ITS MY LIFE. I'LL DO WHAT I WANT: 3rd day: Taipei Zoo and Shen Ken

On the 3rd day in Taiwan, we went to the zoo! I have actually been to Taipei Zoo a couple of times before. My childhood memory of the zoo was good. It was huge, clean and it took us a whole day to wander slowly around, and look at the animals. Good times.

No lah, we didn't eat at KFC. Just happened to take a photo here. This was at Ximending. We set off early in the morning that's why the streets are all empty. Ximending is never empty. It is always full and crowded with people and entertainers.

I like that there is a waiting zone for female passengers at night. There is a CCTV directly pointed in this direction. So nice!! All MRT stations should have this! A good way to make females feel a bit more safe going home late at night..

Took the Muzha Line to Taipei Zoo. If you didn't read the signs for which way to get out of the station, then just follow the crowd. Hahha that is what Cs and I do a lot. Just follow the crowds..especially when going to the night markets.

Once when we were looking pretty lost while looking for which crowds to follow to the night market, a woman came up and asked us: where do you want to go? Hahha took pity on us lol. Taiwan people are nice generally. They don't shy away when you ask for directions.

Jerrick!

Brothers!

Flamingos!

The zoo has almost every animal you want to look at. And they are kept in large areas. Not in a cramped space. Nice! They even have a shuttle train in the zoo! That's how large it is.

We did the smart thing and took the train to the top of the hill, and started making our way slowly down. Much better than walk all the way to the top with all the crowds.

Heheh actually I read about it in trip advisor. And I persuaded Cs and his family to do that too. Best decision ever. Must do if you're ever in Taipei Zoo ok!

One of the reasons why Taipei Zoo is so popular is probably cos its cheap! Entrance tickets were NT 60 or RM 6 each adult. Damn cheap ok. A can of sardines cost more. Haha just found out about the sardines last night.

Oh yea you can pay with the Easy Card you use on the MRT. Very convenient.

Kinda miss my long hair. Kinda lah cos sometimes I look in the mirror and go, its nice to have a change. But when its hot, I just want to tie it all up, sweep everything off my face!

Spotted Nagini! Harry Potter Fan.

I wonder how real this statement below is. Is it really from JK Rowling? Hmm..When I first read it, I was like: whaaaaaat???? For real?? Then I started researching it (geek and I blame it on my job), and found out some arguments regarding this.

If anyone is interested, read this blog here.

Moving on..moving on!

These two photos are from Jerrick. I thought I took photos of everything. But nooo..that was before I went on an outing with Jerrick. Hahahha he is so hardworking snapping photos of everything and everyone!

There is a 7-11 in the Zoo. Somewhere up on the hill. So the guys had some lok lok (looks like it) and some drinks. Love their 7-11's. So fully stocked. They even have those tea leaf flavored eggs.

Rainwater pump!

That was a swan, I think.

This is a hippopotamus !

Hahahhaha he keeps yawning like this when I want to take a photo what. So, hippopotamus it is. :D

Nah proper loving photo to make up for that comment.

They have a lot of these vending machines, with a lot of juices to try. But all in Chinese though. But its not hard to choose lah. If there is a picture of a peach or grape on the cover, I assume its peach juice and grape juice.

Apple juice and milk tea for like NT 10. RM 1. Cheap! Oh, sorry! Got English!

So broken my English. So Malaysian. :)

Giraffes!

Rhinoceros!

These are mountain goats?

That is a Chimpanzee sun bathing with legs wide open. Kinda obscene so I made the photo smaller. Yuck.

More Rhinos. They look so big and I was kinda fascinated by them..Fascinated more like what would happen if I accidentally fell in? Who would be dumb enough to cross over? Siao ah.And how long would it take for helpers to come? Would everyone start taking photos and videos first instead of helping?

Sad to say, probably yes, everyone would be taking photos and videos. And probably Cs might, just might leap in to help me (choi!!!).

Rubbish aside. Giraffes again..

Real hippos!

Fake hippos! Hahah poor CS. I made him take this photo.

Had pizza for lunch! :D There are quite a few shops where you can choose your spot for lunch. Choosing your seats are much harder. There were so many people in the zoo that day. More the later it got. Good thing we started off from the top.

By noon, it got kinda warm. Sunshine and walking around in the crowd = bad combination.

There were a lot more animals: bears, lions, and so on and so forth but I was lazy to whip out my camera. Jerrick's camera had a lot more photos but his photos take longer to upload onto blogger so ahh nobody wants to see photos of animals anyway right? =)

We saw the giant pandas as well but they are both sleeping. Apart. One indoor and one outdoors.

Mum said that when she went to the zoo in summer, they were both awake and running around playing with each other. So it was really cute to see and everyone was snapping photos and videos.

Winnie said that when she went to the zoo, it was so hot that the pandas didn't come out. They were not allowed out in the heat. =.=

At least I saw the pandas but they were sleeping. Hehe.

These are sooo cute and cuddly. Wish I bought one for myself. Ahhh regret!

Later we wanted to go to ride on the Mookong Gondola's. But the queue. Oh man. Plan scuppered again. Never visit Taipei during CNY. Everywhere is so packed full with people!

So we decided to go to ahh..another town, which I think the name is Shen Ken. Its an old town with some interesting food.

Took the bus. Short trip only about 10 - 15 minutes by bus. At least it felt short to me..maybe because I fell asleep?

Had some sweet potatoes. Look at the pictures..they have different colors.

Supposedly famous. That's the My Sassy Girl movie star right? The Korean movie that was popular many years ago.

Its good! Mmmm..

Some more chou dou fu / stinky tofu.

A very popular ice cream shop. So we stopped by to try some..

Cs chose the charcoal flavored one. He thought it was interesting and expected a smoky taste (?) I don't know what it meant anyway.

What I didn't expect was that the ice cream tasted exactly like charcoal!!! WTF? Its ice cream. How do they do it? It smells and tastes like charcoal. The burnt charcoal. Not nice.

Really tempted to buy these instant noodles/rice at the 7-11. Actually I was really tempted to buy a lot of food all the time! Going to the supermarket! I even bought beef instant noodles to bring back home! Its with me now. Hahaa my beef noodles!

Some more food. Unassuming looking stall but the smell was good. So we stopped by and ordered one. Ohh good good choice. Its good. Its basically just like roti canai (seems to be made in a similar manner too), with toppings if you want to. Nice..

Frog eggs. Hahaa a bit geli when you stop to think about it..

Its just good old bubble milk tea with pearls. But omg soo soft and chewy!!! Like no other in Kuching. Sorry I hate people who say that. But its true!!! It is soo soft. The pearls. And they put in so much of those pearls in one drink!!! :S And I forgot how much it costs. Probably some insane cheap price too.

And I keep looking out for this. Sien shu ci. Midnight snacks. With tian pu la! God at times like this, I realllly reaaaally wish that I can read/write Chinese. How to explain?!!

Cs and his midnight snack. Mien sien again. Never tire of this!

Very filling actually this little bowl. But maybe because we had so much crap throughout the whole day and night. :)

They have small dogs and they have big dogs! This dog so shaggy, so cute! Hahaa and so kwai. He just stands there allowing people to come up and coo and pet him. Cute.