Katrina and I just spent a wonderful day on Sunday with some new friends we made here in Taiwan. We were invited by the owner of the place we stayed during our first week in Kaohsiung to visit his family and friends in Pingtung. Pingtung is about a half hour south of Kaohsiung by train. We got up early Sunday morning and took the train, which cost us less than a $1.20 (US), to Pingtung, where we were picked up by our host. He drove us to a friend’s home in the country where they had prepared a traditional home cooked Chinese meal that included 16 different dishes.
I can’t even image how long they worked preparing the dishes. It was delicious. I ate my fill and the ladies kept insisting that I hadn’t eaten enough. I could barely move by time we finished lunch.
Afterwards we relaxed outside on the patio. It was a beautiful home with exquisite landscaping that they had done themselves.
Next we drove to a dry riverbed where we had a relaxing walk surrounded by beautiful scenery.
Later we headed back to Pingtung where we happened upon a series of parades celebrating the anniversary of one of the temples in town. Members from the surrounding temples parade through town on their way to the celebrating temple to pay their respects. After watching some of the parades we headed to a local restaurant for dinner and proceeded to eat, again.
The people we met in Taiwan have been very warm and generous to us since our arrival in Southern Taiwan. Even after being treated to several meals and snacks by our host Katrina and I had resort to trickery to pay for the meal, which he had fully intend to pay for. Based on our first two weeks here, I already highly recommend visiting Taiwan. If for no other reason than to just enjoy the people, and we’ve only just begun to see the sites.
