Taiwan Day 3

We started the day with a hearty breakfast at McDonald's, part of our usual practice of exploring the differences of the McDonald's breakfast in different countries. As compared to Hong Kong's, Taiwan's menu seemed less unique and we did not destroy too much brain matter to order two Big Breakfasts. Other than using paper containers, it was very much similar to what we have in Singapore.

The Big Breakfast

The rest of it...

Day 3 was mainly spent at the Window On China (小人国) theme park, whose English and Mandarin names tested our intelligence as we could not possibly see any link between them. We first knew of this place as a result of the discount coupons, courtesy of the Taiwan Tourist Office back in Singapore. We chose to visit this instead of the other theme park mainly because this was located nearer to Taipei. My deepest impression of the place prior to our visit was its cute-at-first-but-subsequently-irritating theme song on its website. Evidently, the song was later to be heard at the theme park itself.

Upon reaching the place, we were surprised to find ourselves forming quite a majority of the visitors there. Perhaps we were too early we thought, but I guess that was good news to us as well since it will not be crowded and we probably need not queue for many things.

Our bus tickets to the theme park

Our colourful and happy tickets to the theme park

My dear at the entrance

We started the tour of the place with a face-changing performance and acrobatic stunts at its big hall. It probably seemed big because it was deserted. I thought the performers were rather pitiful to be required to perform and yet be appreciated by only a small group of people. There was also a stag beetle exhibit nearby, which I believed got lost here while on its way to the zoo.

The big hall

The face-changing guy

The art of balancing 1

The art of balancing 2

The cube and the sphere... good for learning Mathematics

The economic bicycle now that COE prices are so high

As its Mandarin name implied, the park consisted of many miniatures of structures in Taiwan and around the world. To give credit, the miniatures looked realistic and there were much details on the smaller beings around. I believed we took photos of every structure and it was as if we had toured around the world. That would probably save me a lot on the air tickets. I guess the English name was probably due to the abundance of many famous Chinese buildings, including the Great Wall of China, in the area.

The people looked realistic

The miniaturized harbour

My dear besides one of the buildings in Taipei

My first attempt at being Godzilla...

My second attempt at terrorizing...

My dear pushing the pagoda

My dear supporting the tower

Other than getting a cheapskate tour around the world by taking photos with the miniaturized buildings, we also looked at the shows and took some rides. Time really flies when you are having fun.

My dear satisfied with her lunch

The train ride (only access) to the other part of the park

My dear on the merry-go-round

The magic show

The characters we discovered at the theme park

Singapore Flyer - overseas and smaller version

The view from top of the ferris wheel

The park closed rather early at 5 pm, not surprising given the number of visitors to the area, thus we quickly made our way back to Taipei, though it was wasn't really that quick since we waited quite long for the return bus. We then proceeded to 五分埔 to have our dinner and do our night shopping. Other than a few bermudas and t-shirts, we did not buy much stuffs. We also did not go to 繞河街夜市 as planned as we were too tired by then.

Our dinner place

Our scrumptious meal

End of Day 3. Tired but satisfied.