14 Dec 2011
There are 12 aboriginal tribes in Taiwan, with the Thao tribe being the one found in Sun Moon Lake area. Ita Thao is a settlement for the Thao aboriginal people and is also now a shopping area cum a place to board the boats for a cruise on the lake. The picture below shows the 12 aboriginal tribes of Taiwan, with their native dress.
From Wenwu Temple, our taxi took us to Ita Thao. My original plan was to have the taxi bring us round the lake to visit various points of interest around Sun Moon Lake. Noticing the speed limit on the round-the-lake road, I think this was not feasible given the time limitation and our plan to reach Cingjing before dark.
So, we took the shuttle boat which runs on a 30 to 45 minutes schedule and makes stops at popular attractions round the lake, namely Syuanguang temple, Shueishe Pier directly across the lake and then back to Ita Shao. Taking the shuttle boat also gave us a chance to enjoy a cruise on Sun Moon Lake. The boat cruise cost 300NT per person. There were many operators all offering similar or the same deals. We bought our tickets with the help of our taxi driver. The next boat was scheduled to depart Ita Thao at 1.30 PM, so I took some photos at the pier while waiting for the boat.
A tour guide on the boat told us that the Tea Boiled egg is a “must try” at the Syuanguang Temple Pier which was our next stop. There is only one stall selling the eggs, so it was impossible to get it wrong. In any case, the photo below shows the name of the stall.
Everyone in the family had an egg (10 NT per egg served in a plastic bag). The eggs came straight out from the boiling pot and were too hot to de-shell and eat immediately. With the eggs in the plastic bag, we walked up the steps towards the temple. At the halfway mark, we stopped at a rest point to consume the eggs. They were nicely flavoured and delicious.
Syuanguang Temple is to honour a famous Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk. By order of the Tang emperor, he was sent to India to seek Buddhist scriptures. His relics are enshrined here.
If the figure above looks familiar, it is because this is the monk featured in the “Journey to the West” Chinese classic literature. There was also a stone figure of the travelling monk near the pier.
This is the place where a good view of Sun Moon Lake, Shueishe Dam, Lalu island and Shueishe Pier could be seen. A stone sign with the 3 Chinese words “Sun Moon Lake” is a popular photo-stop and one would normally need to queue to have a photo taken with the stone. But no queues today (probably because similar stones are now erected all over the lake).
There is a trail that leads up to the Xuanzang Temple and then Cien Pagoda. We did not take a hike on the trail since our taxi driver told us it is faster for him to drive us to the Pagoda when we come back to Ita Thao.
We then made our way down to the pier to wait for the next scheduled shuttle boat. We bought another 2 eggs to share and some drinks. A busker was playing popular Taiwanese or Chinese pop songs by the pier. His white Pomeranian was friendly and photogenic too.
Our next destination on the shuttle boat cruise was the Shueishe Pier, located directly across Sun Moon Lake. The shuttle boat passed by close to Lalu Island for us to get a close-up look at it. The island is reserved for aboriginal religious practices. Therefore the public is not allowed to visit the island.
Shueishe Pier seemed busier compared to the Ita Thao Pier. Many vendors were selling tickets for cruises around Sun Moon Lake. There were several restaurants, souvenir shops and hotels. After walking around the town which was quite small, we had lunch at a restaurant in the Harbour Resort Hotel, located next to the pier.
The restaurant offered a nice view of the lake, pier and featured tables with black marble table tops and chairs covered with black croc-skin leather. The restaurant serves traditional Thao style dishes.
The featured set meal was well presented and included a rice millet wine, wild boar meat, and side dishes comprising crispy shrimps, bamboo shoots and dessert.
We also ordered other set meals with ostrich meat, stewed beef and cod fish as the main items. Food quality was average but I must give them a high score for presentation. The set meals included hot red tea which was served in bamboo cups carved with traditional Thao tribesman’s face.
The black marble table surface provides an opportunity to take a creative photo below.
After lunch, we bought some souvenirs and then board the shuttle boat back to Ita Thao. On the way back, we could see the Xuanzang Temple and Cien Pagoda, against the backdrop of the mountains, from the boat.
Back at Ita Thao, we walked around the town to look at the various stalls and shops selling food, snacks and souvenirs. We realised that the same souvenirs we bought at Shueishe were sold cheaper here.
Interesting souvenir items sold include large seed pods from a local tree upon which were carved with meaningful Chinese words. The picture above shows the giant brown seed pods at one of the stalls in Ita Thao.
Once we had enough of walking around Ita Thao, we linked up with our taxi driver again. Puli is a town that we would be passing by on our way to Cingjing, where we would stay for 2 nights. We consult our driver on interesting places to visit in Puli. He suggested the chocolate factory and the winery.
After a time check, we decided to skip the Cien Pagoda and told our taxi driver to take us straight to Puli instead. We had enough of temple visits in one day and the Puli winery would be more interesting for the boys.
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