July 13th, 2013 | Blog, Travel, arborsculpture, Arbortecture, biotecture, bridge, D.I.Y., Ficus elastica, grow, India, living, living architecture, living art, Meghalaya, monsoon, pooktre, river, roots, tree sculpture, tree shaping, tree training, trees, War-Khasis, water
The living bridges of Cherrapunji, India are made from the roots of the Ficus elastica tree. The root bridges, some of which are over a hundred feet long, take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional, but they’re extraordinarily strong – strong enough that some of them can support the weight of fifty or more people at a time.
Because they are alive and still growing, the bridges actually gain strength over time – and some of the ancient root bridges used daily by the War-Khasis people of the villages around Cherrapunji may be well over five hundred years old.
March 30th, 2012
To Boldly Go Where No Bee Has Gone Source: Science Now Just like humans have astronauts and mountain climbers, honeybee societies have their own brave explorers: scouts, the bees that venture out to find new food sources. A new study examines scouts' brains and finds that novelty-seeking i ...
January 8th, 2012
We recently went on a trip to the desert which began at an oasis. It was a lovely camping trip that was about 3 days and 2 nights. The trip took place in a land cruiser that was fully equipped for rough terrain, including a snorkel, which we didn’t end up needing in the desert. There was a dr ...
October 6th, 2011
Back in 1999, after studying at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park New York, I was highly disillusioned with the US -- the greedy consumer mentality and the increasing amounts of GMOs in the food (which everyone thought I was nuts for being concerned about at the time!) so I fled to Myan ...
July 1st, 2011
As you guys know I grew up in Papua New Guinea, I loved growing up there, but I also loved leaving there in my early teens. PNG is no place for a woman, or a girl for that matter, and although I tend to idealize traditions and indigenous cultures quite a bit on this site, I know it isn't all admirab ...
June 28th, 2011
We've been planning a trip to Vancouver Island for about three years now. Last week we finally made it! It is a pretty easy trip from our place, it turns out...a skytrain ride to Georgia St and a 45 min bus from there to Horseshoe Bay where you catch a 1 1/2 hr ferry to Nanaimo. On the bus out of to ...
April 28th, 2011
Welcome back to World Food Thursdays, please scroll down to the bottom of the page and link up your delicious international food! Please forgive me for not posting the past couple weeks, I had a cranio training and then we took a road trip to Portland. Portland is an amazing spot for world food ...
April 22nd, 2011
I have mentioned my incredible, brilliant, creative and imaginative sister before in passing, but I haven't really expressed how much she means to me. My parents adopted two children from Vietnam when they were married there during the Vietnamese war. The eldest one was adopted when she was about 4 ...
February 26th, 2011
A few years ago I was the Executive Chef of The Strand Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar (Rangoon, Burma). The Strand is a historical boutique hotel built by the famous Armenian Sarkie brothers in 1901. The Sarkies also established the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore and the E & O (Eastern and Oriental) in ...
February 20th, 2011
This summer, while shopping at the Trout Lake Farmer's market, I came across a rare find--a sack full of fresh Lemon Verbena for only $4! I have tried growing lemon verbena on two occasions now, but both times they haven't made it through the winter--or that's what I thought. The woman who sold me t ...
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