Sun Moon Lake (Ceh, Meh i Leh)

Three brothers, Czech, Mech and Lech (later two stand for Russian and Polish-say I am kind of Polish also, no?) go into the world from Krapina (where from the Homo Sapiens Krapiniensis is, if you did not know) to make three nations... In Vikipedia you will find on this (about the root of the word Villain): "There is the Croatian legend of the three brothers Ceh, Meh, and Leh, who wanted to get rid of the Roman rule and establish unity in ancient Croatia, but their sister "Villana" was in love with a Roman prefect and betrayed her brothers plot. Villana was killed by her brothers." Croatian version you can see at http://web.tiara.sinica.edu.tw/~miki/Blog/SMoon/clmeh.html
So, this time three Slavic guys met to conquer a hill above the Sun Moon Lake, Mt. Shueishe (2059 m). About the Lake itself see http://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/smlen/main.jsp. One impression I give here - it is the largest lake in Taiwan.

Three foreigners were quite a sight for the aborigines there, I think, usually Taiwanese, Japanese or Korean people visit here. Here are David and Oleg in the stop somewhere near Nantou.

This picture looks as any similar picture from Ohrid, Bled or some similar lake, yes? Atmosphere is also similar, resort-like.

We came friday night and overslept in private accomodation, quite cheap (40 eur all together) and good room in something what at 1st seemed rather obscure-but actual room is in the building behind the front house (left here in the pic), there was an interesting labirint to go there... Very nice owners, speaking English - their son who works in USA was with the visit so we had surprisingly easy conversation, themselves also, surprisingly, although elderly people, were speaking English, probably spent some time in the USA.

The village of Itashao is rather 'uninteresting' (as correctly written in the Lonely Planet)

Entrance to the aboriginal 'village' where from (go straight and then left and almost to the end, until you see the stairs) we started our hike:

1850 stone stairs,

and then few thousands more of wooden ones - which in some places looked as here:

They were a nightmare at descent from the mountain.
Lonely Planet says it is 7-8 hrs return hike, we made it in some 5 hrs. The lake is at some 750m, and the hike was really steep most of the time. Some nice views opened from time to time in the forest:

For the 1st time I managed to take pic of the butterfly-in Taiwan it is really heaven for them. Often I saw big, colorful ones. This was black one, big as a palm:

Hike through the jungle is not my favorite, I discovered.

I prefer rocky views, which are here available only above 3000m, here, thousand meters lower, only glimpse of some rocks under the cover of ground, as we reached the top parts of the mountain:

Proof I was there - notice the dark color of my T-shirt...it is WET, it is not easy to walk in these (sub)tropical areas, really not easy... good way to leave some overweight there.

Beautiful bamboo forest, after the typhoon looking like if some giant would play the game throwing sticks around, was for sure the most striking sight on our hike, we had to pass directly through such 'sticks', this is not some 'side-view':

Descent from the top was really tiresome, and then we still had all the stairs before us:

Even when I am writing this (Monday, and the hike was during saturday!) I feel my leg muscles quite ummmmh! PLEASE do not put STAIRS on hiking trails!
When we came down, we noticed we might easily be cheated:

On the way back we stopped near some newer temple above the lake

It was guarded by this cute elephant in 1:1 measure

That's all folks!

Typhoon Haitang

Short note, as I was doing the same as most of Taiwanese: staying indoors. I did not make any pictures of wild winds or so, as I would not put my head outside, too many things flying around.

Preparations (info by TV) were thorough, and for sure the fact that such force passed relatively smoothly over Taiwan was also thanks to that. In whole Taiwan Mon 18th was "typhoon day", free of work. And be sure nobody was to go out, it was raining like hell.
I have only some pics after the typhoon, made from the bus near Hsinchu. Otherwise rather empty rivers became full of water (these are pictures of different rivers, going down from the mountains south of Hsinchu to the sea):

And when I say that they were "almost empty" I mean it, there are just some traces of water usually. I will add here some of the 'usual' state pictures, when I make them, that you'd be able to compare. Now I understand why they need such high and long bridges accross otherwise empty rivers.
Some of the rice fields also got a bit more water than usual:

On the streets usual views, lots of parts of the trees, various material from the buildings or so... but this you know from the TV. It was too much raining that I'd do some such pictures, I was rather trying not to become completely wet.

Here something not related to typhoon: usual view in the streets here (at rush-hour or weekends), record one I saw was with 5 member family!

Sunday in Lugang

or Lukang, sure, not to be too simple :-0. This fishermen willage, near Changhua City, grew to pitoresque town, and thanks to its temples became one of touristic attractions. Tourism is still developing here as an industry.
With the friend we attacked it in 40 cels heat and full tropical sweat, ufff. That is also the reason we went into literally every temple, and even a museum, to find shadow and air-conditioned space.
About Lugang it is possible to find lots of materials in the Internet, you can start from http://www.lukang.gov.tw/index-english.htm .
We started our sightseeing with Mai-Zou (=Incense, as the smoke of burning incense has never stopped inside) Temple,

or (as everything here has so many names) Tianhou (=Skies) Temple, which is the oldest and most known temple of the Goddess Matsu. I must say that The Lady, also called The Holy Mother from the Maizou Skies, is indeed impressive figure, with an air of calm serenity. Real, authentical Goddess of the Sea - Lugang was fishermen village.

People are praying and burning incences,

or burning 'false money'-yes, LOTS of such money is burnt here!

The bell:

Courtyard behind the main temple is also interesting:

Usual lively style of such temples, pressed into the narrow streets

About Matsu and Lugang you can find quite a lot in Internet.
We moved on, to find some air-conditioned space, and it was the 'Lukang Folk Arts Museum'. This building was the residence of a wealthy local landholder named Ku Hsien-jung. It was donated as a n exhibition place for a large collection of artifacts. The owner was rich merchant who was colaborating with Japanese duting the occupation, helping their advance in China. The building which hosts the museum, his residence, is itself interesting view in this city:

Inner courtyard is in shadow, and some rikshas found safe haven there:

The garden-with mandatory flag

In front of the building are these funny 'guys':

After some 2 hours the heat slowly calmed down (means closer to 30 then 40 cels) and we continued our wandering around. Interior of one old temple was in renovation, but the building itself is an essence of The Temple:

Here is one smaller after the renovation:

This one is magnificent-also after the renovation (after the earthquake in 1999, which was big catastrophy for most of Taiwan):

Inside is carwed wood...in gold, even the renovated baroque church does not reach this level of shine:

The person who takes care about this temple was very nice guy, he took his time and explained us lots of details inside and told us the story about the recent renovation (people from USA ands Canada are coming there to pray). Also, he informed us that the guards inside are 2 of 3 original such statues in the world, with the original, few ten kg's heawy crown:

Not only the temples are interesting in Lugang: Narrow Lane

and such places

just wait for tourists. City government already protected the area, so that the owners can not change the street much, in some 20 yrs this will all be full of small shops.
New buildings around, as usual, show variety of ideas for the tops:

Old entrance to one of the lanes (the only one which remained):

Nice details also were these pumps:

Street of Lugang, in the market ("everything for 10 NT dollars"):