Went to the Taipei Zoo this weekend with A. I don't remember the last time I was at a zoo, but it was many, many moons ago. Going to the zoo is great. It's a relaxing stroll at your own pace out in the open air with lots to see. The Zoo is a short ways away from the city, so the air's much cleaner - better for both animals and humans. And at only 30nt for us "students", it's money very well spent.*

For a place whose purpose is to bring animals together, do you ever feel like you spend a whole lot of time looking for animals? You shuffle from one holding pen/cage/glass display to the next, read the introductory sign, and then spend the next couple of minutes scanning the premise for the actual animal ... often cursing it for hiding away in an unseen corner. Why can't they be more like show-off zoo animals in Madagascar?

A highlight for our visit was at the black bear pen. After feeding, one black bear sat up, looked up, and called towards the zoo visitors perched over the wall. The crowd looking down started waving at the bear, snapping away with their digital cameras. Then, the bear waved back! So that's the enclosed picture I've decided to share with you.

Turns out that the Taipei Zoo is much bigger than I had thought. We walked at a fairly relaxing pace, and I thought we covered pretty good ground. But a second look at a zoo map told me that we'd only seen about 1/7th of the zoo. We entered the zoo just after 3pm, so we didn't have time to see much else. We saw parts of the insectarium, some deer, emus, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and smelled some camels. We left seeing only 1/4 - 1/3 of what the zoo offered. So, I guess that means another visit is in order.

*30nt is less than $1 USD. Adult admission is 60nt. Compare this to $32 USD for adult admission to the San Diego zoo. Ouch.