Table Rock Lake has been delighting visitors & residents alike since it was formed by the damming of the White River in 1958. While visitors can find dozens of places to stay and play along the banks of Table Rock Lake, the area's commercial developments have placed a high priority on the scenic beauty of the natural shoreline, bluffs, forests and wildlife that inhabit the shoreline.

Table Rock Lake is nationally recognized as a top bass fishing lake. Large numbers of largemouth, smallmouth, Kentucky spotted bass and white bass thrive in its diverse underwater structure.

• Approx. 43,000 - 52,000 acres of surface area depending on water level
• 750 plus miles of shoreline
• Table Rock dam was completed in 1959
• The dam is 6,423 ft. long and 252 ft. high
• One of the cleanest lakes in America

By May of 2009, Branson will have a new regional airport. The new airport will be a "big shot in the arm" for Branson's local economy. The airport is the first privately funded airport to be built in the United States in the last 30 years. You can imagine with 8 million visitors a year driving to Branson what impact an off-ramp from the highway in the sky might have for the vacation town!

Once this wilderness area was noted for its walking and climbing opportunities. Occasionally cyclists and horse riders would be spotted. Now Cumbia has launched its Year of Adventure: an adrenaline fuelled calendar of outdoor events, new activities and exciting challenges.

There are still the walking, climbing and cycling facilities, but modern day adventures can splash out and take part in the Great North Swim, a mile long course of open water swimming on Lack Windermere.

Sailing on these picturesque lakes set in mountainous scenery is becoming very popular. Some people prefer to be part of the crew on a large yacht whiles others crave the excitement and solitude of singly handily sailing their own small vessel.

The Coniston Water Festival is a fun weekend, which covers every aspect of water enjoyment from stone skimming to sailing.

There are visitors who want to see the peaks, cliffs and ridges from above and paragliding has become increasingly widespread in recent times. The British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association has a number of schools in the area, where aspirants can book a tandem flight or even sign up for a full training course.

Go Ape has two locations, at Grizedale and Whinlatter, where visitors can have a swinging time in the woods. There are ropes, aerial runways, nets, bridges and swings offering laughter and adventure at heights of up to 60 feet above the forest floor.

Honister Slate Mine has opened a new attraction, England's first via ferrata. Via ferrats were developed by the military to move troops and equipment around the Alps during the First World War. They use fixed metal cables, footholds, Ladders and bridges to enable people to cross vertiginous ground in safety.

The lake District has a number of hotels with excellent reputations, including some which have Michelin Stars. Most of the menus include locally produced food.

Visitors can enjoy thirst-quenching cups of tea with homemade sandwiches and cakes at many of the cafes that are in most Lakeland villages.

There plenty of organic with farm shops where travellers can purchase naturally produced foods

There are a number of food festivals such as the Lakes Chillifest at Levens Hall, near Kendal, the Carlisle Annual Fair and Apple Day at Penrith.

A beer festival is alway a good place to be on a hot day. There are the Hawkshead Brewery and Lakeland Beer Festivals, both at Kendal, the CAMRA Beer Festival at Ulverston and the Silloth Music and Beer Festival.

The Lakeland Poets first brought culture to the area during the early 19th Century. Now there are major live music festivals, street art and entertainment events, theatre productions, film festivals, comedy clubs and much more.

Among the events are Brampton Live, Maryport Blues Festival, Kendal Calling, Solfest and the Lake District Summer Music Festival.

Lakes Alive brings the hills and street of the area to life with international outdoor performances.

Drop is a special giant sculpture that can be seen from a large number of viewpoints

One must is the Sculpture Trail that takes the visitor through Grizedale Forest the is the Art on the River Eden Project.

Lakeland has a number of art galleries, many with local works on sale.

Visitors can see the Children's Roman Army at Birdoswald Fort or take the Steam and Roman Train Journey on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway.

Outdoor activity, food, drink and culture in a small area: the Lake District has something for everyone.

One of them is the rambling old Naini Tal Yacht club from where boats can still be hired for a cruise around the lake. More adventurous visitors hire a horse at the Mallital end of the Mall and do an interesting ride up to the 2,292 meters high Dorothy's Seat. The path which serves both horses and trekkers winds past scattered houses and up through forested hillsides till the oaks open out into a knoll crowned by a large rock with a kiosk atop it. This is Dorothy's Seat and it gives spectacular view of the snow peaks of the Himalayas and of Naini and the lake far below. The verdant slopes of the opposite hillsides are patched with the red roofs of St Joseph's College, the green roofs of Government House and the fairways of its golf course. A 5 minute walk away is the beautiful little grassy dell of Tiffin Top surrounded by chir,oak and deodar trees and wonderfully serene. Quite naturally its been a favorite picnic spot from the cucumber-sandwich days of the British Raj.It takes about 35 minutes to ride up and appreciably longer to trek. Either way its well worth the effort. One can drive up through deodar and pine woods to a favorite spot for an eagle's view of the lake. On the opposite of the hill are beautiful lush green deodar and oak covered mountains of Kilbury.

Located in Minneapolis, this place becomes quite haunted as soon as dark arrives. Where this club sites, once used to be the site of a Greyhound bus station. There have been many homeless people who have died there and some still linger to haunt the place. In the woman’s bathroom, a girl hung herself. When one enters stall five after dark, her ghost will appear. If that’s not all, there have been reports during concerts/performances at the club, equipment have been thrown off the stage.

#2 Saint Mary’s College: Heffron Hall

In Winona, MN, two priests had feuded over who would be the head of the church and one man killed the other in this hall. Here people will hear moaning in this hall from the deceased priest. People will also experience part of the hall being cold while the other is hot when the air or heat is on in the building. A girl once claimed that while she was brushing her teeth, blood came out of the faucet.

#3 Haunted Skating Rink

This skating rink, located in St. Cloud was built in the 1970s on a swamp. A number of locals begged for this skating rink not to be built for it held sentimental value. The builder ignored them and decided to build it. As the story goes, a young boy named Gilbert ventured too close to the swamp and he was found by his father laying face down in the water… It’s said that Gilbert is responsible for many haunting that take place in the skating rink.

# 4 Glensheen Mansion

Glensheen mansion is located in Duluth Minnesota. Legend says that an elderly woman and her nurse were brutally murdered by the woman’s crazy lover. They now haunt the house. Black, eerie shadowy figures walk about the basement, and lights turn off and on.

#5 Braemar Golf Course

Braemar golf course is located in Edina. An apparition named Jim is said to haunt this golf course. He was a black homeless guy who once had lived on this land before it was cleared for the course. It’s said that balls go into the holes and come back out and even when they roll in a straight line they suddenly veer off to the right or left.

#6 Tavern

The tavern is located in Brainerd. Back in the 1800’s two Indians were picking berries one day when some angry white townspeople found them and took them to the center of the town. The people accused them of raping and killing a girl outside the tavern. They were killed for this, but years later a white man had confessed about doing the bad deed. People have heard cries of the Indian people within the bar.

#7 Lake Alimagnet Trails

Found in Apple Valley, this is a place of clown figures that haunt the trails. It seems that he is not harmful, but stares at you as an intent to scare you away from the trails as the sun sets…

#8 University of Minnesota – Washington Avenue Bridge

Located in Minneapolis, this bridge connects the east and west bank of the campus. There have been a number of suicides off the bridge into the Mississippi River, most by students. Late at night while walking across this bridge you can hear footsteps following you. If you turn around, they will stop, but continue when you begin to move… there have also been several flags on the bridge that have been ripped down by an unseen force while under surveillance so they had to be removed.

#9 Chanhassen Dinner Theatre

Found in Chanhassen, this was built over a house that burned down with a woman still inside. She haunts the theatre. There is also another ghost of an actor who was killed bicycling home from work one night. Both are said to haunt the place and can be seen back stage.

#10 Spirit Mountain

Spirit Mountain can be found in Duluth. One day a person died on the ski hill and now they haunt it. There is music that plays over the speakers and it sounds like the shed hisses at you when you pass it. Also you can see someone standing in the shed.

Mirik a nest in the hills is one of the hill resorts at an altitude of 1967 meters with its own special charms -49 km from Darjeeling and 52 km from Siliguri.The beautiful lake is fed by perennial streams. Very often you may find the glory of Kanchenjunga reflected in the lake waters. Rich forests of thousands of Cryptomaria- Japanica trees clothe the slopes on the west. A 3.5 km zigzag foot walk takes you along the lake - a sleek foot bridge connects the garden on the east with the woods on the west. Alone or in company you are sure to enjoy a boat ride in the lake. There are eight tea gardens in the Mirik area. Cardomom groves can be seen anywhere near the marshy land. Trekking from Mirik to Sandakphu, Phalut has become very popular. Short trek from Mirik to Kuresong via Balasan River and Namsu could be covered within one day only.

How to Reach

Nearest airport is Bagdogra about 55 km from Mirik.The nearest railhead are Ghoom 41 km,Darjeeling 49 kms and Siliguri 52 kms.Mirik is connected by road with Darjeeling,Siliguri and Kurseong with many beautiful routes.

Brett, Sam, Ian, Awdal, all took it as their own personal responsibility to leave their mark on the environment. They all decided that their name was more important than anything "God" or "Mother Nature" had to offer.

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Good for them, after all it is not like I drove out of my way for 6 hours to see something spectacular. Sure I could have seen their names at home, but why bother, it is so much better to see their names on natural occurring surfaces like sandstone, even more so than seeing their names, tags, on buildings in the city, or train cars.

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Sandstone is a substance that takes forever to form, and gradually erodes with the help of wind and rain, and people carving their names, and possibly even dirty pictures, into its' soft surface. In the Alberta Badlands, near the city of Drumheller, there is a formation known as "The Hoodoos", these are really neat, natural features. Standing for hundreds of years, protected from erosion because of their "caps" the Hoodoos are being sacrificed to the Gods by people like Brett, Ian, and Sam.

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I guess they figured that when I want to take photographs of natural things, that I would want to include their names in my snap shot too. How wonderfully considerate of them. If I had known they were doing this I would have planned my trip at a different time of day, possibly to capture the light bouncing off their names from a different angle.
Are people so isolated and alone in a world of over 6 and a half million people, that they need to gain fame by carving their name into an ancient formation? Oh please let us hope Brett is not on a trip to Egypt to see the pyramids next. Let us pray Ian is not off to Machu Picchu, and forgive us if Sam is headed to Easter Island.

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But wait, let us not forget about other creative people like Awdal, who left his, or her, name on a rock in the Rocky Mountains. Along side of a bunch of other people, he, or she, defaced an entire lake by blotting out the foreground with their name on a rock. The taggers nearby are not much more important, only thing is, you cannot even read them. Defacing nature in this way clearly has one common outcome,it means every other person feels they have to do the same thing, or that they have the right to do the same thing. If people hate nature so much, why are they on vacation in a natural setting? Why didn't they just stay in the inner city?

Will Brett, Sam, Awdal, and Ian have fond memories of these natural spots and desire to bring their children to the same places? Will the places have anything natural left if they do? Is a name any more meaning full if it is carved into an ancient rock formation or painted on a boulder? Is a name any less important if it is written on paper? Is Brett going to know what an impact he made on our holiday?

In North Africa, there are 80 blocks of such pyramids scattered around the Egypt's Nile River, which have become one of the most miraculous places in the world. The highest pyramid called Cheops Pyramid and it was build by overlapping pile of boulders together. In the making of pyramids, Egyptians were not using any adhesive, glue or nails to attach the pile of boulders and one could even hardly find cracks or gaps among the rocks or stones from the overlapping plot. Nevertheless, the structure is extremely firm and strong that the sharp blades or swords could not even pass through. In addition, Egyptian Pyramids have experiencing 5,000 years of strong wind's erosions and yet these artifacts are remained not touch by the nature. They appeared to stand alone like warriors in the desert. These towering pyramids are such spectacular and superior buildings human had ever made on the Earth.

This is a mysterious place encountered in the Antarctic Island. People call it “a dry valley with no snow cover.” Antarctic is a place with fewer inhabitants and dwellers and thus some unexplainable phenomenon happenings in Antarctica remain mystery to the outsiders. Approximately 14 million square kilometers of the total area of the Antarctic continent have the snow cover. When viewing from the high sky, the central of the Antarctic is like a pot's lid plateau. Most of the areas vividly have their surfaces covered with snow with its thickness reaching 2000m and sometimes may attain the thickness up to 4,800m. In winter, the surrounding ice combines with the ice from the ocean to form up one smooth, large plateau to which people can hardly distinguish between the land and the sea.

Bermuda Triangle is located in Western North Atlantic, which comprises of seven major islands, 150 small islands, some islands composed of reefs group. Any high-tech devices or equipments will become malfunction when reaching this mysterious place and thus the survivors may have encountered problems to communicate with the outside world. Because of its extremely mysterious characteristic, people have called this place as a devil triangle.

In China, people have named this desert as “Moguicheng” or a city of devil. “Moguicheng” is famous in Xinjiang, China. When someone is strolling towards the castle in a sunny day accompanying with a gentle blowing breeze, one may heard a nice rhythm coming from the distance. The melodies are just like 10 million shaking bells, and sometimes one may feel the music like gentle flicking of 10 million guitars' strings. However, when cyclones come, bulks of sands are rising up in the sky by the strong winds, the sky turns pitch dark suddenly like a hell, and the nice music no longer heard but turns into strange sounds. The sounds resemble the roaring of the tigers, trumpeting of the elephants, and sounds by pigs that are being slaughtered, babies' crying, shouting of the women who are going to die, and alternately the sounds change to shouting, mourning and quarreling. The storms are then swirling aggressively by shooting up to the sky accompanying by terrified wolf growling sounds in the cloudy nightfall. People are wandering who had built this city and where do the sounds come from?

This island is legendary full of Surreptitious and specter. Westerners prefer sailing by venturing many historically strange events occurred here in the history of seafaring. In 1707, the British captain of the Andean Julius had discovered this land; however, it was strange that he could hardly reach this land. He later affirmed that this was not an optical illusion, so he marked the “land” on the map. 200 years later, the admiral Makaluofu and his inspection team who were sailing to the North Pole on their icebreaker vessel called "Ye Ermake," accidentally came across this piece of land. In 1925, Navigator called Woershi, too, passed through this land and he memorized the outline of the land. Nevertheless, the investigation team comprising of scientists, who sailed to this land in 1928 never found any islands as claimed by the previous navigators.

This place is located in Henan, China, and local people called it “bingbing bei” or the back of the ice. When midsummer approaches, people tend to move to places that are cool and refreshing. Although the change of four seasons, namely summer, autumn, spring and winter is an unchangeable law, in certain parts of the world, this theory seems not to be applicable. They are some fortunate people live in “warm” zone. This phenomenon is applying to people dwelling in the eastern mountain areas of Liaoning Province, China. They are experiencing warm temperature while other areas of China are experiencing the changes of seasons. Thus, this area has named after this phenomenon as "temperature anomaly zone." This "geothermal anomaly zone" extends from 1.5m out of the town of the left riverbank of Hunjiang to the end part of the right riverbank of Hun River and to the foothills near Guandian Province. The entire length for this "temperature anomaly zone" is approximately 15km, occupying the areas of approximately 106,000 square meters. The advent of summer is always accompanying with a decline of temperature in the area of "temperature anomaly zone." When the temperature reaches as high as 30 degree Celsius during the summer, the temperature is minus 12 degree Celsius at one-meter deep into the underground of this area, and the ice froze underground. When someone dips a drop of water one-meter deep into the underground of this area, the water will immediately turn into ice.

Shennongjia is located at the intersection of Sichuan, in Hubei zone, with the meeting of two rivers, namely China's Yangtze River and Hanjiang River. This region comprises an area of 3,250 square kilometers, accounting for more than 85 % of woodland. The average elevation is 1,700m, with the highest point of 3,105 meters, and with the characteristic of various types of climate. When speaking of Shennongjia, people here will think of “savage.” Since ancient times, large numbers of documentations have revealed the existence of savage roaming around this area. Legendary, people could even hardly identify the authenticity of the savage. The effort of collecting evidence on the existence of savage was initiating by the relevant departments from 1977 to 1980. They had collected savage hairs, footprints and feces left by the savage. This proved to us that a kind of bizarre animal might have existed in Shennongjia not long ago.

This is the famous ancient city of Teotihuacan in America, which called “death to the road.” This region stretched from a so-called main road of “death to the road” to the north-south roadway. In the tenth century AD, Ards heroes who were the earliest team walking along this way leading to a castle found nobody in the city, and thus they believed that the buildings on either side of the road were gods' tomb lands. In 1974, a Mexican person called Dayton • Halisi said that he had found a suitable unit measurement for all these streets and buildings at this city at the International American meeting. This unit length is 1.059m using a calculation from a computer. For example, the units for the Teaodiwakan snake temple, the moon and the Sun Pyramid is the height of 21, 42, and 63 "units" respectively with the ratio of 1:2:3 based upon the ancient calculation.

People not allowed entering this Kunlun Mountains as its name suggested as "The Gates of Hell." This valley is a death valley, which further claims the Kunlun Mountains "The Gates of Hell." The remains found in this valley were the furs, bones, skeletons of wolves, bears and hunters and some scattered lonely tombs, rendering the world in the death of a ghastly terrifying atmosphere. The Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources of a geological team in China had recorded a true story in the year of 1983 on a group of hungry horse that was grazing the grass and disappeared suddenly in the "The Gates of Hell." A herdsman went into the prohibited area of "The Gates of Hell" to search for his horse. After few days, he was found missing but the horse emerged at the foothill of Kunlun Mountains. Later, the herdsman was found lying on a small hill with his clothes badly torn off, barely footed, eyes widely opened with an angry look, a shotgun gripping in one of his hands showing that he was reluctantly to die. The miraculous thing was that no wounds or signs found around his body to show that he had attacked.

Canada Niagara Falls is the world's most mysterious places in the world. Niagara Falls constitutes a part of Canada and the border of United States, the New York State and Ontario, Canada, separating from the Niagara River by flowing northward from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario with a total length of nearly 30 miles. Located in the north, covering an area of 250,000 square miles, Niagara Falls is a smooth exit to these lakes. Its maximum water flow reaches 250,000 cubic feet per second. Niagara Falls is indeed very awesome.

This Geysering is a magical spring found in the upper part of the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet, China. The spring bursts out in a short while and stops for a while before following by other bursts. The burst goes on, stops and goes on. In other words, its eruption cycle is continuous for a few minutes, auto stop after a few dozen minutes; and followed by another burst and so forth. It bursts like an eruption with a huge, shocked sound. It vents out some high temperature steam from the mouth of the spring. The spring then expands immediately into one to two meters in diameter, and rushes out as water column as high as 20m into the sky. In addition to China's Geysering, in the place near Reykjavik, capital of Iceland, the Geysering is renowned in the world with its diameter of 20m. When there is drizzling rain, this water column can even soar up as high as 70m into the sky.

In the morning we had breakfast at my aunt and uncles, and then got back on the road to head on our way through Vernon, we stopped in Revelstoke to change and have a quick stop, then we drove through Golden and into Banff National Park. Finally we drove across into Alberta, Canada, Lake Louise is just 15 to 20 minutes away once you’ve crossed over into Alberta. The entire drive was beautiful, as driving through the Rocky Mountains always is; trees and mountains everywhere as far as the eye can see, it is absolutely breath taking.

Once we arrived in Lake Louise we made a couple quick stops (seeing as the legal age drops a year to 18 as you cross into Alberta) and off we went to find our campsite. Be careful to check both sides of the highway for the campground before moving on to search for other places you think it might be, because the map that I had looked as if it were on the opposite side of the highway. If you have stopped in the small mall as you enter Lake Louise, all you need to do is head away from highway 1 to the next intersection and turn left and follow that road straight to the ranger booth at the end.

Now, you can make your reservation online, and for the 3 nights that we stayed at the campsite it cost us about $80, but since it is a national park when you show up you will need to pay a Park Stopping Fee, the amount of this fee will vary depending on how long you will be staying, but mine was another $80, so if you are thinking of going just assume that the Park Stopping Fee will be just another payment of whatever you paid for the campsite.

There are a lot of wild animals in this area since you are surrounded by a national park and therefore you will need to be careful with discarding remainders of meals and cooking water, but you can sleep soundly at this campsite not worrying about bears or any other animals, because the campground is surrounded by an electrified fence to keep the large animals out of the campsite.

When you are staying at the campsite I recommend taking a couple quick trips to see the glacial lakes in the area. The closest lakes to you are Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, which are just up the road a few kilometres. These are the most amazing lakes I have ever seen, the pristine mountains and trees surrounding these beautiful lakes are just amazing, it’s something you need to see for yourself, because pictures just won’t do it justice (but if you’d like to see a good picture of Lake Louis then check out my picture “Glorious Day”).

If camping is not the outing for you though, there is a Fairmount Hotel right on the bank of Lake Louise that is extremely pretty, and I would assume very extravagant, but I wouldn’t know for sure since I’m the camping type.

We traveled into Banff on our first day there to take a look around at hotels and little shops. Banff has a very similar look and feel to it as Whistler Village, if you’ve been to Whistler that is. The second day we went on an outing to Lake Louise, and on the third we took a trip out to Moraine Lake. All of which had their own distinct adventure, and were all quite fun outings. I would recommend this trip to anyone who likes the outdoors, or if your not the outdoorsy type then reserve a room at the Fairmount and have the view of a lifetime just out your window as you wake up each morning.

It truly was an amazing trip in all aspects, both me and my girlfriend loved it, I’m sure you would too. Safe travels.

I went on September, when the weather was perfect. All week long it was warm and sunny.

I found the perfect hotel at a town called "Gravedona". The hotel is locate on the lake shore and has a private beach.

When I arrived there, I was amazed by the amazing scenery of the lake. I have seen some lake in my life, but this lake is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Gravedona is a lovely town, located on the north part of the lake.

From there I took short trips to St. Mortiz in Switzerland, and to some lovely and sweet towns around the lake: Bellagio, Menaggio, Tremezzo and some more.

Each town has something unique to enjoy : villas, beautiful streets, some old buildings, statues, fairs and of course the lake view.

Each town had a different design of its lake walkway.

To sum up: it is always a pleasure visiting Italy, and it was a great pleasure visiting lake Como area, and staying at Gravedona.

And of course: the Italian ice cream was a huge part of it!

Paya lndah Wetlands was officially launched by Prime Minister Dato' Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on 13 October 2001. It encompasses a myriad of ecosystems, namely degraded ex-tin mining land and peat swamp forest. With fourteen lakes, Paya Indah Wetland has splendid and remarkable natural resources.

Paya Indah Wetlands offers exciting attractions, thrilling activities and lots of adventures for people of all ages. There is also nature camps designed primarily for school children that mostly held during school holidays in Malaysia.

We can see hippopotamuses soaking in mud pools, the world's largest and fiercest crocodiles lazing under the sun and also many types of water birds in Paya Indah Wetlands. The four hippopotamuses at this wetland were a gift from the government of Botswana.

Paya Indah Wetlands has approximately 213 species of birds. Some of the birds are migratory birds that make their journey to the south between November and December. Water birds like pelicans, black and white swans and painted storks come from different parts of the world. Another breathtaking sight is the lotus-covered lake. At the Paya Indah Wetlands, the Pink Angel has dark pink flower, blooms several times throughout the year.

There are also about 400 species of the world's best palm Arboretum planted around the wetlands, which provides visitors an educational and recreational visit in picturesque surroundings. One can also see an Araipaima, a two-meter long fish from the Amazon which can grow up to four meter in length, as well as ducks from Moscow at the Aquaculture Jetty. Currently, Paya Indah Wetlands has about 19 species of fish.

It is worth visiting Paya Indah Wetlands for its fascinating geography and superb natural setting.

Remark:  When the wetland was launched, there were 4 hippos and now the number of hippo is less than four. Paya Indah Wetlands is now opened for you to visit. Have a nice trip there! Cheers!