Goodbye, Sun Moon Lake

With the weekend approaching and another busy week coming to a close, you can guess what Luke and I were thinking about...where to go this weekend, of course!

Recently, we have been reflecting back on our time here in Taiwan as it will be coming to a close shortly and have realized that Taiwan has really taught us how to live in a place. That is, to make the most of it, get out and see as much as we can. Too often, we have lived in places or we see people living in places and not taking advantage of all the options and things to do around them.

With that in mind, we decided that we had had a few too many weekends in a row (that would be, like, 2) without going anywhere. At first, we were thinking about Alishan, a famous national park in the mountains of Taiwan, but decided on an easier trip to Sun Moon Lake. Although the news was forecasting a tropical storm, possibly developing into a typhoon, we decided to go for it anyways just to get out and have a relaxing weekend, even if it was spent in the rain.

Pretty much our very first trip within Taiwan was to Sun Moon Lake waaay back in September. We had a nice time, but were both still adjusting to life in Taiwan, teaching and everything else. Consequently, we were feeling very sick and tired. While we enjoyed that trip, after acclimating and feeling settled and comfortable, this trip was much more relaxing. Plus, the scenery was so much better this time around...you'll see what I mean.

We've said this before, but once you get out of the cities, Taiwan has some stunningly beautiful scenery and Sun Moon Lake is no exception. Here is a picture from the first time we went:
Pretty, no doubt. But, we had no idea what the place actually looked like until we came back this time. Here is a picture, taken from almost exactly the same spot:
Barring a couple of heavy downpours, the tropical storm mostly neglected to make its appearance and we had a great time, relaxing and taking in the beautiful scenery. Here are a few more pictures from our exploring around the lake.
It was a nice getaway for us and driving away, we couldn't help but feel a little bit sad as we realized that this was probably the last time we would be seeing Sun Moon Lake. We realized that we will be saying goodbye to a lot of unique and beautiful places in the next couple of months as we get ready to close the book on this year in Taiwan. Sigh...time to start processing our time and experience here. Soon, it will be on to the next big thing, whatever that may be!

So, here is something to leave you with, something from Taiwan for us to process as well...