Breakfast this time was better; more variety than the day before. There was porridge, sticky fried rice, radish cake, noodles and they even served Western choices such as bacon, sausages, fries, onion rings, and cereal.
We left the hotel before 8.
One hour later, we reached Puli Brewery (埔里酒廠) in Nantou County.
The brewery is famous for producing good quality Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒), a traditional Chinese wine made from glutinous rice and wheat. It is also the first Wine Culture Museum in Taiwan.
The ground floor has a vast display of attractive wine pots, and also a number of shops selling beverages and other local food products - many of which contain alcohol.
Colourful popcorns!
The wine exhibition is on the first floor. As we were running out of time, I quickly breezed through the hall not reading the descriptions on the walls.
The tunnel of wine pots (酒瓮隧道) is the highlight of the place. Here, hundreds of wine pots are arranged neatly on both sides, creating a narrow and tunnel-like passageway.
We were there for only half an hour, as there is nothing much to see.
(How come the sky in Taiwan is always so blue?)
We then proceeded to Wen Wu Temple (文武庙), which is located on the shoulder of a mountain. The temple was constructed after the building of a dam had caused water levels to rise, forcing several smaller temples in the area to be removed. It was built in 1938 and rebuilt in 1969.
The temple faces the north of Sun Moon Lake (日月潭). Such a beautiful view from up here! :') By the way, the weather in this part of the country was not as cold as in Taipei. It was gradually getting warmer as we travelled down south.
My surname :D
From the temple, we walked a short distance to Wen Wu Temple Park (文武庙后山公园).
Next, we went to a place selling ling zhi and other aboriginal food products just 20 minutes away from the temple (I guess places like this are unavoidable when you sign up for a tour. They would vigorously promote their products and the tour guide would get commission when gullible tourists buy the stuff).
This lady explained the difference between ling zhi that is produced naturally in Taiwan and other types of ling zhi, then did a demo on their functions.
She was very humorous so the short lecture did not feel boring at all. She also told us stories behind the photos that are hung on the wall, both of which Mahathir and Lee Kuan Yew's mother are in it! After the talk, we were given ling zhi tea and honey water samples. Bleurgh, the ling zhi tea tasted super weird.
After that, we went back to Sun Moon Lake (I don't know why this weird arrangement) to take some photos and go for lunch at a restaurant situated just a few feet away.
Sun Moon Lake is the largest lake in Taiwan. The east side of the lake is shaped like a sun, while the west side is shaped like a crescent moon, hence the name. The lake surrounds a tiny island called Lalu that actually separates the lake into the two shapes. The area around the lake is home to the Thao tribe, one of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan.
We bought the famous sausages and herbal eggs at one of the stalls near Sun Moon Lake, even though I was already full from lunch (I am such a greedy pig).
We came to a tea plantation (台埔观光茶园) located about an hour away from Sun Moon Lake (I couldn't find the English name for the tea plantation).
Upon arrival, we were given a hat and a basket each so that we could "act" like we were plucking the tea leaves for photo purposes, LOL.
Freshly plucked tea leaves (not plucked by us of course).
These were heated so they were warm. Mmmhm, such fragrant smell of tea!
This guy explained the difference between Oolong tea and green tea, plus other tea-related stuff.
There was a plate of green tea biscuits and green tea kua chi (sunflower seeds) set out on every table.
His helper distributed cups of green tea.
This is yoghurt drink mixed with green tea powder (in the background). The teenagers were given three cups whilst the adults only one because the guy said we need more nutrients, or something like that. Surprisingly the drink tasted alright. I thought it would be too disgusting to swallow but it was okay! Some people did not like it though.
After the free samples and all, they "went in for the kill" (you know what I mean). The guy told us that if we buy one box of green tea, he would give us another free box. But one box is NT$2000 weih. When nobody wanted to buy, he suddenly said he would give us five boxes for the price of two. And he kept changing the numbers until I was confused. It was such a crazy moment! He sounded so desperate I kinda felt sorry for him.
Suddenly, everyone seem to leave the room at the same time and it was just us and the staff. Shit. The lady seemed as though she was forcing us to purchase, by holding the boxes and talking non-stop. It was such a difficult situation. We ended up buying a box and got a free one. Oh well -.-
A one-and-a-half-hour ride took us to Tianliao Moon World (田寮月世界). It is located in Tianliao District, a suburban district of Kaohsiung. The bus did not stop directly in front of the entrance so we had to walk for a bit.
Moon World is famous for its barren terrain landscape similar to the surface of the moon, hence the name. The desolation of the land was caused by a strong erosion of rain over the years due to a "rejuvenation" of the earth's crust. Now, the place is surrounded by schungite clay and rocks.
Despite my smile, it was actually quite depressing to be here.
It was dark when we reached Xinxing District in Kaohsiung but it was not even 6pm yet. The roof at one of the exits of Formosa Boulevard MRT station (美丽岛站), which is known for its Dome of Light (光之穹顶).
Wow. I was awestruck for a second. I never knew a subway station could be so pretty!
The Dome of Light is the largest glass work in the world, made from 4,500 glass panels. It was designed by renowned Italian artist Narcissus Quagliata and took almost four years to complete. The panels were shipped all the way from Germany, and the work was overseen personally by Quagliata himself.
According to a website, the dome tells the story of human life in four chronologically arranged themes: 1) Water; the womb of life 2) Earth; prosperity and growth 3) Light; the creative spirit 4) Fire; destruction and rebirth
After that, it was a few minutes' walk to Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市). Public bikes for rent like these can easily be found.
Liuhe Night Market is the third night market that we visited in three consecutive nights. The night market is just a straight road, which is by far the simplest night market I have visited. Although small in size, it does not lack variety as there are more than 100 stalls!
Our tour guide told us not to miss the papaya milk here so we tried one from a random stall.
Papaya milk and strawberry milk. Not bad!
A stinky tofu stall at the end of the long stretch. This time, I thought it was the smell coming out from a nearby longkang but then I thought of stinky tofu and that was how I found this stall. I'm not kidding when I say the smell is similar to that of a clogged sewage drain. However, when I knew that the stench actually comes from the stinky tofu, it did not seem to bother me much! The smell was also not as bad when I stood near the stall. We bought one pack (I was like YOLO).
Cute hotdogs :D
With chili and cheese sauce.
This type of stinky tofu reeaalllyyy smells. I only managed to gulp down two maximum - I think I would throw up if I ate one more. The longkang smell is so strong even when I'm chewing it. Anyway, it was something different to experience haha! I My mom only tried one. My sister closed her nose the whole time we had this packet, so it was impossible to persuade her to try one small bite. Well, the rest went to my dad.
Do you know which is fake and which is real?
It looks like this after frying it.
Unfortunately, I don't know the name for this. It has oyster, egg, and seaweed inside. I think it's not a common snack, so do try it when you see a stall selling this.
Cheese bun.
Baked prawns.
Xiao Long Bao (steamed soup dumplings).
I was surprised when I saw a dondurma - the name for Turkish ice-cream - cart. If you Google it, you will find that the vendors have a special way of serving the ice-cream to customers. They love to tease the customers by continuously tricking them using a long-handled paddle before finally giving the ice-cream to them. Watch the video below and see how cool it is (and sorry for the portrait view)!
Turkish ice-cream tastes differently than the normal ice-cream. Its texture is not creamy, but sticky and a little chewy. One amazing aspect that sets it apart is definitely its resistance to melting.
We left around 8pm to Hotel Sunshine. Our hotel is just 10 minutes away from the night market.
I love this hotel! So modern yet traditional at the same time. And the fact that we get five pillows each :D
Cool switch!
There is a mini lounge outside our room.
The net probably functions to prevent any items that may drop to hit the (expensive) furniture in the lounge..
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