Wow what a day. I had some great conversations and experiences today. I woke up and took the morning slow. The farm serves breakfast to all of the guests in the morning and people chat. I talked with a Polish guy who just finished his PhD in physics. He is researching nanotechnology fabrication which is what I studied a fair bit in school. It was nice talking shop and tech with him. I am still really interested in photonics, but it is so difficult to fabricate photonic devices cheaply and at scale. The electronic industry is so mature and has done amazing things to produce fantastic devices at scale. I still think photonics may be able to break into the AI interconnect space between GPUs due to low power and speed benefits. Next we talked no nonsense immigration policy of Poland. It was refreshing to hear his perspectives. Poland is super hard on immigration and does not let anyone in except they are working. There are no free social handouts like in France. Also he highlighted Poland's reverse immigration policy, which attracts people of Polish descent back to the thriving country. This is funny he mentioned because my friend Zach just got his Polish citizenship! Poland is expected to pass England in GDP by 2030 and will have the strongest military in Europe. He estimates in the coming year they will spend about 5% of the GDP on military. I really think Poland is doing amazing things economically and politically wise and the proof is there. Immigration and free social handouts are killing Europe, making them unsafe and stagnating the economy. This conversation in the morning was great and refreshing. After that I added a nice slideshow feature to the Shared Happy Farm website. When it is complete I will add it here. It looks really professional, sleek, and nice right now, I am really happy about it. I read a good amount of my book too. I changed over to "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas because "Devils" by Dostoevsky was too slow and boring. Dumas is great! In the afternoon Mr. Tu told me I could take the motorbike to a local waterfall. There is another volunteer here who is French woman who came with me. I do not know her name. She is doing art for the farm. The motorbike ride was one of the craziest of my life. If I was not the number one scooter driver in Gainesville, FL I surely would've fell. The terrain was rugged and bumpy and crazy. Anyway on the drive there the motorbike died. I could not figure out for the life of me what happened. We assumed it ran out of gas or just stopped working. To give you an idea, this is a really shitty bike. It has no mirrors, no side panels, the speed dial does not work properly, and the engine chugs like crazy. The French girl and I spent probably 45 mins in the middle of a side road on rural Laos trying to kick start this thing. We tried everything. We decided to walk the bike back up the main road and ask for help or call the Farm. We took it to a local convenience shack and filled up some gas. We were hopeful it was just a gas problem. After filling up with gas, the bike still did not start. After an hour of this we almost gave up and called the owner to pick us up. Then the owner of the local shack's son came back and looked at the bike. He discovered on the bottom of the bike a small chord unplugged. It was the spark plug. A spark plug is a device that ignites the fuel-air mixture in an engine by sending an electric spark into the combustion chamber After plugging it back in the bike worked! We decided to still go to the waterfall even though it took so long and it was overcast. The waterfall was a super local scene, we were the only non-locals. Immediately when we arrived a group of Lao people invited us to eat and drink with them. Of course I could not resist. It was so nice and welcoming of them. We drank a couple beers, had goat with a nice spicy sauce, and laughed and took pictures together. I did a jersey swap with a guy there. I got a small Lao soccer jersey and he got a long sleeve white Faherty shirt. He said that BeerLao makes his soul happy and that they love just hanging with friends by the waterfall listening to Lao EDM mixes. It was such a wholesome scene and I am very grateful they extended a welcoming hand. I still strive to be this welcoming and kind. After staying for an hour and half about we went to find a secret waterfall. The road was so shit that I almost wiped out. As I said, I won the Gainesville Olympics for top scooter driver so I was able to navigate the shit rocky dirt roads while buzzed in the Lao countryside. This is why I quit my job obviously! I do not think you understand how terrible this dirt path was I want to emphasize this more. Everywhere was huge boulders and it was so so even and covered in dirt. It was uphill and downhill. I prevailed without falling. After a great adventure we drove back to the farm. On the way the bike gave us more problems. This time the spark plug actually popped out completely. Luckily it fell out right near we got it fixed the first time. We pulled over and the locals rushed to our aid. Even though we can't speak to each other they were so kind and helpful. A small boy brought out some tools and was able to get the spark plug back in. While this was all happening Mr. Tu comes running out of nowhere. He drove to Pakse this morning to drop off his sister and on the way back he saw us broke down on the side of the road. We told him that the locals were very kind and helpful. We drove back on more terrible roads and the bike broke down one or two more times but we fixed it ourselves. Upon arriving back on the farm I was so tired from the fiasco I took a nap. I woke up for dinner time upon a handful new guests. I had the best conversation I have had at the farm with an Australian and Norwegian man. We talked about whether it is a big deal to squat while you poop. In Asia lots of time the toilet has no seat or is just a hole in the ground so you need to get in a yogi squat to poop. I was told I do not look American or 24 again which I have not heard in a while! I like when people comment on this I think it is a good thing. The Australian guy, Erik told me he was a snowboard instructor and does the certifications! I told him I was interested earlier in my trip in getting certified in Japan but it did not seem like it would work out. He told me I could come between June-October to get certified. I am highly considering it. The Norwegian guy Lars was very cool and funny too. I really want to visit Norway and Denmark soon. Overall it was a beautiful day with great interactions.
