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Ahoy Czechia!
I stayed in the Ibis Hotel during the first few nights in Prague but decided to extend my stay, hoping to do an extra day trip to a town called Karlovy Vary. I was interested to see the place featured in the movie Last Holiday where the actress Queen Latifah’s character Georgia decided to spend her remaining days on Earth. This was after being mistakenly diagnosed with having a rare brain condition and only having a few weeks left to live. She decided to spend her last funds on a luxury holiday in the Grandhotel Pupp to meet her favourite famous celebrity chef Didier. However, unlike Georgia, my ending was…
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The Greatest Traveler
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, better known as Ibn Battuta, was born in Tangier, Morocco in 1304. He is a Muslim Berber Moroccan scholar, writer, geographer, at times a Qadi or judge and best known as an explorer and traveller. Ibn Battuta is considered as the World’s Greatest Traveler in History. He was twenty years of age when he left his home town in Morocco in 1325, to go on a Hajj, or a pilgrimage to Mecca to fulfill the Fifth Pillar of Islam. He finally returned home from travelling in 1354. According to some scholars, during his twenty-nine years of traveling, he was able to widely traverse a distance…
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Moscow, Russia
Moscow is the capital and the largest city of the Russian Federation. It is the seat of the government, as well as the political, scientific, historical, architectural, and business centre of the country. It displays the country’s contrasts at their most extreme. Its distinguishable symbols of great and terrible past, as well as ancient and modern architecture, are visible side by side. Today, imposing Soviet buildings, the Seven Sisters, or Stalinist skyscrapers representing Stalin’s empire and other impressive architectures spread all over in this intimidating city. You may love or hate Moscow. You may probably be visiting monumental and palatial areas at one point. Then all of a sudden, you…
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Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow, Russia
One of the things I did during my visit to Moscow was to visit the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics. With the help of my Russian roommate – Julia, I was able to organize my visit. Travelling by train from the Red Square area via Kitay-gorod to VDNKh station, I conveniently reached the museum after approximately thirteen minutes. VDNKh is the closest station to the complex, should you wish to travel by train. Services depart every ten minutes and it operates every day. Monument to the Conquerors of Space – Russia The Monument to the Conquerors of Space is a stunning 110-metre-high titanium spire erected in Moscow in 1964. It soars…
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Norwich City Football Club – The underdogs bite back
English Premier League is back after the European games. Some of the awaited games were those of the big teams such as Liverpool FC, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspurs, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, etc… Like me, their respective fans were extremely excited wondering who’s going to score among their best players and how many goals they would get, especially when they are playing against the ‘not-so-good’ teams in the League. As if they were already banking their scores at the expense of the underdogs. It’s a no-brainer that the objective is to strive and win every game and accumulate more points and goals to compete among each other to secure the…
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Amman Citadel
The Amman Citadel is a historic site that sits on the highest hill at the centre of downtown Amman in Jordan. It is the site of ancient Rabbath-Ammon that occupied the site since the Bronze Age. Archaeologists have excavated numerous artifacts that prove that the area has been inhabited by different peoples of different cultures; therefore, it is considered important because of its long history of occupation by many great civilisations. It is surrounded by a long wall, which has been rebuilt many times but remarkably still serves its purpose even to this day. The small archaeological museum on the hill features and exhibits some items that date…
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A TASTE OF THE BIG APPLE – NEW YORK
“Start spreading the news I am leaving today I want to be a part of it. New York, New York…” This timeless song “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra kept ringing in my head while on the train from my chosen hostel in Central Park area. It was the beginning of my American exploration that started in New York. The very first thing I did was to go to Times Square which is the heart of the city to collect The New York Pass that I purchased days before my flight from Dubai. I decided to collect it at the Big Bus Information Desk at Madame Tussauds and had…
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An Insightful Travel Experience – Nepal
Before I started my own travels, I had been reading the articles found on https://www.hillmanwonders.com. I was fascinated by the insights Howard Hillman put into words about his passion for travelling and at the same time creating interesting and helpful tips for other would-be travellers. I wish I could travel as much as he accomplished and could document not only the famous places but also the weird and wonderful sites that I would encounter on my journeys. His website became my benchmark that I would gladly cross out the relevant places as soon as I was back from travelling. Given the ways and means, I would definitely visit all of…
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The Marketing Kit for my Book has Arrived
It is almost two months now since my book entitled INSPIRED TO TRAVEL; TRAVEL TO INSPIRE – A TRAVEL MEMOIR was published online via Amazon.com, as well as on Barnes and Noble website. Since then, I have been waiting for the marketing materials from the publisher as it is part of the benefits for the Gold Package that we purchased to publish my book from a Singaporean based company. Early this morning, I received a call from UPS that there is a shipment, a small package for me from the U.S. Later on a courier man came and indeed I have a parcel from Partridge in Bloomington, Indiana. The package…
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Searching for the Lighthouse of Alexandria
It’s been a month now since my book INSPIRED TO TRAVEL; TRAVEL TO INSPIRE – A TRAVEL MEMOIR was published and made available online via Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. I am pleased with the current interest especially to hear comments and suggestions from those who got their copies and have already read the book. One of my friends was so pleased that I had included Egypt as she is interested to visit the country and is considering traveling probably by the end of this summer. Like most of the questions that I have been asked so far, she wanted to know what made me decide to travel to Egypt…
