MIAOLI/NANTOU (3)

13 June 2009
飛牛牧場→(南投)九二一地震教育園區→日月潭/文武廟→東埔
The Flying Cow Ranch→(Nantou)The 921 Museum of Taiwan→Sun Moon Lake/Wenwu Temple→Ton-pu

decided to wake up early to enjoy the fresh air and beautiful scenery..

greens and blues :)

going up....

and up...

i love the ranch! don't mind staying for a few more days..

the little lab where we shoke our bottle of cream...

forgot to mention that there were a few groups of little kids with us during the butter-making session, and they were really trying their best to turn out tops so they can win the prizes.
somehow i think the activity itself was organised for kids, because the prizes were pencils and erasers and stuff...

after a few attempts...

shot taken by the sporty couple..
the couple in our group is married for 5 years and has 3 kids (pretty amazing since everyone thought they were newly weds), and were totally enthusiastic about everything. makes good company for group tours.. haha

everyone in our group were awesome though, serious. more amazing info later..

leaving the ranch and

reaching one of the Taiwan 921 earthquake site - one of the highlights of the trip.
absolutely educational and informative.

At 01:47AM on September 21, 1999, the central part of Taiwan was struck by an earthquake that registered 7.3 on the Richter Scale. The resultant loss of life and damage to property put it among the worst natural disasters of the past century in Taiwan.

Kwangfu Junior High, which was affected by the earthquake was preserved as a exhibition site

table showing differences between the Sichuan earthquake and 921 earthquake.

The effect of Sichuan's was greater not just because of the scale reading but also because it happened in the afternoon when all the kids were in school whilst 921 happened around 2am (if I remember correctly) when everyone was asleep so no one was injured in this school..

Do you know that an earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0? it's really quite scary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

it's amazing how the earth does all these.
not as boring as you guys think..

what the earthquake did...
up and down, left and right...

the acrylic bars were installed to hold up the ruins while allowing us to see thru them..

mr sporty couple says when an earthquake happens,
go stand near the main pillar. don't know how much truth there is to it, he says the D&T HOD in his school said so. LOL

the collapsed hallways

Run for your lives!!

just thought my hair looked nice in this pic. hahaha

HELP! TASUKETE!

HAI-YAH!!

well we are not making fun of the earthquake..

imagine if you were trapped under all these.
i wonder if my determination will last me that long...

the guide was telling us this story about a couple who was trapped in the rubble, and immerse pressure was applied on the wife's chest due to the heavy rubble. it was very painful for her but the husband was there to console her. eventually she was saved, but the husband was dead - he was already dead when he was under the rubble, (according to the guide, i hope i didn't hear wrongly) subconsciously the wife thought that he was encouraging her or smth..

ok i'm not a good storyteller but yeah, determination is the important factor...

by the way our guide has very good knowledge of earthquakes, i'm very impressed..

watching a video on earthquakes. we were not supposed to sit in the black area, i was wondering if it's because the show will appear on that area, but in the end i figured out that it's because the screen was huge and sitting in the area means i would have been too near to the screen -_-"

heartbreaking picture.

the guide was almost to tears while she was explaining the earthquakes.
i think the topic is really close to her heart..

oh btw other people from somewhere 'joined' our group and our guide had to answer to their questions. i was quite mad about that cos she's our guide! grrrr

a railway track 'bent' by the earthquake

i don't mind visiting this museum again.. i think there are quite a few things i missed and it would be good if i can refresh my memory the next time i go there..

over to
Sun Moon Lake 日月潭

How come I took a similar picture but my shot wasn't as colourful?
must be Adobe Photoshop...

or it was a different time of the day...

*peace*

Wen Wu Temple 文武廟
The temple is dedicated to Confucius and two warrior deities: Kuan Kung and Yueh Fei.

There is a lot of things to learn about the structures of temples, you need some knowledge even to enter the religious grounds..

Always enter by the right door (deities enter by the middle one) and exit from the left door (when you face the temple).

The more doors the temple have, the higher the ranks of the deities.
(Wen Wu Temple has 5!)

Kuan Gong is so cool, I like how they portray him in Red Cliff.

on higher grounds


this video is very amazing. to draw lots at the temple, u insert a coin, the "figurine" will start to move into the house, closes the door, comes out with a lot in her hands, and drop it for your collection. high-tech, but i feel that temples should not be "polluted" by all these Technology..


Next to the Peacock Garden near the temple.

The "Albino" Peacock.. LOL. White Peafowl.

Proudly displaying its beauty.
You can almost feel its arrogance. haha.

A little boy ran off to get his camera and when he was back the peacock already kept his beautiful feathers, and he sweared. haha... fortunately he got a chance to take a picture later on.

I am rather fascinated by the species of birds. I have never been to Jurong BirdPark, I don't know.. but these birds look awesome cool :)

its hair looks like some Egyptian crown

feel a bit sorry for it. looks mutant-ish.

zebra-head.

coolest of them all.
super funky hairstyles!!!
spike + floppy.

they were fighting.

and the Taiwanese beside me commented they fight just like how her daughter fights with her brother. LOL. and we started talking about Singapore and Taiwan...

The House of Mao.
They sell Lingzhi, Royal Jelly and dried deer fetus. (!)

I highly suspect tour guide earns commission from this store.

But this lady was very entertaining. She is a 原住民.
The dialect she speaks, has a funny accent, and their vocabulary is similar to Malay.
(原住民 can sometimes look like Malays too.. what's the connection? how can 2 different countries have vocab that sounds and mean the same?)

She says wild Lingzhi is good for health, because of the fresh air high up in the mountains..
her most classic phrase was:
"..連毛細孔也要makan!"

HAHAHA! she was trying to say that our pores can benefit from the fresh air up there.

Mao saved Chiang Kai-Shek's wife by giving her dried deer fetus to consume.
(sounds a bit yucky, i know..)

the idea was, in the past they wanted to catch male deers, but when pregnant female deers run into their traps, there is movement to the womb and the baby deers may not be born normal. So they make the female deers miscarry and collect the "baby deers" for processing. (a better way to say they are doing good for the female deers :\) The female deer can then continue to reproduce.

heard that it is very beneficial for the health.

Royal Jelly tastes good though.

poor Bambi :(

We bought nothing, because we were on a budget..


In the night - Hot Spring Resort!

We had this really BIG ROOM that can sleep like, 6 or more people??
3 queen sized beds, but 2 were left alone.
we squeezed into the 1 that was laid in front of the TV.
Taiwan TV on weekend nights is very, very interesting..

can't help but notice the swirl in all the watermelon slices.
dinner was good :)

we were near an aboriginal village..

icy cold at night ><

aboriginal dance!
布農族

how can we not join in?

Lye Soon took a video of us and posted it on FB..



we all danced... bu i became one of two left cos everyone ran away and the girl was holding on to me.. i couldn't leave.. T.T

I was even stopped for a little interview. It was embarrassing ><

yay :)

making Tangyuan..

back from hot spring.it felt more like swimming cos swimwear was a must.
why my face so wide.............................................

anyway, always a good sleep after hot spring :)