My first impression of Sun Moon Lake was that it was a boring place. You see, the first time I visited Sun Moon Lake was with a tour group and all we did was had lunch near the lake. We didn’t even take a ferry ride because our tour guide told us it was not safe.
I decided to give Sun Moon Lake a second chance after seeing the beautiful photos of the cycling trail at Sun Moon Lake.
To get to Sun Moon Lake from my homestay near Fengjia nightmarket, I took a taxi to Taichung Gancheng bus station 干城站 for NT $245. At the bus station, I purchased the one way bus ticket to Sun Moon Lake for NT$190.
Here is a photo of how the Gancheng bus station 干城站 looks like.
Below is the schedule of the Nantou bus that departs from Taichung Gancheng station to Sun Moon Lake. Note that it is better to board the bus at Gancheng station than Taichung Railway station because the bus departs from Gancheng station and one is more likely to find a seat then. The bus journey is from Gancheng station to Sun Moon Lake took around 2 hours.
I alighted in front of the fire station at Sun Moon Lake. From there, I turned left and it was a short walk to Doris Home, my homestay at Sun Moon Lake. It was really easy to get there. You simply follow the cats and the paw prints!
Doris Home
Doris Home is a cats' theme homestay. It housed a total of 5 cats when I was there. Cats lovers should definitely stay at Doris Home! The homestay was impeccably clean and modern, the owners were helpful and friendly(they checked with me if I have any food allergy before they prepared the breakfast) and everywhere was full of cats!
In fact, I got a shock as I entered the room as I thought there was a cat lying on the bed.
Kitten room
In the afternoon, I rented a bike at NT$200 and cycled around Sun Moon Lake for around 2 hours. I took the path in lime green and did a U-turn when I reached the steep flight of stairs.
Thereafter, I took a ferry to Ita Thao at NT$100 and spent the late afternoon there.
