FORMOSAN ABORIGINAL VILLAGE

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016

A colleague of mine, Christine, recommended that for our next teacher trip (in case you missed the first one to Lukang), we go to Formosan Aboriginal Village. It’s in Nantou County of Taiwan. Nantou is the only county in Taiwan that does not have water on one side. It’s right smack dab in the middle of the island. I would say it’s one of the most beautiful counties in Taiwan because it’s been so untouched. Unfortunately, that also means it’s very difficult to get to without a car. Luckily, we, the Miaoli teachers, received funding and we all piled onto a bus and made our way to the Formosan Aboriginal Village.

The name is a little misleading. The Formosan Aboriginal Village is an aboriginal village turned amusement park. There are exhibits and performances that highlight the culture, but it is also a fun place to go on rides. If you’re wondering, there are lockers at the amusement park, where you can store your things. They have rides and games for all ages. I’m not really a big fan of roller coaster rides, but I had a lot of fun. You won’t find any big roller coasters at the park, but there were definitely a few that made my stomach churn just by looking at it.

ARCHERY

At the park, you can also give a try at archery. It was actually a lot of fun. I also learned that I would totally die if I had to rely on my archery skills for food.

KOI POND

The park has a very lovely koi pond. It was actually very gross at the same time. I didn’t think koi ponds could be gross, but I was wrong. This pond has tons of fish! I indulged myself and spent 10 NT on fish food to feed the fish. Let me tell you, these fish ATE IT UP! It was like they had never been fed before. The fish were aggressive and they kept pushing up on one another so much so that some were completely out of the water and all of them had their mouths open. With the fishes literally on top of each other, their bodies made a distinct and kind of uncomfortable noise from their bodies flapping back and forth above the water.

PERFORMANCE

If there was a must see, it would be this performance. It’s pretty elaborate with costumes and native american-like clothing. It’s in an amphitheatre-like space outside. There are not a lot of times for this, so I would pay attention to the schedule if you want to see the show.

RAILWAY (GONDOLA)

With the purchase of your entrance ticket, it also includes a roundtrip on the gondola. So this gondola lift goes from the Formosan Aboriginal Village to Sun Moon Lake. Unfortuantely, if you want to take the lift right back, you have to get off at sun moon lake, walk around and get back in line to go back to the Formosan Aboriginal Village. The sights are truly beautiful from above though. You can see sun moon lake from the lift. There is also a gondola lift that goes from the top of the park to the bottom of the park for those who do not want to walk far.

RIDES

We went on a few rides. They were all fun! I needed some coaxing, but I’m glad my friends made me go on. We went twice on a water ride. It’s got a drop big enough to feel your stomach drop and it also goes backwards briefly which kind of surprised all of us at first. Then we went on the other water ride which was the log flume. I enjoyed both of them! Then we went to a carnival like area at the park. Here there were a couple of prize games and rides for younger children. I liked their space mountain ride. It was a very mild roller coaster. YAY! Then there was the one ride that drops you and lifts you back up over and over again. There’s a carousal and the ship ride, but we didn’t go on those.

FOOD

At this point, we were getting hungry, and sadly the options at the amusement park are very small. It could be we at at a late time, but our pickings were slim. DO NOT get the corn dog. It was not good.

LAVENDER CARNIVAL

When my friends and I were there, the park was towards the end of the lavender festival. At the front of the park is a big courtyard with two beautiful structures and gardens full of lavender. There’s also a small train that rides around the perimeter of the courtyard. We took a lot of pictures. Having traveled so far to get to the amusement park, 4 of us decided to make our trip longer and stay at a hotel at sun moon lake. We missed the last bus, but there were a few taxis left to transport us from the park to Sun Moon Lake.