Ji Ji and Shueili... snake kilns, sweating, sunflowers and more...

A few weekends ago, Miranda and her boyfriend Chris took Martin, Katie and I out on a Taiwanese adventure!!! Much to the foreigners disgust we were told that we had to be at the train station by 9am or we would waste half the day... we did manage to get up in time but there were some grumpy bodies on that train I can tell you.

But we perked up by the time we got to Shueili (a town in the mountains that we've travelled to loads on the scooter but never by train - didn't even realise it was such a short trip!) and were positively jovial when we went to hire bicycles for the morning. Our festive feelings were short-lived however, as we soon found ourselves struggling up the mountain under the baking sun. We arrived at the snake kiln all hot and sticky and me (as is custom) bright red in the face!!!

The snake kiln is named so because it is very long and snake-like. Oh I don't know... something like that. We immediately bought some ice cream and had a lovely wander around the area.

Me, Martin, Miranda and Chris outside the kiln.


It really is rather long...


Miranda and Chris enjoying their well-deserved ice creams.


Martin and I totally look like Patrick and Demi don't we??


Cool statue man with his snake...


Look at me oh so little...


Martin inside one of the smaller kilns... we were wondering exactly how you'd bake a full grown man in there?!


The gang :)


Katie really liked this weird sculpture thing... I'm still not too sure exactly what it's supposed to be.


Pretty pottery...


Once we'd had our fill of pottery, we made our way back down the mountain to return our bikes and get back on the train for more adventure... it was SO much more fun cycling down that mountain that attempting to ride up it!!

Waiting at the little sleepy train station in Shueili just became too much for me... so I decided to jump onto the tracks and entertain the masses!!! My dearest Lorraine will remember this pose oh too well :)



After the fun photo opportunity Martin jumped down to persuade me to get off the tracks before someone official came and told me off for being a crazy foreigner...


Miranda and Chris wait patiently for the train.


From Shueili we took the train to JiJi - what we thought was going to be another little mountain town. What a shock we got when we got off the little train... it was like a crazy night market there!!! There were just so many people there, all shopping or wandering around or taking pictures. We decided we definately had to get out into the countryside asap. So after a quick bite to eat in a wierdly smelly restaurant, we went off to hire bikes again for another afternoon ride. I was feeling rather rough at the time, either from a fast-acting bug from the noodles I ate, or because I hadn't eaten anything all day up until that point - so I wimped out and hired an electric scooter thing. It was so great!!! Didn't go much over 25 km/h but it was fun to drive!!!



In Jiji we drove around to a lovely looking school with a pretty temple beside it, we took at look at one of the biggest temples there that had been devastated by the September 1999 earthquake, and we went sunflower shopping at one of the little farms on the side of the road.

Posing at the school's temple.


Miranda and Katie try to look all cute by the cool picture...


Collapsed temple.


Miranda with crazy hair riding on her bike.


Another view...


Sunflower fields are so pretty.


Something about Koi fish fascinates me... not too sure what though.


Yellow is totally our color darling!!


Me and Martin


And this officially has to be the best picture of the lot... so I've saved it till last. On the train home we discovered the meaning of chinkalicious clothing/accessories... this man probably had NO idea what his shoes meant...