making it easier to keep in touch with family and friends

Friday 18 June 2010

Wild Life, Gondola, Underground Mall and Night Life

Today, we are off on our own, just three generation of women spending time together.

First stop for the day: Taipei Zoo
We set off after 9am and took the Metro to the Taipei Zoo. We arrived just after 10am. The girls were really excited to be at the zoo. We took the visitors' tram right to the end and slowly made our way back down to the entrance/ exit. We visited Amphibian and Reptile House, Bird World, African Animal Area, Nocturnal Animal House, Desert Animal House, Koala House, Panda House.










In between visiting the animals, we had lunch too. We shared spaghetti, Braised Pork Belly Rice (Lu Rou Fan) and hot dog. It has been a long time since I had Taiwanese Lu Rou Fan and it was as good as my memory recalled and the pork ball soup, yum! :)


Second stop for the day: Maokong Gondola
We were finished with the zoo around 2pm. We walked a short distance from the Taipei Zoo over to Maokong Gondola. The Maokong Gondola is a gondola lift transportation, like our cable car in Singapore, which runs between Taipei Zoo to Maokong, a distance of 4000+ metres. The gondolas travel mostly over green forest and hills. We could see Taipei 101 and Taipei city in the distance as well as Muzha district. The girls were really thrilled riding in the gondola. They were laughing and squealing away with joy being so high up in the sky lol. Once at Maokong, we ate ice sticks to beat the heat and to look around the area which has tea houses and hiking trails. It was 3pm when we arrived back on solid ground.










Third stop for the day: Zhongshan Metro Mall (underground mall)
We took the Metro from Taipei Zoo station to Taipei Main Station. We went to the Zhongshan Metro Mall which is an underground mall which stretches from Taipei Main station to Zhongshan station. For the first time in many days, I bought 2 blouses for myself at Zhongshan Metro Mall, so did my mother lol. Marieann also managed to find her Korean children's comics here. :) I bought her 3 comics at one go to stop her from asking us to visit bookshops again lol. :P

Fourth stop for the day: Shilin Night Market
By the time we arrived at Jiantan station (the start of Shilin Night Market), it was close to 6pm. We were all hungry lol. We quickly located a eating place to have some food just to stop the growling stomachs. We were keen to browse the night market for Taiwanese snacks lol.


Chicken Rice, different from Singapore's chicken rice

Oyster Omelette

Smelly Tofu with pickles

Before we went to hunt for more food, we stopped by the game stalls. I wanted the girls to play at a particular game stall which gave me lots of fun during my childhood in Taiwan. Catching fish! The girls were most happy trying to catch the fishes in their nets lol.




After 15 minutes of "fishing", we went over to the food stalls. There were so many people. I think the girls were kind of overwhelmed by the people, the food stalls, the smells, the sights... They didn't want to eat anything. Finally, we ended up eating Japanese puff with mochi ice cream and drinking ice jelly drink with tapioca balls.








Fifth stop for the day: Neihu
We took a bus from Shilin Night Market to Neihu, my aunt's place. I have to collect the pineapple cakes which my cousin-in-law have made for me. We also had rice dumplings at my aunt's place as my mother and I were still hungry lol. We watched a bit of tv programme before leaving for the hotel via taxi at 9pm.

Hotel Sweet Hotel
The girls were dead tired after a long day. They were asleep by 11pm, the earliest ever since we came to Taipei. :)

No comments: