Monday, October 6, 2014

Yehliu Ocean World (野柳海洋世界) [Taiwan Day 400: Zoomarine - Oct. 5, 2014]

"Jumping yeah, Jumping yeah, Everybody!”, watching the video of the dancing dolphin mascots makes me laugh and smile. I went to Yehliu Ocean World to celebrate my 400th day in Taiwan. I want to see their dolphins but I was surprised that there are a lot more things to see in Yehliu Ocean World.

I don’t have any Travel Buddy in this Taiwan Day Adventure since they were all busy with schoolwork. But the show must go on so I boarded Bus 1815 from Taipei City Hall Bus Station to reach the Yehliu bus stop in Wanli District of New Taipei City. I just used my EasyCard to pay the fare and the travel time took more than hour. I’ve been to Yehliu in Taiwan Day 259 (The Queen and I) where I went to Yehliu Geopark but this time I visited the Yehliu Ocean World . These two places are still parts of Taiwan’s North Coast & Guanyinshan National Scenic Area.

I paid a discounted student ticket price of NTD 330 by showing my student ID with a valid sticker for the 2014 Fall Semester. Regular adult tickets cost NTD 450 so it was a big discount. I entered first the Sea Life Exhibition Hall where I saw different kinds of fishes in large aquariums. The aquariums were not as grand as the Manila Ocean Park but there were still interesting species to see.

The Toxotes jaculator or Archerfish has a demo every 12noon and 3:10pm on how it will jaculate water to its target victim while the octopus showed its intelligence in opening the large plastic bottle containing its prey. The starfish area was also interesting. Kids of all ages were having fun touching the Echinoderms. I took the chance to touch and hold a starfish. “It’s alive!”, I said to myself while holding the starfish. It was my first time to hold such life form. Their radial symmetry is fascinating.

The main event of this adventure was to watch the one hour Dolphin and Sea Lion Show at the outdoor amphitheater. I was able to find a good spot near the “stage” and it was a good choice. The audience enjoyed the opening dance number of the dophin mascots of Yehliu Ocean World. They were dancing to the tune of a song of the K-pop group Crayon Pop.

The sea lions were the first to appear and showed their tricks. A microphone was brought to the big sea lion and it roared like a real lion. The performance was followed by a team of international high divers where they showed their skills in high dive jump. A group of females also did synchronized swimming. The audience clapped as they formed a star formation in the swimming pool.

You also have the chance to have a photo with the dolphins although it's not free.

The audience got excited when it was the dolphins turn to perform. The dolphins suddenly entered the stage with a magical music and they did different kinds of tricks. The cetaceans were very active and intelligent. They knew that they were the stars of the show.

The sea lions, the star fish and the dolphins, they made all of the visitors happy. If Taipei City has Taipei Zoo then New Taipei City has Yehliu Ocean World. Come and see Yehliu Ocean World. It is Taiwan’s zoomarine!

Maple Series