The Oriental Pearl Tower is one of the most striking and futuristic sights in China’s business stronghold Shanghai. Overlooking the Huangpu River opposite the historic Bund the tower rises 468 metres above the street and was the tallest building in China until the nearby Shanghai World Financial Centre surpassed it a few years back. The tower opened in 1994 and as well as an important communication tower it is home to a hotel,exhibition space a revolving restaurant and 15 yes 15 observation levels with the highest being 350 metres from ground. The tower features 11 spheres supported by three columns, and was designed using plenty of Chinese symbolism based around a poem dating back to the Tang Dynasty. Over three million visitors visit the tower each year and this year with World Expo being hosted in Shanghai you can bet the numbers will soar. Some visitors to Shanghai consider the admission price expensive and the queues long but many agree the view over the city is quiet spectacular if you are lucky enough to visit this fascinating city on a clear day.

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Gliding smoothly on a track high above the city streets in the tropical city of Kuala Lumpur is the KL Monorail. The monorail links the Golden Triangle sector of the city with the Sentral transport hub and stops at 11 stations. After a bit of a shaky financial start the system opened in 2003 and today over 21 million people use the 8.6km system every year. For the visitor to Kuala Lumpur the monorail offers a unique and easy way to visit some of the major attractions of the city and is in easy reach of many of the huge shopping malls including the massive Times Square shopping complex. The two carrige train can carry up to  244 people although fairly tightly, with 48 people sitting and 196 standing. There are 10 units of 2 car trains in service.   The KL monorail is one of a number of monorails in Malaysia others include the Sunway Monorail at Sunway Pyramid Mall just outside KL, and several other new or under construction systems in Malacca, Penang and Putrajaya.  There have been proposals to extend the KL monorail line but no firm funding or plans have been announced.  One interesting highlight of the system is special animal conservation at each station. Each station has been given the responsibility to look after an endangered or precious animal. You will see some pretty fancy birds and reptiles at many of the stations.

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When we think of Sydney Australia we think about the beautiful Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge but one of the jewels of the city and and one of the most popular tourist attractions are the Sydney Rocks. The Rocks is a historic precinct not far from the Harbor Bridge and the Circular Quay precinct.  The Rocks date back to pretty much English settlement of Sydney in 1788 when the area quickly became a hive of activity with pubs and lodging and a bustling port trade. Drinking and gaming was soon followed by prostitution and other forms of illigal activities. The area became a wasteland in the early 1900’s with the city moving on leaving the Rocks behind to decay. The building of the Bridge regained interest in redeveloping the area but World War II stalled the plan and the area became even more run down. During the 1960’s the government planned to turn the area into a modern showcase of concrete and glass skyscrapers, this got the public off side and many sought to fight for the heritage of the area. The people won over development and slowly the area was rebuilt and restored into a jewel of the city. Today the rocks is a historic collection of great old pubs, cafes, restaurants, galleries and many other tourist based industries. The area is popular for its weekend craft markets and many of the city’s events it is a must see for anyone visiting Sydney.

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Anglesea on Australia’s Great Ocean road only minutes from Geelong in Victoria is home to one of the world’s most unique golf courses. The greens are shared by golfers and hundred’s of Australia’s national symbol the Kangaroo. These delightful grey kangaroos gracefully hop around the course picking the lush greens not giving a second thought for the golfers or the balls flying across the green. The Anglesea Golf Club is surrounded by bushland which is the perfect habitat for kangaroos and everyday they come onto the green for a nibble or maybe just a lay in the sun.  The kangaroos usually don’t give the golfers much problem but they are sometimes not as cute and cuddly as they look they have very sharp claws and extremely strong rea legs and have been known to inflict serious injury on people when alarmed. Kangaroos like many of Australia’s other unique animals are best viewed at a distance.

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Since its opening by Queen Victoria on 29 March 1871 the Royal Albert Hall has played host to a multitude of different event s It has been estimated that the venue has been used for over 150,000 different events from Royal Gala performances to rock concerts. Some of the huge names in rock to perform the Royal Albert include The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Abba and Led Zeppelin and even some of the newer names like Muse, The Killers and Them Crooked Vultures.

The Royal Albert Hall is in Knightsbridge and only a short stroll from many of the other local attractions like Kensington Gardens and Harrods Department Store.

Although hard to depict in our photograph which we took at night the craftsmanship of the hall is magnificent. There are amazing mosaics frieze depicting The Triumph of Arts and Sciences around the rim of the hall. There are some 16 scenes. Many visitors are also interested in seeing the stones laid by Her Majesty Queen Victoria both as a foundation stone and at the opening of the hall, where she was too emotional to speak and left the opening remarks to her son Prince Edward the Prince of Wales. Interestingly the acoustics were pretty bad in the hall at opening and they didn’t get addressed properly for nearly 100 years in 1969.

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Well forgetting the dope smoking, the canals and of course the tasty Heineken nothing symbolises Amsterdam like the Tulip and no visit to this fascinating European city is complete without a visit to the Amsterdam Tulip Museum. Located at Prinsengracht 112 beside the canal and in easy walking distance of Central Station and many of the major city sights. The museum shop has a wonderful array of bulbs, flowers and everything tulip. There are some lovely souvenirs, books, prints and even specialised gardening tools and equipment. The perfect place to pick up some mementos from Holland for your friends back home. The museum will send bulbs by post overseas but please check with your friendly customs people before ordering to see if there are any restrictions on importing bulbs into your country. Tulip Bulbs are usually available around September through to the end of the year but many other varieties are available at other times.

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The beautiful Czech Republic city of Prague has a wonderful tram network which makes visiting the city very easy. The trams in the city date back to 1875 when the trams were horse drawn but today the system is one of the most modern in Europe and covers over 140 kilometres of track and over 900 tram cars. For a real treat look out for the historic no 91 tram which runs over the warmer months. This quaint wooden tram adds a charming and nostalgic addition to Prague’s magnificent old architecture. For people wanting to see some of Prague’s most popular sites then tram 22 is the one for you it passes the Staromestska National Theatre, the Malostranska and offers some amazing views of the Prague Castle and the Pohorelec. The tram network run 24 hours, the daytime timetable runs from 4:30 am to midnight with services about every 10 minutes while the night service runs every 40 minutes.

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Well today’s story can only come from the world of weird and whacky- Japan. Well there’s certainly no mini bar or luxurious queen bed on this unique style of hotel. It’s the capsule hotel and they are found all over the big Japanese cities usually around the train stations and cater primarily for businessman who have had that one (or several) too many beers after work and missed the the last train home or can’t quiet face the wife and kids. The capsule hotel are a communal collection of small plastic cells about two feet wide and high and around six foot long. They have a mattress, a pillow and some linen,  sometimes a small TV and DVD player and not much else.

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The Lisa Marie is a Convair 880 jet which was once owned by the King of Rock n Roll Elvis Presley. The plane about the size of a 707 was used by the king and his entourage to travel between Graceland and Elvis’s performances all over the United States. Unfortunately Elvis only owned the jet for a few years before his untimely death in 1977.

There are lots of legendary stories about Elvis and his plane but one of the favorite which gets told time and time again. Elvis was a bit hungry and needed his favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwich to quench his hunger, the only problem was the best sandwiches were in Denver. So Ron Strauss his pilot flew the Lisa Marie from Memphis to Denver to pick up enough sandwiches for Elvis’s snacktime.

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When opened in 1998 the Hong Kong International Airport was the world’s largest and today 12 years later the airport is the one of the world’s busiest for both passengers and cargo and caters for around 300000 aircraft movements a year.  There are more than 70 boarding gates with over 60 jet bridges and is used by around 50 million people a year. The airport was built in the sea, two islands Chek Lap  Kok and Lam Chau were flattened and to make the 12 1/2 square kilometre airport. The airport took only six years to construct at a cost of about $20 billion US, replacing the old Kai Tak Airport which was wedged between Hong Kong’s skyscrapers and Victoria Harbour which had become dangerous and too small to handle the enormous growth in traffic Hong Kong required to move forward.  Chek Lap Kok has tow huge runways of 3800 metres in length and suitable for the biggest of aircraft including the new Airbus A380.  The runways are able to handle over 60 aircraft movements an hour.  Passengers are moved around the massive airport by the HKIA Automated People Movement which is a tram like system and an Airport Express rail service which reaches the heart of Hong Kong in just over 20 minutes.

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