Perfect (villa for surfers or honeymooners!)

Very simple but well designed villa with a view to die for – perfect for visitors who enjoy privacy and relaxed outdoor living well away from other tourists.
The “Uluwatu Surf Villas” are only minutes away from the famous Uluwatu temple, the TIDES restaurant, and many legendary surf spots (only recommended for experts). Bali’s best “secret” beaches are nearby, but it takes only 25 minutes to Jimbaran or Nusa Dua, 40 minutes to the airport, and 50 to 60 minutes to Kuta and Sanur (you have your own car with driver during your whole stay).

Location
The location on the “Bukit” (hill) on the Southern peninsula usually guarantees also sunny days even when it’s raining in most parts of Bali.

The Villa
The villa features a traditional thatched roof, coconut pillars, and large folding glass doors to take full advantage of the spectacular view. There are one master bedroom and two guest bedrooms each with en suite bathrooms, a spacious living and dining room with a modern open-plan kitchen, a small 16 ft./4.80 meter long swimming pool, and an open “Bale” (thatched pavilion) with comfortable planter’s chairs next to the pool. Bedrooms and living areas are simple but comfortably furnished and decorated.
The open-plan living/dining room is furnished with a dining table for 6 to 8 guests and built-in sofas with cushions. Ceiling fans and large folding doors opening to the terrace and pool guarantee permanent ventilation. Outdoors on the covered terrace and in the Bale are four deck chairs, four comfortable planter’s chairs, and a garden table with six chairs for romantic meals under the stars.

Bedrooms
The master bedroom has a king-size bed, one of the smaller guest bedroom has a double bed, the other twin beds. The master bedroom and the guest bedrooms have air-conditioning, ceiling fans and large folding doors opening up to the terrace and swimming pool and enjoy a great view over the sea. Each bedroom has its own open-air bathroom with sink and shower.
Kitchen and Services
The modern kitchen is fully equipped with dishwasher, stove, oven, micro wave, blender, refrigerator, crockery, cutlery, etc. The well-trained house staff lives on-site and nearby and includes a maid and house boy to clean and handle your laundry, gardener, security guards, and a cook to prepare delicious Indonesian and Western meals. There are also two mountain bikes for guests to explore the neighborhood.
Your personal Butler will take care of all your arrangements from planning meals, serving your afternoon tea, and arranging parties in your villa to visiting attractions, going shopping or organizing other activities and is available around the clock.

A free massage is part of the service, and additional in-house Spa and beauty treatments are available at nominal cost (see details below). Your air-conditioned car with a reliable driver is included in the rate and at your service whenever needed.
Facilities:
* Small private swimming pool
* Satellite TV with many international news,
sports and movie channels
* Stereo system, CD player and DVD player
* IDD telephone and fax machine
* Dial-up Internet access
* Personal electronic safe
* Two mountain bikes
* Free in-house laundry
* Personal Butler to take care of ALL your
requirements.
* Full-time cook, maid, houseboy
* Massage and spa/beauty treatments
* Free air-conditioned car with driver

Atomium (The Belgian national icon)

Built in 1958 for the the Brussels World’s Fair (Expo ’58), it is103 metre(335-foot) tall monument represents a cell of an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times, with vertical body diagonal, with tubes along the 12 edges of the cube and from all 8 vertices to the centre. The Atomium is the visiualization of microscopic molecular structures on a great enlarged scale,which is located next to Heysel metro station in Brussels.

Nine spheres ,made of steel,18 metres in diameter connect via tubes with escalators as long as 35 m. A panoramic view of Brussels is seen from the top sphere. Other spheres have exhibitions. Three upper spheres are closed to the public for safety reasons.
Designed to be the star attraction of the ephemeral World Exhibition of 1958, this 103 metre high building has continued to shine for four decades, although its brilliance gradually faded with the effects of age and corrosion. But the quality and the precision of the work saved it from demolition, an ambitious renovation project has become rality. The aim was to completely renew the casing of the spheres and to replace the aluminium skin with insulating sandwich panels in mirror polished stainless steel on the outside and galvanised steel on the inside. The facelift also entailed the restoration of the structure, the replacement of all the windows, the lighting and the electricity systems.

After more than a year of renovation work the Atomium has a new face and give visitors a brand new aesthetic experience by taking them on a very special journey through its spheres.Today, the inside of the building glows with an unparalleled sparkle. The one-directional visit through each of the six spheres open to visitors makes the most of the possibilities offered by modern animation techniques. To echo this rejuvenation, the setting of the entire site is currently being developed with in particular the construction of an entrance pavilion at the heart of a pedestrian area. A fascinating and triumphant architectural prowess of the 50s that has once again opened its doors to the general public, the challenge of the Atomium is to retain its vitality. The vitality that endears it to the public.

Zheravna (attractive tourist destination in Bulgaria)

The village has 330 houses and 550 inhabitant. It is an architectural and ethnographic reserve of over 150 houses, a workshop for church candles, a small school, a convent, a church, 8 drinking-fountains, inns and shops, preserved from the time of the National Revival period. Some of them are over 300 years. Every of them is unique monument to the culture,created from unknown master. The village originated between the 12th-14th century. In the 17th-18th century it gained in wealth mostly due to the development of handcrafts, stock-breeding and trade. At that time the typical Zheravna wooden house took shape. Houses, churches, schools and other buildings have been preserved and turned into museums. Zheravna is the birthplace of Yordan Yovkov, an outstanding Bulgarian writer, whose house is now a museum.

Zheravna is situated in the eastern part of the country, in the middle of the Bulgarian Balkan mountains. It is located 55km from Sliven, near to town Kotel. The distance between Zheravna and the Black sea is only 110 km. Zheravna is the best place to spend your vacation. Opyimum geographic position and mountainous relief to Zheravna give an opportunity to relaxation and tourism. Excursions, picnics, fishing, photo-tourism and ecological walks. That is only part of attractions to Zheravna.

Into the bosom of Zheravna-between the cobblestone alleys, behind the tall fence walls, to uncover the flowered gardens, the intricate woodcarvings and traditional furnishing of the Bulgarian Renaissance home.

The Harimandir (a living symbol of spiritual )

The Harimandir, now called the Golden Temple is a living symbol of spiritual and historical traditions of the Sikhs. The Golden Temple is witness to the high skill of the traditional craftsmen. Its location in the center of the pool would symbolize the synthesis of nirgun and sargun: the spiritual and temporal realms of human existence. Its architecture represents a unique harmony between the Muslims and the Hindus way of construction work and this is considered the best architectural specimens of the world.

It is often quoted that this architecture has created an independent Sikh school of architecture in the history of art in India. The body of water is framed on all four sides by a backdrop of bright-white buildings. The bridge is connected with the 13 feet wide “Pardakshna“. It runs round the main shrine and it leads to the “Har ki Paure” (steps of God). On the first floor of “Har ki Paure“, there is continuous reading of Guru Granth Sahib.

The door frame of the arch is about 10ft in height and 8ft 6inches in breath. The door panes are decorated with artistic style. It opens on to the causeway or bridge that leads to the main building of Sri Harmandir Sahib. It is 202 feet in length and 21 feet in width. At the top of the first floor 4 feet high parapet rises on all the sides which has also four “Mamtees” on the four corners and exactly on the top of the central hall of the main sanctuary rises the third story. It is a small square room and have three gates . A visit to the Golden Temple is incomplete without a visit to the following among others – Akal Takhat, Baba Atall, Guru Ka Langar, Sri Guru Ram das Niwas and The Sgpc officcers.

The Golden Temple, and the city of Amritsar itself, are best visited in the winter. The months between November and March are pleasant (even cold), although the summer can get blisteringly hot. About Golden Temple offers you holiday packages, leisure tour packages, business tour packages and pilgrimage tour packages at best available prices. Travel to Amritsar with about Golden Temple and have a memorable experience of staying in best hotels in Amritsar along with a visit to nearby religious places including Golden Temple. You must visit historical landmarks like Jallianwala Bagh and Ram Bagh.

The construction of Golden Temple at a lower level was a break away from the Hindu tradition of constructing a temple at a higher level. It was done to make the visitors go down the steps in order to pay homage to the holy shrine. 

Lake Toba (a Heaven on Earth Beauty)

Lake Toba is a large lake, 100 km long and 30 km wide, in the middle of the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, Indonesia. When you see it you will probably be amazed of its natural beauty and lovely landscapes, but do not forget how it was formed in the past. The enormous inland lake has a history spoken of in local myths, but the true story of Toba and how this enormous inland lake evolved, lies in knowing the story of its Toba volcano.

In 1949 the Dutch geologist Rein van Bemmelen reported that Lake Toba was surrounded by a layer of ignimbrite rocks, and that it was a large volcanic caldera. Later researchers found rhyolite ash similar to that in the ignimbrite around Toba (now called Young Toba Tuff to distinguish it from layers deposited in previous explosions) in Malaysia and India, 3000 km away. Oceanographers discovered Toba ash, with its characteristic chemical “fingerprint”, on the floor of the eastern Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal.

 The Toba eruption occurred at what is now Lake Toba about 75 000 years ago. It had an estimated Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8 (which is known as mega-colossal), making it possibly the largest volcanic eruption within the last two million years. According to the researches made by Bill Rose and Craig Chesner of Michigan Technological University the total amount of erupted material was about 2800 cubic km (670 cubic miles) — around 2000 cubic kilometres of ignimbrite that flowed over the ground and around 800 cubic kilometres that fell as ash, with the wind blowing most of it to the west. By contrast, the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in United States ejected around 1 cubic km of material, whilst the largest volcanic eruption in historic times, at Mount Tambora in 1815, emitted the equivalent of around 100 cubic kilometres of dense rock and created the “Year Without a Summer” as far away as North America.

To give an idea of its magnitude, consider that although the eruption took place in Indonesia, it deposited an ash layer approximately 15 cm (6 in) thick over the entire Indian subcontinent; at one site in central India, the Toba ash layer today is up to 6 m (20 feet) thick and parts of Malaysia were covered with 9 m of ashfall. In addition it has been calculated that an amount of 1010 metric tons of sulphuric acid was ejected into the atmosphere by the event, causing acid rain fallout.
The subsequent collapse formed a caldera that, after filling with water, created Lake Toba. The island in the southern part of the lake is formed by a resurgent volcanic dome.

The Lake Toba is definetely a place to visit if you are in Indonesia. The main nearest to the lake town is Parapat, which is about 4 hours by car from Medan (4-6 hours by public bus). Local transportation around the lake takes the form of boats (cheaper, school boats with limited schedules and more expensive public boats that operate throughout the day). You can also hire a motorcycle for a day or two and get out and about (Rp.50,0000 per day inclusive of 4 litres of petrol). There are no police checking licences and there is not much traffic – just watch out for the big trucks, buses and diabolical bridges. A good journey to take on a motorcycle would be to travel North from Tuk Tuk around to the western shore, stopping at the tourist sites along the way such as the many and varied traditional houses. Motorcycles are almost always semi-automatic meaning there is no need to use a clutch to change the foot-operated gears.

Tabo Cottages is the most luxurious accommodation on the island. Prices start at around Rp.120,000 per night and climb up from there. The rooms are very clean and quite modern by Sumateran standards. Internet is available from the family’s computer for a nominal rate and the western-styled food served in the restaurant is very good.

You can eat at Jenny’s Restaurant on Samosir Island, Tuk Tuk. There is only one or two roads in Tuk Tuk, so simply ask for Jenny’s. Jenny and her husband Rinto run the very simple but cozy restaurant with view on the wonderful lake Toba. You will notice that every day the table cloth are being changed, a usually rare to find nicety and convenience. The curry is delicious. A must-try is the fresh lake-fish, steamed or grilled. Even western food like Schnitzel (breaded pork or chicken chop pan fried) is very good. For dessert try the fresh papaya that grows in the back-yard or a golden-brown banana pancake with chocolate sauce and a sprinkle of coconut. Once all the guests in the small place with only about 5 tables are fed and happy, Rinto will take the guitar from the wall and entertain his patrons. When he is singing old Batak songs about earlier times and you listen to the guitar tunes and his melancholic voice, your eyes wander over the lake and you feel like never leaving Samosir again.
A journey to Lake Toba will be definetely a great travel exprerience for you!

the Whitsundays (the beauty in peace )

Located amidst the turquoise waters of the Whitsundays lies Peppers Palm Bay, an intimate and secluded tropical retreat. With only 21 waterfront bures, cabins and bungalows, here you can enjoy the beauty of the Whitsundays in peace. From the hammock of your private balcony, look out across the water at uninterrupted views of other Whitsunday Isles. Pack a gourmet picnic lunch and speed off in your own boat to discover the secluded beaches of Long Island’s National Park. Grab a snorkel and explore the underwater world of the reef. If you want to experience the charms of the Whitsundays without the crowds, then Peppers Palm Bay is for you. accommodation

Nestled amongst swaying palms fringing a private beach and lapped by the turquoise waters of the Whitsundays, lies Peppers Palm Bay, a private, intimate and secluded hideaway. Guest accommodation is housed in 21 freestanding, elegantly appointed bungalows, bures and cabins, all leading directly onto the sandy beach. From the hammock on your private balcony, you’ll have uninterrupted views across the water to other distant Whitsunday isles. Peppers Palm Bay’s difference is distinguished by the things it lacks; there are no televisions or telephones in any of the guestrooms. Cabin: standard rooms with private balcony and an ensuite bathroom. Queen bed. Room capacity 2.

Bures: deluxe rooms with private balcony, lounge and a ensuite bathroom. Queen bed. Room capacity 2. Bungalows: The Bungalows are suites. Each bungalow contains a queen bed, a day bed, a large bathroom and separate living area.

Room facilities include: private balconies with their own hammock,pitched roof with ceiling fans bathrooms,mini bar,ironing facilities,hairdryers,air conditioning,coffee and tea making facilities
Dining

The ever-changing menu offers contemporary Australian dishes and features the freshest ingredients and some of the best cuisine you’ll find in the Whitsundays.
Dinner is served on the terrace of the signature restaurant ‘La Riviera’ or you can arrange an intimate candlelit dinner on your private balcony.
Breakfast: Continental style breakfast served in La Rivera or on guests’ private balcony
Lunch: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Afternoon Tea: 2.00pm – 5.00pm (served poolside)
Dinner: 6:30pm – 9:30pm
facilities

Swimming pool,heated spa,use of canoes and paddle skis floodlit,tennis court,entertainment room with theatre style,seating and surround sound endota,day spa

Activities
There is no better place to relax and unwind than sitting in the beach hut watching yet another magical sunset or in the Pandanus bar for pre-dinner drinks or a nightcap. Laze by the stunning swimming pool or in the heated spa, sipping on a refreshing cocktail, listening to the tropical breeze play with the waterfall. The lure of indulging in the fine art of doing nothing at all is difficult to resist, but if the mood is slightly more adventurous you have many options.
explore Long Island,golf at Laguna Whitsundays,scenic flight,great barrier reef tour,visit neighbouring islands
getting there
Fly into Hamilton Island Airport and transfer by helicopter or boat launch to Shute Harbour, then by direct ferry to Peppers Palm Bay on Long Island.
Alternatively you can fly into Proserpine Airport on the Mainland and transfer by helicopter or seaplane direct to Palm Bay or by bus, taxi, or private car limousine to Shute Harbour and then direct by ferry to Peppers Palm Bay.
additional information

Rates: are per room per night, in Australian Dollars and include GST
Rates include: continental breakfast daily and use of non motorised watercraft
Children: Peppers Palm Bay does not actively encourage children. All children are charged at the applicable full adult rate
Serviced: daily
Check in: 2.00pm. Check out: 10.00am.
Reception hours: 7.00am – 6.00pm
Address: Long Island, Whitsundays, Queensland Islands, Great Barrier Reef

The Bamiyan Buddhas (the most impressive Buddhist monuments in western Asia)

The Bamiyan Buddhas were among the most impressive Buddhist monuments in western Asia before their demolition in March 2001. No one knows exactly when they were constructed, but it was likely that they were erected sometime in the 4th or 5th century AD. For many centuries they stood sentinel to groups of wandering monks and merchants along the famous “silk road” from Rome to China. Alongside the Buddhas, monasteries once existed here as places of sanctuary, but were abandoned in the 9th century as Islam displaced Buddhism in Afghanistan.

The two Buddha figures were commonly classified as the larger and smaller one (53 and 38 meters, respectively). They were once covered with a mixture of mud and straw that had worn away long ago. The straw was covered with plaster and painted to model the rich expressions of the face, hands, and robes. Long before their destruction this year, both the plaster covering and the surrounding cave paintings were rubbed away.

The Buddhas were destroyed following the Taliban’s assertion that the statues were idolatrous. With the swift collapse of the Tabliban in November, 2001, a team of Swiss preservationists has announced plans to restore the statues using precise three-dimensional data collected in the 1970s. However, the United Nations recommended in early 2002 that the monuments not be restored as a reminder of the Taliban’s destructive legacy.