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Journey towards the stars. Artist: Nicolas Bouvier.

Talented game designer, Nicolas Bouvier, has now become famous for his well crafted sci-fi sketches, most of which depicting space scenery and marvelous ship concepts. Check out more of Nicolas’ concepts here.

Exploring the depths of the seven seas. Artist: Jeffrey Turley.

The ocean deeps are still an enigma for a lot of scientists, with thousands, maybe millions, of potential undiscovered new species of marine life. This aquatic vehicle could be used for archeology, research, exploration and, why not, travel. Jeffrey Turley, the artist, works down at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and according to him he turns up with work like this on a regular basis, just to keep his art fresh. More of Turley’s work.

Riding the skies. Artist: David Levy.

Seemingly like a scene from well animated anime flick, David Levy’s design impresses through unconventionality and imagination. The concept of space pirate ships have long been applied, but this is just awesome! More of Levy’s work.

Exploring foreign worlds. Artist: Ben Mauro.

Designed by the very young, 23-year old artist, Ben Mauro, this intriguing concept tries to paint a scene on how future foreign world exploration will look like. See more of Mauro’s work.

Space commerce. Artist: Michal Jelinek

This is a great representation of future space cargo ship. Its main purpose would be to deliver goods from corner of the galaxy to the other. Concept by Michal Jelinek. More of his work here.

Space travel for simpletons. Artist: Joel Carlo Aymat.

This weird, clover shaped spacecraft has been designed by artist Joel Carlo Aymat as a simple space carrier for people, wanting to go from point A to point B at lightspeed. “It’d be like the Toyota FT-HS of space travel!” said Aymat, about his contraption. More of Aymat’s work.

The future is going retro. Artist: Jake Parker.

A big fan of pre-WWII aircraft design, artist Jake Parker designed this pretty cool sketch of a very powerful byplane, docking on a floating island. That’s Peter Pan material for ya. More of Parker’s work.

The war machine. Artist: Theodor Waern.

This frightening concept depicts the war machine of the future. Inspired by Hollywood flicks Terminator and Aliens, Swedish designer Theodor Waern sketched a really well inspired death bringer. Dubbed the “Ferro,” Waern’s war machine is equipped with weapons and can carry up to eight passengers and a pilot. More of Waern’s work.

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5. Vasco da Gama Bridge – Portugal

The bridge Vasco da Gama is the longest bridge in Europe. It consist of cable-stayed bridges, roads and bridges surrounded by the river extends to the Crown River near the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. Its total length is of 17.2 kilometers, of which 0.829 kilometres (0.5 miles) of the main bridge, 11.5 kilometers (7.1 miles) The bridges, and 4.8 kilometers (3.0 miles) of dedicated access routes. Its purpose is to alleviate congestion on the bridge to the other Lisbon (25 abril de bridge), and previously to join the radiation from the highways is not relevant to Lisbon.

4. Chesapeake Bay Bridge – USA

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, also known as the Gulf Bridge, is one of the biggest and most important bridges in North America. In short, it’s a major bridge over the double in the U.S. state of Maryland, along the Chesapeake Bay. It provides the connection between the state and the east and west coast regions. At 4.3 miles (7 km) in length, may extend the original in the world over the longest continuous steel structures in the water when it opened in in 1952. Bridge officially name (William Preston hot, warm, Jr. Memorial Bridge after William Preston, son, Governor of the State of Maryland, carried out construction.

3. King Fahd Causeway – Bahrein

King Fahd Causeway is a multiple dike – bridge combination connecting Khobar, Saudi Arabia, and the island nation of Bahrain.

A construction agreement signed on July 8, 1981 led to construction beginning the next year. The cornerstone was laid on November 11, 1982 by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa of Bahrain; construction continued until 1986, when the combination of several bridges and dams were completed. The causeway officially opened for use on November 25, 1986.

The four-lane road (2×12.3 metres (40 ft)) is 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) long. Five bridges with an overall length of 12,430 metres (40,781 ft) were built using 350,000 cubic metres (460,000 yd³) of concrete along with 147,000 metric tons of reinforced steel.

2. Bridge Donghai – China

Donghai Bridge (literally “Eastern Sea Great Bridge”) is the longest cross-sea bridge in the world and the longest bridge in Asia. Construction was finished on December 10, 2005. This marvelous bridgehas a total length of about 32.5 kilometers (20.2 miles) and connects Shanghai and external Yangshan deep-water port in China. Over the bridge is a bridge to a low level. There is also cable-stayed doors to allow passage of large ships, with a greater extent than 420 m.

1. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway – USA

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, or the Causeway, consists of two parallel bridges that are the longest bridges in the world by total length.[2] These parallel bridges cross Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana. The longer of the two bridges is 23.87 miles (38.42 km) long. The bridges are supported by over 9,000 concrete pilings. The two bridges feature bascule spans over the navigation channel 8 miles (13 km) south of the north shore. The southern terminus of the Causeway is in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. The northern terminus is at Mandeville, Louisiana.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder or at least that’s how the saying goes. For a few people, beauty, is a bit more relative the people perceive it. Someone might consider an abstract painting horrific, while the other might find it simply enchanting. However there’s something truly magical about something that, we can all agree upon, bridges the barrier between grotesque and serene.

A prison is a symbol of entrapment, torture and suffering. A hotel is mostly associated with comfort, relaxation and escape. Put the two face to face and you’ll find little, to no similarities, however by combining them you can achieve a certain level of beauty and bliss, that surfaces only in the weirdest of places. I mean think about it. Hotel + Prison, Prison + Hotel. I guess inmates would love to serve their time in hotel, but about travel guests lodging in a prison? Here’s 3 of the world’s weirdest, but at the same time beautiful, prisons converted into hotels.

1. Four Season Hotel – Istanbul, Turkey

Maybe the most famous jail house turned luxury hotel is the 65-room Four Seasons Istanbul, which up until 1969 was the Sultanahmet Jail, a detention center for writers, journalists, artists and dissident intellectuals awaiting trial at a nearby courthouse in central Istanbul.

The building’s exterior of Turkish neo-classic architecture was maintained, while contemporary glass additions were created to connect the series of buildings that frame an open courtyard, adding natural light to the hotel’s interior. This hotel offers an atmosphere of personal attention and ease that is unprecedented in Istanbul.

More at http://www.fourseasons.com/istanbul/

2. Breakwater Lodge – Cape Town, South Africa

Once a 19th century prison, the South African former notorious correctional facility Breakwater Lodge, is now a vibrant tourist location. This 1859-built structure with castle-like ramparts on the glitzy Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in the heart of Cape Town, is the country’s first jail-turned-hotel.

More at http://www.breakwaterlodge.co.za/

3. Malmaison – Oxford, UK

If an inmate of Her Majesty’s Prison in Oxford were to pay a return visit to his former clink today, he might come away wishing he’d committed his crime 40 years later. The castle-like walls, built for William the Conqueror in 1071, remain; as do the three-inch-thick steel doors in the cell blocks. But the prison’s name has been changed to the Malmaison and conditions have improved dramatically. The House of Correction gym features has state-of-the-art exercise equipment, and high tea, not corporeal punishment, is served up in the visitor’s room.

Back in2005 the famous Malmaison hotel chain turned the oldest prison in Britain into one of the classiest boutique hotels in the county. Quite a makeover. Instead of changing the old look, the designers created a jail house theme by keeping the wrought iron stairwell and many of the original jail bars and bare brick walls. Of course, the designers also added a modern touch and vibe to the retro, creepy theme. A soft mood lighting and original pieces of art are just a few additions. The dining area is now a chic brasserie with a menu featuring steak tartare and fillet of sea bass, and the old cells feature plasma TVs, heated slate-stone bathrooms, plush velvet curtains and fully stocked mini-bars.

More at http://www.malmaison-oxford.com/

4. Liberty Hotel – Boston, USA

Oh, the irony. The Charles Street Jail, in Boston, was one of the countries most infamous prisons, dating from the middle of the 19th century. It started it slow decay as prison, in the mid 20th century, before finally closing its doors at the beginning of the 1990’s. But from the ashes, a gorgeous new 298-room hotel was raised. Opened in September 2007 after a $150 million renovation, 18 of its rooms are set within the high granite walls of the 1851-built main prison, which has as its centerpiece a towering light-filled 90-foot-high lobby rotunda.

More at http://www.libertyhotel.com/

5. Hotel Katajanokka – Helsinki, Finland

To find one of Europe’s classiest prison hotels, you must cross the Baltic to Helsinki, Finland, and check into Hotel Katajanokka, a tall red-brick structure on a narrow peninsula close to the domed Uspenski Cathedral in the center of the city. This was the Helsinki county prison for 150 years until it closed down in 2002; it’s now a 102-room boutique inn run by Best Western, with a swish bare-brick restaurant called Jailbird. Which room to book? Ask for the private cell where former Finnish president Risto Ryti was jailed by the Soviets at the end of World War Two.

More at http://www.bwkatajanokka.fi

6. Hotel Loewengraben – Lucerne, Switzerland

The Jail Hotel Loewengraben in old town Lucerne, Switzerland, functioned as a prison right up until 1998. Right about the same year it re-opened as a small, clean, unfussy boutique hotel. The rooms have bars on the windows, the doors tiny slots to push food through, and the communal areas are decorated with prison memorabilia. And just in case you missed the joke, the hotel bar is called Alcatraz. Not exactly four seasons material, but fun enough to get welcomed in the list.

More at http://www.jailhotel.ch/

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10. Khaju Bridge

9. Pont du Gard

8. Bridge of Sighs

7. Iron Bridge

6. Covered Bridges

5. Ponte Vecchio

4. The Wind and Rain Bridge

3. Brooklyn Bridge

2. Tower Bridge

1. Golden Gate Bridge

via: Neatorama

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In what’s a new and bizarre new technique of fighting, the new alarmant, New York bedbugs wide scale infestation, man’s best friend has been specially trained to sniff out the critters. Radar the beagle and Taz the Australian kelpie are just two of the ever expanding pack of highly trained canines. Chances are you’ve seen one of them in a flat building or hotel, but you’ve more then certain didn’t give too much thought to their unique talents.

“We are inundated with requests from hotels and apartment owners,” said Carl Massicott, the mastermind behind Advanced K9 Detectives, which has six dogs working steadily and two more in training.

“It’s difficult to keep up with the demand,”

The city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development says 6,889 infestation complaints were logged in the fiscal year ending last June, and 2,008 building owners were hit with summonses. In 2004, there were just 537 calls about bedbug infestations, and only 82 landlords were slapped with violations.

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The whole project is being managed by brothers Christian and Nick’s development company Candy & Candy, featuring 80 flats designed by architect Richard Rogers with communal spas, squash courts and a private wine-tasting facility. Among the buyers you can find some of the most famous and wealthy men, from oil moguls, to actors, to Russian oligarchs.

Knight Frank’s head of residential research, Liam Bailey, said sales at One Hyde Park proved the super-prime property market was still strong.

He said: “One Hyde Park is the most prominent example of activity at the top of the market, but its performance is not an anomaly. The pull effect of One Hyde Park has meant that whereas £2,500 per sq ft represented the peak of the market in Knightsbridge in 2006, 18 months later £4,000 per sq ft is not only achievable, it is now expected for refurbished and newly developed properties in the super-prime sector.”

The premium apartments will feature bullet proof windows, purified air systems and “panic rooms” and everyone on site will have access to an underground passage leading to the nearby Mandarin Oriental hotel. Although not yet even completed, half of the units have already been sold at an average of more than £20 million each with average per square-foot prices hitting £6,000 this year. Thus the previous record struck in last year’s June by, the then newly, converted flat stretching across the first and second stories of two Regency houses in the nearby Lowndes Square, Belgravia, sold for more than £4,250 per square foot, has been broken.

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1. Aqua – USA

Set to be complete in late 2009 in the windy city of Chicago, the Aqua tower will dominate the city’s skyscrapers. While at a glimpse it may seem quite traditional, upon a closer inspection you’ll be able to appreciate the ripple/jelly effect created by variously sized balconies from top to bottom.

2. The Chicago Spire – USA

The Chicago spire will compete with the previous Aqua tower, for supremacy of the cities aerial supremacy. Sadly the Aqua tower may not have a chance, as the phenomenal Chicago spire, when completed in 2010, will be the world’s tallest residential building and the tallest building of any kind in the western world. Resembling a drill, the 609m structure will undoubtedly be a sight fore sore eyes.

4. Regatta Hotel – Jakarta

Built with a nautical theme in mind the Regatta Hotel will be one the most luxurious and eye pleasing resorts in the world. The resort will be consisted of 10 smaller towers, which are meant to represent sailing boats, with a tall, beautifully hollowed tower in their mist, representing a “lighthouse.”

5. Residence Antilia – India

As it can be seen in the photo, this building’s design is quite extravagant and well weird, to me it seems like a modern day Babylon gardens. The structure however has been met with severe criticism and protest from behalf of the native population, which live, in a proportion of 65%, in nearby slumps. Talk about hypocrisy, but alas the project has already been initialized.

6. Russia Tower – Russia

The soon to be completed Russia Tower, will be built in the heart of Moscow, where it’ll overlook the whole area, thanks to a observation station built on top of it. When completed, in the year 2012, the building will be the tallest in Europe, twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower.

7. Penang Global City Center, Malaysia

After months of rumors and speculations, this gigantic, typical Asian project, is in the final stages of approval and will undoubtedly soon start construction. The whole project will resemble a sci-fi like city, with two twin 200 m towers towering the whole complex and the whole island of Penang for that matter. Alas due to the project’s huge size, construction will last at least 15 years.

8. Gazprom Headquarters – Russia

This huge flame shaped building will house the Gazprom headquarters in St. Petersburg, and towering at a whooping 300m, it is certain to make any nearby building tiny in comparison. The building is also set to change color, so say officials, up to 10 times a day, depending on the sun’s position and atmospheric coloring. The building has already been nicknamed ‘corn on the cob’ by unhappy locals though.

9. Burj Dubai – Dubai

And here it is. La creme de la creme of modern architecture and skyscrapers. When completed next year it will be the tallest man-made structure in the world and the tallest building by a long shot with a predicted height of 818m. Currently the tallest building on earth, excluding an antenna, is Taipei 101 in Taiwan which stands at 509m.

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Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of traveling to a lot of marvelous and exotic places around the world; travel soon become more then a hobby to me, rather a passion. In this time, I’ve been able to acquire a great deal of experience, that I’ve been laying down on this blog for some time now. Now I’m gonna share a few important tips, that have managed to save a great deal of money on my trips over the years.

1. Bottled water is a necessity and most of the times it can can be expensive and a pain to purchase during trips, so why spare yourself the hassle and “bottle” your own water. Personally I’ve started carrying a water purifier that I can attach to almost any sink faucet. It is pretty small (I carry it in a small Ziploc bag) and you can even bring the adapter to fit it to non-standard faucets. Simply attach the purifier to a faucet, fill up your water bottles and voila, you have fresh, pure water at your disposal. When you are finished, remove the purifier, shake the water out and wrap in paper towel before placing back in your Ziploc bag or whatever it is your using. So easy and so convenient (not to mention – environmentally friendly!).
2. Lately I’ve started making the habit of eating more during launch, instead of dinner, when traveling. Lunch menus are far more cheaper and it’s a lot better for you figure, just think about stuffing your belly with food and then heading right to sleep? In the evening, it’s a good idea to have a salad too.
3. Whatever you do, try to resist the temptation of ordering room service. It’s heavily overpriced, I’m not adding the staff’s cut here, and could cause a deep whole in your families travel budget. Instead, ask the hotel front desk for a list of local restaurants that deliver. You’ll get to taste some great local food and save a few bucks too!
4. You should always carry local currency on you, but it’s a even better idea to have some smaller bills on you. It’s great for tipping, buying souvenirs and other small miscellaneous things you might run into. It also works great for taxicabs so that you have exactly the amount for your fare and your tip.
5. Never ever use your hotel room phone for long distance calls, you’ll be terribly sorry if you do, believe me I know. Hotels are well known for charging exorbitant long distance rates, as for everything you might order or purchase from your room. Instead, try to find a pay phone in the hotel and use your calling card, or alternatively, purchase a calling card in the country you are visiting. It will spare you tons of cash.
6. Buy snacks and drinks, from a nearby grocery store, instead of buying from the hotel or vending machines. Let’s face it, vending machines are a rip off and often the food is stale. The answer is to pack up with some of your favorite snacks from back home and when you feel the urge to have a bit of those tasty chips, you just open your backpack. If you don’t want to bring food with you, visit a local grocery store where you can pick up treats for a fraction of the cost of vending machines.
7. When you arrive at your destination, head over to the information desk at the airport (often located near the baggage claim area). You’ll find tons of brochures on activities, restaurants and hotels. Oftentimes, they will have coupons and discounts to help save you money on activities and food. The personnel working the counter can also provide a plethora of information to help you plan your trip.
8. Always when traveling off town, bring a notebook, or whatever’s comfortable for you to write on. Use it to record information about your activities, list important phone numbers, locations, write about your trip etc. When you come home, the notes in it will be a great reference source when are planning your second trip back!

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