Day11:So Long Sun Moon Lake, Meet the Betelnut Beauty

     This morning I woke up early than I normal did because I wanted to see the sunrise over the lake. To a person like me who lives most of her time in the city jungle, it would be a precious chance to see this kind of natural scenery. But I was disappointed due to the overcasting sky. Well, I had to make the best of the day by enjoying the trip no matter how the weather was.     

Our room had a great view to see the lake.

Walking out of our hotel which was in the aboriginal village, there was a wharf for ferries crossing the lake and also tourist boats.     

The air was fresh and there was no noise only the sound of the small waves. 

The village still slept. Only the early birds and scenic hunters walked around on the wharf.

The most interesting thing about traveling was to meet locals or other tourists and share their life experiences. My husband and I came across a man fishing. We started chatting. He showed us his homemade bait.   

Day 10: Art Appreciation, Natural Destruction, and the Tranquility of Sun Moon Lake

     Leaving the slow path of the ancient capital, we were heading to the central county of Nantou which is the only county which doesn't have any border with the oceans. It would take us around three hours to drive to our destination Sun Moon Lake from Tainan. We would stop in two places Mingjien and Chichi townships on our way to Sun Moon Lake.       

 Visiting the woodturning master Chen, Maohui in Mingjien 

     Master Chen is the most famous woodturning master in Taiwan. He apprenticed at a wood lathing factory for 2 years after gradated from a junior high school at the age of 15 years old. He began with making Christmas ornaments and pool cues. Later on his major work was to make wood railings. Fortunately the wood railings industry was gradually declining. His business took a hit; however, god has always opened a door for hard working and talented people. One day someone came to Mr. Chen's workshop and asked him if he could make a wood vase for him.  Mr. Chen took the challenging job and finished it with his wood working skill. The patron was very happy with his work. After that, more patrons asked him to do many different style of wood objects. His fame spread out in the art fields. He modified his style gradually and worked his way up to be a woodturning master.      

Taken by Ann
He started his art work with decayed or rotten wood. His friends or patrons laughed at him and didn't believe those woods were workable. He proved his profession and skill to those people who didn't believe in him at first. In his philosophy, any wood serves functionalbility or beauty. It only depends upon the creator's mind and idea to make it alive. A piece of junk wood in an ordinary person's mind became a beautiful artwork under his hands and idea.   

 Master Chen Maohui with his artworks--Taken by Ann

Picture was taken by Ann at his show room 

Taken by Ann
At the beginning, he was shy for taking us to his studio because of a big mess at his work area in his studio. We convinced him that any artist workshops are mess as normally when they are creating their artworks. During the decreasing of the wood railing business in Taiwan, he almost sold all his wood lathe machines and only kept the one which was shown in the picture.  It is an old and out of date machine. But it serves him well as a new machines would in his hands.  

Taken by Ann
He explained to us how he used a spindle turning method to work with the wood.  One thing amazed me is that he drew his design on a small area of the wall once he saw the wood he was going to work with. After he finished, he erased all his designs. Sometimes, he competed with time because the textures of the wood would changed due to the turning and cutting of the wood being exposured to the air.     

Taken by Ann
This wood vase was probably 150 cm (59") in height. He made one years ago and sent it to a customer in England. He was very proud of that; most of his patrons don't allow him to inscribe his name on his works. 

Taken by Ann
This wood was awaiting processing and then would become a piece of art or some useful utensils. The artist website: http://mao-hui.smartweb.tw/index.php?module=product&mn=1&catid=11340 

Day 9: The Ancient Capital City Tainan With The Influence Of Holland

     It was time to say good bye to the Kaohsiung city and continue our journey for visiting the oldest city Tainan. It was about an hour drive from Kaohsiung to Tainan. We dropped off our friends Kent and his girl friend at the high speed train station in Zuoying on the way to Tainan because his right knee was getting worse. It was not easy to say goodbye to good companies, but we had no choice over his situation. At least, I knew Kent and his girlfriend enjoyed this trip untill now.   

We stopped at this beach in the outskirt of Tainan. There was an American beach nearby; however, it was gone due to the city development. My husband asked a lot of local people about the exact location, but no one could give a correct answer. We stood here listening to my husband talked about the history of American military stationed in Tainan. 

This was a tourist service center. It was built by a former city mayor who was in jail, because the mayor didn't apply for a permit to build it. So, it would be taken down soon because of the legal issue. That was surpriseing news to me.  

Day 8: Visiting Air Force Museum, Lotus Lake, and Chengcing Lake

     It was sunshine in Kaohsiung. Our first stop was visiting Ganshan Air Force Museum which is open to the public only on Sat. and Sun. We had three gentlemen who were retired USAF and were stationed in Taiwan during the Vietnam War. They were interested in visiting the museum. So here we were. 

Picture from Taipei Air Station
This is the front gate of the Ganshan Air Force Base and the Air Force Academy along with the Air Force Museum.    

Picture is from Ann & Ted
There were some fighter jets displayed outside of the museum. The sun was very bright and it was not my cup of tea to see those fighterjets, so I along with the other ladies were waiting for the gentlemen at the souvenir shop. 

Day 7-- Kenting National Park to Chijen, Kaohsiung

     Maobitou Park

      We would leave for Kaoshiung and continue our journey toward the north. Maobitou Park was our last stop for our visit in Kenting National Park. This park is also one of the most visit spots in the park. The entire national park is formed by massive coral reefs for millions of years. Maobitou is due to fallen coral reefs which has formed a shape like a crouching cat looking at the ocean. Hence, local residents named itMaobitou which Mao means Cat and Bitou means nose head.     

Vendors sell all kinds of merchandises near the parking lots. 

This look out area is the best place to see the shape of the crouching cat. Also it is at the border of the  Bashi Straits and the Taiwan Straits. 

Day 6 : Kenting National Park

     It was raining when we arrived at the hotel. The hotel was in a remote area which is isolated from the city and there was any other restaurants nearby. Our choice for super was at the restaurant in the hotel. After having simple fried rice and one dish of vegetable and soup, we went to check the outdoor hot springs' pools. There were two pools under canopies and some pools were under the sky. Some Chinese tourists already enjoyed soaking in the hot springs. Because of the rain, my husband and I decided not to go for it. Our friends soaked in the hot springs and told me that they really did enjoy the hot springs. 

This was the view in front of the hotel. We left a little bit later than the Chinese  tourists. So we had a chance to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the place.  

Since we visited the east coast, we had seen this scenery everyday. I liked the fresh and peaceful feeling. 

Pitrure from Ann and Ted
This was the outdoor hot springs pools in the hotel. The hotel website stated that "its hot springs came from a 1460 meter deep underground thermal water. Its quality is more pure than other hotels which hot springs were only from a few hundred meters deep." Every morning, the hotel will open the value of the pipe line which went all the way to the thermal water source in order to clean and maintain the pipe line. If you wake up early, you can see steam come out from the pipe line. 

We had traveled 403 km so far from north down to south on the east coast.  

We would take Highway 9 crossing the mountain to the west towards Kenting National Park, which wad established in 1984. It was the first national park in the southernmost part of Taiwan. It would take us about 3 and half hours driving (121km) without a break on a winding mountain road. So we left a little bit early, but it was still later than those Chinese tourists. Our first stop ten minutes after we left was a 7-11 store for cups of American coffee and snacks to go along with the mountain drive.   

Picture from Taipei Station
We stopped at the Daiwu rest area for our second stop, a pee break and also sightseeing. We were at Daniao village in Dawu township which is an aboriginal territory.   

Day 5 Visiting the East Rift Valley Scenic Area

     We left our hotel in downtown Hualien at 9 am and traveled south to Chiben, in Taitung county for the night. The rain hung in there all day with a light drizzle. It had rained since day one when we started our journey. Well, we all had to learn how to get along with the nature. 

     My husband's friend has a private airport in Hualien. My husband decided to take us to see his friend's airport at the last moment. So, I made a phone call to his friend for visiting his airport. That was not a problem at all. He had his employee waited for us. At the same time he invited all of us for a lunch. The idea was definitively not in our plans. So I had to say no to him. Don't be surprised for this type of hospitality as it is part of the Taiwan culture.   

One of my friend's hangers

His airplanes (picture from Taipei Air Station)