Our Visit to Nantou, Part One

Photos by MJ Klein

Let me tell you how this happened.  My wife asked me to drive her to Nantou, to a famous temple, which of course, I did.  While we were there, we visited her cousin, who owns a dental clinic there.  Since I have been suffering from a new medical problem that has cropped up, my wife’s cousin was very interested in examining me.  This visit has turned into several visits for followups.  So, without any previous planning, we found ourselves in Nantou on several occasions, and here is what we did on those occasions, broken into segments.  We’d never been to Puli before, so that’s where we decided to go.

Before I forget, clicking on any photo will take you to the Flickr page where you may view or d/l larger sizes.  The vast majority of these photographs are geotagged, as is the article itself.

 

This is our room on the first night of our stay.  Phoenix just loves traveling (like her parents) and she was very excited to look around the room.

Behind the bedroom is the spa.  This is a hot springs hotel.

On the left is a cold spring control, center is cool water, and on the right is the hot spring water.

The tub on the left (bottom) is for the cold springs, and we did not use that one.  The other 2 controls are for the hot spring tub on the right).

There are no screens on the windows.  Not that it matters because the roof is open between the slats.  This lets in the mosquitoes but it also keeps the room from becoming overly hot.

This is a better shot of the 2 tubs.  Phoenix loved playing in the tub with Mommy and Daddy.  Hot springs are a nice family experience.  Btw, I’ve used a larger size photo from here on out since we are now past the right-hand sidebar of the blog.

My 2 girls in the car, ready to head out to our first destination.

But before we go, a few shots of the hotel we stayed in.  These shots are geotagged, so you can find this place on the map if you like.

This is the outdoor spa area, which we did not use.

This place was OK, but not special.  Nevertheless, we did enjoy our time here.

Just in case you were wondering, yes we are in a mountain area.

Our trusty VW Caddy, which is a real pleasure to drive on mountain roads, as well as on the highway.  This vehicle is very well suited to our family needs.

So, now we’ve gone to our first destination of the day and parked the Caddy.  These days we don’t take the baby stroller so much, as Phoenix loves to walk.

Vendors line the street.

These carnivorous plants were interesting.

And so was this wasp nest.  The wasps were long gone, however.

There are little private temples all over Taiwan, and this one was next to some kind of repair shop.

One vendor was selling miniature plants.

This is what we came to see – the famous Paper Dome.

What?  That’s not paper!

We walked around to the rear to see the paper structure.

These columns and seats are made of paper.

But I cried “foul!” when I saw the chip-board ceiling.

The rear sides and entire back are opened up.  The outer building protects the paper structure from the elements, obviously.

This is a wider view.

Behind the Paper Dome is some interesting works of art.

The dome itself is not paper, but plastic sheeting.

This sheeting gets pretty hot, so it’s cooled with spraying water.

I thought this Japanese looking bell looked interesting, so I took a shot of it right after someone rang it.

Next to the building is a lily pond.

With lots of little fish.

Speaking of fish, this heron caught a nice one in the river beside the Paper Dome.

This lizard scared my wife, but let me take his photo.

After we had enough of the Paper Dome, we walked back to the car to head toward our next destination.  Before we go there, let me just say that had I known just what the Paper Dome really was, I probably wouldn’t have gone to see it.  What you see in my photos is pretty much what it is, so hopefully I’ve saved you the trouble of wasting your time.  That being said, Phoenix did enjoy running around, and it is a fairly safe place for the most part (although you have to be mindful of the water and the road that runs in back off of a sheer dropoff).  It’s just that there are far more beautiful and interesting places in Taiwan, not that our next destination is necessarily one of those….

Here are 2 shots of Phoenix, enjoying herself at the Paper Dome:

Stacks of Taiwan Beer crates, full of empty bottles, can only mean one thing: we’re at the TTL Brewery in Nantou.

There are huge vats basically right out in the open.

We went inside the main building and found it to be a madhouse of vendors selling all sorts of things.

I don’t know why, but flavored eggs are a big deal in Taiwan.  There was no shortage of them here.

Hui-chen wanted to take a tour of the place, so we went upstairs and took a look.

This is the beginning of what turned out to be the shortest tour I’ve been on.

That’s right – a liquor urn tunnel.  Don’t ask me – I have no idea.

Before we hit the tunnel, there were several examples of classic liquor urns designs from the past.

Then we entered the Liquor Urn Tunnel.  You walk down to the end,

and hang a right.

Looking back from the end.

Around the corner are some examples of ingredients used in the factory to make the various liquors and beers.

This old-fashioned liquor cart was cool.

This is the Liquor Urn Tunnel from the outside.  The urns are held in place by pipes.

One last look….

“The House Of Drunk Experiencing” is supposed to give people a feeling of being drunk, by having them walk on a tilted surface.  I didn’t try it to see how authentic it felt, though.

The above 2 shots are of deceptions of old style liquor urns used in the past.

HC wanted to by some wine for cooking purposes.

After the tour, we took a look at this listing of all the local spas and HC pointed out her selection for our next spa.  We’ll pick that up in Part Two.

Hope you enjoyed this segment.  Please leave us your comments below, and feel free to share if you like.