Taipei Zoo and Maokong Gondola

Didn't mean to alarm anyone with my last post. Apparently, there was some fireworks malfunction at a water park in New Taipei City (which is next to Taipei, where I am staying). About 500 people were injured but the media hasn't reported any deaths, which is really lucky.

On Friday, Andrew and I tried to go to the National Palace Museum. But because of some last-minute violin lesson changes and a bus that failed to show up, we realized that by the time we got there we would only have around an hour to see the museum. So we decided instead to just get dinner in Dazhi, the metro stop where we wound up. We walked for about five minutes and were starting to get worried because there didn't seem to be any restaurants around, but then we ran right into a vegan restaurant! I don't have pictures of any of the food, but it was very good.

Why did you abandon us, bus?

Dazhi at night

Yesterday Andrew and I went to the Taipei Zoo. Admission was only 60NT (about $2 USD)!

beware the wild topiary

We had been wandering around the zoo for all of five minutes when we came across an escaped animal convict.

"hello, i am mr. fluffles and i will be your zoo tour guide today"

At first I wondered if one of the lynxes had somehow gotten out of its enclosure, but upon closer examination, we realized it was definitely just a house cat. Maybe it belonged to a zoo employee?

"nothing to see here, just going to examine the rare birds exhibit"

As we approached it, the cat got skittish and walked off. I guess it knew it wasn't supposed to be there.

We also saw some actual zoo animals! I don't remember any of their names.

We lucked out, and got to see the black bears right as they were being fed.

A very fluffy Taiwanese black bear

om nom nom

Primates lounging

We also got to see the Koala house. They eat eucalyptus, which is toxic and not very nutritious, so they spend their days being sleepy and constantly eating. That is the life.

One of the main attractions was the panda house. We picked a really hot day to go to the zoo, and the panda house had air conditioning, so we spent some time looking at the pandas.

They mostly loafed. I think if I was a panda I'd do that too.

 There was also a gift shop with a truly impressive amount of panda paraphernalia.

For Mak

 Some other animals.

Even the desert animals know it's too hot

Some one-hump camels and two-hump camels

What's in this enclosure? It's irrelephant.

A sneaky elephant hiding behind another elephant

Cute turtles munching on carrot, ft. baby turtle

Penguins! (The penguin house was also air conditioned.)

pretty rude, Taipei Zoo.

not the cat we saw earlier

When we reached the end of the Zoo, we saw a sign for a stop on the Maokong Gondola. The gondola is kind of like a little ski lift that takes you up the mountain. We were planning on catching the gondola at its first stop right outside the Zoo after we finished visiting the Zoo, but it turned out we could just catch the gondola where we were.

This is what the gondola looks like! Each car can fit about 6 people.

I found the gondola ride kind of nerve-wracking at first--we were being held up in the sky by these small-looking cables--but it was amazing once I got used to it. It's totally safe. and you get amazing views of the city.

That short pink building in the middle is Andrew's apartment!

whoops

One of the stops on the gondola was this temple. We didn't get off there, opting instead to go to the top of the mountain. I want to go back and visit it sometime, though.

Once we got off the gondola, there was a winding road that looked like a mini-night market. Apparently, the town on the top of the mountain specializes in tea. We got there too late in the day to visit the main tea house, but there were plenty of smaller restaurants and cafes.

We ended up stopping at a small tea place overlooking the mountain.

Hazelnut tea, complete with curly straws

For a relatively low-key adventure, the gondola ride and tea/mountain combination was wonderful. The scenery is gorgeous and it's pretty inexpensive.

A very blurry picture of the gondola fare ticket

going back down the mountain

The Zoo gondola station (our final destination)

After we left the gondola we decided to head back home, but had to make a pit stop to refuel my metro card. If we hadn't, we would have missed the adorable cat lounging on the front desk of the gondola station!

ticket, please

If there's one thing I've learned from this trip, it's that I apparently have a special talent for finding cats in places they aren't normally.