Sabine Hellenbrandt. The German Tourist Who Came Back To New Zealand For More...

New Zealand is a country much loved and traveled by Europeans and German tourists especially. There seem to be hundreds of them here at any one time. I meet a lot of them and am delighted to be good friends with many.
The last time Sabine was here, she made headlines by falling many meters down a West Coast glacier in New Zealand's South Island and needing to be rescued. By a strange twist she had just been in Thailand where she learned Vepassana meditation which was a huge strength for her survival while she waited in much pain those many hours in the cold to be rescued. It was a very enlightening experience she told me when I saw her in the beautiful Far North recently. Sabine was on her way south to meet and celebrate her return with her rescuers, now her friends...

In Thailand Many Hands Make Light Work As Local Communities Build A Beautiful Bamboo Bridge In A Few Days...

The old fifteen hundred foot long Saphan Mon Bridge in Thailand's Sangkhlaburi town was, until it collapsed in July of this year, the second longest bridge of it's type in the world. Not only was the bridge necessary for their daily activities, it was also a well known tourist attraction.
Knowing full well that the authorities would take forever to fix the situation, the two peoples on either side of the Song Kalia River, the Thais and the ethnic Mon people, were determined to show they were a united community. Five hundred folk from the two villages built this beautiful bamboo bridge and completed this wonderful piece of floating engineering in only six days.
People can make the impossible happen...

Thailand's Beautiful Bamboo Playground For Children...

Using locally sourced building materials and local labour is the sustainable way for the now and the future if we're going to have one.
The Dutch company, 24H-Architcture, well known as an innovative and environmentally aware design organisation have built the most beautiful children's playground, actually more of an activity and learning center, as part of the Eco Villa at the Soneva in Thailand.
A canopy of bamboo shingles shelters the entire area containing a reading floor, art and music rooms and suspended playing pod.
There's a Cooking Cave with it's own vegetable garden to allow the children to harvest, prepare and cook their own food. Another inspiring example of creative thinking and the beauty of bamboo.
There's more to whet your appetite
here and here.
This playground will make most adults wish they were kids again...