Taipei (Day 17): First Full Day and Night

March 17, 2016

It was the first day that was forecasted to have sun (a little peaked out but at least it was a lot warmer – around 26 degrees today), so we decided to take Nate to the Taipei Zoo. Noel was feeling back to normal, but Nate was still having a hard time adjusting.

The Taipei Zoo is on the south end of the brown (Wenhu) MRT line and about 7 stops away from our apartment. We headed out to the zoo around 10am. We heard the zoo was a great place to bring kids and they have pandas – which are their main “attraction”. The entrance fee to the zoo is only 60 NT ($2.40 CAD) for adults and Nate was free.

When we walked in, there were a lot of groups of school children on field trips, all with different coloured sweat pant track suits (school uniforms). The zoo grounds were great, and we were all very impressed by the variety of animals and the way the park was laid out. They had a good selection of food stands and stores (Family Mart, 7-Eleven, McDonald’s to name a few) sprinkled around the park that had the exact same prices as they would have outside the zoo.  The zoo is surrounded by lush mountains which gave it a very “zoo like” feel.

Entrance to the Taipei Zoo
Entrance to the Taipei Zoo
Nice walk ways around the zoo
Nice walk ways around the zoo
Watching the panda sleep
Watching the panda sleep

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Nate watching the Taiwanese kids watching the giraffes. They all waved to him and said "ni hao" as they walked away in a line. He said "no hao" back to them
Nate watching the Taiwanese kids watching the giraffes. They all waved to him and said “ni hao” as they walked away in a line. He said “no hao” back to them
Tim's favourite - the red panda
Tim’s 2nd favourite – the red panda
See if you could spot the huge Burmese python in the trees? This area was all open with no glass!
See if you could spot the huge Burmese python in the trees? This area was all open with no glass!
With Tim's favourite all time animal, the giraffe
With Tim’s favourite animal, giraffes
Mamma chimp and her baby on her back
Mamma chimp and her baby on her back
Lions - there were four total. One male and three female
Lions – there were four total. One male and three female
Penguins
Penguins

There are a lot more pictures of animals that we saw, but I think everyone gets the idea. I just kept hearing they had pandas (two), but I was surprised at how many other animals they had. Nate fell asleep half way through the zoo, so it was really just for the adults at this point. We walked around the whole zoo and enjoyed it!

If we had more time and it was a nicer day (visibility wise), we would have considered taking the Maokong gondola up the mountain – the gondola base is right beside the zoo.

We left the zoo around 4:30pm, and headed to Lin Dong Fang for beef noodles. This was the place Tim and I had previously gone to our first week in Taipei, and it’s still my favourite one (so far). Nate was sound asleep so we thought it would be a good chance to go to a not so child friendly restaurant. He slept through loud traffic and a jack hammer (there’s construction beside our apartment) but as soon it was dead quiet in the restaurant, he wakes up!

Side dishes - cucumbers and tofu (40 NT = $1.60 CAD)
Side dishes – cucumbers and tofu (40 NT = $1.60 CAD)
No pictures of the noodles this time. But this chilli paste/butter is really good!
No pictures of the noodles this time. But this chilli paste/butter is really good!

We got back to the apartment around 6pm, and planned to go to the Shilin Night Market (the largest one in Taipei) to meet up with Tim’s cousin, Karen, who is also in Taipei for the week. I first met Karen during our trip to Taipei in 2013, and she has since moved back to the U.S. (Austin, Texas) and is just here for less than a week. It was great getting to see her for even a short period of time here.

The Shilin Night Market is huge and a bit overwhelming. There’s a lot of shopping, food stalls and carnival games to play. It was my sister and Noel’s first Taiwan night market, so we for sure had to get fried chicken cutlet and stinky tofu. We also had ai-yu jelly drink, a cranberry lemon juice that Karen bought for us (this was really refreshing), “big sausage wrapped in little sausage” (outside sausage is sticky rice), and bought some Taiwanese fruits at the end.

Shilin Night Market - a lot of the stalls are indoors as well as the surrounding streets
Shilin Night Market – a lot of the stalls are indoors as well as the surrounding streets

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At the original hot star getting a chicken cutlet (70 NT = $2.80 CAD)
At the original hot star getting a chicken cutlet (70 NT = $2.80 CAD) (Tim: Don’t think it’s the actual original location… but in their original night market)
Noel and the chicken
Noel and the chicken
Us with cousin, Karen
Us with cousin, Karen
Karen ordering the stinky tofu for us
Karen ordering the stinky tofu for us
Cheers to stinky tofu!
Cheers to stinky tofu! (50 NT = $2 CAD)
We lined up for 30 minutes for a rice sausage with a sausage inside. 50 NT = $2
We lined up for 30 minutes for “big sausage wrapped in little sausage”
Rice sausage wrapped around sausage (50 NT = $2 CAD)
Rice sausage wrapped around sausage (50 NT = $2 CAD). We picked the garlic one – it was delicious!
And tonight was a wrap!
And tonight was a wrap!

We got back to the apartment close to midnight – we were all exhausted, especially my sister who had to carry had a 30 pound toddler strapped to her for 4 hours. I don’t know how she does it, she’s superwoman!

Steps today was 30,000 ! No wonder we were pooped.

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