House on a Rock at Rhode Island

Clingstone, an unusual and such a vintage, 103-year-old mansion in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, survives through the love and hard work of family and friends. Henry Wood, the owner, runs the house like a camp where all skilled workers welcome. The Jamestown Boatyard hauls the family’s boats and floating dock and stores them each winter in return for a week’s use of the house in the summer.

Mr. Wood, a 79-year-old Boston architect, bought the house with his ex-wife Joan in 1961 for $3,600. It had been empty for two decades. Clingstone had been built by a distant cousin, J.S. Lovering Wharton. Mr. Wharton worked with an artist, William Trost Richards, to create a house of picture windows with 23 rooms on three stories radiating off a vast central hall. The total cost of the construction, which was completed in 1905, was $36,982.99. However, bear in mind that the currency in 1905 is not the same as for now. Possibly the price is estimated about $4 millions.An early sketch of the house shows the plan on how they develop the greatest architecture. Mr. Wood is as proud as any parent of his house, and keeps a fat scrapbook of photographs and newspaper clippings that document its best moments. Many of the historic photos he has were provided by the company that insured the house for its original owners. The Newport Bridge is visible from the windows of the Ping-Pong room, to the left of the fireplace. The house is maintained by an ingenious method: the Clingstone work weekend. Held every year around Memorial Day, it brings 70 or so friends and Clingstone lovers together to tackle jobs like washing all 65 of the windows. Anne Tait, who is married to Mr. Wood’s son Dan, refinished the kitchen floor on one of her first work weekends.

There are 10 bedrooms at Clingstone, all with indecently beautiful views. The dining room table seats 14. Refinishing the chairs is a task on the list for a future work weekend. Sign by the ladder that leads to the roof reads “No entry after three drinks or 86 years of age“.

“It used to say 80 but we had a guy on a work weekend who was 84, so I changed it,” said Mr. Wood, ever the realist. It would have been a shame to curtail the activities of a willing volunteer.

Why You Should Visit Siem Reap Cambodia

As far as Angkor Wat temple go, Siem Reap ranks right at the top of its historical and cultural significance as well as global recognition. Located 5.5 km north of the modern town of Siem Reap, Angkor Wat is the essence of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia country, where it appears on its national flag, and it is the country’s prime attraction for international visitors. In my opinion, the visit to Siem Reap will not be completed without going to Angkor Wat and vice versa.

Then there is Ta Prohm temple, a structure that’s no less magnificent and is often attributed to Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm has been left in much the same condition in which it was found, which is the picturesque and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor’s most popular temples with visitors. The architecture is as complex as any other Angkorian landmarks, if not more so; the stones are placed at such precision and complex interlocking shaped that it is impossible to fit even a single piece of paper between them!

Said to be built by more than 1000 men, the Angkor Thom remained the capital of a kingdom in decline until it was abandoned some time prior to 1609. An early western visitor wrote of an uninhabited city of Angkor Thom as fantastic as the Atlantis which some people thought to have been built by the Roman Emperor. During its time, the ancient city is believed to have sustained a population of about hundred twenty thousands of people.

Hope this info will inspire you to visit Siem Reap of Cambodia. Do enjoy every inches of beautiful temple and nature sceneries in Siem Reap. For more details on accommodation, food and tourist guide, please do visitSiem Reap Info Travel.

Krrunching My Way to Uniquely Singapore

I was in Kota Bharu Kelantan (visiting and shopping) when a representative from Nuffnang contacted me about my blog Akademi Fantasia being the top 5 finalists for the best travel award nomination in the First Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards Ceremony 2009. I’m totally lying if I said I was not surprised and excited about this nomination. Being the top 5 finalists for travel category is an honor to me and the news is already pumping my adrenaline to the highest during these recent days. I currently wonder the person who has nominated me because I hope he/she can contact me via my email so that I can thank him/her properly for the nomination. I’ll do my best to compete for the travel award even though I feel I have very low chance of winning, plus the opponents are very professional, experienced and great. I have been in many parts of the world (US, UK, Ireland, Europe, and China) but never in Singapore (oh wait, I have but only inside the airport!) and this implicitly has inspired me to attend the ceremony. Enough with the ramblings, I will tell how you can vote this blog.

Based on what I heard, the voting is merely contributing 50% of the final points. The other 50% portion is coming from professional judges, consisting expert (s) from Nuffnang, FrankVizeum, P&G, Ripplewerkz, Asia PR Werkz, Dow Jones Newswires and Singapore Tourism Board. Good job. You are done now! You can vote every 2 hours. Follow Step 1-4 to vote for Akademi Fantasia. I will appreciate all the votes and thanks for voting. The venue for the award is at Pan Pacific Singapore. Being one of 5-stars hotels in Singapore, do you wonder how it looks like? Check this out!

The History of Tourism in Europe

The birth of modern tourism is rooted in the recent history of Europe. The emergence of middle and upper classes combined with holiday time incorporated into the workplace together fueled by the industrial revolution contributed greatly to the emergence of the industry. The terms tourist and tourism appeared less than a century ago and referred to people traveling for periods over a day at a time. Previous to the 19th century, tourism was primarily reserved for royalty and privileged families and was generally for cultural reasons. In this article, we shall see how important Britain is in the history of the industry.

Britain was the first country to modernize through heavy industry. This led to leisure time and, consequently, the leisure industry. People had time on their hands travel to for cultural, climate and health pursuits. Gradually, the working masses were able to plan for leisure like the business owning class. The British began touring the rest of Europe eventually finding and developing resorts to become popular destinations. This is rather quaintly evident in the legacy of holiday resort names scattered about Europe. The Promenade des Anglais of the French Riviera is the first and best established resort with the esplanade bearing its name. Scattered about Europe are hotels with names like the Hotel Bristol, the Hotel Carlton or the Hotel Majestic and more. The English certainly are a proud bunch, to say the least.

The British popularized many winter sports both on island as well as abroad. In the middle 1800s, many villages in Switzerland came under entrepreneurial attention to provide ski resorts for the new leisure classes. Notable is the first packaged winter vacation in 1903 to Adelboden in Switzerland. Many sports including boxing, football, rugby became organized by the British. The attraction to sports has never stopped growing worldwide and has always been a reason to travel as a tourist for an event.

In comes mass travel with the development of transportation. Railways become the most popular way to visit seasides and other countries. Technology allowed greater numbers of people to make the most of their new-found leisure time – the holiday. On July 5th, 1841, the British founder of modern mass tourism, Thomas Cook, chartered the first train to take a group of campaigners going from Leicester to Loughborough some twenty miles away. Seeing potential for business development, he became the first tour operator and the rest is history.

Domestic tourism flourished, naturally, in the beginning until foreign travel became in reach of more of the masses. Throughout all of Europe, resort towns sprang up to accommodate the ever increasing demand of growing tourism. European river cruises came as a result of tourist charms with the many splendid rivers throughout the Continent. It is really about the pursuit of pleasure, indeed.

For many countries today around the world their economies became dependent on the influx and commerce of international visitors. Higher speed trains and the advent of planes exponentially increased the opportunity for the masses to explore this world and its peoples. And we can thank the British for their persistence and endeavors for their contribution to the burgeoning tourist industry.

Photo Monday – Malaysia Beautiful Sunset

Being this month in many places, beautiful beaches and islands around Malaysia has really opened my eyes on the splendor of God’s creation. I managed to take shots on the sunset and share them here. One of the photos was even taken from the flight above the sky. Will the photos encourage you coming to Malaysia?

Photo Monday – 15 Inspiring Ecosystem Wallpapers

1. Library of Ages at Central California. The fog settled in after another nice sunset along the central California coast. The rock layers which record the geologic history of Montana De Oro State Park just south of Big Sur, can be read like books in an ancient library. A long exposure isolated the rock by smoothing the large surf. Indeed, the photos is very naturally magnificent.

Time Lapse Landscapes - Best Videography

Here's a beautifully photographed collection of timelapse shots from Arizona and Utah, created by one man (Dustin Farrell) using one camera (a Canon 5D Mark II). It shows iconic locations, including many used in my favorite timelapse film, Koyaanisqatsi. But Koyaanisqatsi isn't available in 1080p, so for now this'll have to do. My favorite part: the Milky Way zooming by in the background. Well done, Mr. Farrell!