Comprehending untamed backsides of Taipei zoo

Why did Tigger put his head down the toilet?

He was looking for Pooh.

My go-to joke, and, don't worry, profoundly appropriate for today's topic.  Taipei zoo is like a large, ecologically aware five-year-old. This in relation to the percentage of time spent discussing what you produce in the WC / bathroom / toilet / loo / restroom / washroom / *insert own word here* . 

Admire the pictures carefully

Its obsession with poop and anything toilet humour-related reached heights I did not know were socially acceptable for anyone older than the said five. All in the name of ecology, though, and I guess it was an entertaining way of educating them classes and classes of giddy Taiwanese school kids about, er Poo-wer.

On a related topic, Taipei zoo also obsessed about the bit of the body that created the said Poo-wer.

I doubt it was a coincidence.

One of my fave pics of the trip, taken by a confused English gentleman

I guess it is pretty good for the environment to make good use of the natural, obligatory waste of humans and animals alike.

In addition to bums and poop, Taipei zoo obsessed over pandas. Now this was the fame I knew the zoo for.

“Puzzles can be redone but protecting pandas can not,” as the poster stated with stark truth.

The pandas were cool but too lazy for my liking. The first time I walked past them I thought it was just the appetiser to the real thing (yeah no I don't mean to use restaurant vocab but you know what I mean...? Maybe.) No, the appetiser was the main course. But they were cute and all, yes.

Sleepybizzzzzzzze

I regret to say that cuddly toy pandas were probably a bigger highlight for me than the actual ones – I found a panda cafe, where I enjoyed a ridiculously overpriced fruity ice tea with a non-real panda. 

My date

I  felt like I'd just stopped off for my first tea break after escaping the mental hospital, but at least I kept myself entertained. The waitresses seemed used to crazy solo panda people, and obediently took excellent pictures of me and my new fuzzy pal.

like this romantic one

Obviously the two main themes of the zoo were handily merged together here: 

Panda loos

The zoo was full of other intriguing sights, too.

At the beginning of 'insect valley'... I ventured in no further

I'm not sure drizzle is a camel's favourite place to be

I love giraffes!!!!

Obviously the most beautiful ever souvenir shops RIGHTTTT?!?!?!

Elephant water tank - clever eh!? 

I had a delightful time wandering in the rain in my astonishingly sexy rain coat aka yellow bin bag from the local souvenir shop. I felt slightly out of place since I wasn’t Taiwanese and about the age of, erm, again, the said five. But at least I was dressed appropriately. It was great fun.

The rest of the guests

After the zoo I went on to a nearby attraction which was… a cable car. 

Also one of the most well-known Taipei attractions, the cable car to the village of Maokong, the Maokong Gondola. The views were cool though nothing near those of Ngong Ping in Hong Kong (also, the weather was less ideal).

Taipei 101 

Passing temples in the hills

‘Maokong’ means ‘no cat’ (or well, ‘catno’ to be precise), though slightly confusingly it is also called the Cat Village. (Though, even more confused edit: Wikipedia claims it means ‘cat sky’ which would actually be a whole lot more apt…) 

Cat sky would indeed be more appropriate

It was famous for its teashops which I didn’t have the time to sample as I was hanging out with my travel friend of the hour, Canadian E who enjoyed talking. (He was friendly and entertaining though, so no worries!) 

On the way back in a slightly eery cable car all to myself

If you like zoos, I can recommend Taipei Zoo. But I still don’t feel it’s a crazy Must-See. And save more time for Maokong. And maybe cut down on the cable cars.

www.toilettwinning.com if you’re into the original topic of this entry.

Till next time,

Toodles!

Emzy
xxxxxx

lol at Taipei 101

When in doubt what to do when arriving at a new destination, go up the highest building you can find. And that seemed like a pretty solid plan in Taipei, which boasts the fourth highest building in the world at 509metres (1,667 feet), also housing the world's fastest lift (1010m/h). Add to that the fact that it's shaped like a bamboo shoot, and you've got your first afternoon destination easily sorted. Waddup, Taipei 101!

Here it is

Proof of fast elevators

After a nice 'local' lunch of dumpling soup and a nice 'local' dessert of multiple free samples of Taiwanese pineapple cake (I skipped the dried duck tongue though) offered at the shopping centre at the bottom of the 101, I embarked upwards. It was a very surreal hyped-up lift featuring atmospheric space music but also a very hurriedly spoken intro-to-the-lift-and-the-tower both in English and in Chinese which lessened the spacey atmosphere.

Views

The views from the 360 observation deck were awesome, though nothing massively special to people who are less-high-place-enthusiastic than me. 

Again air-views of an airport :D

There were quite a few rainbows, which were amazing, and the mountains surrounding Taipei were impressive. 

You also got various corners of interest in the building itself, I'm sure to make it stand out from other Highest Buildings in the World (HBW) – for example you had the cool 'Infinity Sky' mirrors, so both the ceiling and the floor were mirrors. The leaflet is also considerate enough to remind people that “for visitors wearing miniskirts, please be aware that the glass floor may be reflective”.

Luckily it was not a miniskirt day for me 

Another, erm, interesting detail of the Taipei 101 is that it is keen to show off its wind damper, which is apparently the biggest and heaviest in the world. Impressive, right!?

Which begs the question: What is a wind damper?

This

Well, basically it is something that makes sure the wind doesn't sway the tower too much. But it was incredible the extrent they used this whole wind damper thing to market the Taipei 101 – it was full of these cartoony 'damper babies' that came in miscellaneous colours and apparently all with different personalities, found in various corners of the observation deck with their IOI-faces (yes, their face is designed to look like 101). As expected, the souvenir shop was also packed with damper baby magnets, keyrings, postcards and cuddly toys to satisfy all your Taipei 101-souvenir needs. It was fascinatingly ridiculous.

Or you could just get a Taipei 101 water bottle

My travel friend of the day was J from America, who I met at the top outdoor (and quite disappointing) observation deck of the 101. He was doing a literal daytrip to Taipei on his way from America to Australia (he arrived in the morning, and his flight left in the evening). A very friendly dude, and also as one of the most sarcastic Americans I've met, he was a lot of fun to hang out with for the rest of the day which we spent laughing at damper baby obsessions and getting lost in various corners of Taipei.

After Taipei 101 we decided to find the nearby Elephant Mountain (#1 on TripAdvisor!), from where you could see a lovely view of the tower and its surroundings. We ended up taking the scenic route up dark, non-illuminated steps and spider-spotting. (I was telling J how I was disappointed by the lack of large spiders during my year in Asia, and ten seconds later he pointed out a rather hefty specimen hanging out in its huge web. “Don't go wishing for poisonous snakes next,” he told me.)

Sup Aragog

We finally found the official viewpoint of Elephant Mountain and took a few pics and bought a few beers from the (very) local bar (see pic) before hurrying back to my hostel so as not to miss a walking tour I'd signed up for, which I did eventually miss, so we went for dinner at a funky ricey-fishy-curry-place instead. 

Hooray!

The Elephant Mountain bar and the Elephant Mountain bar dog  

An excellent day to start off my Taiwan adventure with. 

Next: Taipei zoo (I think!)

Happy 2016 munchkins!!!

Emzy

xoxoxoxoxo

Taiwan intro feat. LOTS OF FOOD

Did you know that some Taiwanese call themselves the 'children of the Sweet Potato'? Taiwan is shaped like one. I would personally love to be the child of a sweet potato. I guess that's why I found myself in Taiwan.

When planning my trip, Taiwan was one of the original countries it was planned around. Not a well-known country, but all my friends who'd ever visited praised it no end - my friend Patricia describing it as the best of Vietnam added to the best of a more developed country. So, I booked a nice four-full-days-stint at the highly acclaimed Meander Hostel, Taipei. (I warmly recommend it, btw, pleasant and sociable and has everything you need, and very easy to meet other travellers at their breakfast!)

Photo shoot in the old streets

So, what is Taiwan known for? Stunning scenery, good food and friendly people was what I was expecting. Also a fair level of development, as it experienced a post-war 'miraculous' growth in the second half of the 20^th century and is today one of the prominent 'Four Asian Tigers' (concerning rapid industrialisation) in the company of Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. 

Despite still having a high population of mopeds and scooters, Taipei, the capital, has one of the most efficient metro systems in the world, which you can navigate with the easy-to-use local public transport card, Easycard (I was slightly disappointed it wasn't called 'Squid' or 'Pufferfish', since it seemed that sea creatures was the go-to-theme when metro card people considered names for them – there's the Oyster Card in London, obviously, and in Hong Kong it was the Octopus Card.).

#squadgoals in Taipei metro

One of my favourite things in Taiwan, however, was all its culinary delights. Firstly, it is home to My True Love, bubble milk tea. 

Secondly, Taiwan also has an amazing street food business going on, to be seen notably in its numerous night markets. 

In my travel journal I made a special two pages about Taiwanese food (largely thanks to the awesome stickers I found of them). 

I love markets, and in Taiwan most of my meals constituted of random bits and pieces bought from various stalls, night markets and elsewise. 

Significant Taiwanese foods include (and their ratings in 1-5 stars)...

• Sausages filled with sticky rice. Rating: ****

• Stinky tofu, the famous Taiwanese fermented tofu whose smell is best described as one you would imagine coming from a potion made out of strongly scented old socks. (Also, my brother's nickname is Tofu... Providing me with a new handy batch of witty comments. :) ) I was gonna try it... But I didn't. My friend said it was really good though. Rating: N/A 

On the left we have stinky tofu, on the right sausage filled with sticky rice served with veggies

• Seafood on sticks. I wasn't gonna try, and I didn't. But for seafood-lovers it was pretty good. Rating: N/A

• Sweet little gems with sweet stuff (usually red bean mush or green tea mush) inside. Rating: ***

• Steamed sweet buns with a sweet interior. You could choose a pig, a chick or a something else. They were so cute that I had to ask T to halve the sad pig face for me so that I didn't have to perform the killing act myself. Rating: *****

• Steamed pork buns. Same as above, but savoury with a pork filling. Rating: ******* (aka AMAZING)

• Un-steamed pork buns. The best ones we waited for for about ten minutes when the members of this family-run stall made them in front of you. Rating: ****** (aka AMAZING)

Dunno why I have no pic of the bun itself!! But here is the family preparing them

• Pineapple cake (traditional Taiwan style). I was well impressed with this one - pineapple in any other form except fresh is not usually my favourite thing to eat... But this was good. Each (numerous) sample I had. Rating: ****½

Cheers google

• I don't even remember what these are... Reddy sugary coated somethings. Looked about 130% too sweet for me. And I am not one to shy away from sugar. Make for a good photo though. Rating: N/A 

• Fruit tasters. Especially at Shillin night market, the most famous and most touristy, we were recommended not to buy fruit coz it was exorbitantly priced, but luckily the keen seller ladies were very eager to give out generously sized tasters on sticks. I refound my love for custard apples, most definitely... (Tho, interestingly, white-insided dragon fruit doesn't seem to be a thing in Taiwan! They only had the more photogenic, but substantially less scrumptious dark pink version...) Rating: ***** (custard apples)

• Tea-marinated eggs. Yes. I was sort of reassured to hear what they were after a few days of mentally slightly gagging every time I passed them at various corners or convenience stores - I was imagining a Taiwanese equivalent of Vietnamese hot vit lon (fertilised duck egg) swimming in, er, I dunno? Womb juice?? Ok, sorry. But it wasn't anything (seriously) dodgy, just a few harmless boiled eggs swimming in tea, basically the staples of a British breakfast rolled into one, right? Anyways, my half-Chinese friend L managed to persuade me to try one, and, well, it wasn't bad. Not sure it was the best thing in the world either, though. Rating: ***½

Nothing wrong with a bit of tea 

• The “Best Breakfast Ever” (BBE) (not strictly speaking a food stall, but part of a food court... but Taiwanese food anyways) This is a general label for it, not my personal opinion. All I know is that the queue had epic proportions - we were told it'd be an hour, but it ended up only twenty minutes. L ordered all their 'most popular foods' for us. Well, it ended up being nice, but nothing crazy impressive, imho. But, well, clearly a cultural experience! Rating: ***

Ordering the soya soupy stuff with breadie things

It came along with fried bread things filled with omelette, and various filled buns

The food area was crowded

Our night market highlight, however, was my first ever celebrity selfie! :D No idea what this Taiwanese dude's name was, but he arrived, with a charismatic girl, escorted by numerous video cameras and surrounded by giggly teenagers and curious families. Later we saw him on some foody advert and on TV, so we guessed he was a celeb chef or something. He was very confused when we requested a selfie, but was a good sport about it! 

Photo taker is our famous pal - others are my awesome hostel friends T & J 

So that was the introductionary and esculent (new word of the day, 'fit to be eaten') bit of Taiwan. 

Some tasters of future Taiwan entries...

Taipei lol

The sights of Jiufen

My bamboo-munching pal 

Until then, cheerio, and have a great final days of 2015! Any ideas for interesting New Year's Resolutions?

Emzy

xoxoxo