ElaineR.com

Romantic Luxury Hotels in Spain – The Paradores

ElaineR — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:18:58 +0000

If you are looking for romantic luxury hotels for your holidays, I have a recommendation for you – the Paradores in Spain. My best travel experience in Spain was not Barcelona, which of course is always fascinating to visit when you are surrounded by Gaudi’s architecture and Picasso/Dali’s paintings. But my most romantic luxurious experience in Spain was visiting the Paradores. The original meaning of Parador is Inn. It’s now a brand name for the selection of state-owned luxury hotels, often in a building of historic or artistic importance. Some of the most romantic memories my husband and I have [Read more...]

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The Top 10 Chinese Masterpiece Paintings

ElaineR — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:36:29 +0000

The Top 10 Chinese Masterpiece Chinese Paintings Chinese paintings use ink, brush and colour pigment to draw on silk or rice paper. This is very different to the Western paintings. During the Beijing Olympics ceremonies in 2008, you probably have seen the breath-taking scenes of opening a scroll of pictures. I have no doubt it was inspired by the traditional Chinese paintings and calligraphies. Some of the top 10 famous Chinese Paintings below are indeed big but with delicate details. The Top 10 famous Chinese Paintings below are selected by professionals in China and are officially recognized by the Chinese [Read more...]

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Review of Hostellerie du Val de Sault

ElaineR — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:23:32 +0000

Picking France as a holiday destination can be expensive. From my experience, the best value you can get without sacrifising quality too much is to stay in Logis (pronounciation similar to “lo shi” in French), an independently run lodging promoted and structured under an organisation called Logis de France in the beginning. The brand has since expanded outside France and also have logis in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg. Therefore, it’s now called Logis Hotels instead of Logis de France. There are different gradings in terms of the rooms and the food. But you can always get good genuine French [Read more...]

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Where to see Lavender in Provence?

ElaineR — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:59:28 +0000

Starting from mid-Jun, the lavender plants will start to bloom in many parts of Provence, France. It will last until mid August, when farmers start to harvest the lavender and make them into all different types of scented products we love today: lavender oil, lavender soap, lavender lotion, lavender herbs, you name it. But Provence is very big. Where exactly can we see the lavender fields (Champs de Lavande in French – meaning lines and lines of lavender)? I have just been back from a lavender hunting trip and can share some of my experience. The only thing I could [Read more...]

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Steak Tartare

ElaineR — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:58:59 +0000

I just came back from a trip to Provence and had the most wonderful steak tartare I’ve ever had. Curious as usual, I was very eager to find out how did the name tartare come from. What does it mean? Is steak tartare originated from France? Is tartare a French word? First, the meaning of steak tartare. A quick seach in Google, most definition sites give it a meaning of raw finely chopped beef served with onion etc. etc. I was convinced that the term “steak tartare” was used to refer to this type of serving of beef or other [Read more...]

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Some interesting cutural differences between East and West

ElaineR — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:40:16 +0000

Understanding of Chinese/Asian culture vs. Western… This is an interesting resesarch. Many people know the fundamental cultural differences between the East and the West but fail to articulate. I was forwarded this brilliant visual presentation of Asian culture vs. Western culture. Since Chinese is a dominate race in Asia, I must say that this reflects more Chinese culture vs. Western culture and gives a generalization of the Asian culture, which also comprises Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay etc. There are some similarities among other Asian cultures due to the social make-up and the influence to each other because of the proximity. But each [Read more...]

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Lexiaguo (Luoxiagou) – where is it in China?

ElaineR — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:35:42 +0000

Below is the information forwarded to me recently. It’s about a very beautiful place in China. It’s called Lexiaguo. Does Lexiaguo exist? The pictures look stunning. Since I used to travel to China a lot and have never heard of this place, I did some research myself. Original text from the forwarded email: Lexiaguo – southwest of Kunming in Yunnan, China It is located in the south-western part of Kunming , 2600 ft. above sea level, a remote area. Because of its lack of infrastructure and inadequate transportation and lodging, most travel agencies would not think of going there. But [Read more...]

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Vanity

ElaineR — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:26:04 +0000

Most of us are vain in nature. I found this trait “prominently subtle” in men. Not being sexist. But it is true. The more successful the man is, the more vain he can be. Women express vanity in clothes, jewellery and body shape. Men express it in wealth, status and indeed many in their clothes and shoes as well, not just cars and beautiful girlfriends. “They think I am rich.” “They think I am capable.” “They think I am beautiful.” Once we have this feeling in us, we feel good about ourselves. I suppose there’s nothing wrong about that. We [Read more...]

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Mourning for Michael Jackson

ElaineR — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:20:18 +0000

I am mourning for the death of Michael Jackson. Those in my age (in the 40s) know very well that he has been part of our life. It did not matter where you lived. It did not matter whether you liked pop music or not. You could not be possible not heard of Michael Jackson if you are in my age. He was everywhere. He is still everywhere. I did not realize the scale of the impact only after his death. He united so many people in so many different parts of the world – from USA to Russia, from New [Read more...]

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Religion in China

ElaineR — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:36:38 +0000

Tips on China’s Culture One quarter of the population on this earth are Chinese. Just in China alone, there are 1.3 billion people. As I am writing, how many more are born? It is impossible to generalize the tactics to deal with different Chinese people. Here I am sharing with you some of my experience from working in the area and being a Chinese myself! Remember: this is my personal experience only. You need to spend time, show respect and open your mind in order to understand anybody, as it is true in all human relationships. // There are so [Read more...]

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