taipei, day 5 aka last day

am a little thankful for the 2 days MC, because it allows me to take things slow, not stress myself over work (even though i replied a few emails), and simply rest and rest. 🙂

day 5, also our last day in taipei, i DRAGGED der to the zoo! yes. you heard me right, i went to the zoo.

and knowing that i am not a fast food fan, day 5 was also a day filled with fast food. Mcdonalds for our breakfast! time to buy lottery already because i am eating fast food.

i had the usual hotcakes (at least that’s something no so “fast-foody”), and also ordered a cream cheese bagel! the macs was packed and we had to sit at counter seats with another couple (i suspect singaporean) beside me. while i kept observing them, they were also looking at us through the mirror. so der and me had the following conversation..

c: hey, i think they are singaporean, because they talk like us and they keep looking at us just like we are checking them out.
d: i think they are singaporean too, but i don’t think they are looking at you because of that.
c: no? then what?!
d: i think they are staring at you, a girl, gorging that much of food down for breakfast. that’s what they are looking at! they must be thinking this girl can really eat!

ok. fine. and i thought they were looking at my cream cheese bagel because it is so interesting as i spread the cream cheese.

we moved on to the zoo immediately after the brekkie! the cool thing that we found out was that u could pay for the entrance tickets using the easycard (our version of ezlink card)! taipei zoo is similar to singapore’s zoo, with the animals looking the same, the insect valley feeling like our butterfly park section and the only significant difference had got to be the size of it. It’s much bigger than our zoo and also they have many exhibit houses for educational purposes. even their toilets have interesting bits of animal information or quizzes to keep you entertained as you go about doing your “business”. check out the monkey us monkeying around..

ok. i know. we weren’t the animals, but because a lot of the animals are already what u see in singapore, i didnt take a lot of photos of them. oh, and also, they also have the section called the children zoo where children can interact in close proximity of the animals. i can’t remember if singapore zoo have that but it reminded me of the zoo in seattle where u try the feeling of milking a fake cow..

you know what is the ONE animal that make the entire trip to the zoo worth its money and effort?! this animal made der mesmerized and his feet were literally stuck to the ground that even though it started raining, he still kept staring at the animal. seriously i was amazed too, because my build like only half his chest! and i have never, ever, seen a gorilla in my entire life (other than in movies)!

the unfortunate thing is that the picture didnt turn out fantastic, because the gorilla enclosure was covered with 2 metres high fibre glass encasement, and there was no open space where i can shoot the creature direct, hence the greenish hue. the only other place where i took a lot of pictures was the insectarium. have to test my d80 out right? don’t care for the fact that i don’t even have the proper lens for macro shots, besides, butterflies are such pretty things!

and have you ever wondered how it is like to look through a housefly eye? here’s what you would see.. i’m surprised that they never feel dizzy and bang into a wall.

that’s all for the zoo adventure. the last bit of day 5 was spent shopping in 东区SOGO at 忠孝復興站. i didnt buy anything, we just walked and walked and walked. the interesting thing that i realised about taiwan shopping centres are that, they are pretty much like japan. a simple bag but easily the price of marc jacobs. the shoes department prices are in the range of nine west prices or even more expensive, but yet, they are all not branded. makes me think everyone should go for the branded instead because its more worth the moolah.

and.. i also tried their MOS burger! i ordered this octopus burger and it was yummy! i also had a hard time trying to get the server to give me the creamer for the iced tea. i can’t recall the chinese term for it, totally foreign! oopsie. realised that i didnt have the mos burger food to show.. must have been too famished to take pictures.

when the day ended, we had to refund our easycards. it truly has served us well and i strongly urge you to travel by the public transport should you ever travel to taipei free and easy. we only paid NT$500 (approx. s$25) each for the cards, and it paid for 5 days of travelling via trains, buses, ferry and tickets for the zoo, and still get about s$10 worth of money back in total after refunding, so we spent less than s$40? going by the amount of places and travelling i did, it was so cheap!! and please, don’t ever think about getting the one day pass or go by the single tickets because it is simply not worth it!

the last night of the trip ended with us spending all our money at the convenience store, loading up on the drinks and noodles for our supper. the bee hoon is sOoo good (and cheap!) and looking at it now makes me crave for it.

we woke up at 5am the next morning to check out of the hotel for the early morning flight at 8am in the morning.

breakfast at the airport

us, at the departure gates. hk, here we come!

i had loads of fun in taiwan.. and i also bumped into my sec school classmate, edmund in the hub of xi men ding.. not once, but twice. on 2 separate days some more. how cool is that?!