Banana and papaya plantation

Being an island with a tropical climate Taiwan is a place where many, many exotic fruits grow. We spent couple of days on the east coast of Taiwan and next to our hotel was this wonderful banana and papaya plantation, totally amazing!

Banana and papaya plantations were just next to each other and it was really kind of magical to come so close to the real thing.

Under a layer of paper and blue plastic cover, green bananas were hiding. I assume they are covered to make them ripe faster and to protect them from some insects and animals. Just while taking these pictures I was bitten by tropical spider 3 times. Although they do not have enough poison to kill you, I was left with annoying,scratchy, swollen bumps under my skin for a week or so.

I was amazed to see how many papayas can grow on a single tree. And they are all concentrated at one place, so crowded, but oh so beautiful. However, it was new to me to see a big tree where fruits are not spread around, like apples or pears.

And just couple of meters from these plantations you could buy these wonderful fruits. Papayas had this amazing orange colour (my camera didn't quite catch the magical colour), totally wonderful!

And yes, I can confirm, there is a huge difference between bananas ripen-in-the-sun and bananas ripen-in-a-boat container. Although these bananas had a tiny trace of green on their skin they didn't taste "green" at all, not even close. They were just perfectly ripen and the texture was very meaty. It was great while it lasted!