Camping in Pinglin tea growing area

---

For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com

A Pot of Green Tea with your Campfire?

Add to the list of things I love about Taiwan: you can camp and even swim in the middle of December. Though I would like to point out that the only two people who jumped in the freezing river water were the Canadians in the group. I would also like to point out, just for comparison's sake, that on the same weekend it was 50 degrees colder in my hometown in Canada.

Our camping venue was Pinglin, a small town in the middle of one of the most famous tea producing regions of Taiwan, about 30km south-east of Taipei. In true camping fashion we spent the better part of the waking hours of the weekend drinking beer.

However, we also managed to check out the old street of Pinglin with it's cute tea pot lanterns, eat in a restaurant where all the items were green tea flavored (my favorite was the deep fried green tea leaves), and go for a pleasant hike along the river and through beautiful tea fields and terraces.

Along the way we encountered an elderly woman tending to the fields who spoke only Taiwanese (instead of the now prevalent Chinese), and we conversed with her via our companion Kaylin's translations.

At night we had a campfire by the river, did some drunken river dives, and some of us enjoyed firespinning lessons from Kaylin. The campsite itself was unimpressive by North American standards, but 20 degrees is too cold for most Taiwanese people so we had the entire campsite to ourselves.

Also, the friendly owners didn't mind if we went grabbed beers from the fridge as we pleased, and then paid from them later! They also let us use their kitchen to cook up some hot pot in the morning, the perfect cure to a little camping hangover!

For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com

---

Photos

Pinglin
Small village in one of the most famous tea growing regions of Taiwan

Pinglin Old Street
Note the really cute tea pot lantern

Kaylin Firespinning
Kaylin adds the perfect touch to our campfire by the river

Hiking around Pinglin
Keir, Nick, Liz, Jonathan, Juliana, Kaylin, and Dave

True Camping
You pretty much can't tell that we totally staged this photo.

Buddha
Up in the hills above the Pinglin Tea Museum