I log onto a computer at the doctor's office to say I have arrived and then wait until a voice calls me into the examination room.

    There, a robotic nurse directs me onto a device and then takes my blood pressure. Some time later, in steps the doctor, who is also a robot. He notes down my symptoms and gives me a prescription (处方). I pay for my visit using a credit card machine and return home without having met another human being.

    When I call my dentist's office and actually get a human being on the line, I am thrilled. And when I see the introduction of yet more self-service checkout stations at the grocery store, I feel like shouting, “When it comes to cashiers, make mine human, please!”

    After all, human cashiers sometimes give you a store coupon (优惠券) for items you are buying. Even more than that, real-life cashiers often take an interest in particularly cute children, which can brighten a young mother's day. A cashier may also show compassion (同情) for an elderly person struggling to get that last penny out of her purse.

    What technological device would do any of this? I don't want to go back to the Stone Age, but I'm also worried about a world run by machines. Sometimes when you're chatting with someone, you discover things you need to know. Maybe a receptionist needs prayers said for a sick child. Maybe a salesperson can offer a bit of encouragement to a customer who is feeling tired.

Machines can be efficient and cost-effective and they often get the job done just fine. But they lack an element so important to everyday life.

    Call it the spirit, the soul or the heart. It is something no machine will ever have. It is being human that prompts us to smile at others, which may be what they need at that moment.

    Kompong Phhluk Private Tour

    Depart the city for an unspoiled floating community called Kompong Phhluk which is well-known for its stilted-house (吊脚楼) villages and flooded forest.

    Stop on the way for the Rolous Market tour. This is a great chance for you to take the photos of locals selling vegetables, different fish species and other local produce.

    After this market tour we'll all have a boat trip to the floating community of Kompong Phhluk, visit an island pagoda, school and houses standing on 8 or 10m high stilts, fish farms and learn about the village life.

    Stop and have lunch in a family's house before getting into a row boat and venturing into the flooded forest, the habitat to some famous water-bird species.

    Eventually we jump back into the big boat and set off for the largest fresh water lake in SE Asia, Tonle Sap.

    Tour Details

    Departs 8.30am

    Returns around 2pm

    A picnic lunch with sandwiches and drinks is provided. We cannot provide local food from the area due to poor sanitation (卫生设备), lack of hygiene standards and refrigeration.

    No passes required

    Rates

    These rates are based on an English speaking guide.

    Rates include all transport, water and a picnic lunch.

·    Children 11 years and under are 50%.

    Children 4 years and below are free.

    If your group is larger than 5 people please email us for the best rate.

    Number of People Price Per Person

    1 Person  $65

    2 People  $45

    3 People  $40

    4 People  $35

    5 People  $32

    What to Wear

    Please be mindful of your clothing and try to avoid anything too revealing

    We strongly recommend a sunglasses, hat and sunscreen.

    General Information

    This is a poor rural village, please be mindful of the environment.

    Please do not hand things out to villagers, for this leads to creating a begging cycle and can create jealousy.

    We recommend heading to the toilet before you go on this trip as facilities (设施) are very basic.

    Americans gave nearly $300 billion away last year. Do you know the reason? Beyond the noble goals of helping others, it is that giving will make them happier.

    It is a fact that givers are happier people than non-givers. According to the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, a survey of 30,000 American households, people who give money to charity are 43% more likely than non-givers to say they are "very happy" about their lives. Similarly, volunteers are 42% more likely to be very happy then non-volunteers.

    The happiness difference between givers and non-givers is not due to differences in their personal characteristics, such as income or religion. Imagine two people who are identical in terms of income and faith, as well as age, education, politics, sex, and family circumstances, but one donates money and volunteers, while the other does not. The giver will be, on average, over 40 percentage points more likely to be very happy than the non-givers.

    A number of studies have researched exactly why charity leads to happiness. The surprising conclusion is that giving affects our brain chemistry. For example, people who give often report feelings of euphoria, which psychologists have referred to as the "Helper's High". They believe that charitable activity produces a very mild version of the sensations people get from drugs like morphine and heroin.

    Of course, not only does giving increase our happiness, but also our happiness increases the possibility that we will give. Everyone prefers to give more when they are happy. Researchers have investigated this by conducting experiments in which people are asked about their happiness before and after they participate in a charitable activity, such as volunteering to help children or serving meals to the poor. The result is clear that giving has a strong, positive causal impact on our happiness, so does happiness on giving

    When a leafy plant is under attack, it doesn't sit quietly. Back in 1983, two scientists, Jack Schultz and Ian Baldwin, reported that young maple trees getting bitten by insects send out a particular smell that neighboring plants can get. These chemicals come from the injured parts of the plant and seem to be an alarm. What the plants pump through the air is a mixture of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, VOCs for short.

    Scientists have found that all kinds of plants give out VOCs when being attacked. It's a plant's way of crying out. But is anyone listening? Apparently. Because we can watch the neighbors react.

    Some plants pump out smelly chemicals to keep insects away. But others do double duty. They pump out perfumes designed to attract different insects who are natural enemies to the attackers. Once they arrive, the tables are turned. The attacker who was lunching now becomes lunch.

    In study after study, it appears that these chemical conversations help the neighbors. The damage is usually more serious on the first plant, but the neighbors, relatively speaking, stay safer because they heard the alarm and knew what to do.

    Does this mean that plants talk to each other? Scientists don't know. Maybe the first plant just made a cry of pain or was sending a message to its own branches, and so, in effect, was talking to itself. Perhaps the neighbors just happened to "overhear" the cry. So information was exchanged, but it wasn't a true, intentional back and forth.

    Charles Darwin, over 150 years ago, imagined a world far busier, noisier and more intimate (亲密的) than the world we can see and hear. Our senses are weak. There's a whole lot going on.

    Better known by his stage name Kun, Cai Xukun is, without a doubt, one of the most popular stars in China.

    On July 26, the 21-year-old dropped his new single Young. Within just 20 seconds, it reached 1 million views and in only 3 days topped the music charts of Tencent's QQ music.

    Cai wrote the song by himself to share his understanding of modern-day youth. The singer has mixed R&B with electronic music to make his new beat cheerful. One reviewer wrote on QQ Music: "When you listen to the song, you just seem to go back to youth again."

    August 2 is Cai's birthday, and the song was a gift to himself. The singer hopes that he can always have the courage to follow his love of music, ignoring what anyone says. "My works are like my children and I have put my best effort into them. I want every piece of my work to have my own spirit in it. I feel more enjoyment when I am performing my own work." He told the Global Times.

    To find new inspiration, Kun attends different kinds of musical performances－from festivals to opera houses. "I just like to do everything, all for my music, all for my art," he told i-D.

    With talent and dedication(专注) to music, Cai is expected by many to make his mark in the competitive Chinese music industry.

    When I was about twelve, I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was winter, and on that night, the wind was really blowing hard.

    As my mom and I headed to the restaurant from our car, a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change (零钱). My mom right away asked where they lived. They pointed to an old car in a parking lot across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car. My mom said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings (兄弟姐妹). But she didn't come. Later, I found out she had gone home and put all the food in our cupboards (食橱) into a few bags. Then, she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family. I wasn't there when that happened, but I can only imagine the joy it brought to those people.

    A few days later, when I actually found out about what she had done, I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remember the face of that girl who had asked us for change. She was the same age as me, yet we looked so different.

    Here I stood, dressed in almost new clothes, headed to eat in a restaurant and then back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister. I remember thinking that the other girl didn't have any food to eat and she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people.

    After painting this picture in my mind, I understood why my mom had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night, and how she taught me one of the best lessons I ever learned.