My Tokyo connection November 8, 2007
Posted by Shel in Personal, Travel.1 comment so far
As much as I love to travel and like to cover new ground on each trip, the one place that I am quite keen on going is Japan, especially since my mom-in-law visited a couple of years back and described the energy of its cities. I would especially love to visit Tokyo during the famed Cherry blossom tea party season, which I read about in a novel some time back. I asked for a Kimono from Japan from their visit, which turned out to be a rather hard item to find, since no one really wears them anymore, except for the heavy ancestral ones that are for special occasions.
She did manage to find me a lovely kimono in a pale beige with a cherry tree on it, which I found just too beautiful that I could not wear it and decided to display on my wall. It looked simply fabulous on the wall, more a work of art than anything else, but after close to 8 months there I took it down and now wear it myself. I’ve always been particularly fond of Kimono’s as I had one when I was growing up as well, as a gift from an aunt. I do hope though, that the Japanese people do not relegate the Kimono only for ceremonial purposes but keep it alive as a living and wearable piece of art as well as clothing.
Checking out Dubai May 3, 2007
Posted by Shel in Personal, Retail, Travel.2 comments
In Dubai these days, so that’s why there have been almost no posts for the past week or so. This is my first trip to the city and I have really enjoyed the experience of this amazingly energetic city. I especially have enjoyed checking out the retail scene here, since Dubai has one of the most vibrant and eclectic retail formats available, which are a great combination of American and European brands, formats and procedures.
Carrefour is one of the best grocery stores I have seen, way better in terms of quality than Wal-Mart, which focuses only on price. Carrefour, on the other hand, has something for everyone, with lots of low priced items, but a huge variety of some of the top brands and products from Europe, especially in the foods section. That’s one of the best things about this area, it is a real mix of nationalities from all across the world and some stores have captured that very well in their product mix.
Vacationing in Tenerife May 2, 2007
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Beach vacations are simply the best way to unwind and forget about the real world, I feel. We try to take a beach vacation once at least each year and now since we’re going to be travelling back and forth the Dubai, we’re thinking it’s high time to start exploring some of the beach resorts in Europe, which is quite accessible from here. There are tons of cheap hotels in Tenerife to chose from, some which are located right on the beach itself, so one can really take full advantage of going on a beach vacation.
The Mediterranean and Eastern Europe have always fascinated me and I can’t wait to start traveling there. My hubby has travelled extensively across Europe from the time he studied in Switzerland and simply loves everything about it. While everywhere else in the world he prefers colder climates, in Europe he is fine with the heat, the rain and everything else.
Watch a video of the hotel before you decide to stay April 28, 2007
Posted by Shel in Travel, Trends.add a comment
Here’s a good way to really ensure that you have a hotel room that you like thanks to Trivop that is said to be the first online hotel video portal, the hotel gives a video walk-through, with videos starting at the street outside the hotel, into the lobby, public spaces and then the rooms. Springwise reports that there are video’s for each type of hotel room. The French Trivop allows users to upload their own videos of the hotel and has 154 hotels in Paris and 11 hotels in London listed on it’s site.
Trivop’s main challenge is to build content and traffic quickly, since TripAdvisor (which has 20 million unique visitors each month and is owned by Expedia), started letting users upload videos last month.
Live the good life in Bozeman, Montana April 24, 2007
Posted by Shel in Real Estate, Travel, Trends.add a comment
While the majority of people don’t think of most of the Midwest as traditionally picturesque or beautiful, I fell in love with the grandness of the sky of the Midwest. The big sky is quite common in most of the Midwestern states, and it’s an awe-inspiring feeling, to be dwarfed by the immensity of the world. The problem is that unless you’ve been there, you’ll never know how amazing the experience is and tourism and real estate are at the front of this new push towards the Midwestern states. Ever since movies such as A river runs through it and The Horse Whisperer have been made, bozeman montana real estate where the movies were shot have really picked up.
Other than tourism, the high quality of life is also attracting lots of people to smaller towns like Bozeman, Montana, people who want to try to lead simpler lives. It’s is really tempting actually, because you can be connected to the whole wide world via the Internet and telephone, while still being able to live in a beautiful open environment, short commutes if any and overall save money by not paying exorbitantly high rents and utility charges.
Adventure or extreme sports? April 18, 2007
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As much as I love the outdoors and adventure sports, I’m really not that keen on anything extreme. In college a lot of us kids used to go down to the dried up creek where one really enterprising chap had set up a ATV rental shop. Unfortunately, the way some of the people drove them, they were sure going to need some kawasaki atv parts pretty soon. It sure was a thrill to drive an ATV, although I never really did any stunts with them.
One of the scariest things I did was on a trek, where we got delayed and ended up walking the last bit in the dark. So we are at a height of about 11,000 ft, in October in a raging wind, on a thin strip of a path, no wider than a foot and a half with a sheer drop of over a thousand feet on one side and sheer rock on the other. And all this in the dark, carrying our backpacks with one measly torch. It was pure craziness! The upside was that because it was pitch dark, we couldn’t distinguish between the twinkling lights in the distance from being on the ground or in the sky. That was the most amazing part and I wouldn’t mind doing the 10 hour trek just for that view again.
Goa reminiscing April 17, 2007
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It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a month since we’ve been back from Goa. There is something about Goa that is absolutely mesmerising. I’m not sure if it’s only the beaches that make me want to go back, again and again. I think it’s more to do with the mindset of “being in Goa”, of being completely at ease, of forgetting the nitty-gritty daily routines of paying bills and making money. I definitely has to do with being able to wear your flip flops all the time!
Each time I’ve gone to Goa, I have explored a new area and this last trip was by far the best part of Goa. We stayed at Varca at the Club Mahindra, which is right on the beach, and this beach is clean, has fine white sand and very few tourists. I think the further south you go in Goa, the more peaceful it gets. Beaches like Baga, Anjuna, Sinquerim, Candolim and Calangute are great if you are college student, but for anyone else, it’s either south of Colva or north of Vagator.
Being a global citizen April 17, 2007
Posted by Shel in Globalization, Travel.add a comment
I wonder if most people realize the importance and the responsibility of living in a global world. One always thinks of just the advantages of globalization but not of the contributions that we must make to it. Learning a language is one of the best ways to start being global, to think outside of one’s own culture and mindset. My hubby is very keen on my taking German Classes, since he studied in the German speaking area of Switzerland and is fluent in the language.
Learning a foreign language is a great way to open up the mind to new possibilities, to new thoughts, to be inspired by a new culture and to be a global citizen. We will be moving to Dubai next month and I hope to learn some Arabic there. Dubai is a truly global city and will be a great place to meet people from all over the world. What really impressed me is that real estate agents in Dubai, list the languages they speak in their advertisements, since they have customers from all over the world. The agency we are keen on using has agents that speak French, German, Afrikaans, Russian, Japanese, Hindi and Arabic. It’s a great example to the world of how to be truly international.
Planning a European vacation March 15, 2007
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I love planning for vacations, and the amount we have vacationed last year ensured that I got really good at it. While it is easy planning a vacation to places that one is familiar with like the US, where we have lived from several years, but planning a vacation to countries that we have not been to and where the main language is not English can be a bit intimidating. While I was searching for some good destinations in Europe, I came across Eurobookings.com, which seems to be one of the best places to plan a European vacations, since they have link ups with over 30,000 hotels in more than 1,000 locations.
What I really liked was the way the information was written about destinations in their hotel guide, in a way that made it much more interesting and personable, rather than just a dry listing of facts. It makes it so much more interesting to learn about a city in such a manner. If you look up hotels for Prague, for example, you’ll see some really great hotels that you are not likely to find elsewhere. While holidaying in Europe can be quite expensive, at Eurobookings it is possible to find all types of accommodation, including budget hotels, so it’s a great option for both holiday and business travellers.
Holiday plans December 20, 2006
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I’ve been back over a week and have barely got back into the groove of working and posting and now I’m off again for 10 days to a place where we will have no option of working on the Internet. No guilty sense for not catching up with work or a quick check of the mail, just old fashioned relaxation, that’s all. Oh, and did I mention, there’s no TV or cell phone signals either. I’ll be great to have such a vacation and we’re all looking forward to it.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
