All posts by Fourbackpacks

Food, food and more food!

Hey everyone.
We went to an amazing cooking class here in Thailand. It was great fun. We got to go to the farm so we also looked at the ingredients we used while they were in the tree.

If this interests you and you wish to have more information  about this event make sure to check out my food page.

chopping

Waterfall

While we were on our bike tour, we stopped at many amazing places and did amazing things. These include riding on elephants, swimming in a waterfall, and going on a boat. The waterfall was beautiful. The water down lower was very shallow but under the waterfall my father could not find the ground. We had fun just splashing, or swimming against the current. We also went under the waterfall. We at first looked to see if there was anywhere behind the waterfall where the water would not hit you. The answer is there was not though in those few minutes we had our backs water blasted. Also, most people say that if you get close to a rainbow it will just go farther away so you can never touch it. Well, under the waterfall between my head and the rocks were two of them. These of course are just caused by the diffraction of the light in the water but wherever the diffraction occurred but my hand passed over it so I can claim that I touched a rainbow.

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Elephant riding

Before we left Vienna, I asked Milla (my friend who came from Thailand) what I should do in Thailand. She answered that I NEEDED to ride on an elephant. So I asked mom and dad if we could ride an elephant, and that is ONE of the thing we did. The only thing is I never learned the name of our elephant. So we made some up.

talk to elephants

Mom and I rode on Elly Phant, and dad and Leendert rode on El ly Phant (there brother and sister). To start off, we went 10 meters to the right of the end of the place where they kept the elephants and turned into a little path only large enough to fit the elephant’s large feet, it was going uphill. Normally you would say “sit back and enjoy the ride” but in this case, if you would sit back you would be scared to fall backwards!

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AvtR LvtR elephant                                                                                     El

Of course, what goes up must come down, so guess what we did. CORRECT (I hope), we went down the hill. At the bottom of that hill, there was a banana plantation. At one point, mom, dad, Leendert and me were scared that our elephants were going to walk over the grass to the banana trees.

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NOT THE BANANA PLANTATION BUT…

When we got back to the street, we went down a tiny path that lead to the water. You got it, the elephants wanted to cool down so water went into the trunk and ‘Elly’ and ‘El’ spat all over their body’s which caused us to get wet. Getting wet actually felt nice after biking for 2-3 hours in 42C°.

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THE ELEPHANTS DID THIS, WITH YOU IN THE WOOD THING ON THIER BACKS BUT IN THE RIVER THAT YOU CAN SEE OVER THE FENCE.

We finished by going on the road again. Going from the river to the place where we had started, there was an exhibit type of thing (a cage) with a snake that was about 2-3-4 times my hight and thicker than my/your hand! The reason why the length is so, not very precise is because he/she was all twisted and turned.

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MOM THAT RAN OUT OF BANANAS.

THANKS MILLA!!!

Just to let you know where we are….

So, we have done part one of Bangkok – today we flew up to Chiangrai. Great trip: uneventful!  Looks like they have a lot of rice growing here!

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Mines Museum

We went to a mines museum. Expectations were around 0. Especially with my father. First, the facts: Every week, 3 people die from land mines in Cambodia. A mine, does NOT go click when you stand on it. There are still between 3-6 million mines in the ground in Cambodia. Most mines are not made to kill. Only to injure. Mines from more than six different countries are present in Cambodia. 12 de-miners got injured last year. All because they did not follow the safety regulations. In the place we went, the de-mining team had only 2 bad moments. One person got bitten by a cobra 3 times and survived. The other died of malaria because he refused the medicine and the shaman killed him with a bad treatment. (Big breath) there. WOW. I will give you a minute to take that in. That guy that toured us was great. He was realistic, told his opinion, was down to earth, told the facts, but not in a heavy way.

Angkor Wat – Put it on the ‘bucket list’ if not done so yet!

Angkor Wat. Amazing in every respect. The size, the buildings, the details, the age,…. Seldom seen anything this good. Even after 3 days still no temple fatigue detected!

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From the top of the world to Temples in the Jungle

Wow what a place Angkor Wat is. If you haven’t visited, put it on your bucket list – superlatives can not do it justice!  The hotel is not a place to suffer either!

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The 4-day trek – a big success

 

How about that for family picture. Notice we are in the middle of a rhododendron forest!

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And these are the relieved faces of people back to the base!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Monkey in the window

This is the one that raided our room! Hanging out in the morning rechecking if we closed the window…. After we took the picture he climbs away,….

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In the Monastery – Pokhara

Moments of reflection – teaching and self improvement,…

In an idillic part of the world. Incredible views to enjoy. Small taxi’s to the local town..  (dodging the cows on the road)….

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