Meet the Spa Whisperer is the Dream Travel Job Created by this Guy

People often dream of leaving it all behind and finding a job in the travel industry. At Yahoo Travel we are profiling people who work in all fields of the travel industry—small jobs, big jobs, any jobs. This week we talked to Nigel Franklyn, the Spa Whisperer (it’s a thing!).

The Spa Whisperer at Gili Lankanfushi in the Maldives. (Photo: Nigel Franklyn)

Nigel Franklyn wanted to change his life. Making that decision led him on a journey to create his dream job.

We don’t all wake up one day and think: This is what will make me happy. Franklyn did.

He was working as a journalist and a model in London, New York, and Los Angeles when he attended a conference on spas. Franklyn tham khao o day had always enjoyed spas. Who doesn’t? But he didn’t know too much about them. A chance meeting there landed him a job working with the skincare company Jurlique, helping develop their spas throughout the U.S.

Five years later, he had an epiphany. He would become a Spa Whisperer.

Spa Whisperer? That’s not a job! It wasn’t a job. But Franklyn dreamed it and the inspiring thing is, now he is living it. For the past eight years he has worked as an independent spa consultant with Sodashi, going into some of the best spas around the globe and working with their managers and staff to maximize the spa experience for guests.

Related: Checking into the New Shangri-La Hotel, at The Shard

We got the chance to catch up with Franklyn during a recent trip to the Maldives where he was working with the spa at the Four Seasons Resort at Kuda Huraa. As we floated underneath a sunset in the Indian Ocean, he told us about crafting his own dream travel job from scratch (he is on the road 10 months out of the year). We told you his life was amazing!

Yahoo Travel: You know that Spa Whisperer sounds like something made up. What exactly do you do?

Nigel Franklyn: I did make it up! What I do is go into spas and evaluate what is happening there and how they can be better and how they can http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/day-trips-full-cultural-to-nha-trang/ fully develop the ultimate spa experience. I leave what is working alone and then I fill in the blanks. Filling in the blanks is what makes a very unique and memorable spa experience. The real spa experience is what happens off the bed. I do all the emotional work. I make sure the staff connects with the guests and with the spa’s vision. I teach the therapists how to help people surrender themselves to the spa and to the spa journey. I think of myself as a coach.

This boat takes you to the spa at the Four Seasons Maldives on the island of Kuda Huraa. (Photo: Jo Piazza)

YT: A spa coach?

NF: Spas are vulnerable places. You’re naked. I work with the therapists to help them make people feel comfortable and safe when they’re at their most vulnerable. I mean, you look like sh*t in a spa and you are (hopefully) so relaxed you want to chase imaginary butterflies. These days my own journey is manifesting into spa design Day trips tour Phu Quoc, Day trips and menu design and all aspects of the spa industry, but I Day trips to Nha Trang, Day trips always make sure my therapists are connected, inspired, and organically aligned to whatever it is we do together. After all, my spa therapists are my biggest advocates and my biggest and best support in creating something extraordinary and also, perhaps more importantly, something sustainable. My goal is to be one of the world’s top spa consultants, and that is not something I can do alone.

YT: So you are a therapist for therapists. What about the ambience of a spa. How do you influence that?

NF: I make sure that each and every space feels like a treatment room, especially the reception area, which is often used as an office in the middle of the spa and messes up the flow completely. A good example of the tiniest detail I tweak out on is the smell. In a spa, smell is such an important thing, since people become more sensory when they are in an emotional and relaxed state. I am a very earthy person so I like grounding smells. Lemongrass has become such a thing in spa and I have never understood it. People need to feel supported and grounded, not purified and elevated. I like lemongrass and it has great benefits, but I don’t want it in my spas. Every little thing has to support the experience and vision, otherwise the journey is fractured and everything falls short of absolute bliss.

Related: Take a Day Trip From NYC to This Incredible Spa

The Amanoi overlooking the spectacular Vinh Hanoi day trips, Day trips Hy Bay in Vietnam. (Photo: Nigel Franklyn)

YT: What has trained you to be so successful at doing this? You consult for some of the top spas in the world like Four Seasons, George V, Paris; Four Seasons, Hampshire, UK; Four Seasons, Kuda Huraa, Maldives; all Aman Resorts globally; Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Australia; the Siam, Bangkok; Gili Lankanfushi, Maldives; Trisara, Phucket, Thailand; Chi Spa, Shangri-La, Sydney; Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong; Four Seasons Istanbul at Bosphorus,

NF: I had no formal training and I think that is what makes me so good at what I do. I hadn’t learned anything that would get in my way. I work on pure instinct. I never do the same thing twice. I don’t have a set schedule or a set plan before I go in to a spa, much to the worry of spa directors who haven’t worked with me before. I go in and I listen to people, I see what is happening and then I go with my gut. There is no way to plan for what I do. Every spa offers a different aspect of healing and well-being and energy, and my job is to go in, find it, and bring it forward. It’s the only way to create an organic design, business plan, and strategy.

Related: Get Your Zen On at These Top Health Spas

Amanpuri in Phuket, Thailand. (Photo: Nigel Franklyn)

YT: Was it always glamorous?

NF: No, not at all. I didn’t create this job at this level. Who would fly me around the world like this without a history of success under my belt? When I first started Day trips,Vietnam day trips,Vietnam Tours,Vietnam Travel out as a consultant it took years to gain the trust of the industry. One of my first jobs was for a spa in Orlando, and I stayed in a dingy motel in Kissimmee, just so that I could work with them. It’s important to understand the spa industry at every level. There is no such thing as five-star healing. You need to come in to this from the ground up, and you need to bring the ground with you along the way.

YT: What’s the toughest part about this job? Is there a tough part of the job?

NF: I get very emotionally attached to everyone doc them — all my therapists and spa directors. I cry a lot. I get very emotional. When I am leaving a spa I am never ready to let go. In bringing people out of their comfort zones and showing them their own light and their innate strengths (which they ofter consider their weaknesses), there comes a great responsibility in not abandoning them. I have a great need to stay connected and stay in easy reach of everyone I work with. I adopted the mantra, “leave no therapist behind!” But I feel like I am always leaving something behind. It’s tough being the the Spa Whisperer sometimes — I promise!

Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Australia. (Photo: Nigel Franklyn)

Related: Dreamy Hotels Worth a Detour

YT: How often do you travel and how long do you spend in a spa?

NF: The first time I go to a spa I stay there for about two weeks. For the Four Seasons, http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/day-trips-from-hanoi-to-ninh-binh/ George V in Paris I go twice a year and stay for three weeks at a time. The George V is obviously an incredibly important hotel and spa on the global stage, so they get a lot of my time. Generally though, I find 10 days or two weeks to Phu Quoc Day trips, Day trips be enough time to create something amazing, but my schedule is now so intense that often that is all the time I have to offer. I continue to work closely with my spas even when I am off property. Most of my spas are on opposite sides of the world from where I might be at any one time, so I am always Skyping at 2 and 3 in the morning with my clients and with my therapist. I have about 60 spas now so I am always on the road. I travel for about six months and then I go home to San Francisco for a month to recharge my own energy and play with my amazing dog, Maggie. Then I pack my bag head out into the world again for another six months.

The Four Seasons George V in Paris. (Photo: Nigel Franklyn)

YT: Do you get sick of being on the road?

NF: No! No! No! I have completely manifested my dream life. How can I get sick of something I created? This isn’t even a job any more for me. Sometimes my friends ask me how I can put my life on hold to travel so much. I tell them that my life isn’t on hold. This IS my life. I am having a mad love affair with the world and the world is having a love affair with me right back. A long, long time ago — and for reasons I can’t even begin to explain — I threw my life into the universe and the universe hasn’t let me down yet. I am not on the road, I am the road, and I am out there fighting the good fight — but you’re right, the battlefield is a pretty luxurious place to be these days.

Follow Nigel’s travels and spa advice on Twitter @spawhisperer or on Facebook at The Spa Whisperer.

Nguon: www.Yahoo.Com

Cuba's Budding Entrepreneurs Travel A Rocky Road Toward Success

I i

Hide captionCuban entrepreneur Barbara Fernandez Franco oversees two employees in the small living room of her home in Havana, the Cuban capital. Her boyfriend, Michel Perez Casanova (right), works in the tourism industry but also helps with her business.

David Gilkey/NPR

Cuban entrepreneur Barbara Fernandez xem them Franco oversees two employees in the small living room of her home in Havana, the Cuban capital. Her boyfriend, Michel Perez Casanova (right), works in the tourism industry but also helps with her business.

David Gilkey/NPR

When Americans think of business in Cuba, they think of government-owned enterprise. And the vast majority of Cubans do work for the state.

But in recent years, private business owners known as cuentapropistas have flourished on the island.

Cuentapropismo literally means "on your own account." As far back as the 1970s, Fidel Castro was talking about how socialism and small business ownership could coexist. Today, they do so more than ever: Between 2010 and 2013, the Cuban government expanded the list of privately owned business ventures, such as construction work, restaurants and tailoring, that are legal on the island.

 Classic tours, Vietnam tours, Vietnam Travel i i

Hide captionFranco says business was booming when she was able to import clothing from countries like Brazil and the U.S. Once the government cracked down on imports, she learned to sew.

David Gilkey/NPR

Franco doc them says business was booming when she was able to import clothing from countries like Brazil and the U.S. Once the government cracked down on imports, she learned to sew.

David Gilkey/NPR

About 1 million people — or 20 percent of the Cuban workforce — can now be classified as wholly in the private sector, according to a report by Richard Feinberg of the Brookings Institution.

Barbara Fernandez Franco remembers being excited when that list of government-permitted businesses first came out. She combed through the 200-odd jobs, and thought carefully about which she could do. She decided on the "tailor and seamstress" category.

We met 28-year-old Barbara in one of the aging but gorgeous buildings that line the narrow colonial streets of central Havana, Cuba's capital. Sitting in the stairway, she tells us it's been a difficult road full of stumbles.

She started off reselling clothing a friend made, but the profit margins were very small. Then, she began buying clothing from abroad — from countries like Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico — which she then resold.

At first the project was as rocky as any Classic tours, Vietnam Classic tours, Journey Mekong startup business. But a few months down the line, she says, the profits were outstanding. Barbara was able to save a good amount of money — which today is helping her purchase a new home with her boyfriend, Michel Perez Casanova.

But that boom in business soon came to an end when the government announced that importing clothing for resale on the island would be illegal as of Dec. 31, 2013.

 chi tiet tham khao i i

Hide http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/essential-highlights-of-vietnam-classic-tours/ captionAfter Franco learned to sew, she started producing baby clothes and mosquito nets for cribs.

David Gilkey/NPR

After Franco learned to sew, she started producing baby clothes and mosquito nets for cribs.

David Gilkey/NPR

Barbara was devastated by the news, she says, but while other businesses shut down, she chose to carry on as best she could: She learned how to sew and created her own line of baby clothing and mosquito netting for cribs.

At a small restaurant in the port city of Mariel, owner Onil Lemus told us everyone he knows is absolutely thrilled about the widening scope of legal business ventures. In fact, he jokes that he liked it better when there where fewer cuentapropistas — because he had less competition.

Even though business is good for Onil, he echoed what several other small enterprise owners said to us: One of the biggest challenges has been the lack of raw materials. In Mariel, for example, Onil said, there's no access to wholesale food markets, which are so important to the restaurant industry.

Pointing to the delicious lamb stew he'd prepared for us, he explained that he'd had to go to a farm to buy the meat, but foods like rice and beans — staples in Cuban cuisine — are hard to buy in large Journey Mekong, Classic tours quantities at good prices.

Similarly, Barbara said certain fabrics and ornaments are so expensive, it would be impossible for her to make a profit if she were to use them.

The widespread sentiment here is that the U.S. Embargo — which has been in place for more than 50 years and is known as el bloqueo, or "the blockade," on the island — is largely responsible for these kinds of difficulties.

Since taking over for his brother Fidel in 2008, Raul Castro has been pushing to modernize the economy. Onil said he's confident that as the number of private business owners grows, the government will address these issues.

Barbara's boyfriend, Michel, on the other hand, seemed more disheartened.

"Some tourists say that this country's growing up now and it's going to get better and better," he said. "But, you know, the system here is so slow. Step by step. Very, very, very slow."

Source : npr.Org

Summer's Worst Travel Accessory: The Barely There Short Shorts

(Photo: Thinkstock)

I love traveling in the summer for so many reasons but one of the main ones is the fashion. The cute outfits I can put together for any destination, the inspiration I get from other cities when I see what people are wearing and the individual styles I see. But this summer I’ve noticed a nefarious trend. Something so annoying and insidiously obnoxious that I felt I had to point it out: The barely-there, booty hanging out, short shorts. 

Once the weather started warming up, I saw a parade of shorts so small and so prevalent that I started to become concerned: Maybe these women thought their frayed jean bikini bottoms were actual pants? Or perhaps they had one of those Adventure Tours, Vietnam Tours, Vietnam travel, Journey Mekong crazy carnival mirrors at home where everything seems longer than it is? Maybe there’s a pandemic medical condition — where they can’t turn their heads and Adventure Tours, Adventure Tour, Journey Mekong someone is playing a practical joke on them by swearing, “You look fine — everything’s all covered!” while laughing behind their backs? At first I felt bad and thought, Should I say something?

Related: 9 Swimsuits You Need For Hitting This Summer’s Hippest Beach Locales 

But then I finally realized that although it looked like these women got into a fight with some garden shears and lost, Adventure Tours, Adventure Holidays, Journey Mekong this was all by really sad and bad design. That the Daisy Dukes with ADD are the latest insidious, God-I-Wish-You-Wouldn’t-Do-That trend to hit the streets. Especially as it seems a lot of women are also doubling up on the functionality of these short shorts and also using them as underwear. Which gives any of us unlucky enough to be walking behind them on, say, subway stairs click here or an escalator an unfortunate gynecological view.

Lately, we’ve been seeing shorts that make these look like capris. (Photo: Thinkstock)

Related: The http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/northern-highlights-12-days/ Perfect… Travel Jacket

It’s gotten so bad, Times Square in New York City is starting to make a Playboy cover shoot seem practically G-rated.

Lest you think, “Oh, this is just a crazy New York thing,” let me assure you it’s not. I’ve been optically attacked by this trend in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Denver, Aspen, and San Francisco.

The Adventure Tours, Adventure Travels, Journey Mekong latest travel accessory: Daisy Dukes (Thinkstock)

I’ve seen `em hanging out in Dallas and swaying in the breeze in Miami. Even worse, some people think they are acceptable travel gear and are now sporting them on planes, trains and busses across the country and worldwide. I’ve seen American butt cheeks flapping at me in a church in Cannes and on the streets of Paris.

And yes, I know. I sound like a crazy old lady spoilsport. And that’s part of the problem. I think I hate these shorts so much because they make me feel old, even though half the women committing this fashion crime http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/gentle-colour-of-adventure-tours-sapa/ are tham khao my age. But still, it makes me feel old, as all I want to do when I see ladybirds prancing around in these tiny shorts is to channel my 80-year-old Aunt Dee and scream, “JESUS H CHRIST, PUT SOME CLOTHES ON HONEY, THERE’S CHILDREN ROAMING AROUND HERE!”

Have fun when you travel, but try not to wear shorts shorter than your bikini (Photo: Thinkstock)

Related: Travel Rant: The 14 Most Annoying People to Avoid at All Costs While Traveling

But really, it’s time to say “enough is enough.” Ladies, I beg you: put some underwear on, stop airing your tush and get some real shorts. Because, really — no one wants to see xem them it except your boyfriend. And as I explained to that weirdo pervert on the train the other day, “Didn’t your mother teach you that some things should only be done and seen in private?”

 

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Source : yahoo

Open-air spaces aim for family-friendly vibe - Travel Weekly

The growing number of open-air spaces in Las Vegas is both a break from the city's standard building structures and a response to visitor expectations.

The city's megaresorts have long been known for their ability to contain people. Within any given resort complex, guests basically have everything they could possibly need — accommodations, restaurants, shops, shows, nightclubs, spa facilities and pools — and while Las Vegas visitors can escape the confines of a resort, it isn't always as easy as walking out the front door. After all, the standard design of these properties dictates that there are no windows or clocks, and signage leads guests across casino floors, unsure of where, exactly, they'll finally exit a building.

That is changing.

"Las xem them Vegas is known for reinventing itself and thinking ahead to how guests travel and what they're looking for in a travel destination," said Jenn Michaels, senior vice president of public relations at MGM Resorts International. "We know Las Vegas visitors don't want to be confined to one resort."

In response, some of Vegas' newest offerings, such as the Linq on the Strip and the Container Park in the downtown area, are pushing visitors out to the great outdoors. These new spaces are being billed as community districts and neighborhoods designed to slow down the rushed pace of life for which Las Vegas is known.

On the Strip, http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/vietnam-vacation-at-phan-thiet-on-the-beach-holidays/ where the vast majority of travelers stay and spend their time, Las Vegas visitors are enjoying a breath of fresh air at Caesars Entertainment's outdoor entertainment district, the Linq. Running one-third of a mile long, this is the Strip's first major outdoor venture, sprinkled with shopping, dining and entertainment venues and anchored with the High Roller, the world's tallest observation wheel.

Caesars Entertainment has also started construction on an On the beach holidays, Best beach holiday, Journey Mekong outdoor marketplace at Bally's, set to open this fall. The Grand Bazaar Shops at Bally's will open with more than 150 shops and is being designed as a 21st century bazaar patterned after shopping spaces found around the world.

This tham khao o day spring, the front facades of the Monte Carlo and New York-New York were also transformed into an outdoor plaza with pedestrian-friendly access to a variety of casual bars, eateries and retail destinations. MGM Resorts International also recently announced plans to create "The Park," an area between Monte Carlo and New York-New York connecting Las Vegas Boulevard with the 20,000-seat arena expected to open in 2016. This area will have restaurants and shops as well as shade structures, waterfalls and other natural features, transforming an otherwise urban space into a more serene landscape.

"Great cities have great public spaces, and Las Vegas is no exception as the Strip is one of the world's great boulevards," Michaels said. "Today's consumer is spontaneous and socially engaged, and they don't want to be encumbered by four walls. "

The changes are also in response to the changing face of the city's tourists.

"In recent years, Las Vegas has attempted successfully to attract family business," said Sylvia Hopper, owner of Globe Hopper, an independent agency of Avoya Travel. "I On the beach Holidays, Vietnam Tours, Vietnam Travel think that the trend in adding more open-air pedestrian spaces shows a move toward appealing to these traveler markets. These spaces create great alternatives for families who want to experience Las Vegas as a destination and its many attractions, while avoiding features, such as smoke-filled casinos, that aren't appropriate for children or families."

In downtown Las Vegas, the Fremont Street Experience has always embodied the idea that visitors can and should enjoy what Las Vegas has to offer in an exterior environment. Free outdoor concerts and historically liberal open-container laws have made it fun for guests to wander the length of this covered pedestrian walkway.

Most http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/vietnam-romantic-on-the-beach-holidays/ people On the beach holidays, Vietnam Beach holiday, Journey Mekong didn't venture beyond Fremont Street, though, until 2012, the "year of downtown" as billed by the City of Las Vegas. During 2012, $789 million worth of projects and attractions were renovated or debuted, drastically changing the face of downtown.

This renaissance also kicked off the development of Downtown3rd, a neighborhood spanning several blocks and consisting of restaurants and bars (many with outdoor seating) all centered around the Downtown Grand hotel.

Additionally, the Container Park, an open-air hub with local boutique shops, restaurants, an outdoor performance space, a playground and ample places to sit and relax, recently opened and has become a place where locals and visitors alike hang out.

Creating welcoming outdoor areas in On the beach holidays, Vietnam Beach Vacations, Journey Mekong those parts of Vegas most visited by tourists changes the city's traditional landscape and character. It's also a response to the kind of experience visitors find in other destinations, perhaps enticing new travelers to consider Vegas for their next vacation.

"Outdoor plazas are common in many major cities across the country, providing locals and visitors alike an opportunity to enjoy spaces in a social, often interactive environment," Michaels said. "Taking the social experience outside, especially in a climate as favorable as ours in Las Vegas, creates a fresh, new way for visitors to explore Las Vegas for the first time or again and again."

Eat well when you travel

Jill Welch prepares a delicious seaside meal while traveling.

(Photo: Special to the Democrat )

2 Family holidays, Vietnam Tours, Vietnam Travel, Journey Mekong CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMORE

Traveling http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/family-holidays-cultural-holiday/ this o day summer? How do you usually plan travel meals while on the road? Whether you are taking a plane, bus, car or train you can still maintain good health while traveling.

I hope by now I’ve convinced you that healthy food does not equate to a lack of fun, pleasure or taste! In fact, if you break it down, you get more of all three of those when maintaining a healthy diet.

Traveling is no exception. Yes, of course you will probably eat a little differently than you would at home, and that is to be expected. However, in order to keep your energy up for traveling, it’s important to have a stockpile of delicious snacks that provide nutrients, flavor and energy.

If you are traveling by car, you can include foods that have to stay cold by bringing along a cooler. You also have the luxury of being able to cook if you bring along a single burner stove. On road trips I always do this. It makes stopping for meals and having roadside picnics much more fun.

With the small stove and my stainless steel espresso pot, I also have the benefit of making good organic coffee or green tea on the road, helping to keep my energy up while driving long distances. No more gas station coffee stops!

With a cooler and a stove you can do just about anything. My travel cooler is stocked with pre-made smoothies, salads, maybe a dip like hummus and dressing and some protein like smoked fish or bean burgers. For road trip snacks I like avocado, nuts and seeds, seaweed snacks and dried fruit.

A jar of natural peanut butter or almond butter and apple or bananas make a filling and satisfying snack for the trip. Don’t forget to bring lots of filtered water to drink. I typically fill leftover glass juice bottles with water, avoiding Family holidays, Great family holidays, Journey Mekong the need for plastic ones.

If Family holidays, Vietnam holiday, Journey Mekong you are going by plane, you will want to have food packaged in such a way that it is easy to get to and enjoy with very little preparation. Try a pre-made sandwich or a dip, with olives, carrot and celery sticks packed in a disposable (waxed cardboard, for example) container. Nuts and dried fruit are also a good choice.

I like to take along packets of greens powder to mix with water for a much-needed nutrient boost while traveling on an airplane. Staying hydrated is important. Be sure to either buy bottles of water before boarding or insist on multiple servings from the attendants.

Being food-prepared for a trip will increase your travel pleasure and enable you to maintain good health along the way. Try out this lemony hummus recipe on your next trip.

 

Jill Welch is a natural foods educator and chef with nearly 20 years of experience in helping people improve their diet and lifestyle. For more information, visit at TheKitchenGoddess.Com.

The Kitchen Goddess’ Chickpea Hummus

2 cups cooked garbanzo beans (or try substituting raw zucchini)

1-2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)

Juice of 1-2 lemons (or to taste)

1-2 tablespoons sesame tahini

¼ Cup fresh parsley

¼ Tai day cup olive oil

Dash of cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon umeboshi plum paste or vinegar to taste (optional, decrease salt if this ingredient is used)

Put everything in a food processor and blend until smooth. Adjust salt, Family holidays, Vietnam holiday, Journey Mekong lemon and olive oil. Serve on crackers, bread, rolled in a lettuce leaf or with vegetables.

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Hovership holidays: North Korean architects shake up tourism | Art and design | theguardian.com

Cliffs of blue mirror glass plunge towards a waterfall, as space-age hoverships dock on glistening conical towers. Buildings shaped like spinning-tops nestle between lush mountainsides, connected by ski slopes, while a glass bubble train snakes through the valley. These could be scenes from a Dan Dare comic, showing the holiday hideouts of the Mekon and his chums. In fact, they are rare glimpses of how North Korean architects imagine their future.

“We gave them a completely open brief to dream up designs for what tourism might be like in their country,” says Nick Bonner, the Beijing-based curator and tour operator who commissioned the paintings, which are currently on show in the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale (which won the Golden Lion for best pavilion). “We asked them to go crazy, to see what they would come up with given absolutely no constraints.”

 

Woodland retreat … 'an aerial hotel where you are embraced by nature.' Photograph: Koryo Group

One scene shows plans for the Silk Co-operative, a high-tech, low-energy artisans' http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/halong-bay-cat-ba-excursions-3-days-2-nights/ commune, Excursions with circular buildings modelled on traditional Korean spinning wheels and wrapped in blue solar panels. In between these mirrored discs stand towers topped with wind-turbines-cum-helipads, rising above a watery landscape.

“The tourist benefits from being in the company of artisans, and the ability to learn new skills or just indulge in the beauty of the area,” write the architects. “They can travel by river, solar-train, or helicopter, then go on mountain walks.” It is a lavish dream in a country where transport is still limited and freedom of movement severely restricted. Despite the high-tech appearance of this new community, its architects are also keen to point out that the construction “uses natural stone, not concrete” – a strange claim, explained only by the fact that the country has yet to embrace reinforced steel.

 

Mountain conicals … 'featuring open-air parks attached to the buildings for rare mountain plants. The packed earth acts as insulating material slowly giving off heat.' Photograph: Koryo Group

Oozing retro Jetsons-style glamour and sprinkled with curious anachronisms, the paintings provide a fascinating window on what contemporary architectural culture looks like in a place cut off from the world since 1948, a land immune from the churning feedback loop of design blogs and glossy magazines. It is a quaint vision of a future that never happened, employing forms and materials that smack of World Fairs gone by, or the sets of Thunderbirds.

There are swathes of blue mirror-glass and bubble cable-cars, interiors lined with http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/nha-trang-da-lat-excursions-2-days-1-night/ tangerine paint and brown veneer – all drenched in a decidedly 1970s flavour. There is a pink boudoir worthy of Lady Penelope, with a swooping ceiling and a moulded side table – on which an old-fashioned dial-up telephone sits. The general aesthetic is as if Bjarke Ingels had travelled back in time and worked as an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright, sci-fi cartoons inflected with a homely crafts sensibility.

 

Birdnest Excursions Riverside guesthouse … Bjarke Ingels meets Frank Lloyd Wright. Photograph: Koryo Group

There are also underlying hints of the social values of the DPRK and Juche ideology of collective self-reliance established by Kim Il-sung. The Bird's Nest villa is designed as a communal retreat, a cluster of interconnected pagodas for group Halong Bay Excursions holidays and corporate team-bonding trips. “We all are in the nest together and have to learn to be together harmoniously,” say the architects, explaining how the open interiors are “light, airy and fun”. Spurning the usual hotel corridor, the rooms are arranged around staggered atriums, “to allow you to come into visual contact with your friends much more naturally, which aids communication.” In the Democratic People's Republic, collective conviviality trumps solitude.

Elsewhere, there is the Woodland Retreat, described as “an aerial hotel room where you are embraced by nature”, which takes the form of a series of terraces held aloft on chunky columns – again hinting at the limits of North Korean structural possibility. Other designs are eerily prescient. There is a great bridge that mysteriously conflates two projects by Norman Foster (neither of which the architect would have seen), channelling the slender cable-stayed structure of the Millau Viaduct, in southern France, and the jaunty wobble of London's own Millennium Bridge. “Visitors walk across the morning mist as if on clouds connecting mountains, [and] experience the feeling of flight,” says the blurb. “[It is] a different kind of experience using modern constructional material. There is slight vibration and sway like the Korean swing, so you know you are in the air.”

 

Mount http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/nha-trang-da-lat-excursions-2-days-1-night/ Myohyang Tourism Bridge … Foster's Millau viaduct meets the wobbly Millennium Bridge in London. Photograph: Koryo Group

The paintings are a rare commission to have emerged from the notoriously secretive country, the result of four years' work by Bonner and his team. They have been produced by architects at the Paekdusan Construction and Architectural Research Institute, an http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/unique-beauty-excursions-of-the-north-4-days-3nights/ anonymous machine from which most of the state's major projects are issued, by people trained at the country's main architecture school, the Pyongyang Construction and Building Material University. It is a place where architects are weaned not on Corb and Koolhaas, or Mies and Morphosis, but on a diet of ancient Korean buildings and socialist architecture with Korean influence, alongside classes in western classical architecture and proportion – and declarations from their late “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong-Il.

“There cannot and should not be a modern form of architecture that is devoid of national characteristics,” writes Kim in his 1991 treatise, On Architecture, a 170-page guidebook-manifesto full of mangled aphorisms and strangely familiar archispeak. “Architecture that has been created to reflect the people's requirements in a new age, in keeping with the modern aesthetic feelings and modern civilised life,” he adds, “is architecture that embodies modernity, namely, modern architecture.”

 

Birdnest Riverside guesthouse interior … Thunderbirds glamour of Lady Penelope's boudoir. Photograph: Koryo Group

Elsewhere, he appears to http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/halong-bay-cat-ba-excursions-3-days-2-nights/ draw on the Vitruvian triad of “firmness, commodity and delight,” declaring the four demands of the masses to be “convenience, cosiness, beauty and durability” – although it is hard to say that many of the megalithic monuments over which he presided look all that cosy.

So would he have approved of the buildings imagined here? Given the hypocrisy of his treatise, it's hard to tell. In one breath, he argues for the importance of originality, before summoning words that could come straight from Prince Charles' personal architectural manifesto: “We must combat and promptly do away with fame-seeking, formalism, art for art’s sake, imitationism, and all the other unhealthy creative attitudes that find expression among architects.” Whatever the case, given that Pyongyang now sports a glistening rocket-ship hotel, it can only be a matter of time before inhabited spinning wheels and high-tech tree-houses become reality.

• Utopian Tours forms part of the Korean Pavilion, Crow's Eye View: the Korean Peninsula, at the Venice Biennale's Giardini, until Sunday 23 November. Koryo Tours is organising a seven-day architectural tour of North Korea in October. For more information and itinerary click here.

Michal Kwiatkowski's non-altitude training for the Tour de France

While his rivals were flying high, Michal Kwiatkowski took a different approach to train for the Tour de France.

“I’ve never trained at altitude. Maybe I’ll do it later in my career, but right now, I’m sticking to what works,” said Kwiatkowski, 11th overall in the Tour last year.

“Have I tried an oxygen tent? No. I don’t know how altitude could help me or how I would react. It’s a risk to try something new before the most important race of the year.”

Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador trained at 2165 metres in Tenerife, Spain, in the last month. Others went to Mount Etna and Sierra Nevada. Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep‘s 24-year-old, however, went home to http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/day-trips-robinson-tour-phu-quoc/ Poland tai day and previewed some of the Tour de France’s stages.

“If I were to try altitude training, maybe I’d go in August or at another point in the year.”

This spring, Kwiatkowski succeeded in improving in the Ardennes Classics. Instead of the cobbled classics, he raced the traditional Ardennes warm-up race, the Tour of the Basque Country. After finishing second overall in the tour, he placed fifth in the Amstel Gold Race, third in La Fleche Wallonne and third in Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

He continued to the Tour of Romandy and two days later, beat Froome and won the prologue. Afterwards, he took a break to get ready for the Tour de France.

 

“I click here went home to Poland for two weeks and went seven days without touching my bike.”

Instead of an altitude camp, Kwiatkowski stayed in the team’s hotel in Calpe, Spain, and travelled to France to recon part of next month’s race.

He returned to racing o day in the Criterium du Dauphine yesterday. He said that he went too hard too soon and paid on the climb mid-way into the 10.4-kilometre time trial in Lyon.

The next stages, including the Col du Beal summit finish today, should indicate if his training approach is paying off. After the race ends, he will preview the Tour’s stages in the Alps.

“Froome has just http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tours/day-trips/ one goal. He prepared specifically for the Tour and previewed even the Pyrenean stages,” said http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/halong-bay-tours-day-trips-deluxe/ Kwiatkowski.

“I don’t compare myself to him. He’s at the same level with Contador. I’m on another level and I’m looking at my own progression. I believe in my chances and have support from the team.”

Michel Day trips from hanoi, Day trips Kwiatkowski in the Prologue of the 2014 Tour de Romandie

Michal Day trips to Nha Trang, Day trips Kwiatkowski wins Tour de Romandie prologue

• April 29, 2014

Michal Kwiatkowski has won the Tour de Romandie prologue to take the first yellow jersey of the race that Chris …Continue reading »

 

Michal chi tiet tham khao Kwiatkowski looks ahead after Amstel Gold Race disappointment

• April 21, 2014

"He will be there again to fight with the biggest riders" says Omega Pharma-QuickStep sports director Tom Steels …Continue reading »