Something special to do in Taiwan - National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium

The NMMBA is located in Pingtung County in Taiwan, the southern end of the island.

Visiting NMMBA and staying overnight is an unforgettable experience.

For overseas visitors, visiting NMMBA would be like having 2 adventures rolled into one. Getting there is part of the adventure.

Going from Taipei, take the high speed rail to Zuoying station (which is effectively Kaohsiung). Transfer to Kenting Express Bus (Line 9189). Mentioned to the driver you are going to NMMBA and get off at that stop. Note the bus ride takes 2 hours. The NMMBA is nearby from the bus stop. Then find your way to NMMBA from the bus stop.

A few tips.... The bus ride will take forever. As long as on the way, you see signs of the Kenting National Park, you are heading in the right direction. The NMMBA stop is literally just another bus stop in the middle of a small town. When we were dropped off at the stop, there were no signs whatsoever. We ended up camping out at a local sandwich shop and asked if they could call a taxi for us.

NMMBA is a large aquarium. It reminds me of the aquarium in Okinawa. The star attraction in Okinawa was the whale shark. In NMMBA, the star attraction was the white beluga whales. See Pic1.

The special part of our NMMBA trip was we chose the stay over night option. With the stay over night option, we picked the Beluga zone. Note there were other zones available e.g. shark, reef/seaweed, undersea tunnel, sunken boat etc etc. Tip is you pick where you want to sleep when you buy the ticket. The over night stay was well organized. Met at the ticket office at 4pm. Went through the introductory talk and a tour of the NMMBA. At 6pm, dinner (which was a buffet but nothing special). After dinner, there a tour of the operation of the aquarium. See Pic 6. 8pm was shower time. Individual shower cubicles and plenty of lockers so nothing to worry about.

Then it was bed time. The staff handed out bedrolls and pillows. Then we pretty much picked the spot we wanted and laid down the beds. In our case, we just set up camp right in front of the Beluga tank. We missed the popular spot actually. A lot of families picked the tunnel in the middle of the Beluga tank.

I woke up around 2 or 3am. Imagine the movie Night in the Museum. It was a bit like that. Walking around the aquarium in the dark and alone. Sadly, nothing unexpected came alive that night. Ha... The place was eerily quiet and tranquil. It was just a very unique experience watching the Beluga whale swimming in the dark and alone. See Pic 5. When I walked closer to the glass, the Beluga actually swam by and looked. In the dark (or maybe my imagination), the Beluga whale made noise as well. The funny (or sad) bit was the Beluga was circling the exit around 5-6am looking to get off work when they were going to let in the other Beluga whale. Guess even the Beluga whale didn't enjoy working that much and preferred the comfort of home.

Something of note. The Taiwan govt has banned imports of Beluga whales by museums in the country . Personally, I think it is the right thing to do and Beluga whales deserve to live free.

The day after, breakfast at 7:30. Then we saw the feeding in the big aquarium tank, followed by a short walk to the beach. Next day wrapped up around 10am.

I asked the kids for fun things to do in Taiwan. The NMMBA was top of list. It is something special and a bit out of the ordinary.