Sunday January 8, 2012
Today we had breakfast again at the usual spot before heading to the Taipei Zoo with Joe's dad. It is located just southeast of Taipei. On the metro ride over, Joe found a great sign.
There were flamingos when we first walked in.
The main attraction was the pandas. Joe's Dad had never seen them before. In 2008 the zoo accepted 2 pandas from mainland China, a gift that had been rejected by the then president Chen Shui-Bianca in 2005. The pandas are named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan which together means 'reunion.' The offering of pandas is an old Chinese diplomatic tradition, but the supporters of Taiwan's independence view it as something like a Trojan horse. Dad was upset that they were just laying there with their butts facing us sleeping. They had a large room to explore and they weren’t.
The most popular attraction before the pandas was the koala house.
Tortoise
Penguins! I love penguins.
We also saw lynx, elephants, rhinoceros, etc.
We took the Maokong gondola, a 4km cable car from the Taipei Zoo up the green hills to Zhinan Temple and Maokong in the Erge Mountain Range. It finally reopened again in 2010 after repairs. Since it was free for Dad he decided to ride with us, which is surprising since his fear of heights is getting greater with age. I hate that the weather sucked so badly today. Pictures didn't really turn out in the rain-covered car.
At the Zhinan Temple stop it turned to a complete fog. You could not see 10 feet in front of you, much less the car in front. On the way to the Maokong stop it cleared up a little.
Maokong is one of Taiwan's oldest tea-growing areas and is famous for teahouses, temples and romantic night views of the city. On my first trip here we came shortly before New Years 2008 and could faintly make out Taipei 101 in the distance while the family played cards and drank tea. We ate some lunch in Maokong before heading back down since it would not have been fun walking up the rural mountain street in search of a teahouse in the rain. On the way back down we got a car with a glass floor! In this view the glass wasn't be covered in raindrops.
Views of Taipei beyond.
Looking back at the gondola after we exited.
Dad & son.
Somehow Joe's dad convinced him to go to a 'parade' near the Presidential Office Building in the center of Taipei. As we walked by MANY policemen toward a stage setup near Chiang-Kai chek Memorial Hall we started to get a feeling there was something lost in translation.
Dad brought us to a political rally! The presidential election is about a week away. What Joe had not understood was that the president and his new vice president nominee were marching to this stage from Taipei 101. Most of the older crowd, like Joe’s Dad, was waiting to hear the president’s speech at the final destination. He would speak for about an hour and then other political rally festivities stuff would happen; hence the misinterpretation of festive atmosphere for festival.
For some reason Jackie enjoyed watching Joe be as uncomfortable as she was as the only white person there.
Dad gave us an out to leave before the parade made it there. We took the opportunity and walked through 2-28 Park and hightailed it over to Ximendeng, a trendy young shopping district where we recalled Joe's cousin stopping for noodle soup at a crowded place after just finishing a huge lunch of dim sum nearby. We were determined to find this place again. The Red House Theater is one of Taipei's older buildings. The wooden, octagonal structure was originally a public market with many lives since then.
We searched down Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle House, which has had a large crowd gathered out front since 1975. This stall serves rice noodles in delicious soup with added slices of pig intestine.
After that we went to the Shilin Night Market, the city's biggest and oldest. Joe recalled this food market being located under a large covered building that you could see from the metro stop. We walked the narrow lanes that sell mostly clothes, but are peppered with snack stalls.
Now that is some big Asian sausage!
and Joe had to order some!
We found the public market building, but weren't really sure where all the street food was located. We later found out that the 'food court' downstairs was the new location. The old covered pavilion had been deemed a fire risk so the food stalls were relocated here in August.
Here are Chinese lanterns at the temple front, which of course had food stalls.
No comments:
Post a Comment