Travelog for: Theodore

Hi!  My name is Theodore, and I am very excited about being here on Toy Voyagers!  I have joined the Asia & Oceania trail, so I should be traveling soon! 

I am leaving Miami today and heading for Malaysia!  My friends have gathered around to wish me well on my travels.

After a ver~~y long journey, I finally arrived at Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur & safely conquered it.

I've been invited to the Imperial Courtyard at Suria KLCC for the Chinese's traditional music appreciation. They put a really good show 

Hi everyone,

Today would be my last day in Malaysia so Aliah brought me to see Shah Alam, where she & Yul live. We went to the lake garden which also located in the city centre. There was many people around since today is Sunday. I saw the Blue Mosque which is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia. It's amazing! We planned to wait for the sunset but suddenly it was raining heavily so we just went home 
So that's all my journey in Malaysia. I'll see you next time in Taiwan. Selamat Jalan! Bye!

xoxo
Theodore

Today I arrived safely in Taiwan. I have traveled from Malayia to Taiwan in a comfortable box and I was full of energy when I left my box.

I wanted to explore Taiwan right away, but that wasn't possible, because my host, Andrea, had to work. She has promised me that we'll go outside on Thursday and until then I'll entertain myself in the garden outside 

It was a national holiday in Taiwan today, 2/28, and the weather was very nice, so we drove to Danshui today. Danshui is a city close to Taipei, located along the Danshui River and close to the Taiwan Street. It's a nice place to visit on a sunny day.

Here are some pictures which we have taken on the way to Danshui. I am staying in Andrea's house  together with Nutmeg, another ToyVoyager, and we made this sightseeing trip together.



First of all we drove to the Fishermen's Wharf. It's a place where you can see a beautiful sunset.



Here am I  in the harbour with the famous "Fishermen's Wharf" bridge



These fishermen looked a bit scary to me....



Is this a beautiful sunset, I think so  .



Some more pictures which we've made




After that we drove to downtown Danshui. There is a great nightmarket where you can find all kind of traditional snacks and lovely goodies.

This is what we ate tonight:



The left dish is a traditional snack from Danshui. It's tofu, filled with rice noodles. It didn't taste bad at all....

It's Saturday, time to celebrate the weekend  .

The weather was great, so we went to Taipei again to visit the CKS Memorial Hall. This is actually not the name of this place anymore, because lately it has been renamed in Taiwan National Democracy Memorial Hall. Its too complicated to explain why, but it's all part of a political game.



There is a big pond in the park that surrounds the memorial hall and we went there to feed the fish.

We also passed an old city gate of Taipei. Nowadays it's located in the center of a big turnaround, close to the presidential building and the CKS Memorial Hall.

The tall building on the background is Taipei Railways Mainstation. It's the second tallest building in Taipei nowadays, because the Taipei 101 is (of course) taller

I'm so excited, because I'm going to complete one of my missions today. We are going to visit Taipei Zoo  .

Taipei Zoo is located in Mucha, an area in Taipei. The zoo is huge and it's hard to see everything in one day. It's a very nice place to visit on a sunny day and Andrea comes here a lot with her little girl...



The first animals we saw were the koala's. One of the koala's was awake an walking around. He was so cute. He can also climb trees, just like me. I wanted to play with him, but Andrea told me that this wasn't such a good idea..



We also saw flamingo's and a big rat/mouse, because this is the "year of the rat"



This is the entrance to the "rainforest" area.

Today I went to the shopping mall. There is only one shopping mall in Nankan, the Tai Mall. It's very crowded on the weekends, but a great place to visit on weekdays during working hours

We walked back "home" after we finished our shopping and crossed the community where I am staying now.

Today was my host's birthday.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANDREA !!!!

It was her day and she could decide what to do that day, so we went to Yehliou.

Yehliou is a  a peninsula on the north coast of Taiwan, between Taipei and Keelung. It is famous for the curious shapes carved by sea erosion.

One of the most famous scenic spots is the so-called "Queen's head", and the others are, as named by their shapes, "the fairy's sandal", "bee's hives", etc.

We had to drive for a while and Nutmeg and I enjoyed the scenery while we drank a cup of coffee



We crossed a tunnel, because there are many mountains in Taiwan and we passed a tollstation. There are many tollstations on the main highways in Taiwan



Finally we saw the ocean and the view was breathtaking



We are almost there...



The entrance gate of the park in Chinese style



Yeah....we've made it to the park. Let's go for a walk, let's explore the area



This was the view from the parkinglot



Wow....it looked like I was walking on the moon. These shapes are really weird.



This is the most famous shape of all, the "Queen's Head"

The weather was sunny today, so we took the car and drove to Taipei (again). This time we went to a special park.
This park was in the earlier years the residence of Chiang Kai-Shek.

Chiang Kai-Shek was the first president of the Republic of China (=Taiwan) and he died in 1975. Later they have remodeled the residence where he has lived for a long time into a park that can be visited by everybody. The park is actually the original garden of his residence, so I have accomplished another mission, because this is a famous garden/park in Taiwan



There was a big rose garden with all kind of roses



Look what we've found....Dutch roses. My host is Dutch 



I also stretched my legs, but didn't get too far away since I don't speak any Chinese and I didn't want to get lost



A rosarium in Chinese style



A little boy that was walking around tried to pet me when I was posing for this picture. His daddy told him that I was "just" a toy.....silly daddy  !



There were so many trees in this garden / park. I was thinking about climbing this tree to complete another mission...



...but decided to climb this tree 



I have accomplished another mission  !!!!!

Furthermore we saw this turtle



We walked "in the jungle"



We saw this little beautiful "unidentified" bird



Passed a Chinese pavilion



And saw this silly face, made of flowers and plants



What a great day I had today and I have accomplished 2 more missions......good night!!!

I went to another scenery place in Taipei today, named Martyrs' Shrine together with my little friend, Nutmeg.



The Martyrs Shrine, is located right next to the Grand Hotel. It was built in 1969 and covers a large area.

Here you can see the famous Grand Hotel in the distance. It's built in Chinese style


The shrine's  architectural style is similar to that of the Taihe Dian Imperial Palace in Beijing. It symbolizes the martyrs' brave spirit.



The Martyrs Shrine is dedicated to approximately 330,000 men who sacrificed their lives to the overthrowing of the Ching Dynasty before the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, and who fell during the Sino-Japanese war (1938-1945) and the Chinese Civil war (1945-1949). Plates of these brave and loyal martyrs have been inserted into the four walls of the main building in testimony of their heroic deeds.



Worth mentioning are the military police officers who guard the main gate, and who have been rigidly trained to stand like expressionless statues and to remain unmoved by the teasing of crowds.



There is also a  guard-changing ceremony that begins at 9am and is to be held at each hour. We were very lucky at saw one of the ceremonies