I can’t believe I haven’t finished posting my pictures from the Stampin’ Up Thailand Incentive Trip last month. If you missed my first post, you can find it here. This will be my second of three posts.
Maybe I should have shared this last time, but it was a view from the plane when we flew over Alaska. You can see Mount Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) below. My mom had just been to Alaska shortly before I left for Thailand, and she talked about how amazing Mount Denali was. I got to see it too!
During the first part of our trip, we took some trips through the countryside. I grew up on a farm, and my ‘real job’ is related to agriculture and natural resources, so I was really interested to see what crops they raise. Below you can see the rice paddies. Basically all of the flat land is used to raise rice.
We didn’t see much livestock at all, but we did see water buffalo in a few places.
I already said that the flat land was used for rice. When they wanted to grow other crops, they cleared hillsides to do so. What did they plant on this hillside you ask? Corn. Corn on that hillside. I work at a conservation office. Corn on that hillside is a bad idea. Corn on that hillside = massive erosion. There is a reason their rivers were red from having soil in the water.
Here we go. Terraces to prevent erosion. That’s a little better. Now if they can just get something growing on them, the soil might stay in place. Ok, I’ll stop talking about soil before I bore you to death.
Just a view of the countryside.
We stopped at a hot spring where we could put our feet in the small stream they had created coming from the spring. It felt wonderful! Then we purchased eggs that had been boiled in the spring. I ate a quail egg. It was delicious!
I majored in horticulture in college, so I’m a big plant geek. When we had the opportunity to visit the Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden, I wanted to go! I had fun taking pictures there. It’s been too long since I’ve practiced my photography skills!
Here is a view of the gardens from above.
The gardens were on the side of a mountain. It was a beautiful view looking down over the valley.
The water lilies were beautiful. I will only entertain you with one picture of them. I’m pretty sure I took about a hundred.
We got to see some fun plants that I had never seen before. Aren’t these amazing?
Moving on to another stop…here’s my friend Laura and I in front of Big Budda. Big Buddha was…big. Forty-five meters tall to be exact.
Near Big Buddha, we saw a wild monkey. He wanted to be our friend. When our tour guide got scared and told us to back away from the monkey, we listened. It was kind of like this, “Back…away…from…the….monkey.” If she was scared, I figured I better be scared too. I backed away from the monkey, as fast as possible without freaking out.
We visited a local farm that I really enjoyed. They gave us a wagon ride behind a water buffalo. As you can see, Laura is thoroughly enjoying it.
They showed how they collect the latex from rubber trees, then they did a demonstration to show how they process it into rubber.
This young lady showed how rice was separated from the chaff.
Look closely…here’s a monkey picking coconuts! When he got them picked, he just dropped them to the ground. His reward when he came back down? Watermelon and pineapple. I might climb a tree and pick coconuts too if I got a treat afterwards!
Here’s a nice view of part of the demonstration farm.
So now that you’re educated a little bit about agriculture in Thailand, I’ll move on to talk about the wonderful friends I made on the trip. Below is a picture of me with Candy and Sherri, two friends I made on a Stampin’ Up! trip a few years ago. It was good to see and catch up with them.
Here’s me with the two Laura’s – the old Laura (my college friend) and the new Laura (from Chicago). We really enjoyed hanging out with new Laura and her great husband.
Here I am with new Laura again, and Ellen! We were getting ready to see the new Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog and get a bunch of free products, so we were super smiley.
Here’s part of the group that we were with in Chiang Mai. We just couldn’t get enough of them.
One of the evenings, we were lucky to be invited to eat with corporate team members. We sat with one of the Stampin’ Up! board members, the manager for Stampin’ Up! in Australia, and a demonstrator from Australia. Check out the view of the water behind us. Looks peaceful right? That was until the storm came!!
Here’s a little bit of what they fed us. It was so good! I actually thought our meal was over when they brought all of this to the table. They fed us so many appetizers, that I didn’t realize they were appetizers. Of course I made room to try all of this! It was the first time I had ever eaten lobster.
There you have it! I’ll share more pictures sometime next week! Stop back in to see them!
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