Taipei Children's Recreation Center

While I really wanted to go to the National Taiwan Science Education Centre and Children's Art Museum in Taipei, we figured that Bielet would prefer an attraction that solely focused on fun. To Taipei Children's Recreation Center we went!

First impression? Not impressed that's for sure. Having gone to large scale amusement parks such as Disneyland, Universal Studios etc, this underwhelming facade didn't bode well. Perhaps we should have gone to the science center or museum instead...

ZX and Bielet are heading off to the ticket booth (on the left) for our admission tickets. As Bielet was only 1, her admission was free and we only had to pay for us adults.

Having a look at a map of the area before we headed. There are three sections in the centre - the Amusement World (1st floor), the Science World (2nd floor) and the Folk Arts World (3rd floor). If by my description of 'floors', you assume that the centre is an indoor facility, you're wrong! It's actually an outdoor amusement park and you can choose to head up to the other levels by walking up an incredibly lonnnnng flight of steps or wheeling your pram over a super inclined slope. Either way, it's a harrowing experience. Trust me.

We decided to walk around the Amusement World to check out the rides. It basically seems like the rides available at our typical pasar malam - think bumper cars, small ferris wheel, carousel swings etc - and of the same (sub)standard. Sadly. To our chagrin, we discovered that we had to pay an additional NT$20 per person, including Bielet, for each ride. That converts to slightly under S$1, but still, it's on top of the cover fee which doesn't make much sense to us. Good thing we bumped into a family who was on their way out as we were heading in and they had given us 6 ride tickets, which they didn't finish utilising ((: Understandly, you might not be as lucky as us (!) so look out for a couple of ride ticket booths around the Amusement World for you to purchase ride tickets.

Our first ride! Decided to have a go at the old school carousel. I liked that there is a second floor to this carousel, although there are plenty of horses on the first to go around.

Anyway, Bielet and I were at the front of the pack so we could take our pick of the horses. And the patronage in this amusement park is nothing to rave about. No worries on queueing for the entire day, unless of course you're the only one in queue and the operator might not start the ride up?!

Hi Bielet!

Me  smiling gleefully at Bielet and making sure she wasn't too scared by the moving horses. She's sitting on a normal sized horse instead of a baby sized horse as I wanted to be at the same level as her. If she had been on the baby sized horse, I think she would have been at my waist!

(((((:

Our second ride was on this really small train track! ZX joined us too to relive our childhood...

And lastly, we decided to just have a go at the ferris wheel as we had three ride tickets left.

View from the carriage of the surrounding area

Another pic for our family album! It really is tough to take photos with ZX and Bielet, right? They totally don't want me in the shot ))))): ZX forcing a smile while Bielet is nonchalant. CRIES Why like that?!

Since the other rides didn't look like much and it wouldn't be fun alone if Bielet couldn't go on the ride, we decided to venture to the upper levels. To ease our trek upslope, we rented an FOC pram.

Both of us already exhausted (from the sweltering heat that day!) before our trek commenced...

It was an epic fail.

The slope was so super inclined that pushing Bielet's pram was so mega tiring and seemingly impossible, that ZX had to take over. I suppose wearing jeans to this center was a mistake on my part too. By the time we reached the Science World, we realised that we had to pay to enter the facility again. WHAT?! While ZX sat this one out, I pulled Bielet in to enjoy the aircon and make use of the diaper changing room. LOL. There were 4 floors of exhibitions which were quite interesting but the dearth of visitors was very disconcerting, as was the thought of my husband melting outside. We sped through the exhibitions and went back down to the main exit. ZX had headed to the Folk Arts World and shrugged off what he had seen, so I'll never know what I missed.

Highlight of the trip? Bielet amusing herself (;

Bielet (running eagerly towards us): What's that I hear?

Bielet: I knew it! It was a packet drink!

(Note: This is a larger than usual packet drink. Bielet is not that tiny.)

Bielet: Ah hah! I spy the straw!

Tugs at the straw

Throws the straw aside

Bielet: Mama! Time to have your drink!

(Yes. Sans the straw. She is a straw collector.)

All in all, this was a disappointing attraction ))))))): We were expecting a lot more in terms of variation of rides, but it really was a tiny melting pot of pasar malam-esque rides. Perhaps the bar had been set too high with Leofoo Village (where ZX and I had visited when we were still dating). If you are heading to Taipei and want to have a fruitful outing with your kiddo, I suspect you might be tremendously better off going to the science center or museum which we had overlooked. BAH. No wonder the family had ride tickets to spare.