Last Christmas, I went with some friends to stay at an indigenous tribal village in Taiwan for a weekend. The village is called Fengqiu and is located in central Taiwan surrounded by some of the best mountain views in the country.
Peaking through to the grapevine
We didn't have anything planned on the last day, and decided to take things easy and go with the flow. Fengqiu village is located on a small hill away from the main road so we decided to take a little walk around. These tall thin trees are areca palm and can be found all over Taiwan. Areca palm is grown for their seeds called betel nut. Although betel nut is said to cause oral cancer, many working-class and people in the rural areas still like to it as it is stimulant and addictive. Often when I go on hikes in Taiwan, I see people in the villages with red lips and really bad teeth. Those are signs of chewing betel nuts. I often wonder why they do it...
Peaking through these rather unpleasant trees, lies the valley full of Fengqiu's most famous product - grapes. The grapes were in season and the vineyard looked so picturesque against the backdrop of mountains.
Grape Slush
The variety of grapes grown here is called Kyoho. It's a very nice variety as the skin slides off easily (it's not nice to eat anyway) and the flesh is very sweet. Kyoho originates from Japan, perhaps it was introduced to Taiwan when the island was colonised by Japan at the turn of last century?
There are many stalls selling grapes in the area. This particular one had just opened after we finished breakfast next door. With not much to do, the group of us wandered over and the owner quickly opened up the boxes of grapes to show us, and offered us some dried grapes to sample.
One of my friends recommend us to try the grape slush. The entire grape including skin and seeds goes into the blender along with some ice. That's it, nothing else. This is the first time I've had grape slush, as I'm not a great fan of grape based drink. It's probably due to drinking Ribena when I was a kid. The grape slush was nothing like what I had drank in the past. It was so refreshing and tasted of grapes, I know it sounds stupid, but imagine gulping down mouhtfuls of fresh sweet grapes without have the annoyance of deseeding and peeling the skin. Heaven!
Lorna Village
We had a few hours to kill before it was time to go home, and as you would do in Taiwan, someone suggested to go one of the mountains to drink Chinese tea. Taiwanese love their tea, and whenever I go hiking, even at a couple thousand meters high up the mountains, I'm always guaranteed to see at least one group of hikers who hike with the full kit, cooker, saucepan, freshwater, tea and mugs so they can enjoy their tea up in the mountains.
We decided to go to another indigenous village called Lorna that is further up the mountains. Lorna is most famous for it's Christmas festival atmosphere, and thousands flock to this little village every year to get a taste of Christmas not available in most parts of Taiwan.
We did a short hike up the mountain till we found a spot where we could see Lorna Village beneath us. The undulating range of central mountains were on the other side, the peaks tip-toeing in and out of the clouds.
Such a beautiful spot is guaranteed to appear in many people's Instagram and Facebook profile. And that's what we discovered when we browsed through each other's social media later that evening, reminiscing the great weekend we spent together.
Making Honey and Tea
If the sublime mountainous view is the flower releasing the pollen, then the mobile phones are the bees, collecting all the best parts of the weekend, so we can still enjoy the honey in the months and years to come.
As most of us continued to make honey, the tea connoisseur put the kettle on. People pulled their mugs out from the backpack and lined them up on the bench, waiting patiently for the kettle to boil. As soon as a small jug of tea was made it filled up a few of the mugs, and we waited for the next jug.
Nobody minded waiting. Why would we?
