A Tour of the World

I'm going to start taking you on a little tour of the world, methinks. 

Why? Because the world is awesome, and you should get to explore it, if even just from the paragraphs of this fine website. 

I shall make it a mixed bag of goodies for you - some facts, some figures, some history, some culture, some anecdotes and stories, adventures and misadventures from the places I've been to personally and can report back on firsthand, some useful or compelling or interesting information I find from places that are on my radar and Bucket Map and just want to share, and some stories that are relayed to me by my worldly friends who are out and about themselves, exploring and reporting in real time as well.

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My Tropical Superyacht

In addition to finding my new zombie-proof house, I've also found my new boat. 

Forget going on cruise ships to tropical islands, I'm taking my tropical island on a cruise. The “Tropical Island Paradise” is a superyacht, regrettably only in concept form so far, that features a huge swimming pool with thatch-roof cabanas around it, palm trees, and, of course, a volcano. The pool is fed by a waterfall cascading down from the top of the volcano.

Duh? Winning!

From the rear, my island superyacht can poop out more little “beach islands” that I can play or relax on right at sea level. Presumably these islands will come with palm trees, hammocks and pina colada service.

Oh, and there's also a helipad. Because why walk aboard when you can touch down? Looking at the picture, I'm not entirely sure where said helipad goes, unless it dips down into the volcano for landing which would be awesome. I'm sure my helicopter pilot has always wondered what it's like to land inside a volcano. On a yacht.

Actually, maybe he hasn't.

Anyway, now if we can just convince them to get it out of computer generated mode and into my harbor...

Sadly there are currently no hard plans to put this baby out to sail the high seas, although according to some news reports, the designers are “in talks” with some companies.

Here's to hoping the next postcard I send will be from my own private floating yacht beach!

The Gaudy Gaudi in Barcelona

Barcelona is a city known for its great weather, beaches, seafood tapas and nightlife, but it’s also a town very much defined by the designs of one man born in the mid-1800s; Antoni Gaudi.

Having been brought-up on the other side of the world and never majoring in European Architecture, I confess I hadn’t really heard about Gaudi and his exploits in Spain until I got there. When I did arrive, it really hit me as to how much history I had been completely blind to.

Gaudi’s work stands out because it’s just plain weird. The word “different” does not do his works any justice at all. Casa Batló is one such in-your-face Gaudi building that people are very happy to wait an hour in line for to peer inside its mysterious exterior.

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End of Days? No, just monsoon season.

The apocalypse came to Arizona today, in the form of a massive wall of water that already swallowed California and (finally) broke it off the rest of the contiguous 48 states.

That's what it looked like, anyway.

A number of the desert rats that inhabit Phoenix could be heard running around and screaming something about “The Nothing is coming, the Nothing is coming!! Falcore...!! Faaaalcooore!!!” and a sudden influx of advertisements for post-rapture petcare services started popping up again for $1700 deposits – non-refundable, of course.

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Shillong, the hidden gem of Northeast India

No worries, it makes senese that no other names than Mumbai (or Bombay) and New Delhi hit your head as you think of an Indian summer. Tags of this ancient Asian country may include Bollywood, Slumdog Millionaire and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, but it's time to add Northeast India to its portfolio, more particularly Shillong, the education centre of Northeast India.

Flip through a Lonely Planet and you can just find a short paragraph about Shillong, and this hilly city is just famed among local Indians. But a trip there will definitely leave you in awe, for it is so not Indian and so not Bollywood.

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