Taiwan Day 1 (Part 1): Taipei Zoo & Maokong Gondola Ride

Our next family adventure took us to Taipei, which was a great trip, especially since it only takes 2 hours to fly from Korea. Taiwan is a great country; one of those places where USD goes a long way. We went with our friends, the Rust's, and rented a large downtown apartment that was large enough to fit both our families of 6.

As we ventured out the first day we decided to start with a little fun for the kids. If you wonder how we get around, every country we go we get a SIM card for our phones or wifi hotspot, and through the use of 4 different GPS systems and lots of research a head of time, we figure each location out. Taipei has a very well ran metro system, like most foreign countries. Once we figured out the regional transit system, we went first to the Taipei Zoo.

At first, it really wasn't much different then any other zoo, but the girls really enjoyed a few of the funny little things that you only see in foreign countries. For example: they had this random collection of butts of different animals, and they describe how each butt is different. The kids decided to "butt" into the picture on this one...come on you know that was funny.

We ventured on to see elephants and monkey. The kids enjoyed seeing the elephants.  Especially since there wasn't plexiglass to separate us from the elephants.  You could reach right through the window.

Now a little known secret, I speak monkey. Maybe it's a mating call, who knows, but I can mimic the whopping sound of monkeys and it makes them go nuts! Hope you enjoy the little video of it. It sure perked up the exhibit and kids thought it was so funny!

Little A and the littlest one of the Rust family, has such a fun time finding little frogs to climb on, or hang out at the penguin exhibit.  They were such good travel buddies!  If Little A wanted to stop little Rust would keep her going and visa versa.

I have to make a plug about random signs that are found in foreign countries. They are hilarious because you can't read them, but from the picture you try to figure out what they are saying. Like this one: werewolf A will eat werewolf B in the process of getting shot...maybe?

Now it was pretty much a normal zoo experience, until Heather told us about a very unique experience offered here: The gondola ride!

Now when Heather suggested this, I thought of a little Italy experience, right- hoping when the moon hits my eye like a big pizza pie thats amore? No ride down a water flooded channel here with a mime dressed gondola captain.

The gondola experience was an expansive network of cable cars taking you from the zoo, up and over the large mountains, giving you the best view of the Taipei. It was beautiful. Our first car was thoroughly enjoyed by the little ones due to the clear bottom of the car - which if you are afraid of heights, like I am, was on the other side of the coin- a nerve racking experience!

We went from one stop to another.  The next post tells all about the stops we made on the Gondola ride.

-Kevin