Pattaya Beach

Where you can relax on beach chair, see various activities on the beach but can be crowded or very crowded sometimes such as weekend, a little bit annoy from vendor(but good to have some people say hello to you from time to time). Both Pattaya beach and Jomtien beach are quite the same offering; beach chair, meal, beach vendors but to me Jomtien beach where a bit further out from Central Pattaya is more peaceful especially on weekday.

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet

Here's another view of three chedis. Yeah you can count the chedis from this pic more than three. Right!,after 1500 A.D, the ashes of members of all royal family members and other kings were placed in small chedis at the site as well.

It 's Wat but this place was a royal Chapel and did not have a Sangavasa(no monks dwelt there). It was used only for royal ceremonies and rituals which includes giving alms to the monks from other temples. Which also performs the Wian Tian ceremony on Buddhist holy days.

Getting 'buried alive' in Japan is hot stuff

Frankly, I am nervous. The sauna at the Hakusuikan resort on Ibusuki on the tip of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu may be recommended as a cure for any number of ailments, but it also involves being buried up to your neck in geothermally heated sand.

And, I cannot help thinking, it did not do Yeltsin that much good in the end.

This being Japan, there is a whole heap of ceremony involved in the burial process. First, I change into a blue and white cotton yukata. This must be worn left over right. Wear it the other way and you are dead. Really. Only the star of the show at a funeral gets to wear the garment that way. Then I tie it up with a blue belt, or obi, which has to wrap twice around the body. I finish off the ensemble with a pair of brown plastic slippers.

Actually, that is not strictly speaking the entire ensemble. Beneath my Japanese-style rig lurks a pair of 100 percent polyester, navy blue football shorts. I shuffle across the main reception, passing guests dressed in identical yukata and concentrating hard on not throwing a slipper. From here I am directed into a changing room where I change into a seemingly identical yukata and ibo. The shorts and slippers have to go, too.

Five minutes later I am sitting on the back bench of a row of four. As people are summoned we all move forward a place. Soon I am at the front, waiting on the edge like someone about to embark on a parachute jump.

Beijing welcomes the Olympics

"Ha-pi-tu-mi-te-yu," he intoned.

Wow, I thought, six years out of Beijing and a long-haul flight from Europe have turned my once almost fluent Chinese to mush.

Then, it hit me. This was English. "'Happy to meet you?"' I asked.

He beamed proudly.

Give Beijingers this much: They sure want Olympic visitors to feel right at home.

In the seven years since the Olympic movement anointed Beijing as host of the 2008 Summer Games, China's capital has undergone a transformation so thorough that "makeover" doesn't begin to describe the change.

Awe-inspiring Antarctica

Set foot on all seven continents" has always been on my list. This past February, after nearly six months of planning, I was fortunate to be able to knock off two -- the most amazing being Antarctica, the other South America.

I chose an optimal time to go -- summer in the Southern Hemisphere -- and found a tour company online that was able to accommodate my needs. It is a costly adventure, especially when traveling solo, but iExplore put together a package for me that was perfect.

Plan on spending at least $3,500 (USD) just for the tour itself. Airfare is another cost, depending on where you're coming from and where you choose to connect from, as there are no direct international flights into Ushuaia, the jumping-off point in Argentina. I connected through Buenos Aires. There are certainly other companies to choose from, and I shopped around until I found one that suited my "solo-traveler" needs.

A Delaware seashore surprise

Sometimes we get away from home simply to do nothing. There's something seductive about spending time relaxing and getting to know yourself again. Lewes, a 377-year-old waterman's town at the mouth of the Delaware River, fits the bill.

Check in here for a long weekend that can be as busy (there are options) or carefree as you desire. You'll find two new boutique hotels, enough shops to fill an afternoon, plenty of good food and waterfronts to inspire your musings.

Blue hues

Tucked between the main street and the bay, Hotel Blue provides contemporary, Euro-style accommodations for adults. From the lobby's cream-and-indigo leather sofa to the rooftop pool and fireplace, the 16-room inn exudes cool.

As you check in, grab an espresso or latte to take up to your room. We like the posh spread of the junior suites best. Each offers a tile fireplace, two flat-screened TVs, fancy stereos, Frette robes, original local art, a small refrigerator and a clear ice bucket akin to a lava lamp that changes hues from ruby to sapphire to gold.

Budget-smart national park trips

We screeched to a halt along the side of the road in Grand Teton National Park. Reggie, 8, was equally mesmerized but 3-year-old Melanie couldn't quite grasp that we were in the moose's house -- and it wasn't a zoo. I still smile years later when I think about the kids' excitement. Forget the Kodak moments. The chance to share something new together -- something you'd never see or do at home -- is what makes those indelible family vacation memories that last forever.

And there's no better place to make that happen than at one of our national parks (there are 58 to choose from, not to mention the 333 other historic sites, monuments, seashores and recreation areas (www.nps.gov). Yet a new survey from Greyhound reports that most of us skip the nation's most popular landmarks. This despite the fact that a visit to a national park, seashore or historic monument certainly is one of the most cost-effective vacation options you can find. (Get an annual pass for just $80; seniors can take a carful along by purchasing the lifetime Senior Pass. Those with disabilities get a free Access Pass.)

Check out "Frommer's National Parks With Kids," a park guide that includes information on kid-friendly eats, lodging and fun activities, and "Easy Access to National Parks: The Sierra Club Guide for People with Disabilities," which is just as helpful to those visiting with young children.

Over the years, we've had lots of adventures in national parks and they weren't always about seeing spectacular sites, though, of course, we've certainly had our share of those. Once we got caught in a hailstorm hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park without enough rain jackets. Another trip, we bided our time at Glacier National Park while one child had a time out for pushing another into a freezing glacial lake. We've dealt with carsick kids on some of those winding roads and a painful run-in with some cactus at Joshua Tree National Park in California. At Mount Rushmore, once my trio realized they couldn't climb around the monument, they were much more interested in seeing who could find the most license plates from different states. I got Alaska!

But every trip, whether the kids were preschoolers, grade-schoolers, in high school or college, has been memorable -- sometimes more so by what went wrong than what went right. I'm grateful for those experiences and look forward to more in the future.