The post Lap O’ Luxury: Conde´Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards appeared first on Vagablond.
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Start spreading the news! The well-heeled readers of Conde´Nast Traveler, one of the world’s most respected magazines, have spoken. And they’ve chosen the top luxury resort worldwide.
Check them out by continent, but note that 8 of the top 10 resorts with scores in the mid-90s are in Asia or Africa. Of the US top 50, I’ve had the pleasure of staying in one of them and dining in five more.
Read the lists by:
• Best of the Best
• Top Cities
• Top Hotels
• Top Transportation
• Top Resorts.
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Pubs used to serve beer, brats and burgers. Now, they’re going upscale, big time.
One notable pub is The Spotted Pig in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, where the walls are lined with old butcher paper charts, the bar is lined with plain brown-paper place mats, the menu is filled with seasonal British and Italian offerings like sheep’s ricotta gnudi with brown butter, and you can chase it all with a Brooklyn Organic Porter.
Open 7 days a week:
• Brunch: 11am – 3pm (weekends);
• Lunch: 12 – 3pm;
• Bar Menu: 3 – 5:30pm; and
• Dinner: 5:30pm – 2am.
A: 314 W. 11th Street @ Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10014;
T: 212.620.0393;
W: www.thespottedpig.com
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Tens of thousands of Web sites sell T-shirts. Hundreds sell T-shirts for scuba divers. One does a particularly good job of combining distinctive scuba diving T-shirts with clever concepts, novel designs, comfy fabrics, and durable prints.
That site is DiveJunkie.com.sg out of Singapore. In fact, they were recently presented the Spirit of Enterprise 2005 Award by the President of their country, Mr. S.R. Nathan.
Like their designs? Want to win a cool designer T? They’re giving away a S$100 Dive Junkie voucher to each of 5 lucky winners with the most interesting views! Send your entries to: [email protected] with the Subject Title “Streetwear Surfwear Divewear – My Opinion” before 30th November 2005. Also include your Name, Country of Residence, Contact Number and tell them if you are a certified diver. And please mention you saw it on Vagablond.com.
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In a few years, we may all be wearing our phones on our wrists, not around our ears. That’s the promise of the Nokia 888 communicator concept phone, which is gaining recognition in global design and communications industry journals.
Created by Tamer Nakisci, a Turkish student, for the Nokia Benelux Open Design Awards, this phone offers a malleable interface that can be bent, twisted and wrapped into different shapes like a wristband. Wow! That’s even cooler than my parent’s old 8-track cassette player. By the way, Mr. Nakisci’s favorite song is rumored to be “Twist and Shout.”
This phone uses liquid batteries, provides speech recognition, a flexible touchscreen and touch-sensitive body cover. Plus, its simple programmable body mechanism can change forms for different situations.
[Via CNN and Slashphone.com]
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]]>The post When I’m (Almost) 64: Paul McCartney Concert Tour appeared first on Vagablond.
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When a concert takes place on the same floor where the San Jose Sharks host hockey games, “cool” is the operative word. And cool best describes the 36-song, 2-encore, 2 hour, 40 minute Paul McCartney concert we witnessed last night that’s still giving us a buzz.
Though he’ll be 64 next year — and though he wouldn’t have dared to have sung “When I’m 64,” Sir Paul rocked the house at the HP Pavillion in San Jose. About 20,000 of my closest friends were there for the musical and visual extravaganza.
I’ve seen dozens of concerts over my years: McCartney’s Wings, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Elton John, Billy Joel, and Bob Dylan, to name a few. But Paul’s cool, charisma, personable chats with the audience, kick-ass four-piece back-up band, eye-candy light-display floor and background, huge video screens, and the overwhelming volume of material will stay with me for quite a while.
He sang about 80% Beatles standards, 10% from Wings and 10% of his newest songs to promote his new album. Most often, he played acoustical or electric bass with the guys. For a handful of songs, he sang and strummed alone on stage. And for three separate groups of songs, he sat at a baby grand piano.
Funniest sign someone held up that made he chortle?: “My Grandfather saw you at Candlestick.” (That was in 1966, by the way — the Beatles only appearance in SF and their final public gig anywhere; Paul performed here a few times since then with other bands — most recently in 2002.)
Read a review.
Visit Paul’s Website.
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On my recent visit to Los Angeles and surrounding cities, I stopped by a former train stop in Santa Monica that’s been transformed into a series of corrugated roof art galleries called Bergamot Station.
Two of the more interesting ones were the Gallery of Functional Art and the neighboring Lois Lambert Gallery.
The Copper Wire sculptures by Chris Mason were amazing because they were shown in various sizes, climbing the walls, rapelling and generally hanging out.
The Porcelain Heads by Casey O’Connor were also striking in their cuteness, virteousness and realness. Though there were about 40 heads with different hats, each of the faces was distinctive.
The gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 am-6pm and Sundays noon to 4pm.
T: 310.829.6990
E: [email protected]
W: www.galleryoffunctionalart.com
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After being hit by a handful of major hurricanes over the past two years, the islands of the Caribbean Sea are finally getting a bit of good news… The deadline to require American citizens to use passports for travel to the Bahamas, Bermuda and all other countries has been formally extended to December 31, 2006.
Countries that have the most cruise visitors lobbied the State Department to postpone a previous deadline of December 31, 2005, since many passengers have used picture IDs such as driver’s licenses and birth certificates rather than passports.
Note that passports are already required for the following countries:
• Barbados
• Guadeloupe
• Guyana
• Haiti
• Martinique
• St. Barts
• St. Eustatius
• Suriname
• Trinidad and Tobago.
For more info, visit www.travel.state.gov or call the National Passport Information Center at 877.487.2778.
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Just saw a newspaper ad for Thai Airways that said “Two free flights with your Royal Silk Business Class ticket.”
The details: Travel round-trip on Royal Silk Business Class from New York to Bangkok on Thai Airways — and enjoy FREE FLIGHTS TO TWO OTHER CITIES WITHIN THAILAND — also on Biz Class.
To take advantage of their legendary Royal Orchid in-flight service, book and fly by 12/31/05. Call your local travel agent or 1-877-THAI-AIR.
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Singapore Airlines just announced it will be joining Lufthansa by offering in-flight high-speed Internet access, plus four channels of live television.
At most high-level hotel chains, this service is free. For this airline, it will kick off in 2006 on flights along the airline’s Singapore-Frankfurt-JFK route and will be a bit pricey — yet Singapore will be less costly than Lufthansa.
Singapore Airlines will charge $14.95 for up to three hours, $19.95 for up to six, $29.95 for six or more. Or pay-as-you-go: $7.95 for 30 minutes and a quarter per minute after that.
At Lufthansa, the service costs between $19.95 and $29.95 for long-haul flights or $9.95 for the first 30 minutes and $.25 for every minute thereafter.
Via our fellow bloggers at blog.travelpost.com.
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