Set on 77 hectares of tropical gardens above Jimbaran Bay, AYANA Resort and Spa enjoys majestic views and a secluded location, yet is just 10 kilometers from Bali’s airport. With a 290-room hotel and 78 private freestanding villas spread out along its 1.3 kilometer coastline, this is the most spacious and one of the most acclaimed Bali luxury hotels. For a completely indulgent Bali luxury romantic vacation, escape to a private oceanfront villa, dine at lavish restaurants, take part in boundless resort recreation, or just relax poolside with no schedule except your next treatment at the Thermes Marins Spa and award-winning Spa on the Rocks. A world of discovery and Balinese hospitality awaits you at this Bali resort hotel.

found on ayanaresort.com

The island of Pemba, known as ‘Al Jazeera Al Khadra’ (the green island) in Arabic, is an island forming part of the Zanzibar archipelago, lying off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. It is situated about 50 kilometres to the north of the Unguja (the island proper of Zanzibar). In 1964 Zanzibar was united with the former colony of Tanganyika to form Tanzania. It lies 50 kilometres east of mainland Tanzania, across the Pemba Channel. Together with Mafia Island (south of Zanzibar), these three islands form the Spice Islands (not to be confused with the Maluku Islands of Indonesia). In 1988, the estimated population was 265,000, with an area of 980 km².

Most of the island, which is hillier and more fertile than Zanzibar, is dominated by small scale farming. There is large scale farming of cash crops such as cloves — there are over 3 million clove trees.

In previous years the island was seldom visited due to inaccessibility and a reputation for political violence, with the notable exception of those drawn by its reputation as a center for traditional medicineand witchcraft. There is a quite large Arab community on the island who immigrated from Oman. The population is a mix of Arab and original Waswahili inhabitants of the island. A significant potion of the population also identifies as Shirazi people.

photography by jeseper anhede/ www.anhede.se

found on wikipedia.com

No one calls you “sir” or “boss”.
No one gives you a “special price”.
No one plays crappy music they think you’ll like.

The sand grain is so fine it squeakes under your feet. The water is so clear you get a fear of heights snorkeling over the drop outside the shallow reef. The beach is yours and yours alone.
This is barefoot luxury.

- Jesper Anhede

Many parts of the island are not easily accessed, as there is only one metalled road. The rest are often dead-end dirt roads, but while exploring them on your own you might very well find that hidden-away beach you have always dreamt about. Pemba Island has been separated from the mainland and Zanzibar for decades, leaving an untouched and pristine island of great beauty and fertility. The mosaic of forests, swamps, mangroves, hidden beaches and lagoons is scattered with the ruins of mosques and tombs mostly reclaimed by the forest – sites that date back to Arab domination when Pemba Isalnd was seized by the Sultan of Muscat (Oman) in the 17th century. He loved the Spice Islands and established his court in Zanzibar and ruled Muscat from there.

The resort is focused around a large open planned relaxing area that welcomes you to the sea. Life on Pemba revolves around the ocean tides, and as the day progresses you will witness the ever changing colours and shades of blue and green as the tide ebbs and flows.

Photography by Jesper Anhede

Found on  www.anhede.se & www.themantaresort.com

found on bosselind.com

Mix together a beautiful European-like city with attractive residents (call themporteños), gourmet cuisine, awesome shopping, a frenzied nightlife and top-drawer activities, and you get Buenos Aires, a cosmopolitan metropolis with both slick neighborhoods and equally downtrodden areas – but that’s part of the appeal. It’s an elegant, seductive place with a ragged edge, laced with old-world languor and yet full of contemporary attitude. BA is somehow strangely familiar, but unlike any other city in the world.

Planetario de Buenos Aires, BA-Palermo

The Giant Robot of Buenos Aires

In between cutting-edge designer boutiques, ritzy neighborhoods and grand parks are unkempt streets full of spewing buses and bustling fervor. Seek out classic BA: the old-world cafés, colonial architecture, fun outdoor markets and diverse communities. Rub shoulders with the formerly rich and famous in Recoleta’s cemetery, making sure to sidestep the ubiquitous dog piles on the sidewalks. Fill your belly at aparrilla (steak restaurant), then spend the night partying away in Palermo Viejo’s trendiest dance club.

found on lonelyplanet.com

We came across this ingenious development; via the Raising the Roof property blog. Regatta Jakarta is a nautical themed design conceived by the renowned Atkins-design studio. It is a mixed-use development situated in Pantai Mutiara Canal Estate on the shores of the Java Sea.

The centrepiece of the Regatta is its iconic 160 metre high, arch-shaped five-star hotel tower that represents a ‘lighthouse’ or ‘beacon’ surrounded by 10 residential apartment towers which each representing ships sailing around this ‘beacon’, hence the name ‘Regatta’ was coined.

found on globalconstructionwatch.com

A surfer walks out of the ocean as the final sunset of 2010 takes place on New Year’s Eve over Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California on December 31, 2010. (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)

The world has already begun to welcome 2011, as the New Year has been entered by people living on some Pacific islands, Australia and Asia. As the Earth revolves today, bringing the rest of us into the year 2011, I’ll be updating this entry, to show people all over as they ready themselves, celebrate and welcome the New Year. 2011 will be observed as the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac, a year with attributes of gentleness, persistence and luck. Happy New Year everyone!

Fireworks explode over Copacabana beach during New Year celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
The New Year is greeted by a fireworks display on the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington on Saturday Jan. 1, 2011. (AP Photo / The Seattle Times, Jim Bates)

Revelers pack Waikiki Beach to watch a fireworks display during New Year celebrations in Hawaii on January 1, 2011. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

Hardy Dutch swimmers brave the icy North Sea on January 1, 2011 in Scheveningen, Netherlands. An estimated record number of more than 10,000 participants took part in this year’s traditional New Year’s dive. (Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

Fireworks explode over Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, celebrating the new year in Dubai January 1, 2011. (REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah)

found on boston.com

A place where you can eat, dream and play in peace, influenced only by the natural rhythms of Mother Nature, The Scarlet in Cornwall is an individual retreat for all seasons where we don’t stand on ceremony and guests make themselves at home.

Scarlet is our baby. We dreamt up this hotel to be the place we would most like to be and want to share. Somewhere to escape to for a few days and recharge.

Our hotel would remind us why we cherish our husbands and friends and love their company. It will be somewhere to laugh and enjoy simple pleasures. Where we have time for each other; rarely achieved in our chaos of work, life and family.

found on scarlethotel.co.uk

Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples.

The roughly trapezoidal island lies about 30 km from Naples and measures around 10 km east to west and 7 km north to south with a 34 kilometres coastline and a surface area of 46.3 square kilometres (17.9 sq mi).

It is almost entirely mountainous, with the highest peak being Mount Epomeo at 788 meters. The island has a population of over 60,000 people.

It´s probably the most beatiful island in the whole mediterranean..

photography by Giovanni Mattera

found on albertoischia.it

Fantastic, fabulous Santorini deserves all the superlatives. Even the most jaded traveller succumbs to the awesome drama of this surreal landscape, relic of what was probably the biggest eruption in recorded history. That you share the experience with hordes of other visitors is inevitable. Embrace it all.

The caldera and its vast curtain wall of multicoloured cliffs is truly awesome. If you want to experience the full dramatic impact it’s worth arriving by a slower ferry with open decks, rather than by enclosed catamaran or hydrofoil.

Norway comprises the western part of Scandinavia in Northern Europe. The rugged coastline, broken by huge fjords and thousands of islands, stretches 25,000 kilometres (16,000 mi) and 83,000 kilometres (52,000 mi) including fjords and islands. Norway shares a 1,619-kilometre (1,006 mi) land border with Sweden, 727 kilometres (452 mi) with Finland and 196 kilometres (122 mi) with Russia at the east. To the north, west and south, Norway is bordered by the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea and Skagerrak.

At 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) (including Svalbard and Jan Mayen), much of the country is dominated by mountainous or high terrain, with a great variety of natural features caused by prehistoricglaciers and varied topography. The most noticeable of these are the fjords: deep grooves cut into the land flooded by the sea following the end of the Ice Age. The longest is Sognefjorden at 204 kilometres (127 mi). Sognefjorden is the world’s second deepest fjord, and Hornindalsvatnet is the deepest lake in Europe.^[49] Frozen ground all year can be found in the higher mountain areas and in the interior ofFinnmark county. Numerous glaciers are found in Norway.

The land is mostly made of hard granite and gneiss rock, but slate, sandstone and limestone are also common, and the lowest elevations contain marine deposits. Because of the Gulf Stream and prevailing westerlies, Norway experiences higher temperatures and more precipitation than expected at such northern latitudes, especially along the coast. The mainland experiences four distinct seasons, with colder winters and less precipitation inland. The northernmost part has a mostly maritime Subarctic climate, while Svalbard has an Arctic tundra climate.

The southern and western parts of Norway experience more precipitation and have milder winters than the southeastern part. The lowlands around Oslo have the warmest and sunniest summers but also cold weather and snow in wintertime (especially inland). Average temperatures have risen the last decades, decreasing the amount of days with snow cover in the lowlands.^{[citation needed]}

Because of the large latitudinal range of the country and the varied topography and climate, Norway has a larger number of different habitats than almost any other European country. There are approximately 60,000 species in Norway and adjacent waters (excluding bacteria and virus). The Norwegian Shelf large marine ecosystem is considered highly productive.

found on wikipwsia.org

photography by Anders Bjordal /andersbjordal.com