Trip to Kaohshiung for Taiwan International Orchid Show 2010

Well most of my friends know that I went for the Taiwan International Orchid Show. What most of them don't know that it was my first trip to Taiwan. What I found out about the people was that they are a rather polite group of people as compared to some others in the same region. Now I know my friends' fascination with going there instead of Hong Kong. I find the Taiwanese a much more friendly people. One of the things that I still remember about the trip apart from the earthquake was just a simple gift of barbequed sweet potatoes from a shopkeeper. My friend who also went for the show and I decided to walk to a night market from Sin Min Lu. We wanted to experience the local culture along the way (although at that time we did not know how far we had to walk...hahaha). We walked by this unassuming shop run by 2 brothers selling barbequed sweet potatoes. They were telling us about the sweet potatoes and it being a speciality of this part of the country. We decided to buy 1 each to try but after knowing that we were visitors to his country, he refused to accept our money and said that it was a gift. He even introduced a chilled version which I thought was also delicious as chilling it intensified the taste further. He also gave 1 each of that to take away with us. This small gesture by someone we just met made the long walk to the night market a very happy one. This re-enforces the saying that its not the gift but the thought that counts.