Our last day in Taipei was a busy one. The kids’ school assignment was to figure out a place to go and then use the MRT (subway) to get us there. The MRT is extremely easy to use, clean and impressively cheap. One can get virtually anywhere in the city for around or less than one dollar. Caden of course picked Krispy Kreme which was fantastic for me because there was a Starbucks next door.
After we hit the American restaurants in the Taipei Main Station, we made a pit stop at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. The place was absolutely enormous. While it memorializes a man who was known for “White Terror”, the grounds themselves are beautiful and immaculate. There are guards on duty from 9am-5pm, and if you are around during the top of an hour, you can witness the changing of the guards. Sadly we missed the changing, but the stop itself was one for the books.
For her choice, Keali picked the Maogong Gondola which was, conveniently for her, next to the Taipei Zoo. The gondola afforded us some incredible views of the city but also of the mountains that surround all of Taipei. With a population of just over two million people, the city of Taipei looks bigger than most cities in the USA that I have seen.
A little extra bonus of the gondola was some temples at various stops on the way up. The colors and attention to detail are so impressive.
The zoo ended up being worth the stop as well. For about $6USD, our entire family was able to get in. Seeing animals that we never see in zoos in the EU or USA was fun and interesting for all of us, but it certainly made us want to hurry to get to the pandas in China and koalas in Australia!
It also reinforced my fear of birds when we saw an ostrich sized bird-like monster with a colorful head like a toucan. If you want to fill your dreams with nightmares, look up cassowaries. (I couldn’t bring myself to photograph it.)
We finished up the night with a strong American finish: Pizza Hut. It might have been the best pizza I’ve ever eaten in my life. Or we were just hungry.
We leave Taipei today. We were meant to go to the Taroko Gorges but the rain will be falling for the entire time we were scheduled there, so instead of heading east, we will go west.
Honorable mention pics:
This is incredible! Keep it up!