【推荐1】Bangkok (曼谷) developed around the Chao Phraya River. Many of the city’s hotels sit along the river. The areas of Siam and Ratchaprasong are the core of tourist Bangkok. Sukhumvit Road is home to mall after mall filled with every kind of shop.

For the best value, luxury (奢华的) hotels in the Bang Rak and Sathorn Districts are great choices since the area is more popular for office buildings than tourists. The Sathorn Vista, Bangkok is a perfect example. There are several restaurants, a full gym, a beautiful pool and outdoor areas.

Traditionally, the Khao San Road area has been the center of Bangkok budget lodging (住宿) and this is still true today. The Dang Derm Hotel on Khao San Road has clean, large rooms and a really nice rooftop pool. If you’re on a budget but want to stay riverside, try the Ibis Bangkok Riverside, whose contents are always clean and well-managed. The riverside location is close to the ferry, and its location a bit south of the main tourist area gets you very low prices.

Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok is a great family hotel. The hotel, which has buildings on both sides of the Chao Phraya river, has been providing accommodation to travelers since 1876. For families there are a number of connecting room choices, and the hotel is also responsible for bringing in extra beds for children. There is a kids’ club on-site, and parents can even sign older kids up for cooking classes. Another good option for families is Ariyasomvilla. This downtown Bangkok small hotel also offers a pleasant place in the city. It is set inside a beautiful garden and is a lovely change from the disorder of the city.

【推荐1】Dr. David Hetherington has spent over a decade looking at the feasibility (可行性) of reintroducing the Eurasian lynx (欧洲猞猁) to Scotland. In his new book, The Lynx and Us, Hetherington takes an in-depth look at the many issues surrounding this topic.

Hetherington begins there introduction discussion by establishing the history and ecology of the lynx, in relation to both human-lynx coexistence and geographical variations in distribution. Habitat and range requirements, prey (猎物) preferences and hunting methods are also detailed.

Armed with this background information, the reader is then taken through the nitty-gritty of lynx reintroduction by addressing the potential issues, many of which are based on human-wildlife conflict, such as safety and the impact of wild lynx, with much of the information backed up by conservation and research findings associated with the reintroductions of lynx in Europe. Hetherington addresses the significant problem of man-made barriers such as roads and rails. There are also considerations regarding prey species that are unused to having natural predators (捕食者) in their midst and the impact on prey populations.

The book looks at the feasibility of lynx reintroduction in the UK. While the reintroduction of lynx to Scotland is shown to be ecologically feasible, how desirable is it? Hetherington addresses each of the issues in-turn, using the significant knowledgebase that now exists regarding lynx ecology and the findings of research into lynx and their reintroductions elsewhere.

For anyone with an interest in lynx re wilding, The Lynx and Us is the “go-to” book.

Peter Cairns, director of there wilding charity SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, the book’s publisher, says, “With a growing national discussion about the advantages of restoring missing native species, it’s important that we all have access to balanced, factual information on which to base our opinions. That’s what this book sets out to provide.”

【推荐3】Winter is on its way. Here in the New York area, we can expect a few perfect days of cold, clear air and snow that sparkles in the sun; but the season’s dominant notes will most likely be rain, overcast skies, bone-chilling winds, and more rain.

For all of us who have cherished our walks in the park and our socially-distanced conversations, the change in the weather feels like the final offense. The pandemic continues and now we won’t even be able to get outside.

I don’t have any new solutions for the pandemic, I’m afraid, but take it from someone who grew up in northern England: Terrible weather does not mean you don’t get to socialize outdoors.

If a little thing like rain stopped British people from enjoying a day at the seaside or a hike in the hills, I might never have known the joys of the Yorkshire barbecue. It was sometimes my appointed role to hold an umbrella over the grill while my father tended to the sausages and burgers because a barbecue had been planned, and so a barbecue was going to take place.

The big secret about bad weather is that, certain dangerous storm conditions aside, it’s really bad only if you decide it’s bad. You may know the experience of being caught unprepared in heavy rain, starting to hurry toward shelter, then finally surrendering to the reality that you’ll be getting a soaking. Much of the discomfort of rain or cold temperatures arises not from the sensations themselves, but from a kind of internal struggle to avoid feeling them. The key to British enjoyment lies in not expecting your time outdoors to be especially warm or dry in the first place.

A friend of mine has treasured memories of her parents setting out a wonderful picnic spread just as the heavens opened, but deciding to let the kids go ahead and eat anyway, in a chaos of wet sandwiches and hysterical laughter. Whatever else this winter has in store, we might use it to create some similarly joyful and affection-filled memories, remembering always the words by the British writer Alfred Wainwright: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing. ”