Today is a
non-contact day at school so I spent it with Nicholas. He will be leaving in less than a week for
Canada and my opportunities to spend time with him is dwindling so we decided
to spend a full day today.
We rode the
scooter to his parent’s farm, which is in Pingtung (35km from Kaohsiung) and
let me tell you; 35 km does not seem far but sitting on a scooter for that
distance will ensure your bum knows that it’s a long way to ride!
My ass was
so sore by time we arrived so had to do some stretches before I could anything
further.
His parents
were already there so they greeted us as we rode in.
They call
this piece of land ‘farm’ but it’s not a typical Canadian style farm. This is a plot of land (approximately 1 acre)
that has many fruit trees and bushes growing.
(papaya, pomelo, dragon fruit, winter melon, mulberry, banana, sugar
cane, mango, cherry and pineapple)
There are a
couple of buildings also erected on the land and one can actually sleep in one
of them as it has AC, a small area for preparing food, a refrigerator and
more. The other building houses a toilet
and shower.
Nicholas
said that the future plan for this land is to build a home once the trees are
larger to provide shade.
His Mom
asked Nicholas and I to cut the winter melons from the vines so we did that and
had a basket with 8 of them. Nicholas
was explaining to me that the fruit are not as large as one might see at a
market for the reason being these ones have no pesticides used whatsoever. In fact, everything on their farm is chemical
free. You could say that it is an
‘organic’ piece of land.
Afterwards
Nicholas’ father had run out to get some shaved ice for us to enjoy and his Mom
presented us with a bottle of freshly pressed sugar cane from their farm. I have to say that sugar cane juice has to be
one of my favourite drinks – wow did it taste good!
We left
after about an hour or so and Nicholas took me to where he did his military
training over the past year. This was
approximately another ½ hour to 45 minute scooter ride closer to the mountains.
Just
outside the military base there is a government run/sponsored coffee café and
run by Aboriginal people of Taiwan. The
coffee trees are grown on the mountain side and the beans are actually sun
dried right there on the premises.
The coffee
is somewhat more expensive than coffee from any other café due to the fact that
all the processes of this establishment are performed manually by the
aboriginal people. The coffee is quite
good and a unique flavour that is difficult to elaborate on.
After
enjoying a cup of java there we rode to a nearby Catholic Church that was
erected in1875. Quite unique and
beautiful as well.
My ass was
ready for a break at this point because we had ridden the scooter for almost 50
km at this point.
One of
Nicholas’ old classmates had opened a dumpling restaurant in Pingdong so we
thought we would stop there for a bite to eat.
Once we arrived we noticed it wasn’t opened so opted for another small
eatery nearby. There would be no places
to eat between there and Kaohsiung.
Just a
small eatery and we were the only ones there (at the time) and when I asked if
there were any drinks available, the young lady told Nicholas that she would go
across the street and purchase our drinks for us so I gave her a $100NTD note
and she returned with 2 large cold winter melon drinks and gave me .55 NT cents
in return. So each drink was .78 cents CDN. Where could you go wrong here…hahaha
Ok….time to
head back to Kaohsiung. Once we arrived
at Nicholas’ home, we checked the odometer and we had ridden 107km. No wonder my ass hurt so much.
What a great day today and saw some scenery and
places I had never seen. Beautiful area
of Taiwan that’s for sure. Thank You
Nicholas for an amazing day!
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