To Taiwan and Back Again...: Taipei Zoo

Showing posts with label Taipei Zoo. Show all posts

Monday, May 7, 2012

“Thirty-something” is the new “twenty-something”

One Friday May 4th, I left Taichung shortly after work, taking the HSR up to Taipei where I roamed the streets a little and took some pictures. I stayed at the same hostel where we had first stayed when we arrived in Taipei on April 28th 2011, and quite incredibly a member of the staff recognized me upon my check-in. I’m just going to assume that it is because I have an unforgettably handsome face.

Unfortunately, Amanda had to teach a morning class the following day, so she caught the HSR on Saturday and we met shortly after noon at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. Later that afternoon, we met up with a good friend and old work colleague of mine as well as his wife and two traveling companions. The last time I saw my friend Pierre was when we had stopped in Vancouver before flying to Beijing, so it was really great to catch up. We all went up to the Taipei 101 observation deck and took in some spectacular views. Later, we all went to the Taipei 101 Din Tai Feng where we enjoyed beef noodles, dumplings and xiao long bao amongst other dishes. Later that evening, Amanda and I went for a short walk and I took a few night shots from a pedestrian bridge overlooking an intersection by Taipei 101.

The following day, we met our friends, old and new, for a coffee before saying farewell. It was a beautiful day, in fact we were lucky with the weather the whole weekend and so Amanda and I caught a cab and headed for the Maokong Gondola (貓空纜車). When we arrived at the gondola station next to the Taipei Zoo we were a little disappointed to see that it was shut for maintenance and would not be reopening until June 2nd. At that point, the obvious alternative was the zoo. Despite it being a very busy Sunday at the zoo, it was still an enjoyable experience and we had much better views in the panda habitat than we had last time we visited.

All in all, it was a great birthday weekend. It was wonderful to see old friends and make new ones and I don’t think I had ever seen such clear blue skies in Taipei.

I took this a short walk from our hostel. Floats were being prepared for a religious festival.

A shrine close to our hostel

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Gate

National Theater

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Guard

Amanda

Brett

Brett and sea coral in Taipei 101

Derek, Jason, Mihoko, Pierre and Brett

Intersection near Taipei 101

The pedestrian bridge is a good spot for taking pictures.

Zoo crowds

Bearded Dragon

Monkey

Snake

Panda Habitat

Friday, July 29, 2011

Taipei 101 (臺北101), Elephant Mountain (象山) and Orientation Day 1

Okay, okay, okay. A more serious blog entry for you...

Taipei Zoo was very impressive and one of the best zoos we have been to.

We ended Wednesday on the observation deck of Taipei 101. It costs $400 NT/person to go up but the views were well worth it. I had my camera with me but no tripod which was a real disappointment when presented with such beautiful panoramas but luckily I still managed to snap a couple shots by resting my camera on a ledge. Two such pictures can be seen at the end of my previous post.

The following day Amanda and I ran some errands, in particular to Carrefour so that I could buy some smarter pants for teaching (no shorts allowed). While there I also decided to buy a camera tripod, albeit a very cheap one that will be a throw-away / give-away when it comes to leaving Taiwan.

In the afternoon I decided to take advantage of the clear skies and my new tripod and go for a trail hike on Elephant Mountain in the hopes of getting some good pictures of Taipei 101 and the Taipei skyline. The hike was a pretty steep set of stone steps that I climbed for about 30 minutes going at a quick pace (racing not to miss the setting sun!). When I reached a good lookout I found myself in the company of about 10-20 other photographers, some of whom had climbed atop great boulders and set-up their tripods and camera gear waiting for the the ideal late-afternoon / early-evening light. I had to go a little off-trail to find a decent perch but, once found, I set-up my gear and waited from about 6pm to 7:30pm. The wait was worth it and I think I got a few decent pictures right near the end of my stay.

Today we had our first day of orientation consisting of our medical exams, a short city bus tour and a delicious lunch. We’ve begun to meet some of the other foreigners that will be training alongside us and it is clearly a very diverse and friendly group of people that we look forward to getting to know better.

This evening Amanda and I went for Cantonese style dim sum at a restaurant in Brother Hotel just a little way down Nanjing East Rd. Amanda had read about the restaurant via a Taiwan food blogger called a hungry girl's guide to taipei. The food was excellent and it was the first time that we have had Cantonese style dim sum since leaving Canada. I definitely hope we will be able to visit again before leaving Taipei.