Taipei Day 6 - Taipei Zoo

 It was another free and easy day. The night before, we decided that we would head to the Taipei Zoo. Also, after many early mornings, we would sleep in and meet at 9am to go for bfast together. However, there was no window in the room and our entire family overslept, waking up only at 9am. We were late for 30 mins. 

We went to Taipei Main Station hoping to find good bfast food but it was a big maze and we couldn't find their food place. We ended up with Mac bfast and the kids flocked to take picture with Mr MacDonalds.

We took the MRT to Taipei Zoo. It was really convenient as the station exit is right next to the zoo. It only cost TWD60 per adult to enter the zoo and that is like S$2.80! Our kids go into the zoo for free! We were initially worried that it would be a lousy zoo given that it is so cheap but read good reviews on trip adviser. 

It turned out to be a big and clean zoo. There is a decent number of species of animals to look at. We didnt even get to visit all the animal. The main difference with our zoo is that their animals have plenty of space. Each enclosure is huge but we dont see many animals of in each enclosure. Also, there were no performances for feeding times, etc. The weather was great though and  it was a great day to walk the zoo.  

The greatest attraction is the Panda. I supposed visitors had to q up to see the Pandas during busy times. The pandas are adorable even though all they do is to lie or roll around and eat.

We took plenty of pictures with fake pandas too.

And also many other fake animals.

After a couple of hours, we took the provided shuttle bus to Maokong Gondola station located outside of the zoo and took the cabin car to the top. The cable car is very cheap at TWD45 per adult and the kids traveled free again. The views up was great!

Yummy food greeted us at the top of the mountain and it couldnt be more great to meet lunch time. Chomp, chomp, chomp. Other than eat and pictures taking, there weren't much to do. 

It was super cold and Daddy Lim was so man to loan me his jacket.

We headed down after lunch. We opted for the crystal cabin with a see-through bottom. It was great and so valued for money. This picture didn't do the real view justice.

And what was Lil Isaac doing? Haha. He took nap everyday during the trip. It must had been a real tiring trip.

We took a bus to 景美 night market and began another round of eating. This night market is bigger than the one next to our hotel. There was more things to eat and see. We had noodles and goose meat for dinner.

The kids were happy to visit the night market as they get to play games. 

We took the MRT back to hotel. It wasn't that far away, about 6 stops away from our hotel. After I had settled kids down at the hotel, Mummy S and I went for last minute shopping at Taipei Main Station underground streets. Although most of the shops were closing, we managed to grab a few items. Ahhhhh... I like retail therapy.

Mummy S and family were heading home the next day. See you back in Singapore.

Mummy Lim

Taipei Day 5 - 十分 and 九分

We started our free and easy day. The kids were getting tired by then and we had a hard time waking them up.

We fed the kids and the adults didn't eat much in preparation of the goodies that await us in 十分 and 九分. Muahahaha. 

We took a train from Taipei Railway station to 瑞坊 station. 

Eating and drinking are allowed in the train and we purposely bought food to eat on the train. In the end, we were the only weird tourists eating on the train. Lol.

We had to change to another train to go to 十分. It was then that I realised how far 十分 is. It was a good choice to head to 十分 1st given that we were still energetic.

We had to walk across the tracks to get to where the goodies are.

The adults were hungry and we started whacking the local delicacies upon reaching. Coincidentally, it was lunch time and what else other than eat must we do? The oyster egg was superb, much nicer than the so-called good ones in Taipei. 

Lil Isaac was napping and we proceeded to take plenty of pictures on the railway without him. Haha.

It is an active railway and we had to evacuate the railway when train approaches.

We came to experience the releasing the famous 天灯. There were so many different stalls selling 天灯. Basically, the different colours represent different things and we are to write related wishes on the different colours. Lil Shauna chose our lantern. She was so excited bcos she wanted to light the same lantern as Rapunzel. Once she received the lantern, she started happily writing her story and drawings. Daddy Lim and I helped or she would have taken forever. Lil Isaac continued napping while all these happened.

When Lil Shauna was finally done, we woke Lil Isaac up to release the  天灯. The little boy, in his half-awake state, participated nevertheless. 

After the lantern, we took the train back to 瑞坊 and change to a bus to go to 九分. I didn't know that 九分 was located on top of a mountain. It was super windy and cold on the mountain top. There were plenty of nice food and our mouth rarely stopped. Luckily, there wasn't much to buy.  

Our last stop was an atas coffee house and we spent quite some $$ bcos it has a minimum spending. Chey. But it was a nicely decorated coffee house and we ended up pictures taking.

After coffee, we had to back track to the same bus stop to take a bus back to the train station. It was freezing cold at the bus stop given that the sun was starting to set and the wind was howling. We took a crowded bus and had to brace ourselves while the daredevil bus driver daytona down the winding mountain path. 

We were so glad to make it safe and sound back to the train tation and bought some food to tahan us back to Taipei. We headed down to 西门丁 and would have loved to do some shopping. However, we didn't do much bcos Lil Shauna was so tired. We also parted ways with Mummy S and family as they were chasing after their bucket list and those food are a little too exotic for our kids. So we had pizza and pasta instead and went back to hotel to rest. The kids took picture with the same chick last year. Hehe.

By then, we were running low on $$ and were feeling a little insecure. Daddy Lim and I decided to change whatever SGD we have to TWD, which isn't alot (about S$240). We had to suffer lousy exchange rates but decided to proceed for more peace. I don't think we overspent but brought too little TWD this time. 

Mummy Lim