OUR TAIWAN TRIP 3/1/2020 - 3/12/2020— or, our trip NOT to the World Orchid Conference and Taiwan International Orchid Show!! — by Edy & Blaine Roberts. We have been lucky enough to visit two World Orchid Conferences (WOC), first in Vancouver, BC Canada and then in Miami, Florida. As they are only scheduled every 3 years, when we heard it was to be inTaiwan, a huge producer of orchids in the world, we were determined to go. As it would be our first trip to Asia, and the language is very intimidating, we sought out a tour focused on the 2 shows scheduled one week apart. Then COVID-19 hit. We watched and waited and tried to make the decision — should we go? The tour agency in Australia assured us they were taking extra steps to sanitize, prepare and plan for what could happen. Flying out of San Francisco direct to Taipei, we woke up that morning of departure to find both the orchid shows cancelled. Our trip insurance wouldn’t do anything as the flight was still going and the tour was still on. So, we went. We now have 47 new Australians, 4 Kiwis and a pair from England as great orchid friends. We had 4 full days scheduled at the 2 orchid shows and the tour agency scrambled to fill those days with orchid growers, botanical gardens and other sightseeing attractions. We toured all around the island, from the cool north above the Tropic of Cancer, crossed over that tropical line and saw the sandy southern shores and resorts. We saw lots of agriculture, including rice, wheat, mangoes, bananas, pigs and chickens, aquaculture and lots and lots of watermelon. ( it grows year round)We’ve put together a few photos of some of the millions (really) of orchids we saw. Some short videos and a few other sights of Taiwan. All was taken on our iPhones. Hope you enjoy it!
