had driven here from an hour away, just for the morning hike and sunrise. A truck passes us on the trail, a few locals hanging out the back, calling “Zao!” Laughter.

Back at the Bed and Breakfast, another fine breakfast: smoked pork, scrambled eggs, steamed broccoli and carrots, tofu and onions, and as always, a cup of the famous black tea from this area.

Back in the car, we spend the rest of the morning cruising the leisurely drive around the lake, stopping here and there.

For lunch, we drive to a nearby town to look for a recommended Vietnamese restaurant but there is a long line, and the wait is too long. We try a nearby Japanese restaurant. I have a Unagi rice bowl, filled with unheralded surprises. The tiny place is run by a couple, and Yao talks with the wife. They lived in ‘the city’ (Taipei City) for some years, but finally moved back to Yuechi for a quieter lifestyle (running a restaurant!), and better weather. Probably also the people are more to their liking.

Before dinner, we do another soak. For dinner we finally give in and walk down to the waterfront to dine in a tourist restaurant. As we step in off the street, I see a frail grandmother sitting on a stool, a Buddha-like gatekeeper, taking in everything, as if blessing each and every person there. Most people don’t notice her. We smile at each other. The food is OK but the view is spectacular!

That night before sleep we lay in bed and watch Bullet Proof Monk, in Mandarin with English subtitles, as God intended.

Sunday, September 18

We’ve had four days of perfect weather. No rain, not too hot, not too cold.

Instead of driving to another trailhead (we have a 3-hour drive ahead of us), we head down to the lake and start walking in the other direction.

This morning we come across a few more surprises to cap a memorable four days.

We have our last breakfast here, and then hit the road.

1. Twinlab had a formula that worked well.

2. This reminds me of my old friend Marek, who hailed from Poland. I met him when I managed a store in Mill Valley, California back in the early 1980s, he and his family were customers. A few years later we both ended up in the Los Angeles area, two divorced guys, me in Venice Beach and he working as a live-in assistant to a famous business consultant along the coast.

When I bailed on SoCal, Marek was house-sitting a mansion in Beverly Hills, so I hung out with him for a week before heading north. We passed the time swimming in the pool, hanging out in Melrose Avenue sidewalk cafes, dining at a Mexican restaurant listening to heroic Mariachi singers, and going to the obligatory strip club, sitting in the front row drinking shots of Tequila and pretending to be movie studio executives (and fooling no one).

One evening, Marek cooked dinner, frying up some steaks and tofu. I began to recite to him the nutrition gospel that proscribes mixing two major sources of protein like that, and he finally blew up, telling me to STFU, and just eat it and see for myself. Of course, it was fine, and delicious, and then I started noticing beef/tofu combination dishes in many Chinese restaurants. “"It's not what we don't know that hurts. It's what we know that ain't so."

3. We never watch TV in our bedroom at home. Vacation!