Adventure # 14 - Taipei April 2014 Part Three

I decided to split our final day in Taipei into two posts—This part will be about our unplanned Zoo adventure and part four will be about our last few hours spent in Ximending. To be perfectly honest, I plan like crazy before going for a trip and that meant matrices, schedules, screenshots, pre-loaded maps, pages of research and notes all nicely printed out and stapled and ready to be referenced. Call me the prepared Adventurer. (Haha.)

Exhibit A

This trip, however, took an unprecedented turn when I lost my whole printed itinerary during our FIRST stop. Lesson learned: Always print multiple copies of the itinerary!! I had a slight panic attack and went into a minor fit before regaining my footing, found wifi and was able to download the pdf of the plans. Suffice it to say, it was very difficult to keep consulting a tiny screen to figure out where to go next. :\ Anyway, with that little hurdle over, I was able to calmly readjust half of our trip when both mom and my sister wanted to see the pandas. Taipei Zoo wasn't really a major part of our plans (more like a Plan B), and I didn't expect that we'd be spending most of our day there! I sadly had to say "see you next time" to some of the spots listed on our itinerary. :(  I guess I'll just have to go back to Taiwan!

A ten-minute walk from the hotel we stayed at is the Ximending Red House Theater—This was originally a market building that became a theater after. Now, aside from being a theater, it also houses shops from independent artists. Photos inside in Part Four!

May I humbly introduce my favorite donut—EVER. Mister Donut in Taiwan mostly carries the pon de ring, mochi variety and it was love at first bite. It was sweet and chewy and nibbling those cute spheres was such a delight! I've been trying several pon de ring donuts here in the country, our local Mister Donut included, and it just didn't taste or feel the same. (The search is still on!!)

This particular outlet was at the Ximending MRT station.

Tickets were at 60 NTD or roughly 86 PHP!

Some tips though, before plunging into this really expansive zoo:

•You will be given a time slot to see the pandas, so it's best to plan your trip with that in mind.

• If you don't want to keep climbing (as the entire place slopes up), take the shuttle train up and work your way down. There's a minimal fee of 5 NTD, roughly 7 PHP.

Their shuttle train was very efficient—arrival times were displayed on monitors and you can actually see live updates of the shuttle's location. Red train by the station, green train just after the Panda House and blue train by the cable cars.

And they look super cool too! Kids would love the choo-choo train vibe going on.

Panda family!

Mom and I outside the panda cafe where we had our lunch.

My sister was there to see the pandas. I was there to see the giraffes.

Be still, my heart!

I can sense my spirit animals!

Hello, you majestic creatures, you.

:)

Mao!

What's up with Taiwan and poo? First Modern Toilet and now this?

Cheeky shot. Get it? ;)

All in all, it was a really fun day trip—especially if you want to see specific animals. We were there at around 10:30 am and ended at 3:00. We were back at Ximending at roughly around 3:45. Post about what we did after on the next update!

Taipei Zoo

No. 30, Section 2, Xinguang Road, Wenshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 116

Operating Hours: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

The Panda House is closed every first Monday of the month

Taipei Adventures:
Part One
Part Two
Part Four

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