Taiwan 2.9 The final days in perpetually cloudy Taipei, a return to the zoo and a themed cafe

We took the high speed train back to Taipei in the morning.  Although it was not raining, it was very dark outside.  We decided to go back to the botanical gardens anyway.  We saw some pretty flowers and some interesting insects.  Then, at 5:00, the garden areas closed.  Google had said it was open until 10:00 at night.  Oh well.



We walked around town a bit earlier in the day and did a quick walk around at night to view some of the street performers.  We also ate at a Japanese curry restaurant.  We also looked at one outdoor vendor's artwork in particular.  They made extensive figures out of colorful tubing.  Beautiful stuff.



The next day we woke up early and got to the zoo at around 10:00 AM.  It showed a 47% chance of rain throughout the day.  When we arrived, it was raining steadily.  We walked up the hill in the park and stopped inside a gazebo and called home.  Rain had still not let up, so we continued onward.  Every time I would take out my camera, I'd be able to take about two pictures before having to put it away because the rain came back.

This zebra's expression explains why I am wary of zoos.

When we neared the top of the zoo hill, it stopped for a brief interval, just in time for us to walk through the Bird World section.  Just as we were exiting, it started up again.



We ducked into the reptile and amphibian section, and enjoyed time being dry and warm.  Outside it was pouring again, so we grabbed a snack.  I ended up eating curry again.



We went inside a penguin exhibit area, but it was two minuscule sections with only a handful of penguins.  It was sad, so I didn't take pictures.  We returned to the entrance of the park and went to the Insectarium.  It had a nice butterfly area and some interesting creatures in tanks, and a few spiders outside of tanks, hanging around.

Miles says that this spider is missing two legs.  He might be right...

On our way home we stopped at Moomin Cafe.  Moomin is a series of books and a comic strip that started in the 1940s in Finland, that apparently continued until the 90s.  I was unaware of this series, but it was supposed to be a cute place.  We had two different friends sit alongside us while we ate a surprisingly good meal.



The next day we would travel to Hong Kong.