Let me tell you an amazing story about an amazing place in an amazing city. First of all the experience was, well, amazing. Secondly, the people were, …, also amazing. Catching on yet? Thirdly, the food we had was (Don’t cheat and look at the word. Just guess. Don’t peak.) amazing. By now you should get it. The animals that were there too were amaazing. Yes they even get and extra a for their, well, being amazing. So guess what the overall rating was. Don’t look. You may count up the A’s to figure it out. The overall experience was, … >Drum Rolls<, incredible. Sorry if I let you down. I had to find a word worth more than amazing because amaaaaaaaazing is slightly longer and harder to write. Go rice farm!
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.
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.
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.
We were taken from the hotel at 8:30. Though the trip was mainly for the rice terraces, we made a few other stops. The first was just a pit stop for the guide to get the tickets to some things however, we admired the beautiful man made waterfall following the crystal clear reflective water (pictures 1&2). The first “real stop we made was in a little town of 200 people. Their culture was very different to the one of a normal Chinese. They think of their hair as their longevity so they grow it out and keep it clean all the time (picture 3). Then we got to the Longji rice terraces. There we first took a bubble up to the top of the hills (picture 4). We then took a long path through the hills on a little stone path leading to absolutely gorgeous views (picture 5). After we went back to the hotel. The last picture is from on the way over. This was approximately 2 times clearer than the way back (picture 6).
Normal life in Shanghai is not exactly what you would expect. China is known for being extremely densely populated. So what you most likely do not expect is (picture 1) to leave a metro through a huge exit with literally nobody present. Then if you have a guess what we saw after we left the station (except for people) we have a picture for you (picture two) though you probably already saw this because often people look at the pictures before reading. You may look at the picture and think, Wow! That is crazy!, but we prefer Viet Nam where they would do the same with fridges and on two wheels, not three. The last picture (picture 3) is just a family shot on a bridge with a view on some of the buildings. By the way, if you were thinking Hey, people told me it was extremely smoggy in Shanghai. I would like you to remember that many of these pictures have been enhanced to please the eye.
I will have to correct myself. I remember I had said that snorkeling was way up in the coolness scale. Well, I just did even better. DIVING! Okay, the gear is heavy outside of the water but diving is amazing. You can breathe underwater, and float around. It is awesome!
Paradise! It is just like the Galapagos just with less amazing animals but the hotel is … I have no words for it except the words I used this morning. “Is it possible to feel to welcome?” Comfort ++. Beauty ++. Incredible!
San Francisco is an amazing city. It is unique, beautiful, and diverse. The steep hills like I have seen only in movies to China town ,which is just Asia in the middle of the U.S, to Stanford and its neighborhood. Wow!
2800 salt pools are used at the salt mine we went to.
They are filled with water from a saltwater spring.
They have five kinds of salt.
The water takes 3 weeks to evaporate but they fill them 2 per week.
In two weeks a person gets 40 kilograms of salt from a small pool. They get double from the big ones.
