Strange Places

“It's a cruel and random world, but the chaos is all so beautiful.” -Hiromu Arakawa

If you take the time to explore and look around you can find some pretty interesting places that not too many people take the time to seek out. A couple of weeks ago we stumbled onto one of those places.

A couple of weeks ago I went out on the scooter exploring the countryside. I came across what looked like a cemetery and I stopped to check it out. What was surprising was that I saw that some of the graves were dug up and there were clothes draped around the area. After this I explored a little bit more but did not find anything noteworthy.

 I came home and talked to Adrien about going to see Sheh-Men reservoir since she has never been there and it is one of the cooler sights that I’ve found. I packed up my bag and we both got on the scooter and made our way towards the lake.  I did not use my GPS and I ended up riding above the reservoir into the mountains. We got to the top and saw a view of the lake at an abandoned visitor's center.

After seeing many Taiwanese take pictures of themselves in front of  the view we decided to continue on. On the way down the mountain we saw a yellow building with a big parking lot. I wasn't going to stop but just I made a last minute decision and pulled off the road.  In the front of the building there were lots of little glass pebbles and a Buddhist shrine.

We were just moseying about when a monk at the gate invited us to come in and take a look around. We accepted the offer and went inside. To our surprise there were two castles and other interesting structures around that were frozen in time.

It seems like someone built an amusement park but didn't maintain it for over 30 years and now plants have taken over the area. I’m guessing that the entire grounds are taken care of by monks, and in turn they decided the place would be better off if left alone.

  

Some of the structures were pretty curious, one was a 50 foot high gorilla holding a snake. We made a loop around and by the time we got back to our scooter the monastery was closed. We took a look at the sign and I used my phone to translate what this place was called. The name said Fairytale World, which explained the castle and the weird Mickey. 

We got to another monastery that was a little bit nicer and more traditional than the last, and walked around for 10 or 15 minutes then continued to go down the road. After we passed some orange orchards and got to the main highway. As the sun was setting I stopped to take a picture of the view that was less-than-picturesque.