To the one who calls me Chipotle

Although you're real far away from me now.

Even though it hurts.

I love you.

Picture fun in Taiwan Storyland

We learned of Taiwan Story Land from a blog and seeing they had fun picture taking there, my sister and I decided it is a visit worthy spot. Fortunately it was near our hotel, about a few blocks walking distance. It's at the B2 level of the K-Mall, situated across the Taipei Main Station. It's a theme museum of Taiwan after the Japanese occupation 1950s-1970s (and it explains why Taiwan had so many Japanese restaurants) and it's a real interactive place, where you can play pretend being in the era.

We passed by Storyland the first day, but it was closed due to the storm.

This is Storyland's 'mascot'. He's kinda cute isn't he?

The photo above is sort of the apparel street while the one below it is a toy/candy store. The ticket to Taiwan Storyland (priced at NT280) includes coupons that will let you purchase toy, food and other souvenirs sold inside the different themed shops.

We had to take a picture of this ancient product sample. What do you think does it do? LOL.

Here, Pia and I pretended to be students. She's the lazy one, while I was the teacher's pet.

More pretend fun for me -- left by the bus, knowing how to ride a scooter and hanging out with locals. Camwhoring is real fun in this place.

And since we had been accumulating a lot of coins (change everywhere), Pia and I decided to get a souvenir photo at a japanesy photo booth located inside one of the rooms.

The tour just took a few hours unless you really want to do editorial shoots it would take a whole day probably, specially if you've got a bunch of friends with you. If you love picture taking and cute novelty stuff, then Taiwan Storyland is a must-visit.

I want to hold your hand

And when I touch you i feel happy, inside
It´s such a feeling
That my love
I can't hide
I can't hide
I can't hide...

:(

I need peace of mind and heart

I should be excited with a trip I'm going to in a few minutes. But all I could think about is the silence. Got this prayer from Joy, a writer friend, who's always there to help with her words.

Prayer for that special someone

I want someone who will think about me first when shopping for his Christmas gifts,
and who envisions a life with me in his future years.
Someone who gazes at me as though I were
the most precious thing he has,
and seeks to feel my hand whenever I’m not there,
I want someone who treasures each moment he spends with me
each laughter shared, each adventure taken, each lesson learned throughout the years.
I want someone who thinks fondly of me before he goes to sleep
and thinks about me again when he awakes
who finds meaning in what we have,
and who looks forward to all that we have yet to discover
in life, and in each other.
I want someone who sees the real me
and loves me just the same.
I want someone who can grow with me
and who is happy in seeing me grow.
I want someone who can be intimate with me
and yet is strong enough to set me free,
so I can be the best of me.
I want someone who can make me smile,
and who smiles in turn because of me,
someone who can make me a more loving person,
a stronger person,
someone who is neither selfish nor insecure
and someone who will love my loved ones with me,
who will be strong enough for me
when I can’t be that strong anymore.
I want someone who has a life of his own
yet is able to weave it gracefully with mine.
Together we will create a new and more beautiful life together
not that we’re empty without each other
but that together, we will fill up each other’s cup until it overflows.

This is my prayer for that someone,
and may God who knows my heart better than I know mine
grant that which is most beautiful of all!

Walking around the Taipei Zoo

I'm jumping days ahead of our other "tours" and will be writing about our journey to the Taipei Zoo. We took the Wenshan-Neihu line from the Main Taipei station where the last stop was the zoo (so it's easy to find). We went there comparatively early at around 9 o' clock because our flight back to Manila was also that evening. According to Wikipedia, the Taiwan Zoo is currently the biggest zoo in Asia. Since the zoo was really huge and we had time constraints, my sister and I decided to just visit the animals which we wanted to see, which includes the panda, the lion, the elephants, the koala and the penguins. If I visit Taiwan again, I'm going to go to the zoo again.

Breakfast at Dante's Coffee. The food was surprisingly good!

The longest escalator ride I have ever been on.

The entrance of the Taipei Zoo. Wearing sneakers for a comfy trek.

And the kinds of zoo poop greet us. rotfl.Which ones do you prefer?

The anticipated panda sighting. There are viewing times for the panda, which was handed out to us when we purchased our tickets. It confused us to what it meant at first but we finally figured it out and was able to see the panda in the nick of time.

And here are some of the elephants we saw. And they liked showing their behinds a lot. Lol. All of our elephant pics were like this.

And the zebras were like this too. hahaha. I suggest you bring an umbrella when visiting the zoo. It can get real hot and sticky. We were already 'wilting' when we got to the "Africa" section.

We found solace from the heat inside the "South Pole" section of the zoo. I love penguins. I find them cute, in the same category as rabbits, pandas and koalas.

This baby seal wanted to go home with me. Sadly I was already short on NTs and the white fur will be all gray and dirty in Manila in a few weeks time.

By this time we were very tired (the ice section is also way, way up the zoo's map) and we were literally dragging our feet. So riding the train to where we started was such a relief for our very tired soles.

The koala bear's glass viewing area is usually the first stop in the zoo. But the koalas were hiding when we arrived. So we checked them out again before we left and there they were. Lazily eating and hanging on the tree branches.

Before making a mad dash to the subway (we had a plane to catch) I really had to make this funny pose.

And our last meal in Taipei was at a food court near the hotel. And we also bought and ate special Mister Donut bears for dessert. Again. :)