Fuzzy Bus

The lakes and palaces of Udaipur, India, make for extraordinary sightseeing.  Known as the “Venice of the East,” and the City of Lakes, this city was once the capital of the kingdom of Mewar, dating back 1200 years.  When a place has this much history, there’s often a legend that goes with it.  In this case, Maharana Udai Singh met a hermit when hunting and the hermit blessed the king, asking the ruler to build a palace on the spot where they met, and also asked that it be well-defended.  The king did as he was asked.  In 1568, a Mughal emperor captured Chittor, and so Udai Singh moved the capital to the site of his home, and this became the city of Udaipur.

Today, this beautiful area is dominated by lakes, palaces, and offers many places to stay, including Udaipur five star hotels.  A quick, half-day tour of the area may help you find your bearings.  In that amount of time, you can take in the City Palace, the Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandir, the Jagdish Temple, Fatehsagar Lake, Pratap Smarak, Sahelion-ki-Bari, the Sajjan Niwas Garden, the Museum and the Zoo.  That sounds like a lot for a half day, but remember, this is more like an exploratory excursion:

The City Palace towers over the lake on a hill, a combination of pavilions, terraces, courtyards, corridors, and hanging gardens.  You’ll enter through a triple arched gate, where the maharanas were weighed in gold, and that amount of gold was given to the local population.  There’s also the Suraj Gokhada here, the balcony of the sun, where the Suryavanshi Maharanas of Mewar would address the people in troubled times.  The Jagdish Temple is a great sample of Indo Aryan art, and is considered to be one of the biggest temples of Udaipur.  The Bharatiya Lok Kala Museum is a place to see Indian folk arts; the Maharana Pratap Memorial is a bronze statue of the king on his horse, Chetak — a very popular sight.  Fateh Sagar is a lake with Nehru Park, a garden island which may be reached by boat.  In Sahelion-ki-Bari, you will find the Garden of the Maidens, a place with pools and fountains and exotic plants.  In Sajjan Garh, you’ll find the Monsoon Palace, which Sajjan Singh built to watch the monsoon clouds; later used for hunting.  You’ll also see Gulab Bagh, a rose garden, spectacular in form, created by Maharana Sajjan Singh.  The garden features a library, too, of ancient manuscripts.

With luck, a drive by these areas will provide you with a better understanding of the area and where you’ll want to concentrate your time for the rest of your trip.

Malaysia is a complex mix of cultures, with a fantastically complicated history.  The present is no less layered, and the country’s relationships with traditions and technologies means that it is always growing and evolving in new and magnificently fascinating ways.  It is impossible to understand Malaysia as a whole, and even in parts it is baffling and mystifying, and there is always more that’s hidden beneath every surface.  The collision between Malay, Indian, and Chinese culture makes for a very multilayered environment, and it is rich in culture, arts, and cooking.  All of these things, and many more, make it a perfectly fantastic place to visit, and one trip is never enough.

You can certainly get a lot out of one visit, however, and even newcomers to the habit of travel will find Malaysian hotel accommodations to be most pleasing.  There is a terrific sense of hospitality here, making you feel like you’re an honored guests.  Of course, you are!  But it’s lovely to be greeted warmly, and to fall asleep and wake up in splendor, with a decor that speaks of a timelessness that can only be found here in this country.  There are plenty of excellent ways to spend an evening, and some of the arts and performance works in Kuala Lumpur speak to a very sophisticated conversation in the international arts scene.

Even dance that might be considered traditional to Malaysia, such as Sutra Dance Theatre and their exquisite work, is very much in touch with contemporary performance practice, and at times, even leads the scholarship in the field.  Their work incorporates traditional Malaysian forms like Menora and Makyong, with Bharata Natyam and Odissi from India, and work contemporary post modern and modernist dance sensibilities into their works.  The results are spectacular.  And the group is often led by Ramli Ibrahim, considered by many to be the foremost contemporary dancer in Malaysia, and one of the most respected artists in the world.  They have a very exciting schedule of events, and are one of the most exciting groups working in dance in the world today.

When TransGlobe Property Management takes care of the needs of their residents, they are not only providing excellent personal care, and taking wonderful management care of the owner’s building, they are also creating a much easy future for themselves.  This is the kind of investment that every rental property owner must look for when they are choosing a management team.  What this does, is keep people renting, it keeps the units full, and helps to increase long term tenants.

This is a double your money back guarantee.  A lot of money must be spent when a tenant moves out of a building.  There is often cleaning and renovating to be done, there are new tenants to find while that one unit remains empty.  There are many ways to go about ensuring this and one of those ways is by the continued appreciation for and acknowledgment of the tenants. Many high end building managers offer such amenities to their renters such as tickets to the theatre or to sporting events, pickup for dry cleaning and shipping services and gift certificates to restaurants.

This is the definition of a company that goes above and beyond the needs of the tenants as well as those of the owner.  This care accomplishes a few things at once, for as previously stated, the tenant remain happy and will move out less, because to be honest, in today’s world how often do businesses really take care of their clients.  And another thing that this accomplishes is the creation of a sense of community.  Boxes of chocolates on Valentines Day, or cookies at Christmas are simple ways to make people fell good.  Some management companies may even create a residential newsletter.

This is a way that all the residents can get to know one another.  This is seen just walking down the street of any city, and noticing the differences.  In Chicago, people sit out on their front porch stoops most evening during great weather.  I knew my neighbors in Chicago, and we all got to the point where we knew each other’s names and left small gifts for each other during the holidays.  Living in Los Angeles however, I never met my neighbors, and there were no colorful packages left on people’s doorsteps.  For this kind of care with your property, trust TransGlobe Property Management.  You will not just own a building, but you will have created a community.

At a local Hollywood coffee shop, I asked a friend about what there was to do in his native city: Perth, Australia.  He instantly suggested Kings Park.  He compared it to New York’s Central Park.

I went home and took a look online and discovered the park was originally known as Perth Park and opened in 1895.  It was renamed King’s Park in 1901 and eventually the apostrophe just dropped away, leaving us with Kings Park.  Like many places in Australia, the names of the park refer to British royalty.  The park was renamed to honor King Edward the VII’s ascension, as well as a visit that George, the Duke of Cornwall, and Princess Mary made to Perth.  May Drive, a main road in the park, is in honor of the Princess.  The park is actually larger than Central Park, and rests on Mount Eliza’s crest, with a view of the city.  Today, the city has a population of over a million and a half and is the fourth largest city in Australia, lying on the western coast, off the Indian Ocean.

If you ever find yourself enjoying one of Perth hotels Australia offers, then you might want to plan your trip to take advantage of this great park.  During September and October, the park is host to the biggest wildlife exhibition in the country.  In the next few months, you can see lectures by visiting UK scholars and research scientists as well as plays and concerts, such as Peter Pan and Wendy (January); Shakespeare in the Park: The Taming of the Shrew (January and February), and The Beach Boys (February), as well as A Night with Barbara Bonney & WASO (February), and The Panics with WASO (February).

I’ve never really considered a trip to Australia before, but the more Australians I meet, and the more I hear about cities like Perth, the closer I come to making the arrangements.

There’s so many things to see and do in Mumbai, that it’s impossible to even try.  It’s one of the world’s most remarkable cities, with a dense and vibrant urban population, and you can see all walks of life here.  It’s very difficult to come to India and not be changed in some significant way.  There is an energy here that is very magnetic, and there are possibilities for finding a spectacular calm, and these extremes can show you why so many people are drawn to this particular spot on the planet.  It’s endlessly fascinating, and often extremely baffling, where contradictions seem to exist at every turn, yet it still flows on, in an endless stream of creative human activity.

It’s lovely to be here, but it’s also nice to have fine accommodations, where you can rest at the end of the day and refresh the body and mind for more adventures in Mumbai.  Bombay hotel hospitality is famous, and you’ll find yourself enjoying the splendid treatment from the fine staff, and look forward to waking up in splendor.  There is a delicate art to hotel design, where it has to speak of modernity, yet also appeal to the traveler’s desire for the exotic, and you’ll enjoy the marvelous attention to detail in your own lodgings.  Art seems to flow more easily here than in other countries, and this is certainly apparent in Mumbai’s galleries.

There’s a tremendous amount of visual art here, and it’s a great city to see new work in lots of different media.  For photography, the most visible gallery is the Piramal Gallery.  They’re connected to the National Center for the Performing Arts, and connected to the Center for Photography as an Art Form, which has received funding from the Ford Foundation for preserving India’s photographic heritage.  Here at Piramal you can see some of the historic work, along with fantastic exhibitions of new work by local and international photographers, and the gallery’s design is modular, allowing for easy reconfigurations to suit the exhibit.

Whether you are the owner of a small business or a professional operating your own practice, you are a business leader.  This is defined by the fact that you have decision making responsibilities and authority when it comes to evaluating the best way to tackle sales process improvement.  So what then, does it take to succeed, the business is there and you want to keep it just so.  This involves coming up with bold and innovative strategies while following the true and tested values of those who came before you.

If this is the role you have chosen, then you must allow it to continue to motivate and to challenge you.  This is a charismatic role, one that has a mission–the survival and the prosperity of your company as well as the care you take in ensuring that your employees are well looked after.   You must think in terms of the future, planning sales training meetings and team building workshops to ensure that this will not be a short term venture, but one that will stand the test of time.

Look to the strategies of successful business leaders of the days gone by, educate yourself and prepare for each new step that will take your business to the next level.  This will prove to attract the same like-minded individuals to your company.  Employees value the strength and the dedication of a group, a group that they can depend on as well as support.  This serves your company, your staff, your consumers and your community in the best possible way.

And while this may seem like ‘grass roots’ ideology, well…hopefully it seems like ‘grass roots’ ideology’, the crew of a ship is only as strong as its captain.  So be ready, have clear goals and aspirations in mind.  Tough decisions may be necessary.  But take a step back, accumulate the right kind of information to access information about certain situations and take charge.  This is your team, and they are looking to you to lead them.

Historically speaking, Jaipur is an endlessly fascinating place.  The design and layout of the city goes back to the 18th century, and the pink color has its origins in the 19th, and both reflect Jaipur, and India’s, relationship with the world at large, as well as a consciousness that belongs to the place.  Cosmic principles lie behind the city layout, which is remarkably sensible, and also speaks to a desire to connect with something mysterious and larger than the flow of daily life.  The rhythms of Jaipur, however, are very easy to get caught up in, and there is a charm and elegance to the moments that pass here.  There are many fantastic reasons to visit Jaipur, and there is always more to know and understand, where the city reveals itself more on every visit.

It would be reasonable to expect that there are elegant lodgings in Jaipur.  Hotels are plentiful, and there are great choices that can suit every sensibility.  But it’s always lovely to experience a luxurious place from a perspective of luxury, and some of the accommodations are simply out of this world.  It’s rather heavenly to wake up somewhere where the decor speaks to the glories of the great state of Rajasthan, and beginning a day with an elegant meal served up by some of India’s top chefs is also a slice of paradise.  The sense of sumptuousness is all around you in Jaipur, and sometimes it’s hard to tell if the gorgeous sensibility comes from the city itself, or from the creative minds of the people from here, or maybe it doesn’t make a difference.

These lines all get crossed when you look at the fashions created by one of Jaipur’s most successful fashion designers, Anita Dongre.  Her clothing lines reflect her childhood here, and are a reflection of her ability to absorb the artistic sensibility and combine it with a contemporary aesthetic that makes clothes meant for wearing.  There is a lovely mix of the practical with the beautiful in her work, because she understands that women like to move.   And her work makes waves wherever it’s shown, as exemplified when her new line was shown in Kolkata.  Here, there was a wonderful demonstration of what can happen when the local tradition for glorious cloth meets international fashion consciousness, for a look that reflects Jaipur in all of its manifestations.

The city of Indianapolis, Indian has a great deal to offer visitors as well as residents and regional populations. Just one of these, though definitely one of the most nationally recognized and respected is its National Football League team the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts have been a point of pride for Indianapolis from 1984, after a complicated and conflictive move from Baltimore. Tourists who visit the city and stay in one of the Indianapolis luxury hotels may not be Colts fans, though they most likely have a strong respect for the team and perhaps also a fascination.

The team has seen its ups and downs since arriving in Indianapolis and has also produced stars and worked with some of the sports’ great players. Peyton Manning is just one of these, though he is definitely a significant one. Manning was born in New Orleans in 1976 and first gained a high recognition in college while playing for the Tennessee Volunteers. He was picked up by the Colts in the first round of the 1998 draft and has played for this team since then. It was beyond doubt one of the wisest or luckiest moves the Colts have made as Peyton Manning is often considered by valid sources to be one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to have played.

Manning has achieved numerous distinctions and honors during his career and stands out among others in many of his statistics. Some of the records he holds include maintaining consecutive seasons with over four thousand yards in passing and also has the greatest number of seasons with consecutively passing over four thousand yards. He holds the record for active quarterbacks in his career average passing is rated second only to the all time high of Steve Young. In 2009 The Sporting News listed him as the number one, top player currently active in the NFL. Manning is also popular off of the football field and has appeared in national commercials and was featured as the guest star in an episode of Saturday Night Live.

The family is coming together this winter in Boulder, CO. We are all getting together for a ski vacation and family reunion. My brother and sister-in-law hatched this idea because they moved to Boulder two years ago and they have a large house that will accommodate a lot of the family. For those that won’t fit my sister-in-law has reserved a block of rooms at a nearby Boulder hotels for those that can’t be fit into their home and has hired a caterer for the big reunion dinner we will be having one night while there.

I understand at this point there will be about 30 family members coming into Boulder for the reunion this winter. Many of these people I have not seen since I was a child. It will be really cool to see everyone and hear about what they have been up to. My favorite aunt will be flying in from Italy where she has lived for two decades now and the rest of the family is coming in from all over the country and Canada.

I know the skiing in Colorado is supposed to be amazing. Beautiful Rocky Mountain scenery, powder snow and sun shine an unbeatable ski combination. I have not been skiing in several years so meeting up with the family and skiing in Colorado will be a perfect winter get away.

Boulder is well known for its numerous outdoor activities. There are all kinds of hiking trails from easy to difficult, canoeing and fly fishing, snow hoeing and rock climbing, down hill and cross country skiing to name just a few.

My brother really likes it therein Boulder. He said he feels part of a close knit community. He said that many people there are of a like mind, loving outdoor living and sports, interested in conservation and the protection of the natural environment. It must be nice to be neighbors like that. He has been so happy since they moved up there two years ago.

Malaysia is a diverse country in Southeast Asia with absolutely incredible views and geographic elements. This is something that residents are able to enjoy on a daily basis and accept as an aspect of their lives, tourists however are often amazed at the beauty of the country and remember some of their views in pictures and postcards long after their visit. Another thing that many guests staying in one of the luxury hotels Malaysia in the month of October may remember is the great food they encountered while visiting the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival. Many of them will also be taking home recipes and meal planning ideas, as well as favorite new restaurant genres and dishes.

One of the early intentions of the festival was to increase the amount of fine dining experiences the country offered as well as to increase the level of interest in an assortment of fabulous cuisines. However, throughout its nine years of existence the festival has become a major event and draws in visitors from all over the country as well as internationally. It is one of the world’s leading events for culinary festival followers and draws in great crowds of tourists every year.

Many different chefs and restaurants participate in the festival and it has become a great resource for exposure for up and coming venues and chefs. This is an interesting aspect of the festivals development. For what was originally intended to broaden the pallets of the fine dining population has become a career and skill-broadening event for many chefs. The festival now includes many restaurants and great food from around the world can be sampled. Some of the participating restaurants from the 2009 festival include L’Heritage, which serves French Continental cuisine, Neo, which serves global tapas and Lai Po Heen, which serves classic Cantonese dishes. This is a minor sampling of the great restaurants and food that was available at this year’s festival.

The Canary Island of Lanzarote is a volcanic island which is more than two million years old. The last volcano erupted about three hundred years ago, and with that, almost half of the island was covered in ash. There are currently more than three hundred active volcanoes, but so far the lid has been kept atop them. The landscape, following the last eruption, is to this day a bit desolate, but beautifully so. It is quiet, peaceful and a way that is almost haunting, beautiful. Lava and what it leaves behind, is very good for the soil, and thus, good for the vegetation.

Lanzarote is one of the islands known for their fruits and vegetables, and their fields of vineyards. The local wines served in the 5 star Lanzarote hotels are sweet, thick and delicious. Aware of the richness of their land, locals keep up with the conservation and the protection of their environment. They are not being “green”, just being real. The natural beauty of the land stands as testament to their dedication. And this draws people to the region.

Since the mid 1970′s the largest contributor to the economy has been the industry of tourism. One of the special journeys to be taken when visiting Lanzarote is a trek through the mountains to the Timanfaya National Park, atop dromedary camels. One may take a bus to this region, located in the Fire Mountains, however on a camel, it is an experience that one will never forget. As with most journeys taken in such a manner, it may get wearisome and just a bit smelly, they are camels after all, but once at the Park, the journey will be one which is well worth it. This is a range of mountains created through volcanic eruptions and although no eruptions have happened as of late, the surface temperature remains elevated, quite curious a natural occurrence. There are many tours like this one, that will open up an entirely different world to travelers who come to this region.