Taiwan Family Holiday - Taipei Zoo and Maokong Gondola

Taiwan Day 8

Today we had arranged to spend the day at the Taipei Zoo with Mr A's school friend and family who were in Taiwan for the Easter weekend. 

When we last visited Taiwan two years ago, we also visited Taipei Zoo with friends on Easter weekend.  So I had a real sense of deja vu when the taxi pulled up to the Taipei zoo entrance. However this trip was already  such an improvement to our last visit.  This time it was NOT 40 degrees C, I did NOT have an 8 month old baby strapped to my chest and this time, the crowd numbers were (oddly) minimal.  

We used our Easycards to pay the wonderfully low entry fee of just NTD60 per adult (preschool children are free) and received our timed entry tickets to enter the panda exhibit.  You need one ticket per person including each child so make sure everyone in your family gets the same entry time. Some how The Hubs and I took tickets from two separate attendants and they were not coordinated so I had to go back and ask for tickets with the same time for all four of us.  This would not be easy to do if it was crowded as there are a lot of entrance gates and each attendant has a batch of different times on their tickets and may run out of the time you want.

From our previous visit to the zoo, we had some idea of the best way to tackle the immensity of the zoo as well as incorporate a ride on the Maokong Gondola in one day.  Here I will share our suggested itinerary for the Taipei Zoo and the Maokong Gondola.

Firstly Taipei Zoo is immense.  Which makes it incredible value for money but impossible to conquer.  So just commit to the fact that you will not see everything thoroughly in just one visit especially with kids in tow.  We have visited twice and still not covered seeing some animal enclosures.  

To make the most of the day we would recommend arriving as early as possible to see the pandas first since they are quite near the entrance of the zoo.  Then take the shuttle which will drop you off at the top of the zoo next to the reptile house.  From here there are two option.  You can work your way back down the zoo to the entrance again or stop and have lunch at the top of the Maokong Gondola Station in one of the teahouses.  I would highly recommend this if food is important to you because the food options in the zoo are really limited with just a McDonalds at the entry and some average quality eateries scattered around the zoo.  During our first visit we ate at the Panda House cafe and we had to wait a long time for very basic and overpriced food that nobody remembers fondly and I would not recommend. 

As I described above, we started out at the Panda House first.  These are clearly a very popular feature of the Zoo and there's even a panda themed cafe and gift store.  The last time we tried to see the pandas they were all asleep plus the crowds were horrendous so it was just a waste of time being jostled through the viewing area.  However this time we were early at 9.40am and it was feeding time with both the pandas awake and playful.  It was also not as crowded so we could actually pause and enjoy uninterrupted views and the kids could see the pandas up close.  The staff will hustle everyone to keep moving forward so that everyone gets a turn to see the pandas so have cameras ready and the kids eyes peeled for the pandas.  I do think we were fortunate to have a fairly luxurious linger in front of the pandas this time though because there weren't many people visiting the zoo that morning.

From the panda house we took the kids through the koala house because the group of us were all Australian expats and koalas hold a special place in our hearts.  The koalas were adorable and their enclosure has been done really nicely, allowing the children to see the sleepy koalas really easily. 

The shuttle train/bus station is immediately next door to the koalas so we decided to join the queue for a shuttle.  The shuttle is really a train shaped car with a series of passenger carriages and my kids both loved riding it.  It cost NTD5 for a single trip but preschoolers are free.  You can pay with Easycards too.  The train took us to the Bird House Station at the top of the zoo.  From there you can hop off to explore the rest of the zoo or you can take a second shuttle bus to the Maokong Gondola Station. 

Is it a bus? Is it a train?  It's a train bus shuttle thingy...

We decided to see some animals before taking the gondola and the kids ran for the Reptile House.  Don't be fooled by the small entrance.  This exhibit was huge inside.  The number of different species on display was incredible and I would even say too time consuming with three boys in tow.  We literally had to drag them out and Mr A was getting upset we were moving too fast and missing some of the different tortoises and snakes. 

At the exit of the reptile house was the Penguin House and I was looking forward to some nice cool air conditioning inside.  But this exhibit was not quite up to the standard of the other animal habitats and I would give it a miss if needed.  

Next we saw a favourite of ours the red pandas (think Shifu from Kungfu panda) and then the beautiful Formosan black bear.  At this point we walked back to the Bird House Station and hopped on the second shuttle train to the Taipei Zoo South Station.  This second shuttle trip costs another NTD5 per adult.

At Taipei Zoo South Gondola station we disembarked and saw ink stamps at the entrance and the kids stamped their hands purely for fun.  Now there are always ink stamps in Taiwanese tourist locations which are collected as souvenirs but this stamp IS ESSENTIAL.  Without it there is no proof you came from inside the Taipei Zoo and if you return from the gondola ride and want to enter the zoo again you will have to pay the entrance fee again. SO GET STAMPED. 

There were no queues for the gondola.  Such a relief as during our last trip the queue to enter the gondola cabin snaked down the staircase to the entrance.  We bought tickets at the station entrance from vending machines.  We did not do our research adequately but if you use the Easycard to pay for the Zoo ticket then you will receive a NTD20 discount on the gondola ticket.  A one way ticket from the Taipei Zoo South Station to the top is NTD100. 

Other important things to note about the Maokong Gondola is it is usually closed for maintenance checks every Monday.  Also there are two types of gondola cabins.  The standard cabins and the Crystal or glass bottom cabins.  There are usually two separate queues for each type but there was only one queue for us because it was not busy and it was to our delight that we ended up in a Crystal cabin.  However the catch was it could only take a maximum of 5 occupants so the Hubs and I took the three kids with us and the other parents had to settle for the next one which ended up being a standard cabin. 

The kids were totally in awe of the glass floor and the older two were surprisingly unphased by it but Mr R was not happy and needed to sit on my lap.  We sent lots of photos between our cabin and the cabin of the other parents to show off our glass floor experience.  I would definitely recommend the Crystal cabin if you can afford to wait for one.  The views of the mountain side from the gondola were really lovely and the ride was relaxing and enjoyable. The boys spent a lot of time looking for dinosaurs down below!

At the top it was still no where near as crowded as our last experience up the Maokong Gondola and I was glad because it was smack on lunch time and we would need to find a place to eat.  We headed straight past the street food stalls for the tea houses and up the road looking for a delicious local meal.  It felt quite dangerous at times to share the footpath with vehicles driving to the tea houses so take care with wandering toddlers. 

We chose a tea house with a lovely view over the mountains and fortunately our friends read Chinese and ordered an assortment of local dishes to try.  We also had refreshing iced fruit tea served in a dainty glass tea set.  The whole area was very quiet and peaceful.  I am so glad we had the chance to eat at a tea house and appreciate this mountain area more thoroughly on this trip.  In fact all the tea houses looked unique and offered lovely looking dishes when we perused their menus.  It was only a shame that we didn't have more meals to eat so we could try different tea houses.  All in all I would certainly come back to this area.

Fighting temptation to stop and taste the snacks

There are many teahouses to choose from with good signage and lots of menus with photos.

We walked back down to the station but first we had to stop for dessert.  The kids wanted soft serve cones but the adults wanted the ice cream peanut brittle spring roll.  These ice cream spring rolls were a memorable highlight of my last trip.  Everything is home made.  Firstly they manually shave a huge block of peanut brittle and then this is served with 2 scoops of home made sorbet: strawberry and taro.  There is an optional sprinkle of chopped coriander (yes, take it please, you must!) and this whole concoction is wrapped up inside a giant spring roll wrapper.  The idea sounds crazy but it is so refreshing and delicious.  They probably cost less at the night markets than up here on the top of a touristy mountain so when in town please keep an eye out for these stalls with the huge blocks of peanut brittle and give one a try.   

My fresh peanut brittle shavings being prepared for deliciousness

Again the key here is to occupy the other half with the kids while enjoying this all to yourself.

Back at the gondola station we bought return tickets to Taipei Zoo South Station (not Taipei Zoo Station).  This time there was a long queue for the crystal cabins so we just took the standard cabin which had no queues and all of us could fit into.   At the bottom of Taipei Zoo South Station, to enter back to the Zoo we realised that we should have all stamped our hands when we got off the shuttle train and thank goodness the kids had done it or we had no proof we had come from the Zoo!  We then hopped back onto a shuttle bus to go back into the Zoo again. 

There were so many animals left to see and Mr R really needed his nap.  So while trying to nap him in the stroller we managed to see the bird house, the main African animals of interest and the orangutans because Mr A had just done a school presentation about these amazing endangered animals.  

Despite our best efforts, there were still areas we missed including the farm animals and also local formosan animals.  You could easily spend two days at the Taipei Zoo and for the price it would be a good idea to do so.

The zoo is huge and can be back breaking work for some!

From the Zoo we walked to the MRT station to train back to our respective accommodation.  Mr A was particularly sad to depart from his friend and it was really a nice way to have finished off our trip to Taiwan. 

Popiah: one of my favourite dishes from childhood

Another beast, I mean basin of soup that defeated us.

We went for an early dinner at Shin Yeh restaurant.  A large formal restaurant that served local Taiwanese dishes.  We had popiah which I really miss from Malaysia and from when my Grandma would make it.  And yet again, we ordered an overly large albeit delicious serve of soup.  Even with photos and the English menu something got lost in translation as I honestly thought it was a small stewed dish until this basin and ladle came out.  It was a pork and bitter gourd soup and tasted incredibly well cooked, wholesome and healthy but again, there was just so much soup.  We were defeated by soup once more.  I tried to suppress my memories (nightmares?) of our other soup ordering disaster sitting in the fridge back at our accommodation.  We politely declined taking home the soup leftovers this time and decided to call it a night as we had an early flight back to Hong Kong in the morning.  

We had had a very successful trip to Taiwan this time around and had certainly ticked a number of items off the bucket list of things to see and do in Taiwan with kids.  And most importantly, this trip inspired and birthed this very blog.