Days 22 & 23 ~ More Chemistry, Culture Park, Sun Moon Lake, Taipei

Day 22 was our last day in Taichung.  The entire day was spent in the research labs finishing up the last touches on our chemistry experiments in order to bring them back to Taipei with us.  After saying goodbye to the friends we made in the grad students we worked with, we spent the evening on our own, packing, shopping, and eating at the night market near Tunghai University Campus.  That evening I found a fruit stand loaded with fresh local fruits, and had a great dinner of that only.  On this trip I have had a surprising lack of fruit, especially considering that Taiwan is a tropical island.  After satisfying my fruit cravings, it was a relaxing evening spent packing and preparing for a busy day the next day.  Day 23 was spent traveling back towards Taipei.  On the way we stopped at Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village.  This is the largest Indigenous culture theme park in Taiwan.  We spent a few hours eating food and riding the roller coasters at the park on our way up to the top of the park.  Gondola rides take visitors from the top of the park down to a small lake resort town on Sun Moon Lake.  This is one of the few natural lakes in Taiwan, and was very beautiful.  The lake itself wasn't overly large, and was filled with large boats giving tours and rides to tourists.  The shops surrounding the lake area were the same type of touristy shops seen all over the tourist sites we've previously been to, but it was fun to look and compare prices with the stands in the larger cities.  After a boat tour and American style lunch we were back in the vans for the long drive back to Taipei.  We made one unexpected stop at a large Buddhist temple off the highway on the way to Taipei, but arrived back at our hotel late in the evening, and ended the day with a quick bit of research in the zebrafish labs with our purified and separated chemical extracts.