Jiayi and Alishan

After touring Changua, we took a train to Jiayi.  Sofi never served in Jiayi, but it was central to three cities we wanted to visit and there was an AirBnB apartment in town that was large enough for all 6 of us.  This was unusual because the typical Taiwanese family has 2-4 people.  For most of our trip we stayed in 2 hotel rooms. It was great to have a little more room for a few days.  When we got off the train in Jiayi, we saw a tow truck with an attached crane picking up illegally parked scooters.  This same tow truck was at the train station every day we were in town, picking up more scooters

Our apartment was down a small alley and had a balcony that looked out on a different tiny alley.  Gibson liked imagining how he could get from the street to the top of the buildings by climbing on ledges and air conditioning units.

This is a photo outside the entrance to our apartment building.  We loved the plants growing along the alley.  Living in a regular neighborhood felt different from staying in a hotel in a large city.  Everything seemed closer together and with all the signs in Chinese characters, it was hard to differentiate streets.  Brandan and Becky felt brave walking out to a 7-11 to get water one day without Sofi to navigate for us.  We made it back without getting lost.  No one drinks the tap water in Taiwan.  At our hotels, we could get bottled water at the front desk, but staying on our own we needed to buy it.

Sofi was excited for us to try one of her favorite drinks: winter melon tea with boba.  To make the tea, winter melon is boiled down until it solidifies into something like brown sugar.  Cubes of winter melon concentrate are boiled in water to make a sweet brown drink that can be served in different ways.  This drink has milk and boba which are chewy tapioca balls.  We all tried it and none of us are fans.  The flavor is unusual and we didn't like the texture of the boba.  Sofi still likes it, though, as do all the other missionaries we met.

On Saturday we took a bus to Alishan.  "Shan" means "mountain" in Chinese.  Alishan is a national park located high in the mountains of Central Taiwan.  Our guidebook said there are 3 ways for tourists to get to Alishan: ride a restored train powered by steam that takes 4 hours, take a 2 hour bus ride or get a ride with a sketchy granny in her car.  After being followed from the train station by an excessively aggressive sketchy granny and her sidekick, we decided to take the bus.  The bus ride was on a winding road through beautiful scenery.

The center of Alishan is a well developed tourist area with a network of paved trails.  We were surprised by how cool the temperature was.  It was 95 degrees in the city and only 60 degrees in the mountains.

We tried a new dish for lunch: Japanese style rice and curry.  Everyone liked it. 

This lookout point faces Yushan, the tallest mountain in Taiwan at 12, 960 feet.  The peak is hidden behind the clouds.

We enjoyed walking through the forest.  Most of the trails were elevated to protect the trees from erosion.

Here's another part of the path.

Crocosmia bloomed everywhere.

This stone bridge crosses the Alishan River.

This tree is called the Three Generation Tree because it is a tree growing inside a stump which is also inside a stump.

Of course there was a temple at the top of the trail.  Taiwanese religion is a combination of animism, ancestor worship, Buddhism, Daoism and various other gods.  All of the temples look similar on the outside with dragons, phoenixes, snakes and other elaborate carvings made to protect the temple.  On the inside the folk religion temples have lots of different statues, Buddhist temples only have statues of Buddhas and Daoist temples do not have statues.  Many people in Taiwan believe gods are connected to the place where you worship them.  On her mission, Sofi taught people who could easily believe in Jesus Christ, but they thought he was an American god who should be worshipped in America.

We looped around the temple and headed back down the trail.

The beautiful forest reminded us of the Pacific Northwest.  Many of the tree species were similar: cedar, cypress and pine.  The thick understory of ferns and other greenery reminded us of hiking at the Oregon coast.

Changua

Sofi served in two different areas in Changua.  We stopped in the city for half a day so she could show us around.  We had 2 goals: eat a bowl of the best beef noodle soup in Taiwan and visit the giant Buddha overlooking the city.  Our path to the noodle shop led through a market.  The fresh fruit looked amazing.

The fruit stand offered durian, known for being the stinkiest fruit in the world.  Sadly, this fruit was dried out and didn't smell at all.  

This shopkeeper made us laugh with her extravagant compliments.

Sofi lived as a missionary in this large apartment building near the noodle shop.

A foodie member who lived in Taipei and was visiting Changua told the missionaries this shop made the best beef noodle soup in Taiwan.  Sofi hasn't eaten everywhere in Taiwan, but it was the best soup she tried and was one of her favorite lunch spots when she lived in Changua.  The restaurant is down a narrow street and doesn't even have a sign advertising its business.

We ate mango that we bought at the fruit stand while we waited for our soup.  As far as we could tell, every mango in Taiwan is perfectly ripe and delicious.

Beef noodle soup is Taiwan's national dish.  The base of the soup is rich beef broth.  Each bowl of soup is assembled individually with the broth, noodles, tender beef and fresh greens.  The restaurant made the same soup for Helen and Abe using rice instead of noodles.  It's a bit of a trick to eat the soup.  You hold a spoon in your left hand and chopsticks in your right and use the chopsticks to coil the noodles in your spoon.  Or drape them over the spoon.  Or slurp your noodles out of the bowl.  The soup was very delicious, but we could never find the restaurant again without Sofi's help.

We walked by the LDS church which was in the same neighborhood.  The churches are built tall and narrow like the other buildings in Taiwan.

After lunch we climbed a hill to see the big Buddha.  This building was about halfway up.

We climbed many, many stairs and finally made it to the top.  The Buddha is made of 300 tons of concrete and is 100 feet high.  The statue is hollow and we climbed up stairs inside to the level of its shoulders.

Stone lions guard the Buddha.

The traditional Chinese zodiac assigns an animal to each year.  There are 12 animals and the calendar repeats the zodiac animals every 12 years.  Statues representing the zodiac surrounded the Buddha.  Helen was born in the year of the monkey.

Becky was born in the year of the tiger.

Sofi: the year of the ox.

GIbson: the year of the pig.

Brandan: the year of the rat.

Abe: the year of the ram.

There was a large temple behind the Buddha.

The front of the temple was decorated with an elaborate carving of two dragons guarding a pearl.

Inside the temple we had a great view of the Buddha and the city below.

There was a small garden with a koi pond and a traditional pagoda behind the temple.

Taichung and Sun Moon Lake

Sofi served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from June 2017- January 2019.  She was assigned to serve in the Taichung, Taiwan mission.  Sofi loved her mission and the people she served with and was excited to share everything she loved about it with the rest of us. 

We flew into Taoyan, Taiwan in the north of Taiwan, spent the night in a hotel near the airport and took a 2 hour bus ride to Taichung the next morning.  Taiwan is a small country and was very easy to travel around by buses, trains, subways, taxis, scooters(!) and ferries.

The bus dropped us off near the train station in Taichung and we were on our way.  It was a short walk to our hotel.  We didn't realize it yet, but we were lucky to have a sidewalk to walk on.  As we traveled to smaller cities, we learned that pedestrians share the road with the rest of the traffic.  The cars and scooters are skillful at driving around obstacles in their way, including people.  

After checking in to our hotel, we went to lunch.  Sofi never served in the city of Taichung, but she knew about an Italian/Taiwanese restaurant near the mission office that was popular with missionaries called the Bear House.  After eating there, we think it's popular because it's cheap and has the option of serving most of the dishes smothered in melted cheese which might appeal to American missionaries who are missing American food.  Green curry and cheese didn't sound very good to us.  We might have been too tired to appreciate the food, but we appreciated the Italian bear themed decorations.  Notice the Mona Lisa bear next to Brandan.

We stopped by the mission office to meet Sofi's mission president and his wife.  President and Sister Card are from Edmonton, Canada.  

The Card's oldest son is serving a mission in California, Mandarin speaking.  Their other three children are living in Taiwan with them.  Stephanie and Riley are in the photo.  Meeting them helped us appreciate the sacrifices their family is making to serve.  Riley told us about riding his bike and fishing at home in Canada.  The mission home has a tiny yard which is very unusual for Taichung, but a big switch from the freedom to wander he is used to at home.

There was a beautiful park across the street from our hotel.

This is another photo from the park.

We ended the day at a market.  Before our trip we read shopping is Taiwan's national pastime.  We saw outdoor markets everywhere with very low prices and lots of shops for more upscale shopping.  Helen bought sunglasses which she wore the rest of the trip.

Sofi wanted to visit Taiwan in the summertime so we could eat ripe mangoes and go to the beach.  We got our first mango smoothies at this restaurant.  They were delicious and super easy to eat after a long, hot day.

We ate breakfast at our hotel's buffet.  Breakfast in Taiwan looks a lot like lunch or dinner.  We ate noodle soup, rice, steamed buns and fresh fruits and vegetables, all of it delicious.

Luckily we can all use chopsticks!

On Thursday we took another bus ride up into the mountains to Sun Moon Lake.  The back seats were available on almost every bus we took which made it easy for the 6 of us to sit together.

Sun Moon Lake used to be two lakes: Sun Lake and Moon Lake.  The Japanese occupied Taiwan from 1894 to 1945.  During that time, they built a dam that raised the water level so much that the two lakes ran together.  Today it is a popular tourist destination (for Taiwanese tourists-- we really only saw westerners in Taipei and tourists from other Asian countries in the far south of Taiwan.)

Everyone uses boats to get around Sun Moon Lake.

Our first stop was to a trail that led to a Buddhist shrine and overlook.

The characters on this stone say Sun Moon Lake.

The path above the overlook was much less crowded.  We didn't know where the path led, but it was well maintained and had beautiful views of the lake and surrounding mountains.

This funny statue looks like a monkey and a turtle.

Hundreds of pictures of Buddha were tied to this tree.

At the top of the trail was a temple dedicated to Xuanzang, also known as Triptitaka.  Sofi read the classical Chinese novel, Journey to the West, in college last year.  It is a fantastical story with talking animals and magic.  We were surprised to learn Xuanzang was a real person, even if the book is fictional.  He lived in China in the 600s AD.  He was confused by the many different styles of Buddhism in China and set off on a 17 year journey through India and Asia, learning everything he could about Buddhism.  He translated Buddhist teachings from Sanskrit into Chinese and is honored for teaching China how to be Buddhist.  During World War II, the Japanese looted Xaunzang's remains from China.  Japan gave the remains to Taiwan in 1955 (maybe since China was experiencing a cultural revolution under Chairman Mao and Japan didn't trust him with the remains?) and now they are kept in a golden pagoda in the top floor of this temple.  In the photo the kids are standing in front of a map which shows where Xuanzang traveled.  He never traveled to Taiwan while he was alive.

This is the gate to the temple.

This is the entrance to the temple.

Two bronze statues guard the temple.  This is the first.

This is the second.  Tourists were using the umbrellas to block out the sun, not the rain.  

This is a fun turtle detail on the temple.

This is the view of the lake from the patio around the temple.

This is an enormous spider.  It's hard to tell from the photo, but it's larger than a tarantula, only smooth, not hairy.

The trail continued behind the temple to a large pagoda, but we had other things we wanted to see at the lake so we headed down the mountain.

We took another boat to the shopping side of the lake.  Abe said the lake reminded him of Lake Tahoe.  It's a good comparison, a beautiful lake, ringed with mountains, with hotels and shops crammed in to every flat spot.

We stopped for lunch.  This photo captures a common occurrence on our trip: Sofi translating and negotiating with a shopkeeper and then telling Brandan how much to pay.

Sofi warned us before we came, but we were still surprised by how much wheat Taiwanese food has in it.  Finding food for Abe and Helen was a constant difficulty.  Here are two foods they ate over and over for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Helen is eating stewed pork over rice and Abe is eating fried rice.  Luckily both of these dishes are tasty.

After lunch we went shopping.  Before Chinese people first settled here 1500 years ago, Taiwan was home to many indigenous tribes.  After centuries of occupation by the Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish and Japanese, the native Taiwanese were mainly pushed into the mountains.  In modern times, the tribes have been given more rights and respect.  One of the tribes, the Thao, settled near Sun Moon Lake.  This shop sold native crafts.  We don't know anything about the tribe, but their clothing looked like native clothing from South and Central America to us.

A downpour rolled in and we took shelter in on shop.  The rain gave us a reason to pull out the Taiwanese rain ponchos we bought at a 7-11 the day before.  They're called yuyi and are big enough to wear overtop of our backpacks.  We soon caught the last boat to the bus stop and then headed back to Taichung.