All right, back to updating about my scooter trip (and avoiding studying).
So I woke up at 530 the next day, ready to drive over a mountain. unfortunately i needed to fill up my gas, and after driving about 45 minutes to the nearest gas station, i discovered that it didn't open till 8. so i had to hang around for about an hour, and it was at this point i realized that i was very, very cold. since i had only packed whatever would fit in the seat of my scooter, i hadn't brought anything other than tshirts. people had warned me that it would get cold up in the mountains, but i had some strange logic that when i was in lhasa, i had been at a higher altitude and had not gotten cold. so i'm driving along, driving along, and it is just getting colder and colder. it is a thin road, with a drastic drop on the side, and it is pretty hard to see when a car is coming in the other direction, but all i can think about is how cold i am. i focus on the road ahead of me, looking for every sunny spot so that i can get a moment of warmth. looking on the bright side, i think that i may have been scared shitless if not for the fact that my primary concern was not freezing to death. but on the other hand, when i reached the amazing top of the mountain i was still more excited about descending into a warmer climate. but here are the pics from the top of the mountain.

woo!
From there, i continued on down the mountain, into warmer and warmer temperatures, until i reached my next destination, sun moon lake. i got a little lost on the way, and ended up circling the grounds of a nearby resort for a while, but finally i found the lake. i think it is the largest freshwater lake in taiwan, and is basically right in the middle of the country. the water is this crazy bright blue.

now, when i got to sun moon lake, i was pretty damn tired. it was around 2 oclock, and i had been driving since six. i was really hoping to crash for a bit in a bed, so i headed straight over to the hostel where i was planning to stay. unfortunately, when i asked about the dorm rooms, the woman at the desk seemed really confused. "we don't have those," she said. and now i was confused, because i had looked at the hostel's website, and they had clearly listed dorm rooms. did they not have them, or did she mean that they were booked? either way, i wasn't getting anywhere. she said the regular rooms were 1500, and asked me if i wanted to book one. but 1500 NT is about $45, way over my budget. i said no, but didn't really know what the hell i was going to do now. the lady must have felt bad for me (i don't know why, because i was not very polite to her), but she let me stay in a room for 1000 NT. still over my budget, but i figured after the day i'd had, i could splurge. and it was totally awesome, a nice comfortable room with ac and a big bathtub, supercomfortable bed and even toothpaste and shampoo. (everyone get pumped, you're all getting little tubes of "whitemen" toothpaste as gifts.) i explored the lake, and made friends with some students who were there for a weekend trip. there were about 30 of them, and i felt like a rockstar when i ran into them later and had thirty people shouting "Amanda!" and smiling and waving.
the next day, the rain that i had been trying to beat finally caught up with me. but i figured, whatever, i'll just get a raincoat, and continued on my way. this day, i actually backtracked north a bit to go to this buddhist monastery that's supposed to have the best collection of buddhist art in the country. it really started to pour in earnest during the drive over, i mean literally buckets, but somehow i made it to the monastery. it was really expensive to get in though, so i just went to the free section.

my plan for this day was to drive down to a hot spring in the mountains, and chill for the evening. i was pretty cold from all the rain, so i imagined a hot spring would feel heavenly. the rain wasn't as bad as it had been earlier, so i continued on my way. i rode past a lot of vineyards, apparently taiwan has its own wine country in the center of the island. i drove along until i reached the turn-off for the town i was going to. just to be sure though, i stopped to ask a lady working at a restaurant off the road. "you can't go there," she said, surprised. "some big rocks fell." ah shoot, the rain must have caused some landslides. i was pretty bummed about this, as i was getting pretty tired and totally soaked through, but the place i had planned to spend the next night wasn't that far, maybe another hour, so i thought i'd keep going. i drove along, slowly rising to higher and higher elevations. i started to pass spots with lots of rocks on the road, more and more as i continued to drive. this really didn't seem like a good idea, but there was only one road in this area, so to turn around i would have to drive two hours back the way i came. the only way to go was forward. eventually, i reached a spot where the road was just totally blocked off. i didn't know what to do, so i went up to the guy guarding the road block. "there were some landslides," he said, "the road is closed." noooooo. i was now about three hours from where i had started, exhausted, soaked, and it was almost four oclock. not only would i have to drive this scary road in the rain, but it would be dark at the end. slowly i turned my scooter around, utterly defeated. i thought i'd take a break for a moment, and went to kick down my kickstand. but i was so tired, and my shoe was so slippery from being wet, that i sort of missed, and the whole scooter fell over, with me on it. that was definitely the low point of the trip. i just lay there for a moment, too tired to do anything.
the guard came over and helped me up, and i noticed a small building nearby. it had a signed that said something about a government building, so i thought i'd ask if they could help me. i hobbled down the steep hill to the building (had scraped up my knee and arm when i fell), and knocked on the door. a little man came out, and i asked, almost in tears, if they had any rooms that they rented out. he looked at me, and asked how early i was planning on leaving the next day. "very very early," i said. and he said okay, i could stay there if i left really early. phew. so i drove my scooter down the hill (at first it wouldn't start, and i was really scared that the fall had busted it, but the guard helped me get it started again). i walked inside the building, and the man told me to follow him to the room. as we walked, i asked him how much the room would be, knowing that however much it was, i didn't really have a choice. you don't have to pay, he said. just have some dinner with me, and make sure you leave early in the morning. i should point out now that he wasn't creepy, it was a nice old aboriginal man. he led me to the room, and i opened the door, expecting something like a storage closet. instead, the room looked like this.

it was probably the nicest room in the place, and it had an amazing view.

and a wonderful shower, where i took a long relaxing shower and finally got rid of the deep chills i'd had all day. the man cooked a delicious soup which we ate together, and then i went up to my room to figure out what to do next. obviously i wasn't going to be able to continue to the mountain villages i had planned on visiting, as clearly there had been massive landslides caused by the rain. i was going to have to backtrack, but as i looked at the map i realized this would give me a nice chance to see more of taiwan's west coast. i figured out the route to Changhua, a city near Taizhong (which lonely planet liked a lot better than Taizhong), and went to sleep. i was very nervous, as it was still raining and i knew the next day i would have to go back down the mountain i had just driven up, and that the weather could be even worse than it had been that day.
okay i'm tired, so i'll update more soon.