After the lunch, we drove down for another 10 minutes to Puli Brewery, 埔里酒厂 for a quick 20 minutes exploration of the place.
This place was once severely ruined during the devastating 921 Earthquake in 1999 but has now become a “tourism winery” after years of reconstruction.
Puli Brewery mainly produced glutinous rice wine, rice wine, taibai liquor, and sake in the early years. After which, they started to use the high quality spring water from Ailan Plateau to produce Shaoxing wine.
Me carrying the urns of 女兒紅.
According to traditional Taiwan customs, Many parents would bury many urns of Shaoxing wine underground when there was a newborn in the family. If it was a daughter, they waited until the day their daughter got married, and these urns of wine became dowries known as “daughter brew (女兒紅).” If it was a son, it will be used to celebrate his passing the highest imperial civil service examination by drinking up all these “scholar brew (狀元紅).
We got a bottle of Natural Coconut Milk from one of their shops. It tasted weird when we first drank, but as we drank, we started to get used to the taste and find it nice.
We left Puli Brewery at 1.40pm and proceed to our next destination, Sun Moon Lake, which was about 25 minutes drive away.
Puli Brewery
No.219, Sec. 3, Zhongshan Rd., Puli Township, Nantou County
We reached Sun Moon Lake at about 2.10pm after 25 minutes of car ride. We went to purchase our round-trip ferry ticket from Harbor Resort Yacht at NT$300 (or $13.89) per pax. Do note that the last ferry ride is 5pm and every interval is 15 mimutes.
We headed for Shuishe Pier, the starting point of Sun Moon Lake.
Sun Moon Lake is Taiwan's largest lake located in the mountains of Nantou. The name of the lake is inspired from the unique terrain that looked like a sun on east side and a crescent moon on the west. Sun Moon Lake is crowned as one of the Eight Wonders of Taiwan. It is also home to the Thao tribe.
Sun Moon Lake is a scenic place surrounding the mountainous view, it brought a state of serenity spending the moment here. Seeing beautiful scenery in a foreign country always lifted up my mood, leaving me feeling awe about how big the world is and how beautiful is the nature.
We were waiting to board the ferry that will bring us to Xuanguang Pier, which was about 15 minutes ride away.
The first thing we did when we reached Xuanguang Pier was to drop by to buy the famous tea leaf egg from Jin Men Ah Ma Cha Ye Dan 金盆阿嬷香菇茶葉蛋. It was a prominent stall with long queue forming, it's a must try.
1 tea leaf egg is selling at NT$13 (or $0.60).
We stopped by at the side of the pathway to finish our tea leaf egg before continuing our journey.
Finding peace in looking at the scenery ahead. In Taichung, everywhere looks so attractive and quaint. Standing at this spot eating the tea leaf egg has become a joy.
We climbed the steps and reach Xuanguang Temple, 玄光寺.
This temple pays tribute to the holy monk in the Tang dynasty, Monk Xuanzang. We always known him as the monk from Journey to the West. Monk Xuanzang's remains were moved to the Xuanzang Temple after the temple rebuilding. It was a 20 minutes hike up to Xuanzang Temple, 玄奘殿. The trail is also known as Pilgrim Path.
Beware, on the way to the temple, you will meet Falun Gong practitioners.
It was not an easy task for me to hike up to the temple, it was so exhausting. I really need more training on my stamina.
We climbed up to the third level to see the relics of Xuanzang. Xuanzang Temple has a serene healing power. I managed to catch a breather and recuperate from the tiring hike.
The inspiring view from the top, the sky was so clear without any cloud. The clear blue sky and deep blue sea made a spectacular sight.
Down slope trail. Going down is always easier than going up.
We then took the ferry to the next pier, Ita Thao Pier.
Ita Thao is the origin of Thao people. Tribal life is almost extinct now as there are fewer than 800 Thao people around Sun Moon Lake. A visit to Ita Thao brought us a cultural experience combined with yummy aboriginal goodies. I got a bottle of Sea Bird Nest cube, 养生海燕窝 for mummy. Price is definitely costly than outside, but this comes with a container bottle. Hence, I bought it from here.
We got another sausage at NT$50, second sausage of the day.
Ah Kun initially wanted to bring us to a famous sky bridge but the sky has turned dark so we proceed to Xing Yue Tian Kong, 星月天空 which was also near the bridge. It was 1 hour 10 minutes drive away from Sun Moon Lake to Xing Yue Tian Kong.
The entrance ticket was NT$100 (or $4.63) per pax. Do keep the ticket because it can be used to offset NT$50 if you purchase food items from their restaurant.
The place was located at the highest point of the Bagua Mountain that offers beautiful natural landscape. Being at the highest point, the wind was so hash and temperature was dropping to 9°C at night. My clothes were not enough to withstand the cold, I was trembling all when I was here. This was also why I took very little photo throughout because my hands were seeking shelter inside my pocket.
Can you believe that the time now was only 6.30pm?
It felt like it was already 9pm as the city was pitch dark. The early sunset has made our day so short.
The well-designed park is home to many freely roaming animals such as parrots, sheeps, alpaca and pelican.
We were a bit hungry so we went to buy a slice of cake from their restaurant at NTS120. We used our ticket to offset and got the cake at NT$70 (or $3.24).
星月天空
540, Taiwan, Nantou County, Nantou City
Operating hours: 5pm to 12am from Monday to Friday, 11am to 12am on weekend
After finishing the tour of the park, we went back to our hotel to unload our loots and freshened up. It was already 8.10pm and we were famished. We decided to visit the night market that was 12 minutes walk away from our hotel, Zhongxiao Night Market.
This night market is not the usual night market, it was more like a food street that focus solely on foods.
Most of the food here come in a satisfying portion at a cheap price, we stopped by at this eatery for dinner.
Our simple dinner. I ordered the chicken rice, I don't really like it because it has many fatty skin.
Not feeling satisfied, we stopped by at this stall, 碳烤吐司, to purchase the bacon and egg grilled toast at NT$40 (or $1.85).
The toast was slowly grilled on charcoal fire and then sandwich with the ingredients. It seemed quite nice and queue were forming, we can't wait to try.
Though this may looked simple, it tasted delicious. The toast has a bit of crunchiness while the scrambled egg and meat quality was good. No wonder it was well loved by the local and tourists. We enjoyed the toast so much that we went back to buy a second toast before heading back to our hotel.
Having our second toast on the way back to the hotel.
Day 2 has come to a close, I was feeling lethargic, time to head back and rest. Stay tuned for more Taiwan adventure that is coming up soon.
Good night.
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