Hotel of the week...

Lebua at State Tower -Bangkok, Thailand

The hotel's website says it all:

"lebua at State Tower is an all-suite luxury hotel in Bangkok with 358 lavish suites which are the most spacious in their category. Located at the riverside in the second tallest tower in Bangkok, each suite offers majestic views of the Chao Phraya River and the City. The suites feature Bvlgari amenities, Petrossian delights in minibar, 330 thread count linen and in-suite cooking option by its Conde Nast accredited Chefs which make lebua a truly unique luxury hotel."

And the photos (from www.lebua.com) tell it all:

Hotel Lobby, where you have approx 5 people serving one customer

3 bedroom tower club suite

Beautiful marble bathrooms



Conference facilities for events

Vibrant Cafe Mozu, chill out on the colourful benches...

Or on the day beds, sipping cocktails and listening chill out music...mmm...

Have a dinner and/or drinks at Sirocco Restaurant with magnificent views!

Admire the 360 degree view of busy Bangkok

Bar 'on the edge'...

Night swim in the candle light , perfect finishing for the night!

Luxury, Luxury, Luxury, Luxury, Luxury...

Golf, Golf, Golf...

Well, of course there has to be golf blog...or this blog wouldn't be anything ;)

So I thought to list some of the golf courses around the world which have got rankings in top 100 in the world.

Proud enough, I'm starting with the Kytäjä Golf, Finland. The 43rd best golf course in EU :)

All these photos are borrowed from http://www.kytajagolf.fi/

18th hole on SE-course

Green of the 8th hole (Par 4)

Beautiful views in the autumn time...

A view from the NW 17 Back Tee

The last hole of SE-course

9th hole on the SE-course

Anyone got interested...?

Been there, done that...

As the sarcastic comment says "I've been there, done that...", this time I really mean that literally and NOT the sarcastic way. I just want to share my travels with you :)

Continueing from the 'hotel of the week' blog I have some snapshots of the 3 main sites in Siem Reap: Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm.

I visited Cambodia in September 2008 and was blown away of its mystical feeling. There's definitely something 'in the air' around Siem Reap, loved every minute of it!

Even it is one of the very poor countries in Asia I would still go back and see the humble smiles of everybody and see more of the beautiful and historical country. I think seeing these people living in poor conditions and still be happy the way or another made the bonding much stronger.

I have hundreds of photos but I'll try to put the most meaningful photos in here, enjoy!

ANGKOR WAT

The ancient Temple with beautiful handcrafted walls

All the small details of each bit of the wall, amazing!

Apparently by looking the ladies tummy you could tell from which century these crafts were from; chubby=wealth vs. skinny=poor

ANGKOR THOM

One of the entrances to Angkor Thom

These huge faces were watching us from every direction...

Buddha statues everywhere, surrounded by the nice smell of incense, mmmm...

I was hunting for this kind of photo, and I GOT IT! :)

TA PROHM

Probably the most popular photo of Ta Prohm...seen in Tomb Raider

So green and quiet.

Most of the temple (built in 1186 A.D.) looked like this with fallen rocks

Interesting enough, they knew something about dinosauruses back in 1186 A.D. This is a prove for it.

There would be so many other photos I would love to share with you, but this blog took so much time that I think it's enough for now...you'll get chance to see more later on, I promise. :)

Wedding Spots...

There are SO many places to get married and different variations of it too...

It could be the traditional church and reception which is normal for the city weddings. Then there could be blessing on the beach and reception at the party tent, or blessing on the golf course facing the ocean and reception at the club house...or wineyard wedding surrounded by beautiful scenery and of course a beautiful bride...or a cute little chapel and reception at the pool area which is on the cliff...

Weddings can be very very expensive so sometimes the destination wedding might be the cheapest option for couples who has families and friends from different countries. Everyone who can make it will have a holiday around the main event...people will spend some time together before and after the big day and the atmosphere will be so much better than on one day wedding. I wouldn't say the one day weddings aren't bad but the maid of honour and best man have such a big task to get everyone 'on the mood' in one day.

Anyway, I've been in few weddings and seen lovely photos of some destination weddings (and cried my eyes out of happiness!) and I thought I would add this wedding spots blog now and then...

Here are some photos from Bali which has plenty of options for wedding packages but I found the Blue Point Bay Villas Resort the best by looking the photos:

Website is http://www.bluepointbayvillas.com/

(All photos are borrowed)

Entrance to the Chapel

Cute and small Chapel facing the ocean (and the sunset)

And lots of frangipanis...everywhere.

Candlelit Chapel and the reception area on the background

View from one of the dinnertables, WOW!

Any better views for the wedding dance?!

And if someone is wondering if I'm dreaming of these wedding destinations...well, I might be dreaming but not actioning, not yet mates ;)

Hotel of the week

Hôtel de la Paix - Siem Reap Cambodia

This stylish boutique hotel is located in Siem Reap surrounded by the mystical Angkor Wat, interesting Angkor Thom and adventurous Ta Prohm. The hotel has won the best hotel in Cambodia in the '2010 World's Best Awards', and was on the 29th place in Top 100 Hotels in the world.

Here are some photos from their website http://www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com/

Welcoming Interior

Buddha with the traditional Cambodian Lotus flower

Beautiful room with art deco influences and two steps away is the big bath...mmm...

Spa Rooftop Suite with the private pool AND private massage tables

Rooftop Suite with private dining area under the million stars

Alternatively you can have dinner in a swinging dining bed

Respecting the Past,

Embracing the Future.

If I was a rich girl, na na na...(song by Gwen Stefani)

This kind of goes under the daydreaming as well, but let's keep it separately this time. Today's subject is money money money...


I read the other day that Emirates is buying (only!) 30 new Boeing 777s, worth a total of more than $9 billion...but that's not all, they ordered just a month ago 32 A380s with $11,5 billion...Excuse me but where this money comes from?! Ah yes, from the other airlines of course, who are buing the fuel from the Sheiks who own the Emirates...damn they are clever in that part of world. i Like.


But what would you do if you had that much money like Donald Trump? How would you feel when you basically could buy anything, I mean anything, in this world?


I would buy apartments at least from New York, L.A., Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Sydney, Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires. Then beach huts from Hawaii, Cook Islands, QLD in Australia, Zanzibar, Maldives, Bali, Mallorca in Spain, Zakynthos in Greece...hmmm, that's enough...actually a couple more: ski cabins in Salt Lake City, Queenstown in NZ, St. Anton in Austria, Levi in Finland, Thredbo in Australia, Sapporo in Japan, Whistler in Canada...That's it :)

And then just travel around the world and chill out!


That would be enough, don't you think? The list is endless though...I'll go out now and think of this endless list in a hammock ;)

Na na na na na na na na na na...

Daydreaming part I

Daydreaming...what a good excuse!? You can do it everywhere...

Here are some of my latest daydreaming subjects:



Travel Destinations:

• Sri Lanka; The country has 'opened the doors' for tourism after a long and brutal civil war. I reckon this island is similar to Bali but still unspoilt by tourist crowds. Green and lush nature, elephants and monkeys living freely, boutique hotels with a colonial style, yoga and ayurvedic spas...most of all, the white sandy beaches. Paradise!


• Laos; After visiting Cambodia and its interesting and mystical sites I think Laos would have even more to offer; once again, with less tourist crowds. Seeing the local people living in poor circumstances it puts your life in different perspective. I would take colouring pencils to the kids, like I did in Cambodia; their happy smiles were the best part of my trip.


• Morocco; Something colourful, spicy, loud and hot...those are the senses I get when thinking Morocco. I would love to take so many photos in this place, everything is so colourful, visit the local markets and get on bargaining with men who are trying to fool you with high prices. Watch out, I'm pretty good at that nowadays :) And the Sahara trip would be the highlight of the trip, for sure!


• Costa Rica; This country would have something similar to offer than Amazon in Brazil, jungle life with animals such as monkeys, sloths, birds, sneaks and frogs. Orchid is Costa Rica's national flower and I'm sure no one can't get enough of those amazing colours and sensual fragrances of orchids, as there are 15 000 different species of them.


• Tanzania; one week on a Safari and another week in Zanzibar. That would be my dream honeymoon, some adventure and some privat time. The trip would please both groom and bride, no fights about honeymoon schedule, both would get 50/50 deal. EASY! :)

I'll keep dreaming...Happy Monday! :)

Let me introduce you to...

my BFF. She makes me calm and positive, she let me dream something which is impossible and encourages me to live my dream -Dream of Travel.

Here she is: Select Collection :)

Select Collection - Creating World Class Travel Experiences

Reading this 474-page 'Bible' gives me so many inspirations of places I would love to travel. I found already a couple of places I've been in Australia, Bali, Cambodia and Vietnam, but still so many places where I want to travel in the future *sighing*...

THAILAND: Koh Kood -Soneva Kiri by Six Senses

I love the outlook with colourful pictures of the destination, its surroundings and the hotels and most of all -the bedrooms :) ...you go deeper and deeper into the destination by looking the amazing pictures and feel like you are actually there.

GREECE: Costa Navarino -The Romanos, Costa Navarino

In addition I get some good decorating tips, here are some examples:

SRI LANKA: Galle Southern Province -Amangalla

MAROCCO: Marrakech -Dar JL

USA: Las Vegas -Mandarin Oriental

this 'Bible' is available in each Select Travel Agencies in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and United Kindom. As printing isn't free the cost is EUR 10.00. Worth of each penny! Happy Happy Reading! :)

Travel music

Here are some of my favourite travel songs at the moment:

Barry Manilow: Copacabana
Bill Withers: Lovely Day
Black Eyed Peas: I Gotta Feeling
Boney M.: Sunny
Cheryl Cole: 3 words
Chisu: Baden-Baden
Chris Cornell: Long Gone
Colbie Callait: Bubbly
Daft Punk: Around the World
Diana King: I Say A Little Prayer -Reggae Mix
Edith Piaf: La Vie En Rose
Ella Fitzgerald: Summertime
Enrique Inglesias: Escape
Etta Jones: Long, Long Jorney
Faithless: Insomnia
Fat Freddy's Drop: Ernie
Fergie: Big Girls Don't Cry
Frank Sinatra: Come Fly With Me
Gabriella Cilmi: Sweet About Me
Gnarls Barkley: Crazy
Gorillaz: Feel Good Inc
Groove Armada: At the River
Imogen Heap: First Train Home
Jack Johnson: Gone
Jack Jones: The Love Boat Theme
Jason Mraz & Colbie Callait: Lucky
Jay-Z: Empire State Of Mind
Jessica Mauboy: Burn
Joan Osborne: Midnight Train To Georgia
Joni Mitchell: Big Yellow Taxi
Joshua Radin: I'd Rather Be With You
Joss Stone: Free Me
Justin Timberlake: Senorita
Katy Perry: California Gurls
Kim Herold: Social Butterfly
La Roux: Bulletproof
Lady Gaga: Telephone
Lena: Satellite
Lenny Kravitz: Fly Away
Melody Gardot: Baby I'm a Fool
Michael Buble: Home
Mikey Wax: In Case I Go Again
Missy Higgins: Going North
Nancy Wilson: Fly Me To The Moon
Pink: Leave Me Alone
Paloma Faith: New York
Peter Murray: Better Days
Robbie Williams: Morning Sun
Rhythms Del Mundo: She Will Be Loved
Shakira: Waka Waka
Shannon Noll: Drive
Stan Getz: The Girl From Ipanema
Taylor Swift: You Belong With Me
The Baseballs: Hot'n Cold
The Cat Empire: Hello
The Rasmus: Sail Away
Usher: Yeah!
Wes Carr: You
Zee Avi: Just You And Me

Happy listening! :)

Here it starts...

Don't you love it when you get on a plane...?!
You can look this from different point of views; queue at the check-in, security check, the cafe, gate, bus, steps to the plane, last row on the plane and the window seat...NEGATIVE!
No queues on Online check-in, baggage drop, fast lane on security check, lounge, last one to get on the bus and first one to get on the plane and the first row with aisle seat...PERFECTION!
I've learned to love it both ways, the main feeling of getting onto your seat, switching off your mobile phone, looking throught the inflight magazine while listening the safety presentation, looking out of the window and just relax!! Someone wrote on their column once that there isn't a place anywhere else in the world where you have to switch off your phone than on the plane...and that is the only way to relax nowadays for lots of travellers.

I've studied tourism for quite many years and I'm still learning every day, can't get enough of it. I've been a travel agent for laidback leisure travellers as well as for the demanding corporate travellers...and I still can't get enough of planning trips, giving practical tips and reading about the exciting news of tourism all over the world...I'm so lucky to work for an airline and get the lovely benefits to travel. That's why I started this blog to share my travels with You.

Welcome to TravelTherapy by CK! :)

This photo is from Melbourne airport just before getting on a plane...yes, the back row too! :)