Mountain biking: Paoma and Tonghou trails

Near the end of August Gareth went on a 2-day mountain biking trip with Ken, Teri and Charles. We visited the popular Paoma and Tonghou trails, near the town Jiaoxi on Taiwan's east coast. Riding the # 9 highway from Taipei to Ilan. Since the new Snow Mountain tunnel opened up, this road is very quietWe passed by the Feitsui reservoir -- nice views hereKen, Gareth, Charles and Teri, the intrepid bikers.
Ken has also blogged about the trip, in some detail: http://blog.pixnet.net/Kaiteri/post/8354223
http://blog.pixnet.net/Kaiteri/post/8438437
(Chinese only + pictures)The top part of the Feitsui reservoir. Lots of tea farms on the hills around here...And the little tea town of Pinglin. We stopped here for some tea-flavored icecream By the time we reached the Paoma trail it was nearly dark. We stopped here to enjoy the view of the Ilan plain before descending into the town of Jiaoxi, famous for hot spring hotels and cow-tongue cakes The next morning: riding through back county roads and villages en route to the Tonghou trail
Our plan: cross the mountain range in the background of this picture

Just before the steep part of the ride uphill
After an extremely hot 2-hour climb to the top, we began the descent. We first rode along the edges of some steep grassy hills cloaked in mist. Then we had to push-carry the bikes down 3 km of hiking trail. But THEN... another several more km of excellent ridable offroad trail, all downhill. Yea! Eventually we popped out in Wulai, the aboriginal town south of Taipei. From there it was easy to make our way back to civilization and head home.

Slideshow: pictures from July and August 2007

Here's a random sampling of what we've been up to this summer: Beach parties, weddings, road trips, making music, family visits, dinner gatherings, night market outings and more. A nice way to spend this last season of ours in Taiwan :-)

當模特兒Fiona models in the mountains

孟田今天第一次當模特兒
早上9點半在天母集合上陽明山
說實在，一想到他們要在戶外拍秋天的衣服，就有一點難受
小孩子撐的住嗎？也許這也是選在陽明山的原因之一，山上真的比較涼快一些，再加上躲在樹蔭裡，還算舒服
至少孟田沒留什麼汗(她通常超會流汗的)
Recently Fiona went out on a photo shoot for a local children's clothing company, Why and 1/2.

第一套衣服。發現孟田的另一種可愛，因為平常我是不會這樣替她打扮的。
They took the kids up to Yangmingshan National Park and pretended it was winter. Fiona looks different because I don't usually dress her in this style.

第二套。靴子太大，不能走路，所以她只能站在原地。還會不看鏡頭耶！她幾乎都不怎麼笑，工作人員一直說她好酷喔！

終於笑了，聽到攝影師拼命按個不停。
Fiona was very well-behaved throughout the experience. While the other kids got tired and grumpy, she remained calm and professional.

這張看起來有沒有明星的氣質？

第三套，家居服。 還有人伺候呢！
The makeup and wardrobe assistants hover around, making sure Fiona looks right

開始有一點累了
She looked tired

最後一套，家居服。那個搭配的小孩，從頭哭到尾。最後攝影師說，就讓她背對鏡頭畫畫好了，反正衣服樣式一樣，只要看顏色就夠了。真不曉得出來的效果如何！
說真的，不是我做媽的自誇，孟田真是適合當模特兒，不吵不鬧，完全配合！第一套時，她還不知道怎麼回事，會一直回頭找我。我就跟她說，媽媽在旁邊等你，你站著不能動。後來就真的不動，而且抱她上陣前她還會說，不能動喔，好像在提醒自己！
總之，很難得的經驗，算是幫她留下一個回憶。
Here they set up some desks and a blackboard in the forest, to make a little classroom kind of feeling.

The Why and 1/2 people even made a promo video for this fall collection! Here is an excerpt with Fiona's few moments on camera