DJ Trava

Posts Tagged ‘hotels’

Our five-star Madrid hotels are accommodations that meet the highest standards of the industry, and there are distinctive extras that set them apart from the rest of the pack.  Your stay here will feel like a splendid journey into the lap of luxury, with sumptuous feasts prepared by our world-class chefs, who specialize in innovation and tradition.  This is a heady combination in Madrid, where classical merges with the contemporary, sometimes almost seamlessly.  You’ll be dazzled by the magnificent design and style at our hotels, carefully arranged my some of the hottest designers in Europe, working to make your time here memorable and refreshing.  One decadent night’s sleep, and you’ll be ready to make new adventures in the beautiful city of Madrid.

Madrid is one of Europe’s more unique treasures.  With all the architecture, fashion, and style of a buzzing urban center, the influences of antiquity are also very strong here, and serve as a constant presence.  There is a sense of otherworldliness about Madrid, as if time were not exactly standing still, but certainly bending in unusual directions.  Perhaps this is nothing new; perhaps it’s not a product of the modern age.  Looking at the work of Goya, one gets the sense that he experienced this same strange effect of time on the human imagination.  For him, time was more impenetrable, working as he did at a time when there was so much upheaval, and his paintings are a visual history of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Francisco José de Goya y Lucentes was born in 1746 in Fuendetodos, in the kingdom of Aragón. From a very early age he showed remarkable talent, as well as a remarkable blatant disregard for members of the ruling institutions.  In many of his works, then, the subjects he painted are often formally elegant on the surface, but are actually very critical, to the point where they become obviously foolish.  Many of these works can be found in local museums today.  Goya was certainly an iconoclast, having ridiculed the court, and law, and even the laws of human love, in his work.  His images are indelibly marked on the imaginations of art lovers everywhere, and visitors to Madrid can see some of his most intimate works, painted in the city that was his home.

When it comes to Thailand’s five-star hotels, Phuket can offer a splendid mix of convenience and decadence, and make any trip to this island paradise an exceptional memory.  Our hotels meet the highest standards of the industry, offering all the amenities one would expect from a hotel with the five-star designation.  Add to this all the pluses of the location, and there is a sumptuousness here that is out of this world.  Not only do we offer excellent world-class cuisine, prepared with some of the best secrets of Thai cooking and the pleasures of fresh seafood, there are also splendid exercise facilities, in-room entertainments, and a hospitality that is truly unique and local.  Phuket offers the benefits of exotic surroundings combined with the convenience of a globally-conscious urban area.

One might suspect that shopping here is superb, with international sophisticaton and local flair, and one would be absolutely correct.  One of Phuket’s more pleasant secrets is the Dharma Bum clothing store.  The enterprise was begun by two friends, Ann-Sofie Stehdahl and Susanne Nilsson, with the intention of marketing a kind of beachwear that is not only fashion-conscious, but also environmentally friendly.  Their lines of beachwear are designed according to international standards of hipness and sophistication, and also with the extreme practicality of beach living.  This becomes a splendid clothing line that has hippie undertones for casual wear, but is also suitable for a night on the town.

The name Dharma Bum might seem like a contradiction in terms.  It suggests both a devotion to conscious living, and a practice of compassion for all living things, but also suggests a laziness and ability to relax and let the normal concerns go pleasantly by.  This is exactly what the business partners are looking for, and, drawing on a novel by beat writer Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums, they are designing clothing that is a lifestyle, a fashion choice, and a philosophy.  As part of their practice, clients who get tired of their old clothes can bring them in, and the owners will reuse the fabrics to create new constructions of beach fashion that speaks to the culture of Phuket.

For perfection in five-star hotels, Dubai has it all.  A gorgeous setting in a rich, cosmopolitan city, with the mysteries of the desert and the beauty of the beach, Dubai is one of the hottest tourist destinations of recent times.  Guest in our hotels will be treated to a sumptuous combination of old-world hospitality and new-world convenience, in accommodations that confidently meet the highest standards in the industry.  With world-class cuisine served up by top chefs, guests will experience a luxury that borders on decadence.  There are also hosts of extras, offering amenities that will revitalize the body and spirit.

Dubai has really started coming into its own in recent years.  With initiatives sponsored by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the city has been very successful in becoming one of the creative capitals in world culture.  One of these initiatives, not to be missed by lucky travelers whose dates correspond with the event, is the Dubai International Poetry Festival.  This is a week-long event that features a thousand poets gathered to speak their words, give lectures and symposia, and to take part in the incredible energy of the event.

2009 was the first year for the Dubai International Poetry Festival, and by all accounts it was hugely successful.  It was opened by none other than Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian playwright and poet who has won multiple awards for his writing and commitment to human rights causes all over the world.  The festival focuses on celebrating the capacity for poetry to transcend the limits of geographical borders, culture, and language.  Simultaneous translations were offered during the readings, to unify the crowd to the poets who came from all over the world, including Portugal, India, Germany, Venezuela, and all over the Middle East.  There are at least four more festivals planned for the coming years.

The best Manhatan hotel are in the heart of the action! Close to many museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The international Center for Photography, The Frick Collection and the Guggenheim to name a few. The best shopping in the city is in the area small boutiques and big name department stores are all there. Theater and opera are available too. Everything you could want to do is there. Site seeing include the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, The Chrysler Building to name a few of the most notable. The resturaunts are many and variety endless, vegetarian, vegan, steakhouses, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Mexican, Italian and more. There are many night clubs and bars there too they go all night till 4 in the morning so you will not lack for things to do in the night time. Radio City Music Hall is a favorite to see. The Rockats are always a favorite for many. The bustle and shopping Times Square is cool and don;t forget to go at night and catch all the lights it is beautiful and amazing. Central park is nice you won’t even believe your in one of the largest cities in the world when you walk around there. It is big and quiet there are places where you can get away from the city noise and bustle. There are so many things to do and see it is all endless and overwhelming. Planning your trip will be important so you don’t miss anything you really want to see. Downtown there are the ethnic areas of Little Italy, Chinatown and areas with Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Vietnamese and Thai immigrants. Their is Battery Park in lower Manhattan that is where you get the ferry to Staten Island and the Statue of Liberty.

For the savvy world traveler looking for the perfect five-star hotel, Delhi has something amazing to offer.  Our hotels provide for an exceptional experience in a very exceptional city, and the luxury accommodations we offer will make for an enormously pleasant journey.  Delhi is the perfect place to enjoy lodging that sets the standard for the industry, with a sumptuous combination of old world hospitality and new world innovation.  There are excellent meals here prepared by world-class chefs, specializing in local and fusion cuisines, that will please every member of the family.  We offer excellent exercise facilities to help balance body and mind, and keep you refreshed for sight-seeing around this amazing city.  There are also many other extra amenities that are designed to make your experience here unforgettable.

Delhi has always been a fascinating place, as least as long as written history and human memory tells it, having attracted some of the greatest minds in the world.  We have a fair share of artists, politicians, celebrities, and intellectuals currently living in Delhi, taking part in the enormous energy here.  Delhi is a city of contradictions, where the old and the new can exist simultaneously, without any apparent clash.  There are traditional cultures here, as well as extremely contemporary ones, like Sarai.  Sarai is a project under the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, and is devoted to contemporary culture, especially as it relates to digital society generally speaking.

For Sarai, digital society needs redefinition in Delhi, where the experience of technology and culture are much more apparent if one allows television and radio into the equation, so that it is not something limited only to computers.  However, computers certainly do play a part, and more so since Sarai began more than 10 years ago.    It started with a meeting of five people who wanted to start speaking of critical culture: Ravi Vasudevan & Ravi Sundaram from CSDS, and Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula & Shuddhabrata Sengupta from the Raqs Media Collective joined heads and experiences and began to talk about what they might do.  Inspired by the new waves of art and media distributed on the web and in independent circles, the idea grew that they could form a hub for information on digital cultures.  Sarai continues today, and has grown in terms of the scope of projects, but has not lost any relevance in providing a unique place of inquiry in contemporary Delhi.

There’s a world of choices for the perfect vacation, and in Bombay, India, hotels are the first consideration.  Fortunately, our world class hotels have everything the most savvy world traveller needs to make the time spent in India memorable for years to come.  Both state of the art amenities and old world hospitality are our specialties, to insure your experience is both comfortable and pleasurable.  The sense of design is a marvelous combination of tradition and innovation, reflecting Bombay’s presence in the world culture scene.  Likewise, the cuisine here is a fabulous blend of proven recipes and new trends in world cooking.  You’ll want to sample everything our hotels have to offer before setting out to see the city, and there’s certainly something for everyone.

In the city, you’ll find that Bombay is one of the most interesting places on the planet.  As one of the longest continually inhabited places, there is an incredibly rich history here.  As a reflection of this history, the visual artists who have been captivated by Bombay show their inspiration in sumptuous works of art.  One of Bombay’s most prized institutions is the newly remodeled National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.  This treasure house shows some of the more exceptional classic works of visual art, and features artists from antiquity and contemporaries. Abstract and representational works are both featured here, along with a host of other fascinating exhibitions.

The National Gallery of Modern Art is in a building that was once known as Sir Cowasji Jehangir Public Hall, which was donated to the city of Mumbai in 1911.  It served as the principle auditorium for all manner of cultural events, until it fell out of favor in the 1950s.  Aritsts in the city were responsible for lobbying for the renovation, and the space is once again used for large public functions, such as the memorial for Tyeb Mehta, a giant of the Bombay art scene.  The National Gallery of Modern Art also holds a fascinating collection on mummy’s and paintings by Picasso, making it a must-see for all ages.

Southend-on-Sea is one of several cities in the borough of Essex, England. Located east of London at the mouth of the Thames Estuary, it is considered a seaside resort city, so that means lots of tourists and visitors each year, coming to check out the sites, both historical and modern. There is a diesel-hydraulic railway that runs the full length of the pier. Numerous attractions can be found along the waterfront, including theme parks, bowling alley and arcade, an aquarium and many places to casually eat or elegantly dine. Restaurants, wine bars and pubs are in abundance with unique specialties you will want to sample. Pubs are always a favorite place to experience the local flavor of an area. A farmers market is held on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. Fresh locally grown fruits, vegetables and nuts are plentiful and delicious.

You might be here for a vacation or perhaps a business trip, but rest assured, any Southend hotel will provide you with the comfort and relaxation you are looking for. They offer many amenities and the staff is friendly and helpful, all making for a pleasurable stay. While here, you might want to take in a play at the New Empire Theatre or the Edwardian Palace Theatre. You can attend a concert or an ice performance. Music is extremely popular and extremely varied. From the finest sophisticated orchestras to the wall vibrating electric guitar sounds, you will find it here. You can attend festivals and fairs, getting caught up in the music, the costumes, the entertainers and the spectators. For a real thrill, catch the Festival of the Air. This air show features jets and aerobatic stunt planes performing incredible feats several hundred feet in the air.

Surrealism is a style of art that came into being after World War II. It is an exploration of the unconscious mind and stream of thought imagery. The strange forms and juxtapositions, sometimes to shock the viewer all served to open preceptions of the viewer to a world beyond what is seen when awake with eyes open. The movement was also aliened with Dadaism a movement about simplicity and odd juxtaposition. Out of Dadaism came the  Fur Lined Tea Cup by Swiss Artist Meret Oppenheim and other every day ordinary objects re purposed into an object of art. Thus asking the viewer to rethink what they see in every day life. Many noted surrealist and subsequently modern painters, architect, poet and writer came out of Spain. Miro, Dali, Picasso and Gaudi to name a few. Many works by these artists can be seen a short distance from 5 star barcelona hotels also in Barcelona you can see examples of the architecture of Antoni Gaudi his work was deeply influenced by Art Neuveau styles. Gaudi born in 1852 lived till 1926. His career began with early examples of his designs being built in 1879 like the Placa Reil. His architecture helped inspire movements away from traditional thinking about space and form. Miro was another influential artist. His works of color and form without much if any recognizable forms or objects. Child like in its executions, Miro said in the latter days of his career “It took me all my life to learn to paint like a child”. The Spanish surrealists work was influenced by the Spanish Civil war as well as influenced the politics that shaped the war. Imagery can be found in works by Salvadoe Dali, Man Ray, Magrette, Caballero, Masson and Picasso. The surrealist movement began to peak before World War II. The war causing many artists to flee Europe for the United States thus bringing the influence to this continent. During the war years Salvadore Dali and his wife Gala lived in New York City and traveled to California to work with Alfred Hitchcock on the movie Spellbound. The influence of these artists during the years of World War II had their impacts on the artists in the United States. After the war many artists returned to Europe and influenced the reconstruction after the war. Barcelona is a great place to get a taste of all these artists interpretation of Surrealism.

I came to Mumbai in August to get my fill of Festivals. There are approximately 4  festivals being celebrated. The Nariyal Poornima, the Raksah Bandhan, the Gokulashtami and the Parsi New Year. My best friend and I booked a room together at one of the Mumbai Hotels for the whole month of August. We plan to party all month long, I just hope Mumbai’s ready for us.

Our first festival to party down with is the Nariyal Poornima. Coconut day which marks the end of the monsoons. Today, though, it seems the monsoons still have a bit more wetness to deliver. That didn’t stop the festivities though, as all of India knows how to get around when it’s a down pour. The Mumbai fisher folks are the one’s who celebrate, they paint their boats all these bright colors and light up divas (little oil lamps) and set them afloat on the waters and intersperse with fresh garlands of flowers. They also decorate their boats with the divas and garlands. So, the ritual part about the festival is the fisher folk break a coconut against the bow of their fishing boats as an offering to a Sea God. I’m not sure of the name of the Sea God, though. But, it’s such a beautiful site to see all the divas and garlands floating on the sea. Once the festival is over, it’s fishing season again. I didn’t know there was a fishing season.

Well the Nariyal Poornima Festival was really fun, but later that same day, we headed off to the Raksha Bandhan Festival. It’s celebrated on the same day as Nariyal Poornima. The ritual here is brothers let their sisters tie a rakhi on their wrists for protection against evil. Not much of a festival, really, but that didn’t stop my friend and I from making it more fun than it was.

Gokulashtami,  or also called Krishna Jayanti, is a two day celebration of the birth of Sri Krishna. This happens not too much after the Nariyal Poornima. The legend goes like this, Krishan was born in the dark half of the month, at the darkest hour of the night. Krishna is one of Vishnu’s most glorious incarnations which brought in joy and security to all of humanity. The festival is quite elaborate and there’s plenty of partying going on everywhere in Mumbai. My friend and I hardly made it back to our hotel room to sleep.

Finally, the month is almost over and our last festival is the Parsi New Year. I don’t think it needs any explanation. But, it does commemorates the day that Shahenshahi Zoroastrian community landed in India. This festival went into September.  We hardly remembered any of it, we celebrated too much.

When travelers are looking for the perfect place for their dream of a hotel, Chennai, India is like a dream answered.  With a long and exciting tradition of performing arts and local culture, it is one of the most creative spots in the south of India, and the world, for that matter.  Our hotels are designed to help you reinvigorate your spirits and your mind, as you enjoy your stay in this lovely city.  The hotels have a fantastic combination of old world charms and hospitality, and cutting edge technologies.  One can be extremely well-connected to the business world, or can choose to get lost in the luxury of the place.  With first-rate chefs serving up some of India’s finest dishes, excellent in-room entertainments, and a knowledgeable concierge who can help one navigate the city, there are splendid reasons to choose this city to make a new adventure.

Chennai’s most attractive quality to the artistic jet set is the Kollywood film industry.  It is set is Chennai’s Kodambakkam district, and is the central place where Tamil films are made.  The presence of this industry keeps the city young and always on the move, and for tourists and locals, it is a great place to watch the movie stars.  One star who’s sign is certainly rising is Anushka Shetty.  Her background is in computer science at Bangalore University, and she has also worked as a yoga teacher, and her guru is the famous Bharat Thakur.

She made her first film, Super, in 2005, and in that short time has stacked up nearly two dozen movie roles in both Tamil and Telegu films.  She was often dismissed unfairly because of her good looks, but her role in Vikramarkudu caused some critics to start taking her more seriously.  One of her upcoming movies, Vettaikaran, promises to be a very exciting new film.  It is about a hunter, played by Vijay, whose life path suddenly takes another turn, and there are fascinating questions about the nature of destiny.  The word on the street is that the chemistry between him and Anushka is positively electric.