An interesting fact about the canyon is that it's really not a canyon. It is the eastern slope of the Puansaguant plateau. Bryce Canyon boasts almost 400 native species of plant life. In the high mountains, you can find a deep forest of spruce and fir, with stands of quaking aspen. There are also desert grasses, sagebrush, and a few cacti. Many interesting animals call the canyon their home. Mammals in the canyon include: cougars/mountain lions, golden mountain squirrels, Utah prairie dogs, mule deer, ground squirrels, bobcats, ringtail cats, foxes, and hawks. Reptiles, amphibians, and fish are also found in the canyon. They include great basin rattlesnakes, short horned lizards or horny toads, side-blotched lizards, and tiger salamanders. There are many different species of birds seen in the Bryce Canyon. The two most commonly found ones are the stellar jays and ravens. Golden eagles have also been spotted in the canyon.

The higher elevations of Bryce Canyon have a lumpy, broken, and random texture. Bryce Canyon's unique spires attract tourists year round. These spires have a strange name - hoodoos! Their sizes range from the height of a man to the height of a ten story building! The Hoodoos were formed from millions of years of being shaped by water and ice. I have concluded that Bryce Canyon is a wonderful place with many interesting learning experiences.

If you plan to take the cruise that leaves from Galveston, Texas on April 27th and departs for 13 nights to Barcelona, Spain then take this to heart. When you get to Barcelona, don't just get on the plane and head home. Please don't leave this beautiful city without visiting some of the sights such as the Sagrada Familia, the quirky buildings in Park Guell and the site of the Olympics game.

Being in Barcelona for three days last December, I can tell you that the city has a lot to offer. Don't plan to see it all in less than two days because you won't enjoy it. Staying three days was not enough but we managed to get around the city and take in most of the sights. The best way to see Barcelona is by bus. I recommend the Bus Turista, a double decker bus that circles the city, covering all points of interest including the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Mila (or La Pedrera), Casa Battlo, the Olympics site, Montjuic and the Gothic Quarter. Along the route, the bus passes by the University, Barcelona Cathedral and La Ramblas. You can get on and off at any Bus Turista stop with a valid ticket. Tickets may be purchased on board or in advance from tour companies such as the tour company that we are affiliated with.

The bus circles the entire (red) route in an hour but will take longer during busier traffic hours. On the first time around, we decided to stay on board and take in the audio program. When the bus circled around, we decided to get off at the Sagrada Familia for a closer look. Inside, Gaudi wanted the church to resemble a forest of trees, reaching towards the heavens. He was a genius, creating plaster models and leaving drawings behind for today's builders to finish his work. It truly looks like a forest inside, with the columns made out of different materials. A lift is available to take you high into one of the pinnacles, which has been dedicated to one of twelve apostles. The view from up top is spectacular.

The other architectural wonders of Gaudi are equally impressive. The man was certainly ahead of his time when he had designed La Pedrera, Casa Battlo and Park Guell. Be sure to give yourself ample time to visit each of his work which can be found throughout Barcelona.

Some geologists believe that Capri Island was once part of the Sorrento Peninsula of mainland Italy, and that it was separated and thrust out into the sea by major tectonic upheavals. It now stands some 5km offshore, west of Naples, it's breathtakingly sheer limestone cliffs soaring way up out of a turquoise sea.

This dramatically beautiful island was colonized by the Greeks around 600 - 500BC, and somewhat later, between 100BC and 100AD by the Roman Emperors, who built their holiday villas and palaces here. After the collapse of the Roman Empire the island fell prey over the following centuries to mixed fortune, and attacks and ravages by pirates.

Capri was a powerful British naval base, similar to Gibraltar for a very brief period in the early 1800's, after which it began to attract visitors. Many artists, writers and other celebrities favoured the island, and settled there, or holidayed there. By the 1950's Capri had been discovered by the Jet Set and has been a favourite secluded haunt for celebrities and millionaires ever since.

Tips for Your Capri Visit

Don't make the common mistake of planning a rushed day trip to this special island.

Spend at least two nights here, so you can absorb the unique atmosphere in this tiny piece of Italy.

The fast, hassle free way to get to the island is by hydrofoil from Naples (about 35 minutes). There are also ferries and all services are reliable, but note that bad weather and rough seas will affect their schedules.

It is very difficult to hire a car on, or take a car to, Capri. Excellent taxi and bus services solve this problem. Be prepared to walk quite a bit as well, so don't forget sunhat, sunblock and comfortable walking shoes. Pack some mosquito repellent as well, especially if you are travelling in the summer.

Buy a map as soon as you arrive, so you can locate yourself and find your bearings from the start.

You will arrive at Marina Grande, the small, colourful main port. From here, you ascend by funicular railway to the loggia just off the main square of Capri Town. .

The other, smaller, town is Anacapri, perched at the very top of the island. To get there take a bus or taxi.

The island is prone to rock falls in the higher, more remote areas, and this can sometimes affect some the paths and minor routes. It's a good idea to check with your hotel, or the tourist office before you set out.

There is no surface water on Capri, and all rainwater is stored in cisterns around the island. Do not drink the tap water; rather buy several litres of bottled mineral water when you arrive.

Top Sights for Your Visit

Capri and Anacapri are both charming, pretty towns, so take some time to stroll through the narrow streets and enjoy the sights.

• Boat trip

  Boats leave regularly from Marina Grande and will take you right around the island in about 2 ½ hours. This trip affords great views back towards the island.

• Blue Grotto

  The entrance is very small and you will have to transfer to a smaller boat to get through at low tide. The beautiful cave is filled with aquamarine light caused by the sunlight reflecting up from the sandy bottom of the sea.

• Faraglioni

  Vast, sheer free-standing rocky islets rocketing to an incredible height against a dazzling sky.

• Walk up to Villa Jovis

  Steps and alleyways flanked by high walls and shuttered houses. Ornate wrought iron gates sometimes allow a glimpse of secluded private villas. Charming small gardens with lemon, olive and fig trees, and some vines.

• Villa Jovis

  Ruined palace of Roman Emperor Tiberius, more than 7000 square metres, sprawling on the cliff tops. Spectacular views, especially from, Tiberius's Leap (335metres), over which, it is rumoured, disloyal slaves were forced to jump to their deaths.

• Piazza Umberto 1

  Main square of Capri town and an excellent place for a light lunch in the shade, or a sundowner on a warm evening.

• Marina Piccola

  This is the beach area, and charming smaller port. This is a good place to have lunch in the sun, overlooking the sea.

• Villa San Michele

  Axel Munthe's house and garden, spectacularly placed almost at the very top of the Island, with amazing views.

• Monte Solaro

  589m to the summit, with splendid views on a clear day as far as the Appenine Mountains in north Italy.

• The Phoenician Steps

   Eight hundred ancient steps, cut into the bare rock of the north eastern buttress of Monte Solaro. For centuries, until the motor road up to Capri was built in 1877, these were the only means of communication between Anacapri and Capri town.

Buon Viaggio!

Sometime during the 1 st century AD a community of people took refuge from the aggressive barbarian hordes on mainland Italy, seeking safety on the muddy islands of a lagoon, which were to become the City and State of Venice.

These inhospitable islands developed richly over the next few centuries into the romantic, ethereal city of Venice we know today. In spite of the unlikely start, Venice became a powerful nation, and the most prosperous in Europe by the end of the 13 th century. She commanded a mighty navy and her influence was felt across the known world. The city traded exotically and vibrantly with the East and this strongly affected all aspects of the culture, most evident today in the architecture.

Your Visit to Venice

A first visit to Venice can be daunting and some have described it as a "cultural onslaught". There is literally too much beauty and history, so you need to take it slowly in order to capture the special mood of Venice. In fact, a great devotee of this magical city once said that, if possible, you should not attempt to enter any museum, art galley or church on your first, even your second, visit - to allow the senses to prepare for and adjust to the sensational treasure that is Venice.

But this is not practical for most of us, so here are some suggestions to help make your first trip to Venice unforgettable.

Top Tips for Visiting Venice

Take some time to choose a guide book you find easy to navigate. Sometimes its difficult to read up on an unfamiliar destination before you go there, so watching movies set in Venice, or reading novels, poetry, and non-fiction about the city will help you.

Buy a notebook and jot down ideas for your visit that might spring from your reading.

Learn a few basic words of Italian if you don't speak the language. "Good morning", "good evening", "please" and "thank-you" are a good start.

The city has no motorised transport whatsoever: no cars, no trucks, no scooters or motorbikes. To get around you must walk, or take some form of water transport. Enjoy the tranquillity, and the sound of footsteps and lapping water. A comfortable pair of walking shoes is essential.

Travel in mid-season to avoid the heat of summer and the tourist hordes. Take wet weather gear, including umbrella and especially waterproof shoes if you decide on a winter trip.

Marco Polo airport is the most conveniently situated airport for Venice. Take the vaporetto - the public water taxi - from here to St Mark's Square, and enjoy your first view of the magnificent, palace-lined Grand Canal.

Try and stay in a quiet area away from the main tourist attractions in the centre. This will give you a chance to identify and experience Venice's peaceful beauty.

Ask for a map at your hotel and mark the hotel on the map. Then put the map in your pocket and just walk. Yes, you will get lost, among the over 100 islands separated by some 150 canals and joined by about 400 bridges, but not permanently!.

For your evening meal, take advice from the hotel. Ask where the local Venetians eat, and avoid the tourist areas. You will get a better meal at a better price.

Take time to enjoy an evening drink on St Mark's Square, either before or after dinner. Choose the Caffe Florian or the Gran Caffe Quadri, both of which have small orchestras. Relax and observe. This is not a cheap outing, but how often do you get a chance in life to drink an aperatif in "The Drawing Room of Europe" (a description attributed to Napoleon)?

Read your guidebook properly when you get home, and use your notebook to record all your special experiences, plus ideas for your next visit.

Top Sights for your First Visit

Rialto Bridge: Landmark bridge and its and surrounding market

Ca d'Oro: Charming palace on the Grand Canal

Gondola Ride: At sunset, with a bottle of champagne

Clock tower on St Marks Square: See the bronze "moors" strike the hour

St Mark's Basilica: opulently decorated with gold mosaics

Greek Horses: Well over 1000 years old

Accademia: Art museum representing Venetian artists up to the 18 th century

Doges' Palace: Gothic residence of Venice's one time leaders, the Doges.

Buon Viaggio! Have a great first trip to Venice

In Singapore, the cable car is used to commute one from the summit of Faber Mount on the Singapore Island to a low hill on Sentosa, a famous resort island just off the southern part of Singapore.

The cable car resembles a carriage which hangs from a strong steel cable suspended in the air. It moves along the cable with other cars on pullers turned by electronic motors. Each cable car is painted with eye-catching color and can seat up to six persons.

Through the glass window of the cable car, passenger gets a breathtaking view of the modernized city of Singapore, harbor bustling with workers, and some tiny islands off the coast of Singapore.

As the cable car is hung so high in the air, ships on the sea appear to be small boats or the boats like toys. You can view workers on the ships in the dockyard below busily moving cargo from the ships to the shore or from the quay on the waiting ships by looking through binoculars or a telescope. On sunny day, the sky above is beautifully blue and the sea below looks crystal blue.

Passengers have adequate time to capture a magnificent view during a trip to Sentosa Island as the cable car moves at a leisurely manner. When reaching the island, the visitor can walk round viewing some interesting sights or swim in the artificial lagoon. The visitor can also take a bus to travel round the island if he or she is not eager to walk. Golf lovers can have a round of golf course on this island.

After spending some memorable times on the island, you have to take a cable car back to Mount Faber. The return trip is equally enjoyable and interesting as during the trip to Sentosa Island.

With some deft plotting, I managed to wrest a weekend off from work with no pressing deadline hanging on my coattails. Despite some snags (less than 10 hours to get my stuff packed, July is generally rainy, and some pals canceled at the last minute), we eventually set foot on boracay's famed white beaches tired, slightly wet, and parched.

Like most city dwellers, I hadn't counted on making so many stops before reaching our destination [taxi ride to the airport, a 50-minute plane ride to kalibo, a 15-minute tricycle (no taxis around these parts folks) dash to the bus terminal, followed by a 1-hour plus bus trip to caticlan, a 20-minute boat hop to the island itself, then another 20 minutes spent on a noisy tricycle ride to Boat station 1]. By the time we arrived at the beachfront, we were pretty much worse for the wear. After walking a good distance lugging our heavy backpacks and hoping the rain wouldn't break any minute (it didn't, luckily), my friends and I finally decided on this quaint inn roughly 25 meters away from the water. Since it was off-peak season, we managed to negotiate a better deal for our 3-day stay (if you hadn't booked on advance, it's always better to scout and compare your options before you decide on a place to stay).

We staggered to our rooms, pushed off our heavy loads, and plopped on our beds groaning and making wisecracks about the sorry state of our spine. Unpacking didn't take long; a few minutes later, we were out hunting for a good place to eat.

Sights and Sounds of Bora

Dining in boracay is as easy as falling off a horse, even for the most timid of explorers, because restaurants, bars, cafes, grill houses, turo-turo, you name it -- they're all over the place. in fact, there's no direction you can turn to (except maybe the beach) without stumbling over one of them. And the array of culinary styles being offered is as eclectic as the island's visitors and long-term dwellers: native, French, continental, seafood, Chinese, Korean, etc.

And of course, there's the ubiquitous presence of boutiques and souvenir peddlers, as well as various items and services being sold or rented -- boat trips, massage (courtesy of blind masseuses), funky tattoos, internet and online gaming, biking/diving/surfing gears, baked goods, electronic gadgets and components, labrador puppies, etc. It's like the whole beachfront has become this sprawling, hodge-podge marketplace where tourists clad in casual wear and various swimming gears rub shoulders with laidback locals and busy shop owners, each one intent on doing his/her own thing.

[If somebody asked me to come up with a fitting mantra for this place (if ever it needs one), it would have to be: Anything Goes in Boracay]

It is also noteworthy that there are a couple of shops here that sell or exchange second-hand books (presumably left behind by tourists) in various languages. I saw four huge bookcases of them, mostly in English, French, German and Spanish, at the inn where we were staying. They included standard bestsellers, romance novels, diet guides, business text, self-help/spiritual titles, technical manuals, even children's books -- if nothing else, they served as a testimonial to the demographics of the island's visitors: families, expats, business types, techie types, yuppies, vacationers, etc.

What i find most interesting though is the mix of languages that virtually transformed the place into something like a global village. Walking along the beach, you'll soon hear somebody rattling off in the local dialect, or maybe in Tagalog, Ilonggo, or Cebuano (three of the Philippines' major dialects). English, of course, is spoken practically everywhere: it's the accent you need to watch out for if you wish to distinguish the Brits from the Yanks, Canadians, Kiwis, or Aussies. Occasionally, you'll hear somebody utter something in Korean, German, French or Dutch. And it's not unusual to find multilingual innkeepers and shop attendants here. I suppose they need to be, in order to thrive in this culturally diverse setting.

Music is continually played here -- reggae, adult contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, soul, alternative, OPM. It all depends on where you are and what type of scene you prefer.

The beach, of course, has been and continues to be a subject of countless articles and features (print, TV, news, blogs, etc.), so i won't add to the clutter by stating the obvious, except to say that while you're here your holiday won't be worth what you paid for it until you've tested the waters. Go figure.

My Take

Visiting Boracay in July is a bit like arriving at a party when all the VIPs have gone. The food, drinks, music and everything else are still there but you know that no matter what happens next (barring some spectacular disaster, knock on wood), chances are it won't get featured in the next day's papers. Still that was fine with me, because it's hard to relax when you're being hemmed in by sunburned, sweaty and tipsy bathers, who seem to sprout everywhere during peak season. Plus, prices are a bit more wallet-friendly this time of the year, and you have more time to explore and less distraction when you're trying to meditate.

The next two days flew by like a blur. The occasional drizzles were a pain, but we didn't let them spoil our fun (swimming, eating, sightseeing, rambling, buying stuff). Oddly enough, i didn't really swim all that much. I was content to bask in the ambience of the place, and welcomed the chance to slack off for a bit. The island's leisurely pace was a form of seduction, and the easy camaraderie among vacationers who came here to relax and unwind was a marvel to see. It's like we were sharing this unspoken bond (regardless of our background, race or age) of putting our busy lives on hold to snatch this delicious moment of inactivity while the rest of world hurtled to its destination... somehow their presence feels like a kind of validation.

A Journey's End

The temptation to stay longer was strong, but reality (not to mention the cost of living) is a powerful taskmaster. Before we knew it, it was time to leave. *sigh*

After packing off our things and the requisite jumble of souvenirs, we went for a last swim, then snapped gazillions of pictures and checked out some more shops. To my delight, i found his charming LOTR-inspired English pub (The Hobbit House) among a gaggle of pricey boutiques. Somehow, it provided a rousing finale to my all-too-brief holiday.