Bonjour Burgundy!

Experience the holiday of a lifetime as you fly over the lush rolling landscape of Burgundy, France in a hot air balloon and land in a château for a taste of exquisite French food and fine Burgundy wine.

As you stand in the basket taking in the scenery of the lush rolling hills of the French countryside, the setting sun on the horizon lighting up the sky in a glowing sea of red and orange, your pilot expertly manoeuvres the hot air balloon to make the softest of landings.

Cap off the day with a lavish dinner at an enchanting medieval château where exquisite French cuisine and the finest French wines await.

This is holidaying in the finest of styles. Jetting off to London or New York or Paris to shop and take in the sights is fun and all, but anyone can do that these days. If you are the jet-setting type, the buzzword today is experiential holidays – for a lot of spare change, a specialty travel agent will customise a luxury holiday experience that you won’t soon forget.

Two Buddy Bombard balloons making a low pass over Château de la Rochepot in Burgundy, France. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Malaysia TraveL & Tour Information Malaysia Tour Guide, Kuala Lumpur, Destination,famous food, culture.....more Puppy & Doggy Portal we provide puppy & dog breed, care dog, dog training course, dog owner rules & regularation, dog news, dog member room....etc Stamp Collecting House able to get worldwide stamp, stamp story, stamp design, introduce stamp, history stamp, movie album stamp, new stamp, auction stamp....more -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For connoisseurs of fine food and fine wine, and romantics at heart, a week-long luxury ballooning holiday in the Burgundy region of France is just what the doctor ordered. It’s seven days of hot air ballooning over medieval castles, châteaus and world-famous vineyards, visiting architectural wonders and underground wine cellars, indulging in French cuisine and sipping French wine.

Your experience starts the moment you step off the plane at Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris. Your driver whisks you off to Hotel Plaza Athenee where you spend the night before embarking on your Burgundy adventure the next day.

In the meantime, there’s plenty to do – especially if you love fashion – because your plush hotel is located on the ultra-chic, Avenue Montaigne where your neighbours include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Chanel, Valentine, Prada and Salvatore Ferragamo, and luxury jewellers like Bulgari and Henry Winston

At daybreak, you travel to Burgundy and the town of Beaune, about 300-odd kilometres south of Paris. The quaint Hotel Le Cep will be your home for the next five days.

Once home to the powerful Duke of Burgundy, Beaune is now the wine capital of Burgundy (and some say the world), housing more than 100km of tunnels and wine cellars below the streets. Above ground, the pedestrian streets are lined with interesting boutiques, restaurants, cafés.

Lunch will be served at Le Montrachet, one of the area’s most notable restaurants, in the midst of elegant vineyards. This is the start of your culinary and wine adventure where every meal is highlighted by superb food and the best local wines. You will have the opportunity to learn more about Burgundy, its people, food and wine as guests of local nobility, wine cellar masters and other colourful local personalities at their private homes and estates.

Late afternoon, you embark on your first hot air balloon flight. As the balloon skims low over the treetops, you watch the picturesque Burgundy countryside peppered with farms, pastures, vineyards, romantic villages and 14th century castles gently slip by. The flight will take about an hour-and-a-half as you drift downwind past the countryside, finally landing at twilight.

Dinner is a candlelight buffet affair at the 14th century Château Savigny-Les-Beaune in the castle’s candlelit chambers.

On day two, you will explore the remarkable wine cellars of Patriarch in Beaune where nine million bottles of wine are stored. The resident wine expert will take you on a tour of the cellars, and touch on some highlights of wine appreciation including the technique of sniffing, swirling and spitting.

For lunch, you will be the private guests of one of Burgundy’s most famous personalities, the Countess de Loisy. But not before the Countess takes you on a tour of her wine-making estate of Cotes de Nuits and its extraordinary cellar with 3,000 wooden wine barrels.

After lunch, visit the 12th century monastic winery of Clos de Vougeot constructed by Cistercian monks from neighbouring Citeaux with its gigantic two-storey oak grape presses dating from the same period. Today, the winery is home to Burgundy’s prestigious wine society, the Confrerie des Chevalier du Tastevin, who gather here every November at the start of an annual three-day festival, the Les Trois Glorieuses.

Late afternoon, you get on your second hot air balloon flight over the villages and medieval towns of Burgundy before settling down at the end of day for a candlelight buffet in the ancient cellars of Château Philip le Hardi.

Day four starts with a guided visit to the fairytale cliff-top fortress of 14th century Château de la Rochepot and its storybook village. This well-preserved castle is one of the best existing examples of medieval castle design and construction. After exploring the fortress, sit down to a four-course lunch at the Hostellerie de Levernois, a delightful manor house set on the spacious grounds of Château de la Rochepot. This first-class restaurant is run by well-known French chef Jean Crotet.

After lunch, it’s back to Beaune to explore the 15th century Hospice de Beaune, Burgundy’s most important architectural landmark which functioned as a charity hospital until 1979. This 15th century hospital was built for the poor who suffered from famine in the wake of the Hundred Years War and is well-preserved today with its remarkable architecture, superb tapestries, and reconstructed wards and interesting history.

On the last day, we stop at Chateauneuf, a 12th century fortified village whose turreted castle commands one of Burgundy’s most spectacular views. The castle was built in 1132 by Jean de Chaudenay and remained the family’s home for nine generations before the Duke of Burgundy took it over in the mid-13th century. Then, in the late 13th century, the castle was purchased by Charles de Vienne, the Count of Commarin whose family still owns the castle today.

Lunch is at Chez Morillon, one of Beaune’s most celebrated restaurants followed by a tour of the wine museum of Beaune located in the ancient palace of the Duke of Burgundy. Here, you will see winemaking tools and machines, as well as get an idea of the winemaking history of the region.

In the late afternoon, you will board a hot air balloon to take a last look at the delightful Burgundy countryside.

Dinner is a candlelight buffet at the flower-filled orangerie of Château de LaBorde – orange trees are stored here during the winter months – followed by “graduation” ceremonies in front of the fireplace. An apt way to end your Burgundy holiday adventure. W

o HSBC’s latest “Travel” Platinum campaign offers a grand prize for two of a luxury hot air ballooning vacation over the medieval castles and famous vineyards of France, running from May 1 to Aug 31.

All you have to do is spend RM8,000 and above in a week with your HSBC Visa Platinum or Premier MasterCard card to stand a chance to win this luxurious travel experience!

There are also three prizes to be won every week for a 3D/2N retreat for two at The Andaman Langkawi.

For more information, call the HSBC Platinum Customer Service Centre at 1-800- 88-7088 or visit www.hsbc.com.my.

Eat, drink & be merry

Located in the eastern part of central France, Burgundy is an undulating fertile land filled with vineyards, farms, forests and villages.

This region is famous for producing distinctive wines coming from different parts of the region.

Chablis produces steely white wine, Cote de Nuits rich and full-flavoured red wine, Cote de Beaune delicately flavoured reds and whites, Cote Chalonnaise white and full-flavoured reds, Irancy earthy reds, St Bris flinty whites and Pouilly-Fuisse fruity whites.

Much of Burgundy’s success in wine producing comes from the exceptional quality of its three distinct, traditional grapes: Pinot Noir, Camay for the reds and Chardonnay for the whites.

With such fine wine comes great food as well. Burgundy cuisine is considered more traditional French with dishes like coq au vin (chicken cooked in red wine sauce), beef bourguignon (cooked in wine and mushrooms), escargots, jambon persille (parsleyed ham) and pears Belle Dijonnaise.

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Bonjour Burgundy!

Experience the holiday of a lifetime as you fly over the lush rolling landscape of Burgundy, France in a hot air balloon and land in a château for a taste of exquisite French food and fine Burgundy wine.

As you stand in the basket taking in the scenery of the lush rolling hills of the French countryside, the setting sun on the horizon lighting up the sky in a glowing sea of red and orange, your pilot expertly manoeuvres the hot air balloon to make the softest of landings.

Cap off the day with a lavish dinner at an enchanting medieval château where exquisite French cuisine and the finest French wines await.

This is holidaying in the finest of styles. Jetting off to London or New York or Paris to shop and take in the sights is fun and all, but anyone can do that these days. If you are the jet-setting type, the buzzword today is experiential holidays – for a lot of spare change, a specialty travel agent will customise a luxury holiday experience that you won’t soon forget.

Two Buddy Bombard balloons making a low pass over Château de la Rochepot in Burgundy, France.

For connoisseurs of fine food and fine wine, and romantics at heart, a week-long luxury ballooning holiday in the Burgundy region of France is just what the doctor ordered. It’s seven days of hot air ballooning over medieval castles, châteaus and world-famous vineyards, visiting architectural wonders and underground wine cellars, indulging in French cuisine and sipping French wine.

Your experience starts the moment you step off the plane at Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris. Your driver whisks you off to Hotel Plaza Athenee where you spend the night before embarking on your Burgundy adventure the next day.

In the meantime, there’s plenty to do – especially if you love fashion – because your plush hotel is located on the ultra-chic, Avenue Montaigne where your neighbours include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Chanel, Valentine, Prada and Salvatore Ferragamo, and luxury jewellers like Bulgari and Henry Winston

At daybreak, you travel to Burgundy and the town of Beaune, about 300-odd kilometres south of Paris. The quaint Hotel Le Cep will be your home for the next five days.

Once home to the powerful Duke of Burgundy, Beaune is now the wine capital of Burgundy (and some say the world), housing more than 100km of tunnels and wine cellars below the streets. Above ground, the pedestrian streets are lined with interesting boutiques, restaurants, cafés.

Lunch will be served at Le Montrachet, one of the area’s most notable restaurants, in the midst of elegant vineyards. This is the start of your culinary and wine adventure where every meal is highlighted by superb food and the best local wines. You will have the opportunity to learn more about Burgundy, its people, food and wine as guests of local nobility, wine cellar masters and other colourful local personalities at their private homes and estates.

Late afternoon, you embark on your first hot air balloon flight. As the balloon skims low over the treetops, you watch the picturesque Burgundy countryside peppered with farms, pastures, vineyards, romantic villages and 14th century castles gently slip by. The flight will take about an hour-and-a-half as you drift downwind past the countryside, finally landing at twilight.

Dinner is a candlelight buffet affair at the 14th century Château Savigny-Les-Beaune in the castle’s candlelit chambers.

On day two, you will explore the remarkable wine cellars of Patriarch in Beaune where nine million bottles of wine are stored. The resident wine expert will take you on a tour of the cellars, and touch on some highlights of wine appreciation including the technique of sniffing, swirling and spitting.

For lunch, you will be the private guests of one of Burgundy’s most famous personalities, the Countess de Loisy. But not before the Countess takes you on a tour of her wine-making estate of Cotes de Nuits and its extraordinary cellar with 3,000 wooden wine barrels.

After lunch, visit the 12th century monastic winery of Clos de Vougeot constructed by Cistercian monks from neighbouring Citeaux with its gigantic two-storey oak grape presses dating from the same period. Today, the winery is home to Burgundy’s prestigious wine society, the Confrerie des Chevalier du Tastevin, who gather here every November at the start of an annual three-day festival, the Les Trois Glorieuses.

Late afternoon, you get on your second hot air balloon flight over the villages and medieval towns of Burgundy before settling down at the end of day for a candlelight buffet in the ancient cellars of Château Philip le Hardi.

Day four starts with a guided visit to the fairytale cliff-top fortress of 14th century Château de la Rochepot and its storybook village. This well-preserved castle is one of the best existing examples of medieval castle design and construction. After exploring the fortress, sit down to a four-course lunch at the Hostellerie de Levernois, a delightful manor house set on the spacious grounds of Château de la Rochepot. This first-class restaurant is run by well-known French chef Jean Crotet.

After lunch, it’s back to Beaune to explore the 15th century Hospice de Beaune, Burgundy’s most important architectural landmark which functioned as a charity hospital until 1979. This 15th century hospital was built for the poor who suffered from famine in the wake of the Hundred Years War and is well-preserved today with its remarkable architecture, superb tapestries, and reconstructed wards and interesting history.

On the last day, we stop at Chateauneuf, a 12th century fortified village whose turreted castle commands one of Burgundy’s most spectacular views. The castle was built in 1132 by Jean de Chaudenay and remained the family’s home for nine generations before the Duke of Burgundy took it over in the mid-13th century. Then, in the late 13th century, the castle was purchased by Charles de Vienne, the Count of Commarin whose family still owns the castle today.

Lunch is at Chez Morillon, one of Beaune’s most celebrated restaurants followed by a tour of the wine museum of Beaune located in the ancient palace of the Duke of Burgundy. Here, you will see winemaking tools and machines, as well as get an idea of the winemaking history of the region.

In the late afternoon, you will board a hot air balloon to take a last look at the delightful Burgundy countryside.

Dinner is a candlelight buffet at the flower-filled orangerie of Château de LaBorde – orange trees are stored here during the winter months – followed by “graduation” ceremonies in front of the fireplace. An apt way to end your Burgundy holiday adventure. W

o HSBC’s latest “Travel” Platinum campaign offers a grand prize for two of a luxury hot air ballooning vacation over the medieval castles and famous vineyards of France, running from May 1 to Aug 31.

All you have to do is spend RM8,000 and above in a week with your HSBC Visa Platinum or Premier MasterCard card to stand a chance to win this luxurious travel experience!

There are also three prizes to be won every week for a 3D/2N retreat for two at The Andaman Langkawi.

For more information, call the HSBC Platinum Customer Service Centre at 1-800- 88-7088 or visit www.hsbc.com.my.

Eat, drink & be merry

Located in the eastern part of central France, Burgundy is an undulating fertile land filled with vineyards, farms, forests and villages.

This region is famous for producing distinctive wines coming from different parts of the region.

Chablis produces steely white wine, Cote de Nuits rich and full-flavoured red wine, Cote de Beaune delicately flavoured reds and whites, Cote Chalonnaise white and full-flavoured reds, Irancy earthy reds, St Bris flinty whites and Pouilly-Fuisse fruity whites.

Much of Burgundy’s success in wine producing comes from the exceptional quality of its three distinct, traditional grapes: Pinot Noir, Camay for the reds and Chardonnay for the whites.

With such fine wine comes great food as well. Burgundy cuisine is considered more traditional French with dishes like coq au vin (chicken cooked in red wine sauce), beef bourguignon (cooked in wine and mushrooms), escargots, jambon persille (parsleyed ham) and pears Belle Dijonnaise.

Designer digs

It used to be that they only opened boutiques. Now, fashion designers from Karl Lagerfeld to Christian Lacroix are going into the boutique hotel business, reports KEE HUA CHEE.

Designer hotels are all the rage now, as fashion icons set up their own boutique hotels.

Not too long ago, all a designer dreamed of was a chain of boutiques: first in his city, then country, then across the globe. Then, it became obligatory to have handbags, shoes, accessories, perfumes, toiletries and even make-up in your name. A few ventured into watches and jewellery, and one or two designed the interiors of cars, yachts and private jets.

Now, most are lining up to establish their own hotels. They may not actually own the building or even manage it themselves, but these are hotels in their name all the same.

Designer hotels often reflect the lifestyle of the designer and those of his customers – from the unapologetic extravagance of Palazzo Versace in Australia to the understated luxurious style of the Ralph Lauren Round Hill Hotels and Villas in Jamaica.

PALAZZO VERSACE
Queensland, Australia
www.palazzoversace.com
From RM1,500 per night

With a name like palazzo (palace), the Palazzo Versace lives up to Versace’s penchant for over-the-top details. Beds are big enough for three to romp in, with even the entry-level rooms being worthy of a latter-day Roman emperor.

The Palazzo Versace in the Gold Coast, Australia is the first Versace hotel in the world.

It is glitz, glitter and glamour here, and, if you run out of clothes, the Versace boutique is just by the lobby. Oh, and everything in your room is for sale.

Palazzo Versace offers 205 extravagant rooms and 72 condominium units with private marina which allow you to live out the Versace life. Plebeians will have to make do with admiring the opulent Italianate architecture from a distance.

KARL LAGERFELD, THE SCHLOSSHOTEL
Berlin, Germany
www.schlosshotelberlin.com
From RM750 per night

Unlike the purpose-built Palazzo Versace, Berlin’s Schlosshotel (schloss means “palace” in German) is housed in a real palace. German designer Karl Lagerfeld has transformed the Pannwitz Palace into a luxurious home away from home in the heart of Berlin’s swankiest residential district, Grunewald.

Karl Lagerfeld’s The Schlosshotel.

It is not exactly Chanel but perfect for those in dire need of accommodation à la classical European palaces. The place reeks of history, and chances are high that your room was once slept in by some high-ranking nobility.

The pampering continues at the spa and golfing is available. The digs are near-imperial. This designer should know since his nickname is Kaiser Karl.

HOTEL DU PETIT MOULIN
Paris, France
www.paris-hotel-petitmoulin.com
o From RM800 per night

Its location at Marais is more hip than classy, and its origins more plebeian than patrician, but Christian Lacroix’s Hotel du Petit Moulin is as sweet, pretty and charming as a couture gown. Marais, once derided as Paris’ Gay Ghetto, is now a hotbed of stylish restaurants, boutiques and cafés.

The 17th century building that houses the hotel used to be a bakery but it is listed as a Historic Site, and cannot be altered, not even its signboard.

The rooms are like a confectioner’s beribboned box, while the drapes and curtains could be cut into a couture gown. Many fixtures are tied with adorable bows, crosses or hearts, all signatures of Lacroix, which incidentally means “cross” in French.

The asymmetrical proportions of the ancient bakery appealed to Lacroix, whose clothes are often cut likewise.

“I love the slightly twisted perspectives, the maze-like passageways and odd room sizes with beams and strange corners. I treated the design like a harmony of jigsaw pieces where modernity lives on in the traditions of the present!” explains the designer enigmatically.

“The hotel is like a dollhouse or cut-out found in early 20th century books.”

Du Petit Moulin (Little Windmill) is rated four-star and its neighbours include the Picasso and Carnavalet Museums, Place Vosges and Paris’ celebrated Town Hall.

The 17 rooms are a discovery, each totally different, ranging from kitsch and flowery to modern and baroque. Many feel like a milady’s boudoir, but there is one that mimics sleeping in outer space replete with Milky Way wallpaper.

RALPH LAUREN, ROUND HILL HOTEL & VILLAS
Montego Bay, Jamaica
www.roundhilljamaica.com
From RM2,000 per night

Round Hill is like a Ralph Lauren cashmere sweater – exquisite and luxurious, but not showy. Formerly a 40ha pineapple and coconut plantation in the 18th century, the resort bespeaks Old Money.

A view of Ralph Lauren’s Round Hill Hotel & Villas.

Wake up to a traditional Jamaican breakfast and the aroma of Blue Mountain coffee. Pineapple House offers 36 rooms overlooking the azure Caribbean Sea while each of the 27 villas has a private swimming pool and magnificent ocean views.

What’s on offer here is easy, lazy, tropical living with furnishings from the Ralph Lauren Home Collection. Colours are white with splashes of pink and blue. Days are for slouching, but, this being a fashion-forward hotel (which is why you go there), glamorous evening wear is obligatory after 7pm.

TODD OLDHAM, THE HOTEL
South Miami Beach, Florida
www.thehotelofsouthbeach.com
From RM1,200 per night

South Beach is where the rich, famous or merely gorgeous come to pose and party. This art deco hotel is where High Camp meets Glitzy Glamour. The linens and towels are by Frette of Paris, the world’s most expensive supplier of bathroom necessities while room products are from The White House of London.

Bright, happy colours fill the 53 rooms, loaded with Todd Oldham furnishings, like tie-dyed robes that we call batik.

The rooftop pool isn’t big but serious swimmers go to the sea while posers congregate to show off gym-fit bodies. And when no one’s watching you, the whole place has free wireless Internet.

JOHN ROCHA, MORRISON HOTEL
Dublin, Ireland
www.morrisonhotel.ie
From RM1,200 per night

Touted as Dublin’s hippest and coolest dig, the Morrison has 138 rooms with free broadband access, Frette linens, Aveda toiletries, Apple Mac LCD screens, iPod docking stations and surround-sound.

The location is ideal, even if you are not visiting your undergrad kids at nearby Temple Bar or Trinity College. The higher floors overlook Liffey River and Ireland’s premier shopping districts are 10 minutes away by foot.

OSCAR DE LA RENTA, TORTUGA BAY HOTEL
The Dominican Republic
www.puntacana.com
From RM2,300 per night

Tortuga Bay Hotel is the jewel of a 6,070ha, gated community where the rich and famous keep holiday homes. Stay in the 15 supremely luxurious villas and you might just bump into Julio Iglesias, Mikhail Baryshnikov and, of course, Oscar de la Renta, who all have second homes here.

The villas overlook the Caribbean Sea and five miles of pristine beach. The Six Senses Spa is a haven of calm and luxury offering reiki, tai chi and all bodily comforts.

The La Cana Golf Course, designed by legendary golfer P.B. Dye, is both scenic and challenging.

Meanwhile . . .

The Ferragamo family, owner of the Salvatore Ferragamo label, already has seven hotels in Florence under their Lungarno hotel chain (www.lungarnohotels.com). This summer, they will open a 14-suite hotel in Rome.

Giorgio Armani, whose Casa Armani home furnishing stores are doing so well he even has a florist chain, will open his first hotel in Dubai in 2008.

Oh well, it looks like the supermodels are guaranteed accommodation when they go on holiday.

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Sightseeing in San Francisco

WE knew this must be one of Nature’s grand schemes the moment my friends and I stepped into Muir Woods, 20km north of San Francisco.

This 222ha national monument is home to the Sequoia Redwoods, which are the tallest trees in the world. It is common to see visitors craning their necks upwards to take in the soaring magnificence of the trees which stretch endlessly into the heavens. It is a place to humble the soul and capture the imagination.

Fresh, fragrant air pumped into our lungs as the leafy canopy above us provided shade like a giant umbrella. Every bud, branch and blossom is part of a living poetry just waiting for an artist to fill his empty canvas with.

Combine the redwoods’ towering majesty with the strong elements of silence and solitude present here and you’d start to understand how powerfully emotive this landscape is.

The Golden Gate Bridge.

Drawing more than 1.5mil visitors yearly, this ecological treasure was named after conservationist John Muir. The redwoods here can grow as high as 112m and are as old as 2,000 years.

Our next stop was Sausalito, a picturesque artist colony nestled on the northern shores of San Francisco Bay. My interest was piqued when I heard that Sharon Stone and Robin Williams were among the town’s 7,500 residents. A candy-seller said he had spotted Williams go past his shop on a bicycle. Although I had no such luck spotting them, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit here.

The quaint waterfront shops, the warrens of pricey boutiques and the houses perched behind them on a steep slope draw inevitable comparisons to the Mediterranean villas of the Riviera.

Sausalito was named by 18th century Spanish explorers for the “little willow” (saucelito) trees which were found on the banks of its streams.

Sausalito’s watering holes can be lively but then so is its police force. No mercy is afforded anyone who is stopped for drunk driving

The Temple of Fine Arts.

Leaving the town, we drove across San Francisco’s most famous landmark – the Golden Gate Bridge. Under the night sky, the 2,737m long orange colossus with its 227m art deco towers looked like twin tiaras arching over the inky bayside waters.

It is taboo to refer to the city as “Frisco”. Most locals would sooner hear fingernails scratching across a chalkboard. To them, Frisco sounds too much like Vegas or some other provincial city. It’s best to skip this ignoble nickname unless you’re willing to accept slow service and tables next to toilets.

What’s the secret to navigating the city? Get a map. Even locals keep one in their car because parts of San Francisco seem as though someone on an acid trip laid them out.

Secondly, don’t let a few slopes deter you from one of the city’s greatest pleasures – walking around the neighbourhoods.

Lombard Street.

Hills, schmills. This is a city of stairs and the crème de la crème of steps is on Filbert Street on the way up to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, a famous lookout point which affords fantastic surrounding vistas of land and sea.

Although I felt like I was crawling with every step up the steep terrain, I knew it would be well-worth the effort once I get to the tower. And the view was indeed breathtaking (not that I had much breath left by the time I got there).

Like its population, San Francisco’s shopping scene is incredibly diverse. Every style, era, fetish and financial status is represented here in hundreds of boutiques and second-hand stores scattered throughout the city.

One of the city’s most celebrated neighbourhoods is Chinatown. After all, a billion Chinese can’t be wrong. In fact, it’s the largest Chinese community outside Asia.

Chinatown. — Pictures by NG SU-ANN

As soon as I crossed under the ornate, dragon-crested gateway on Grant Avenue, I felt that I was no longer in the Western world. Street signs were marked in Chinese characters, sounds of mahjong tiles could be heard from a house, and store windows displayed medicinal herbs and animal parts.

I was told that the best time to see this teeming neighbourhood was early in the morning when merchants delivered their wares in pushcarts and mothers rushed down the street toting live chickens and dead armadillos for the night’s dinner.

Shopkeepers here don’t lack marketing skills. Abundant hand-painted signs swear that everybody is going out of business and they must sell everything at incredibly low prices right now.

Another famous icon is the Fisherman's Wharf, a shopping precinct beginning at Pier 39 and ending at Ghirardelli Square. However, peace lovers be warned against venturing here if crowds and shops stocked with souvenirs are not your cup of tea.

The pier is a hive of activity with rides, entertainment, restaurants, shops and lively street entertainers, but I loved the sea-lion colony here best. The sea mammals were sunbathing on the abandoned docks, apparently oblivious to the swarms of visitors peering a short distance away at their lively antics.

We also made a stop at Lombard Street. The zigzags of the world’s most crooked street in the world were negotiated by so many tourists that the bricks finally cracked and popped out of the pavement a few years ago.

But the city would never have let one of the jewels of its tourist trade fall into disrepair for long. The famous block was closed to automobile traffic for about two years while work crews painstakingly repaired or replaced every errant brick before reopening it again.

For a slice of culture, the Palace of Fine Arts which houses the Exploratorium is a must-see. It looks just like an ancient Roman temple complete with a lake filled with swans.

In a nutshell, San Francisco is a city which appeals to the senses. I mean, where else do you hear foghorns, barking sea lions, the ringing of cable car bells and the continuous clackety-clack of the cable car pulleys winding underneath the streets? W

Useful for you to know

What am I supposed to do during an earthquake?

A: In case of a significant shaker, seek cover and don’t run outside into falling debris if you are inside a building. Stand under a doorway or against a wall, and stay away from windows. If you are outside, stay away from bridges, overpasses, telephone poles and power lines.

How long has San Francisco been the gay capital?

A: During the gold rush, “real” women were so scarce that desperate prospectors paid them three ounces of gold for a kiss. No one knows how many enterprising imposters painted their lips to pick up a few extra nuggets back then, but mascara and falsies have rarely seen a sales slump since.

The opening of the Panama Canal at the turn of the 20th century also led countless gay sailors to this port, followed by an influx of gay artists and entertainers during the bohemian era of the 20s and 30s.

Why isn’t the Golden Gate Bridge painted gold?

A: The term Golden Gate refers to the Golden Gate Strait which is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The bridge has always been painted orange vermilion, deemed “International Orange”. Consulting architect Irving Morrow selected the distinctive colour because it blends well with the natural setting of the land, the sky and sea.

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Destination,famous food, culture.....more



Puppy & Doggy Portal
we provide puppy & dog breed, care dog, dog training course,
dog owner rules & regularation, dog news, dog member room....etc



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able to get worldwide stamp, stamp story, stamp design, introduce stamp, history stamp, movie album stamp, new stamp, auction stamp....more


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