Ivo at the Taipei Zoo

I have to admit - we had impossibly high expectations about how great the zoo would be. Due to the heat, we had counted on taking it slow and easy - figuring on many rest stops, ice-creams, drinks and lengthy stays within each of the indoor exhibition halls. We planned to get familiar with the gift shop - buying souvenirs including, but not limited to, t-shirts and toys.

Well, the zoo is only half open on Mondays. Only one indoor exhibition hall was open, the nocturnal animal house, who, despite the signs saying their schedules are "artificially inverted" mostly slept. This inverted day/night proclamation was extra ridiculous because while we humans were made to walk through dark hallways - the animals' habitats were well-lit. Just whose schedule was inverted?

None of the gift shops was open. People were visible within, presumably doing accounting work...something seated, anyway. Half of the concessions were open. I got the definite impression that this Monday closure thing was a surprise to most of the Taiwanese too, seeing families eagerly approach glass doors offering clear, well-lit views of the bounty within, only to have access denied when trying the doors.

Kevin mentioned to someone who had approached him to chat our surprise and disappointment. He opined that this info ought to be on the otherwise excellent website ("open all year except on Chinese New Year's Eve") only to be chastised that "everyone knows the zoo is like this on Mondays" and furthermore, he should have asked his Taiwanese friends. All three of us mentioned to a combined total of hundreds (mostly students, but still...) of Taiwanese people that we were going to the zoo - and none of us heard peep about Mondays.

Bizarrely, we ran into friends from Chang Hua and their two daughters. They were letting their kids run off energy having spent the morning at AIT renewing their elder daughter's passport. Both Kaia and Ivo were wilted and limp by this time. When I said how we would have lasted longer if the indoor stuff was open, the husband said, "what, you're not getting your 60nt worth?" It wasn't really cute. Yea, the zoo entrance is a bargain - but had we known Monday was "half-assed day" at the zoo, we would chosen another day to come up on the bus and stay in a hotel... I'm not quite sure why - maybe just crankiness - but I wanted to punch him in the face.