Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) -Day 12 & 13:Pingtung 屏東 (Overnight stay at National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium 國立海洋生物博物館 2天1夜夜宿!)

I couldn't remember how I stumbled upon this, but somehow throughout my research before coming to Taiwan I discovered that the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium offers a package for tourists/visitors to spend a night at the aquarium. Now this is really something unique and I've never seen anything like it, at least not in Malaysia. 

Apparently it is quite a big hit in the local community, especially among school children who come here by the busloads to join the overnight activities. In a nutshell, for NTD 2180 (slightly more expensive if you choose to stay at the Underwater Tunnel), you get 2 full day access to all sections of the aquarium, a guided tour to the back of the aquarium which are usually not accessible to visitors, a night tour of the aquarium (all lights are turned off), food for 3 meals and many others. You also get to pick a spot to sleep for the night in whichever part of the whole aquarium (T&C applied). How cool is that?! So without a doubt I immediately registered myself on their website and made my payment via credit card. The whole process was pretty straight forward and simple.

Official website and more info here: http://sleepover.aquarium.com.tw/en-us/

From Kenting Main Street, I took a bus which brought me directly here. The aquarium is actually 20-30 minutes away from Kenting so many visitors also dropped to visit the aquarium in the day. They actually made a life sized whale statue near the entrance which was quite impressive. I then headed to the information kiosk where I registered myself and got my access tag. I then placed my luggage in the lockers (tonnes of them) and hung around while I waited for the official call time at 4pm. 

Life sized replicas of wales and other marine life

Since it was a low season, the crowd for the day was roughly about 50 people. During the peak season, according to the guide, there could be up to 400 visitors spending the night at the aquarium. Different parts of the aquarium can cater different amounts of visitors to stay for the night. The most hotly contested area would be the Underwater Tunnel which can only fit about 20 people while the rest of the area can fit a lot more (more info on their website). So our guide first brought us to the auditorium where they explained what will happen throughout the 2 days 1 night and also gave us a form to fill up our preferred food. For dinner, I picked the Lanyu Flying Fish set with orange juice, since I've never tasted that type of fish before. As for breakfast, I picked the Western set.

After all the formalities, we then finally started our visit! Most of our visits were based in the Coral Kingdom area, where the Underwater Tunnel, beluga whales and captain's deck were located. Our first stop was one of the areas behind the aquarium. It was pretty amazing to see what happens behind the scene. From the pictures below, you could see that there are multiple huge lights shining directly on the water - this is to stimulate the day time environment in the open ocean so that fishes know it's time to be active, since natural sunlight can't reach most parts of the tank.

Huge pool of waters

Before a new marine life is introduced into the tank, they are first placed in the isolation tank (pic below) so that they could adapt to their new surroundings. There are many of this tanks actually, so that it would not hurt the present ecosystem whenever a new fish or stingray is introduced. Our guide then gave us some fish food (frozen prawns) to feed the fishes in the tanks.

Isolation tank

Shark egg

Entrance where new tanks of fishes enter

We spent about 30-40 minutes exploring around before we headed back to the cafeteria area for our dinner at 6pm. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of food that was actually provided. I didn't really enjoy the flying fish though haha. Too much bones. Spent most of the dinner time just trying to pick the bones out.

After dinner we then started our second tour of the night at Coral Kingdom. This was my first time touring an aquarium with a guide and it was certainly more educational and helpful. I really like our guide as he was really enthusiastic and knowledgeable. For this tour, we were asked to remember what we had observed as we will return to the same area again when all the lights are turned off. I also now know how to differentiate between a shark and a whale haha. 

Coral reefs

Underwater Tunnel

Captain's Deck. Visitor's generally consisted of children lol

One of the main attraction of this aquarium are the two beluga whales. Initially there was a session for visitors to feed the whales but it had been called off due to fear of contamination. These mammals are highly sensitive and fragile and had to be treated with extreme care. 

Beluga Whales

Beluga whale's housing

And that was it, the first half of the day, or rather night. We then headed back to the area where we placed our luggages to have a rest and take a bath. The toilets here are massive, with a few dozen cubicles for visitors to take a shower (male and female separated of course). They also kindly provided charging outlets with lock and key for guests. While waiting for others, we were provided were some dessert for supper and visitors get to make their own dolls with some play-doh provided. Until now I am very pleased and happy with the amount of money that I paid for.

Supper for the night!

The last activity for the night was exploring the Coral Kingdom with all the lights off. With only one torch light held by our guide, we were off. It was really quite interested to see how marine life behaved during the night, which explains why night diving is such a popular sport. Some corals actually have luminescence on the surface and it can be clearly seen when shone with a UV torch. Some other fishes were also more active at night but most of the marine life were actually hidden away amongst the rocks and getting some rest.

The night hunt begins!

Cat fish

After a long night it was time to sleep. Initially I chose to sleep at the Polar Seas area with the penguins but they told me I can only choose to sleep at the Coral Kingdom area due to a lack response. Hence I then decided to sleep in the Beluga whale area which was one of my best decisions ever. It was such a magnificent and humbling experience sleeping next to them and I tend to get a mini heart attack every time they swim past me despite a thick glass wall separated both of our worlds apart. The rest of the people chose to sleep at the popular Underwater Tunnel which I feel was quite a waste since you couldn't really see anything in the dark. At the beluga whale tank there was still a bit of light so you could see them swimming around gracefully as they need not worry getting eaten by sharks. I just laid there watching them do their thing before exhaustion finally caught up with me and I went to sleep.

On a side note, the mattress and the comforter provided was really comfortable and provided enough warmth to keep me alive throughout the night in the aquarium.

At 7am sharp, everybody was awaken by the aquarium's staffs who dropped by to vacuum the place and collect all the mattresses to prepare for the day's visit to the public. Breakfast was also quite decent. After going through all the activities and experiences I think that NTD 2180 was actually quite cheap and reasonable.

The last two activities of the day was not that exciting though. We first watched a scuba diver feeding fishes for awhile and then headed out to intertidal zone.

The intertidal zone is actually the coral reef rocks area and plenty of marine life can actually be found here. So everyone were busy looking for starfishes and other fishes that they could fine. Apparently sea salt that is used for cooking is also extracted from this area.

Intertidal zone

Seasalt formation

Coral reef rocks

We then headed back to the auditorium and underwent some formalities, took our luggages and then left. For me, I continued to visit the rest of the aquarium which the tour did not cover, namely the Waters of Taiwan and Waters of the World.

Giant Kelp Forest. Basically sea weeds which reached up to 3 stories high!

Cute penguins

And that was the end of the 2 day 1 night program. In summary I really, really enjoyed it a lot and I highly recommend this to everybody who happens to drop by Kenting. Certainly an unforgettable experience!

Next: Day 13: Kaohsiung 高雄 (Kaohsiung Chicken Backpacker 高雄小雞客棧， Lao Si Sichuan Styled Steamboat 老四川巴蜀麻辣燙, Aouzihdi Forest Park 凹子底森林公園)

Previous: Day 12: Kenting 墾丁( Eluanbi Lighthouse 鵝鑾鼻燈塔, Taiwan Southern Most Point 臺灣最南點, 鯊魚咬土司 Shark Bites