12 Days in Taiwan – Day 11 – Da’an Forest Park

Every trip we go on with two young kids means we have to populate the itinerary with the kind of activities we know they would enjoy — for sure. That really just means two activity types: playgrounds, and animals. The Taipei Zoo, though having a low admission fee, got dropped as the reviews for it weren’t encouraging. We did also consider including a visit to the Taipei Child Amusement Park, but that was a bit out of the way from where we were heading in the afternoon of Day 11 — basically the east side. So we chose Da’an Forest Park instead on account of the many pictures we’ve seen of it, and that it boasted a fun and fairly large children’s playground.

The children’s playground itself isn’t different from what we’re used to seeing, but there’s just an indescribable joy in seeing other children that isn’t your usual crowd also at play. There are also other activities around the park, including roller-skating, dancing etc., that presented great photo opportunities again.

All the photos in this post were taken using the Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 + Sigma MC-11 again on the Sony A73. Didn’t expect to get this much mileage out of this lens! I’m glad I took this lens out for this trip, heavy as it is.

There are some swanky-looking condo apartment blocks facing one side of the park. The children’s playground was fairly uncrowded the weekday morning we were there. It’s a normal school day for the city’s school-going children I reckon. The only children there, I reckon, are those who are foreigners, or too young for formal school.

Five years old and loves playing with sand.

H swung for nearly 10 minutes for me to capture several dozen photos of her at the end of each swing cycle. The wife chose which of those several dozen to post.

Building hills. There are numerous taps on one side of the sand play area. Very thoughtful inclusions that mean so much to parents of young kids!

He doesn’t look it, but he’s middle-aged — we saw when he took off his cap to wipe off his perspiration. Unusual to see someone his age roller-blading.

I did also read about the park’s bird habitat, but didn’t expect to see this many specimens within moderate telephoto reach too. Da’an Forest Park has a lovely bird sanctuary in the form of a small island inside the park’s ecological pool — which was where I encountered a brigade of photographers on the opposite bank all waiting for a particular kingfisher to fly out. I didn’t bring the kind of long telephoto equipment they had — I brought just a 70-200mm f2.8 this trip for semi-long shots — so made do with the more achievable subjects, a selection of which is posted here.