Day #4 of our mother daughter Taiwan trip was spent traveling to and around Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan’s largest fresh water lake.

We started the day by traveling four hours on our tour bus from Taipei to Sun Moon Lake.

Our first stop was at the Thao Village, which is a little lakeside town that belongs to the Thao tribe. We tried out a lot of different foods in the market.

This guy is famous for his fried veggie rolls (only 40 NT!). He gave me his card and posed for the camera haha!

The roll was full of cabbage, which I like, and mushrooms, which I despise. Needless to say, Toots, the vegan gone vegetarian for this trip ate mine happily 🐖

Toota enjoying her veggie roll at the lakeside Pagoda.

Because we ran out of time, I opted for some fresh din sum to go. Only 80 NT! That’s less than 3$. So delicious.

Our next stop was the Ci’en Pagoda. Can you see it in the distance? We walked over 1100m and took nearly 300 stairs to get to it, but the journey was worth it!

Toots hiking up to the Pagoda. Of course, we were in the front of the group getting our steps in 🙂

Hello there, Ci’En Pagoda!

After all of the steps we just climbed, we weren’t able to get a break. We had to then climb the winding staircase to the top of the Pagoda! We were very sweaty at this point.

The stairs and sweat were well worth it! Look at this! 360 views. Beautiful.

Toots and I need to take more pics together ✌️

After cooling off at the top of the Pagoda, we had to make our way back down and head to the nearby Temple. The views going down made leaving the Pagoda easier.

We also got to see some nature going down! This was the biggest snail I’ve ever seen in my life. The spiders up there would give you nightmares 🙈

More nature! A nice old man told us that this caterpillar turns into the most beautiful 🦋

After walking back down, we made our way to Xuan Zang Temple, which is a beautiful active Buddhist temple.

Toots and I felt very at peace here.

We picked up some reading materials and charms (complimentary, but we gave them a donation). I am not sure what the Church would think about all of this. I think reading this would help during yoga, so that’s why I picked it up. I love Jesus! But I also need to be more zen ✌️

The last stop of the day was the Wenwu Temple, which is located within walking distance of our hotel.

The pictures I took don’t do this temple justice. The colors and dimensions of the buildings and sculptures were just incredible.

The Taiwanese people are rather suspicious, and buy these charms and place them in the temples to help grant wishes.

This temple is dedicated to Confucious. He is the deity of learning, so students will come and make offerings to him before a big exam.

We climbed to the top of the temple and got another mother daughter pic together ✌️✌️

I caught Toots day dreaming. She felt very at peace here.

You can see these carvings all around the perimeters of the buildings.

The last view of the temple as we were leaving. 😢

The roof of the temple as I was walking out. Beautiful and mystical. Note to self – look up!

After we finished at the Wenwu Temple, we hopped over to our 5-star hotel, Le Fleur de Chine. The room is very large, which is not typical in Taiwan, and includes a natural deep hot spring bath! I’m in heaven!

And let’s just talk about the view of Sun Moon Lake from our patio. Wow. This hotel is extra!

After pigging out at the dinner buffet, where you get unlimited beer (!!!), Toots and I went to the rooftop bar. Very swanky. Le Fleur de Chine does not disappoint. Hopefully, the rest of the hotels this week live up to it!