A VLOG from March 2016 taken mostly at Soi Cowboy, Soi Nana and outside the Thermae freelancer bar in Bangkok, Thailand.
The parts of this video are:
0:00 Soi Nana, Hooters Bikini Competition night 2:20 The entrance to the Thermae freelancer bar (NB. I was only there for about 20 minutes and got 5 mosquito bites on my arms!) 4:34 Heading to Soi Cowboy 5:53 'Fish and Ship' restaurant, Soi 23 6:09 Soi Cowboy (thumbnail girls start at 7:58)
When building bridges, engineers and architects don’t always look for the shortest possible crossing. The new ring-shaped bridge across Laguna Garzon in Uruguay's southern coast is such an example.
The concrete structure consist of two semi-circular bridges, joined at either end to create a ring, and was built to replace a raft crossing between the cities of Rocha and Maldonado. On the bridge’s unusual circular design, its architect Rafael Viñoly has a perfectly logical and functional explanation: the curved design will force drivers to slow down the speed of their cars while also prove an opportunity to enjoy the panoramic views of this amazing landscape. The bridge also has a pair of pedestrian walkways.
Before the bridge was built, the raft crossing allowed only two cars to cross at a time. The raft operated only at certain times of the day, and during windy or stormy days it remained closed. The poor connection has kept the region of Rocha away from further developments compared to what Maldonado has been experiencing in the last decades.
The new bridge will allow some 1,000 vehicles to cross the lagoon, and is expected to help drive the development of Rocha’s coastline.
The causeway running across the Great Salt Lake, Utah, was built in the 1950s by the Morrison-Knudsen construction company for the Southern Pacific Railroad as a replacement to a previously built wooden trestle, and is now owned and operated by Union Pacific.
About 15 trains cross the 20-mile (32km) causeway each day. Because water flow is so constrained by the causeway, it has a significant impact on various industries. The salt discrepancy is visible to anyone who flies over the causeway. The water on the north side usually has a distinct reddish tint, while on the south side it's greenish-blue. The colors are attributed to different species of algae that thrive in different concentrations of salt.
The unusual color scheme is a direct result of the causeway. The original trestle allowed water to flow freely under the railroad tracks, but the causeway that replaced it essentially acts as a 20-mile (32km) dam. The salt imbalance developed over many years because the south arm of the lake gets nearly all the freshwater.
There are no significant creeks or rivers flowing into the north arm, while the south arm gets flushed continually by waters of the Jordan, Weber and Bear Rivers.
The scorched moonscape of Atacama stretches for hundreds of miles on both sides of the Pan-American Highway, undisturbed by any sign of human activity.
About 75km south of the town of Antofagasta, its monotony is shattered by a sight even more alien then the desert itself, and yet undoubtedly human: an 11-meter-tall hand protruding out of the sand.
Mano de Desierto is a work of the Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal, built in the early 1980s. It was financed by a local booster organization called Corporación Pro Antofagasta.
The motion of hands rising from the ground is an obsession of Irarrázabal's. His other famous works include another over-sized sculpture exploring the same idea: "Monument to the Drowned" is located on Parada 4 at Brava Beach in Punta del Este, a popular resort town in Uruguay. Another large sculpture, "The Awakening," by American artist John Seward Johnson II expresses a similar idea and is located at National Harbor in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
Dildo is a town on the island of Newfoundland, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
It is located on the southeastern Dildo Arm of Trinity Bay about 60 kilometres west of St. John's. South Dildo is a neighbouring unincorporated community.
Bhangarh Fort Rajasthan is a 17th century fort situated on a hillside in the deserted town of Bhangarh, Rajasthan India. Bhangarh Fort is thought to be the most haunted place in India.
Bhangarh new village has developed outside the limits of the fort as there is fear of ghosts haunting the old city. Archaeological Survey of India has forbidden access to the site between sunset and sunrise.
Many legends are associated with the haunted folk, one of which involves a Holy Man who supposedly cursed Bhangarh after the fort cast a shadow over his abode. It was established in 1613 by King Madho Singh as the residence of his second son.
Bhangarh Fort Rajasthan is located 235 kilometres from Delhi on the border of the Sariska Reserve in the Aravali range of hills in Alwar district of Rajasthan. Bhangarh fort is a major tourist attraction in Bhangarh though it is haunted place but it can be visited as the place is beautiful and tranquil.
The fort and its precincts are well preserved. The fort is composed of temples, palaces, and multiple gates, covers a large area of land at the foot of a mountain.
But despite its beauty and the picturesque scenery, the fort is steeped in dark tales and became completely abandoned by 1783, with locals moving their village elsewhere. If you are daring enough to challenge the paranormal beings and want to explore this haunted place then pack your bags and plan a visit to Bhangarh Fort Rajasthan.
Hide-and-seek may not yet be an Olympic sport (although efforts are being made in that regard), but it's apparently popular enough to have its own world championship.
What started out as a one-off event created by CTRL magazine in 2010, eventually grew into an annual event. This year, the 6th Nascodino World Championship — “nascondino” is Italian for hide-and-seek — will take place on September 3-4 2016, in Consonno.
The village was once a bustling tourist attraction complete with a zoo, sightseeing train, and several buildings, but has since become a ghost town. Event organizers consider the setting perfect for a grand hide-and-seek competition.
The rules of the tournament are a bit more complicated than the childhood game we all used to play, but then again, this is a contest for grownups (18 and over). Participants may register to take part in teams of five, with a €125 fee per team. The teams are then divided into four groups and one person per group hides while a “neutral searching team” counts 60 seconds.
The hidden player then has 10 minutes to come out of their hiding spot and reach a soft mattress (for diving purposes) placed in the middle of a field without being found or at least before a member of the searching team finds them. If they fail to reach their target within the time limit, players are not awarded any points. The game goes on for two days until the winner is declared.
In a quiet courtyard in the suburbs of New Delhi, inside a low-slung concrete building, the assistant curator and guides of Sulabh International Museum of Toilets eagerly awaits for visitors. The museum is small, with just one long room, but it’s possibly the world’s only toilet museum, and it’s location in the Indian capital is all the more important.
Hygiene and sanitation is one of India’s most pressing issues. An astonishing 60% of the country’s 1.2 billion people defecate in the open because they do not have access to safe and private toilets. The numbers were probably worse in 1970 when Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, a humanitarian and social worker, introduced pay-to-use public toilets in a small village in Patna, Bihar. At first the people laughed at his idea, but now over 15 million people across the country use public toilets constructed by Sulabh International, a non-profit he founded.
Sulabh International’s mission is to promote safe sanitation habits and provide public toilet facilities throughout India. It builds and maintains hundreds of public toilets in major cities, including those outside tourist attractions such as the Red Fort in Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra, as well as towns and villages across the vast nation. With 50,000 volunteers devoted to the cause, Sulabh International is India’s largest nonprofit organization.
The museum, located in the offices of the organization, traces the history and development of toilet system around the world from the brick commodes of the ancient Harappan settlement near Pakistan, five thousand years ago, through the Middle Ages to the modern day toilet with electrically controlled flush system, through a series of privies, chamber-pots, toilet furniture, bidets and water closets, accompanied by a healthy number of images, drawings, photographs, and graphics. The museum also provides a chronological account of developments relating to technology, toilet related social customs, toilet etiquettes, prevailing sanitary conditions and legislative efforts of the times.
Among its most prized possessions is a flush pot devised in 1596 by Sir John Harrington, a courtier of Queen Elizabeth I, a gem-studded bided of Queen Victoria, table-top toilets from England and a couple of highly decorated commodes from Austria. Some of the toilets of these period were disguised. There is a French one that looks like a stack of books, and an English one which resembles a treasure chest.
Hanging on the walls are display boards with poems, comics, jokes and cartoons related to toilet humor. But one of its most amusing displays is a full-size replica throne from the court of the French King, Louis XIII, with a hidden commode underneath it. The King used it to relive himself while still in court.
The Sulabh International Museum of Toilets was opened in 1992, and since then it has welcomed some 100,000 visitors.
The Heliotrope is an environmentally friendly house designed by the German architect Rolf Disch who also designed the Sonnenschiff (Sun Ship).
Three such houses exist in Germany, the first experimental version having been built in 1994 as the architect's home in Freiburg im Breisgau, while the other two are used as exhibition buildings for the Hansgrohe company in Offenburg and a dentist's lab in Hilpoltstein in Bavaria.
The Heliotrope in Freiburg was the first building in the world to capture more energy than it uses, all of which is entirely renewable, emissions free and CO2 neutral. The structure physically rotates to track the sun, which allows it to harness the maximum natural sunlight and warmth possible.
Several different energy generation modules are used in the building including a 603 sq ft (56.0 m2) dual-axis solar photovoltaic tracking panel, a geothermal heat exchanger, a combined heat and power unit (CHP) and solar-thermal balcony railings to provide heat and warm water.
These innovations in combination with the superior insulation of the residence allow the Heliotrope to capture anywhere between four to six times its energy usage depending on the time of year. The Heliotrope is also fitted with a grey-water cleansing system and built-in natural waste composting.
Apart from its incredible history and well preserved culture, Japan hosts some of the most wonderful places that very few know about. While the bonsai art and kimonos are exciting, it’s actually an English setting that takes people aback: Yufuin Floral Village.
Even though the visitors can walked through the village in a few minutes, the trip is definitely worth it. The old English atmosphere is inspired by Cotswolds, an English area dating back to the Neolithic Era. Many scenes from the legendary ‘Harry Potter’ were filmed in the little houses made of stone there.
Unlike Cotswolds, though, the vintage architecture of Yufuin Floral Village was made in 2012 by a local businessman – and it didn’t take long until it attracted crowds.
Surrounded by hills and mountains, the series of houses and stores are so small that an average adult can touch their roof. Each building is carefully decorated with flowers, bushes and lamps above the doors. Apparently, the inside is just as intriguing, regardless if it’s a garage or a store.
The old English atmosphere is even more pronounced due to the classic red vintage cars parked in narrow streets; from time to time, visitors can also spot the Great Britain flag on cars, doors or used as small carpets.
The Peter Rabbit animal garden is a beautiful mix of Japanese and English plants with ducks and other creatures. At the entrance, tourists can meet Beatrix Potter, an owl resembling the wise Harry Potter birds– except, Beatrix has its own little house.
There’s just one thing that reminds visitors they’re still in Japan. From Kiki’s bakery to a florist shop, the Battle of the fragrances or the Glasses shop, each store is filled with Japanese promotional signs and a wide range of products.
Furthermore, for those who fell in love with the natural, old atmosphere, there is a hotel placed on a hill where they can spend the night. From up there, not only can they see the entire village slightly enlightened by small lamps, but also the breathtaking view of mountains and hills in the area.
Horsetail Fall, located in Yosemite National Park in California, is a seasonal waterfall that flows in the winter and early spring.
The fall occurs on the east side of El Capitan. If Horsetail Fall is flowing in February and the weather conditions are just right, the setting sun illuminates the waterfall, making it glow orange and red.This natural phenomenon is often referred to as the "Firefall", a name that pays homage to the manmade Firefall that once took place in Yosemite.
Photo by Frank Steger
This waterfall descends in two streams side by side, the eastern one being the larger but both quite small. The eastern one drops 1,540 feet (470 m), and the western one 1,570 feet (480 m), the highest fully airborne waterfall in Yosemite that runs at some point every year.
Photo by Joel Brady-Power
The waters then gather and descend another 490 feet (150 m) on steep slabs, so the total height of these waterfalls is 2,030 ft (620 m) to 2,070 ft (630 m). The image shown here is taken during a brief time during the winter, near February 21 at sunset, made famous by Galen Rowell's photograph.
Photo by Nikhil Shahi
The fall is best seen and photographed from a small clearing close to the picnic area on the north road leading out of Yosemite Valley east of El Capitan. Wikipedia
