Ita Thao to Jiji

Many views of Sun Moon Lake

It was a leisurely start with breakfast served at 8am. We took our thermos of aeropress coffee down to the dining room and enjoyed our morning coffee with a breakfast of sandwiches, rice roll and toast.  The rice roll was a combination of black rice, egg and pork floss - I’m not sure that any of us managed to eat it all. We chatted to two Australian ladies also travelling around Taiwan but on public transport.

I arranged a later checkout at 11:30 so we could leave our bags in our rooms whilst we went on the Sun Moon Rope Way.  Simon and I wandered down to the pier and through some of the back streets admiring the colourful frog and owl artworks.  We returned to the hotel to meet up with G and headed to the Rope Way to buy tickets for its 10:30 opening. Jonno caught up with us as we were debating whether it was worth doing the 10 minute trip up the mountain as the tops were shrouded in mist, but it looked to be clearing so we decided to buy our tickets and join the queue. It was already snaking back through the food court though the ramps were blocked off.  I wandered outside to take some photos of the cherry blossoms whilst we waited. Around 10:20 the line started moving and within 15 minutes we were in our own private gondola.

The views across the lake and the mountains were still very hazy and it was a little disappointing not to have the glorious views depicted in the brochures.  We had to disembark at the end and join another queue to return back down.  It was possible to visit the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, but all the reviews indicated that it was basically a lame amusement park, so we rejoined the queue, with several hundred school kids for the return trip.  Despite the crowds, the queue moved quickly and we were back at the hotel just before 11:30 in time to change into our cycling kit and check out.

Given the lack of food options on our route to Jiji, we selected a few snacks from the Ita Thao shopping street, including fried cabbage and mushroom rolls, pork bao buns with cucumber and some stuffed chicken wings washed down with a cappuccino and finishing off with a millet donut to share. As we ate our lunch on the pier, the clouds finally cleared, giving way to a warm, sunny afternoon. 

Back on the bikes, we followed the road around the lake, mostly uphill till we reached the Ci’en Pagoda, built by Chiang Kai-Shek in memory of his mother in 1971.  It was a 700 metre climb to the pagoda, with helpful markers to let you know the distance walked so far.  9 stories and 46 metres high, the pagoda sits 1000 metres above sea level and offered lovely views across Lalu Island and Sun Moon Lake.

It was a largely downhill ride from the pagoda, and the road, though narrow, was quiet.  Before long we were leaving Sun Moon Lake and heading down the main road to Shueili.  It was a quick ride down, with very little traffic and we enjoyed the views across the valley.  We stopped at a park next to the Shueili River full of interesting art installations representing Alice in Wonderland and other characters.  It would look amazing lit up at night and we made a special effort to photograph the crabs to share with Jonno.

The road climbed again for another few kilometres and we had arranged to meet Jonno a the Jiji Green Tunnel.  He messaged us to say that it was just a bike path through the trees and not to bother so we headed straight to our accommodation at the Footprint Inn.  We had two lovely, large rooms for around $80AUD each and the hotel seemed very new. 

We enjoyed a couple of beers on the balcony before heading out to a nearby restaurant for dinner - which was unfortunately closed.  There wasn’t much around so we headed towards town and made our way to the night market, fortunately open on Tuesday nights.  It was very quiet and we found a place with tables that served BBQ’d steak or chicken with noodles and an egg, served on a hot plate.  I settled for the chicken but the others had both chicken and steak and we all thoroughly enjoyed our dinner.  We stopped at the 7-11 to pick up some provisions and some ice creams before returning to the hotel.

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