9th to 15th March

9^th to 15^th March

Nothing too exciting or out of the ordinary took place this past week other than my excursion on Saturday, which I will fill you in.   Other than that, enjoy the week in photos.

Saturday (14^th)

A few weeks ago one of my students (Joshua from Singapore) asked me to join him and his family and friends to go for lunch and an excursion so of course I was excited to oblige and experience something new.

They arrived just before 11:30 Saturday morning.  There was Joshua, his aunt and Uncle and his Uncle’s long time friend/schoolmate and his schoolmate’s daughter.  The daughter was in grade 7 and spoke a small amount of English but enough to communicate with me.  Joshua’s Aunt is originally from Singapore and her English was quite good and it was her and Joshua that did most of the communicating between all of us.  Joshua’s uncle is Taiwanese and was very well versed in the ins and outs of where to go around Kaohsiung.  He spoke a small amount of English.  He was an interesting man as he studied pharmacology at university and then after graduation worked as a sales person within a pharmaceutical company but decided to leave so he went to Argentina for 2 years.  Not quite sure what he did there.  He returned to Taiwan and then went to China for a couple years again not sure what he did but returned to Taiwan, married Joshua’s aunt and now they own and run and exporting business with beauty products.  Joshua’s aunt studied marketing and business at a university in Australia.

The friend of the uncle is a teacher for specially gifted students.

The day was so exciting and had a great time touring around.

We began by going for lunch at an eatery in Dashu (approximately 45 minutes outside of Kaohsiung) and coincidentally there was a wedding party just arriving.  We had to sit outside, as it was fully booked with the wedding party.

You will see from the photos there were a number of dishes that we had.  I think I counted 11 varieties of dish. 

I tried sharkskin and pig’s intestines for the first time and I must say that both were very tasty.  I always or should I say almost always will try something new without asking what it is first, then I will ask.

After lunch we went nearby to an area that was called the ‘wetlands’ and it was a large open flat area and an area of it turned into a park setting for relaxing and walking about.  There was also an abandoned railway bridge that was restructured to allow people to walk along.

From there we drove to Qishan, which is the banana capital of Taiwan.  Many food items is based around banana and of course as we were driving to the city, we passed numerous banana plantations.

There was a large market area that we strolled through taking in all the sights and foods.  This is now Saturday afternoon so it was quite busy with pedestrians.

We finished off with a nice ice cream.  I had sticky rice ice cream, very different and very tasty.

From there we drove towards Fo Guang Shan Temple and made a sharp turn into what I thought was a field and then we stopped, Paul (Joshua’s uncle) put the vehicle in 4 wheel drive and off we went.  I couldn’t believe the incline of the road that we were about to drive up.  It was like the side of a mountain and literally it almost was.

Winding our way up and around for approximately 2 kilometres until we arrive at the top next to an open café overlooking the wetland area and next to the Fo Guang Shan Temple.  Wow, what an amazing view from here.

Enjoy a nice latte and good conversation.  We’re approaching late afternoon and decided to head back to the city.  I spent almost 8 hours traveling and eating with Joshua’s family and it was an amazing time had by everyone.

They have already invited me to go with them to another area (forget where) in June when it is Tuna season.  The eatery they want to take me to will prepare a whole tuna in 30 different ways and this will be a feast to enjoy I’m sure.

I was pleasantly exhausted by time we arrived back to my place around 7pm.

This would be the highlight of my week.