Continues from here.

♥Dec 7th – Sunny♥
Initially, I planned to spend the whole day shopping, but the weather was so good compared to the last 2 days I thought it would be wasted if we didn’t do any sight seeing.

We decided to go to the zoo, do a quick dash and see what the girls have not seen before, i.e. Panda, Penquin, Koala, and then we can do the shopping after that.

We wanted to take the metro, but the station master told us to take the bus instead, as it’ll be quicker. The 45mins bus ride allowed us to have a snooze, which was good.

We were glad we went to Taipei Zoo (臺北市立動物園), a zoo that encloses 165 hectares, including 90 hectares open to the public (compared to Singapore Zoo which is 28hectares and charging almost 10times more). It’s a big and lovely zoo, with lots of wide open space; with eateries, restaurants and rest areas scattered all over the zoo. The entrance fee was TWD60 for adults and TWD30 for children. What a steal for this world class zoo!

We could have spent the whole day there, with so many to see, but we had to be selective and spent time only on the animals we wanted the girls to see.

First stop, Giant Panda House. Unfortunately, both the Pandas were far away from us.
One munching on some bamboo.

Another taking a nap.

They have a big gift shop at the Giant Panda House, girls wanted to choose something to bring home.

She wanted to get something cool for herself.

And when there were children having a go at the vending machine, both girls wanted a go too.

Zaria with her prize.

We have to dash to the next point of interest, the Koalas, after the Giant Pandas (with a zoo so big, it was quite tiring actually).

(no photos of koalas although we saw quite a few of them).

We had lunch at one of the rest area, bought some pizzas and buns from a bakery (no inflated price, btw), and just ‘picnic’ there.

When we asked what’s the nicest thing they did or saw in the zoo, the answer was “Jumping on the hippos.” at the African Animal Area.

Decos around the African Animal Area.

Caught one real hippo surfacing.

We spent some time at the Nocturnal Animal House to look at Owls (Influnce from Harry Potter and Legend of the Guardians), then it was to see the Penquins.

There’s a children zoo as well, but we didn’t have time to check out. It was already almost 4pm when we left the zoo. Next time, we have to come back and spend the whole day there.

We took the Metro this time to the Cityhall Station (市政府).

While having tea at one of the food court, the girls poured out the content of their bags. Their goodies from Taiwan.

Zaria’s loot from Taiwan

Zara’s loot from Taiwan

We wanted to head towards Taipei 101 and have dinner around there, and just our luck, we saw a huge Budhist procession near Tapei 101. It’s a procession with ~500 monks, where a Buddha’s tooth relic was featured (佛光山佛祖舍利台北巡境祈福). It seems these monks are doing a round island procession.

Hundreds of monks were walking along the busy Songshou Road (松壽路).

No special privilidges. They wait like us to cross the busy road.

Along the roads, there were little tables set up to provide offerings.

We were also given bottle of waters, little book marks and souvenirs for just being there!

There were African, Indian and Caucasian monks as well.

Monks passing Taipei 101.

The procession was so long we didn’t wait till the end.

We went to City Hall area actually just to see Taipei 101but was lucky to catch the procession.

The busy Songshou Road.

We had dinner in a Ramen Restaurant, a meal was not worth mentioning, and then did food shopping in the supermarket and food halls around that area.

♥Dec 8th – Drizzle♥
The day has come to go home. Girls were getting excited, but Zara was dreading the flight home.

After breakfast, I went out to Shida Market to shop for some food stuff. After that I came back to pack, while it was Daddy’s turn to go to the market to take photos. These were the shots taken in the market. (And if you’d followed my site long enough, you would have realised we always like visiting markets every where we go).

Shida Market lane.

All sort of fish.

The market was not too crowded, and rather clean

Chicken seller. (Take note the chicken there have ‘black feet’)

Cooked meat seller.

Super delicious dried persimmons (we bought some).

Sesame oil and tea oil for sale.

Bamboo shoot.

Breakfast counter

Vegetable stall

Hot spring salted egg.

Humongous Chinese Yams.

And guess what this is? Each of them the size of my palm?

BBQ Goose eggs it seems. Didn’t try it. Should have just bought one and tried.

By 12:30pm, we were out of the hotel, and headed to the airport for our flight.

It was a good trip. And the girls can walk. On a daily basis, we left the hotel at 11am, and returned at 9pm. They just walked and walked and walked with us, sometimes even refusing to take the escalator but use the stairs instead at metro station. Just so much energy.

Taiwan is relatively cheap compares to Hong Kong or Singapore, and there are still so many beautiful places we’d not seen. I believe, we’ll be going back to Taiwan again when Daddy accumulated enough airmiles.

When we suggested for a holiday further away from Hong Kong, Zara made some noise, “What’s the point of going for a holiday when all we do is walk walk walk?” “It’s so boring taking the plane.” “I have ear problem, and you still want me to take the plane” etc etc.

We gave her 2 options, either go with us, or stay home with Jelly. Of course, she chose the former.

Daddy’s airmiles could cover 4 of us to either Perth, or Taiwan. Looking at the AUD exchange rate, we therefore decided to go Taiwan instead. We have to time our trip according to flight schedules claimable by airmiles and to make sure I’m in town on December 9th because I have bought tickets for Jacky Cheung’s concert. Hence, the trip was made during the wet season in Taiwan. Sigh.

♥Nov 30th♥

We arrived at Taipei about 7pm+, it was already dark. Upon arriving at the hotel, a package from my Taiwan colleague, Teresa, which consisted of a Taipei Guidebook and 2.5Kg of Taiwan rice welcome us.

Our hotel for the next 4 nights will be Li Yuan Hotel (儷園飯店), a small hotel located near Shida (師大) and 1 minute walk from Tai Power Metro Station (台電大樓站).

We got a family room with 2 queen beds. The room is small but functional and clean.

Soon after we checked in, we went straight to Shida Nightmarket (師大夜市) for dinner. We picked a restaurant which specialises in herbal chicken soup, 龍涎居雞膳食坊. We were too hungry to take any photos, but Daddy who’s not a chicken eater claimed they serve one of the best chicken soup he’s tasted.

We did some walking about the nightmarket after dinner, and then headed back to rest.

♥Dec 1st – Gloomy♥
We woke up late and missed the hotel breakfast and had to eat out.

Our first destination after breakfast of road side pao and bubble tea was Bo Ai Road (博愛路), the Taipei Camera Street, to get a lens Daddy was eyeing (he did the research before arriving and knew exactly which shop to go to. o.O”).

We spent sometime in Ximending (西門町), for lunch, to glance through some of the small shops.

Shops and stall at Ximending :

菓風小舖, the sweet shop where we spent most time in.

Roadside Sweet Potato Ball Seller

Girls kept asking for money for these ‘games’, but I didn’t let them.

Lots of shops have dogs at the door front, this is one of them.

上海老天祿 stewed duck wings

The Red House (西門紅樓), Taiwan’s first public market now a theater.

Girls were fascinated with the many costume shops across the Red House.

Besides getting some sweets from the sweet shop, we didn’t buy anything else in Taipei’s shopping street. o.O”

As Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正纪念堂) is nearby, we thought we’ll visit it as well. Not knowing we’ll spend so much time there. As it’s surrounded by a big park, lots of locals walk their dogs, do team practice for various events etc etc.

We saw a brass band practice in the park.

Zaria spent so much time chasing after pigeons.

School team practicing march.

Li Zhen’s Sculptures (李真雕塑) were exhibited in front of the Memorial Hall.

Girls wanted to take photos of the sculptures.

And wanted to be photographed with the sculptures.

Inside the Memorial Hall, the girls could not believe the still guards were real, and not human.

Zaria asked who the statue is “Is he the King of Taiwan?” o.O”

As we were there in the evening, instead of change of guards, we managed to catch the flag lowering ceremony (at 5pm).

As night fall, they started lighting up the whole park.

Li Zhen’s sculpture.

That night, recommended by my Taiwan colleague, we went to the Eslite flagship bookshop (誠品信義店). A bookshop with 8000m² of floorspace! Heaven for me!

We even had dinner there at their food court, then just glanced through the various floors.

We love the 杏仁燒, an almond dessert with grass jelly, peanuts, red bean and tosted almond chips from this dessert shop Summer Tree Sweet (夏樹甜品) at the food court. (sorry no photo).

(To-Be Continued)