Day 9 - Taizhou

A leisurely start to the day as we weren’t meeting up with Lawrence until 11:30 for a brunch. Lawrence took us a short taxi ride away for brunch on a houseboat on the canal - very quaint. Brunch turned out to be a feast of no less than 11 dishes comprising of pork belly, prawns in a garlic type sauce, crab which was presented in a floral dish of ice, white fish coated in sauce and vegetables, the biggest dumplings we’ve had, rice, chicken broth, watermelon, melon & cucumber, beef, flat bread in a vegetable broth, pickled bamboo & walnuts - what a feast!

After brunch, Lawrence headed back to class for his afternoon teaching, whilst Phil and I enjoyed walking off our brunch around an ancient corner of Thaizhou - lots of small alley ways with many traditional craft shops. We were welcomed into a local children’s class of calligraphy who were delighted to meet us. The owner proudly showed us around his craft shop where all the items had been crafted by his own hands - there was also some work of his father. We did buy a couple of coasters and tea cups to bring home - really lovely to be engaging with the locals - google translate is a godsend! We were also given a piece of calligraphy as a gift.

We headed back to our hotel for an afternoon cuppa before getting ready to head out with Lawrence for an evening meal. He took us out of what he described as the ‘Broadmead’ area to the ‘Clifton’ area. The restaurant we went to was within a huge shopping mall that boasted 5 floors - absolutely huge with so much entertainment for young families, including a go kart track!

After a wait of about 20 minutes, during which time we appeared to be of interest to local shoppers who waved and happily said hello, we were seated and again the dishes just kept on coming! The brown jelly and pine nut dessert with little white rice balls (Tangyuan) was really rather nice. A really good choice of restaurant made by Lawrence - we could see why it’s so popular! 😋 A couple of young girls came over to chat with us and Catherine was given a little gift of stacking red balls on a cocktail stick - her English name was Laura and she was 8 years old. (We were beginning to feel like celebrities! 😂 )

After our fill, we headed on back for an early night - Catherine by this time had gone down with a cold! 🤧 - here’s hoping a restful night will do the trick 🤞Read more