Tag: recycling

Little Donkey Farm

I’ve mentioned Beijing’s Little Donkey Farm a couple of times already.  I finally had the chance to visit.

Food safety has been a huge issue in China in recent years, and wealthy urban dwellers are starting to scramble for food that will not render them sterile or cancerous.  Little Donkey Farm capitalizes on this fear by giving Beijingers a few options for access to less-toxic food.  Insecure urbanites can subscribe to a weekly order of in-season vegetables, or they can rent a plot of land at the farm and either tend it themselves on the weekends or pay the farm to raise vegetables on it.

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Betel Nut, Malaysia

This isn’t a food porn site, nor will it ever be, but I couldn’t resist posting this picture of a delicious coconut I had in Bukit Mertajam (大山腳), a city in Penang State, Malaysia.  Just look at that thick juicy, layer of smooth, wet coconut flesh.  My mouth waters just thinking about it.

Wat Charok Padang (glass bottles temple)

I’m starting to find that Buddhists around the world are pretty into environmentalism.  The Sunnyvale  Zen Center in Silicon Valley, California  has a solar photovoltaic system on its rooftop and an abbot who emphasizes the importance of protecting the environment in his Buddhism classes.  The American Bodhi Center in Houston, Texas has a large organic garden, and many of its members are avid organic gardeners, composters, and recyclers.

Last week, I visited a Thai temple in Northern Malaysia largely made out of used glass (beer!) bottles.  Unfortunately, I made the amateur mistake of forgetting to charge my extra camera battery, so  I had to resort to using my mobile phone.  Even worse, my mobile phone camera appears to be operating at a sub-optimal level:

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Recycling in Singapore

As clean as Singapore is, I don’t get the feeling that its government and citizens are enthusiastic about environmental issues.  Bike lanes are almost non-existent, conspicuous consumption is encouraged, and check out these inscrutable recycling bins I found next to the Lavender MRT station: