Headed out with TAV artists Helene Juillet & Hyangro Loon for a great day trip.
Taipei Zoo is one of the largest zoos in Asia on with 90 ha open to the public it takes some serious walking to get around. We took the inexpensive shuttle train to one end of the park and then walked back. Lots of the usual friendly, unfriendly animal faces, with a fair amount of boredom, and sleeping going on...By 10 am we were sweating it..in the shade. The real treat is the Pandas..and they, well they are adorable. Everyone wants a panda pic, and luckily they were having breakfast, because after some major munching, and a brief stroll it was total shut eye to do all that digestion.
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| MTR - setting out |
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| Track to forever |
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| I am not ignoring you |
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| See... |
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| Still, I got better things to do... |
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| Shot with Panda - Had to! |
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| Sleeping Panda 1 |
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| Getting sleepy Panda 2 |
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| Shuttle train - all ours |
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| Helene |
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| Side-stepping elephant |
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| Selfies |
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| Giraffe family shot |
We then headed out of the zoo to join a substantial round the corner, up the stairs kinda longish queue to catch a gondola for a 4.2 km up and over the mountain. It was worth the wait and the 100NTD easily, offering spectacular views of the city and the dense forest far below. Maokong is a popular spot with many tea houses offering balcony views across the valleys to the city. We had a wonderful shared lunch of risotto/pasta/salad with some really yummy walnut cranberry home made bread that left us pretty full. We then worked this off over the next 3 or so hours as we trekked around the mountain. It is pretty well-signposted (mainly in Chinese), but some of the signposting can also be confusing. In spite of being super busy in the main areas clearly no one fancies walking in the heat..we had the trails which we had pretty much to ourselves and a multitude of butterflies (beats all those flys any day) We made our way round to Jinhje Cave to discover a temple set into the side of the mountain beside the cascading Silver Steam waterfall. The only occupant a hungry looking black stray dog who took off as we arrived.
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| A Gondola |
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| Serious Q action - and we were getting close by then.. |
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| Finally our Gondola to go... |
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| Ready.. |
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| This IS fun |
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| Amazing views |
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| Taipei City |
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| Going up |
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| And Up.. |
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| and down... |
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| Lush canopy |
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| Helene passes through a small farm-let |
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| Temple Burner |
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| Hidden away |
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| Steep climb |
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| Waterfall |
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| Window's eye view across the mountains |
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| Temple Interior |
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| Temple Interior |
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| Looking up/looking down.. |
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| Cross road cats.. |
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| Deep in the forest..messages to?.... |
We made our way back and then trailed it up onto the main peak. A nifty short cut (not) took us off the trail which eventually resulted in a retrace your steps joint vote. Finally back in Maokong, and after some green tea/black tea combo ice cream it was a weary though satisfying ride back to TAV.
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| Sun setting through the palms |
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| Green-Black Tea ice cream..definitely a 'new' taste experience. |
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