Monday, July 14, 2008

 

I know, I know....I disappeared

Well, I ran back to the states quickly....OK, so I flew, but it was a quick trip that was productive, frustrating, and good all at the same time. Anyway, I'm back now and, as always, we are just keeping incredibly busy. Let me see if I can finish the pictures from when I first got here the FIRST time.

OK, I left off with the pictures of the village that reminded me of Okinawa. The reason? Narrow roads, close homes, and brick walls surrounding all the homes. That village was on the way to a temple--the first Buddhist temple I'd visited--to find a cache. Just a few days later, we took some of Paul's classmates (ok, the teacher) to the temple again as part of an introduction to geocaching.


This is an awesome picture that Paul took from the temple. (I apparently didn't upload any of the actual temple grounds.)


The one on the left is a classmate from Thailand and next to me is the teacher from Paul's class that week at Humphrey's.


Pretty much all the mountain temples have a big bell and drum like that. I think I've seen only one that doesn't. They all have ornate painting all over.


Many people hike up to the temples just for the hike, as you can see the path in the background, which is not how we got there. This was just down from the temple, though. Not sure why, but these kids had a rabbit that they were playing with.


So, of course, Paul took the opportunity to take some profile local people pictures.


On the way back and on our way to find another geocache, Paul stopped and took a few pictures of local farming techniques. This, we are pretty sure, is a pear orchard. Their pears are about double the size of a softball, so they have to hold the limbs up. It's either that or apples....their apples are about the size of a softball.


LOTS of stuff is grown in greenhouses.


The next cache was near this (and named after the tomb). It was very interesting.


This is the tomb from a distance.


This is obviously fancier than most tombs, but they all tend to be in the same general design. The mountainsides are dotted with tombs like this (minus the granite statuary). They are an area cleared of trees, fairly well kept, and the tomb itself is a round mound above ground. (Rhymes unintended but intentionally left!) It's very interesting. We've never seen anything like it.


This is a tree in the village of the Admiral. That particular roof color combination is also quite common, though we really don't know why!


This is a rice paddy very early in the season, just starting to grow and fill with water. Now you see them and it just looks like regular fields unless you look closely and notice thin strips of water reflecting light.



Paul had heard of ecobridges but had never actually seen one. This particular one has a cache on it. Surprised?


Finally, this is the Admiral's village again, but this is a typical thing to see: gardens full of little else other than garlic and a little onion.

Anyway, that's all I got right now.

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