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Alternative Lifestyle

Alternative Lifestyle

Why U?

Why u?  This is not your father's cruise ship. Designed as the first river cruise catering to a more trendy audience, U River Cruises features more experiential itineraries that allow passengers to connect with the cities the boats visit and the people who live there. The ships themselves look nothing like what you might expect: …

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Plane train

Despite covid and all of the fistfights we hear about nowadays, air travel is still a marvelous thing.  Spectacular locations matched to state-of--the art-aircraft are still the thing of dreams.   Wouldn't it be nice if we could go forward and and backward at the same time?   If you're one of those romantic types, read on here... courtesy…

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No tell Motel

It always seems like "what goes around, comes around."  The new new. The latest and greatest are not really the latest.  They've been around the block before.  Been there, done that. But, sometimes that's not a bad thing, especially if the old new is new old, if you know what we mean. In this case, our subject…

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Bangkok walks!

A marvelous thing about our world and our planet (with all of its residents) is how much change happens every minute of every day.  Not all of it is necessarily good, but there is so much good in humanity that, sometimes, it's nice to simply celebrate the good. For example, Bangkok is a sprawling, diverse and…

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Fly the friendly skies of DIY Airlines

As the old phrase goes, "there's no getting around getting around."  We've all got to do it. Sometimes it's a pain, other times it's a pleasure.  Sometimes you have no choice. Getting around has been a real challenge during these times of the Covid-19 pandemic.  So much so, that many of us have simply opted not…

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Wherefore art now?

This may sound trite, but art is art, isn't it?  Artists follow their muse to amaze / amuse / surprise us with what the human mind can conjure up.  We may not always "get it" but there never seems to be a shortage of those who create something compelling. Interestingly, there are also those who…

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Think Cadillac

Here's another heart-warming story of people looking out for each other. In the late 1970s, former Heritage board member Leroy Looper (1924-2011) and his wife Kathy turned the rundown Cadillac Hotel in the heart of the Tenderloin district in San Francisco into a national model for the potential of single-room occupancy hotels. The Tenderloin Museum opened on…

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Hey, big spender

Is your life mundane?  Do you want power and influence? Do you have $2.75 million to spare? You could become the owner of a tiny desert outpost in rural California. The town of Nipton, California, is for sale after the idea to establish the community as a cannabis consumption destination went bust amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On any given…

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Hope springs eternal

As always, hope springs eternal.  Mankind will always correct its errant ways and will always achieve its highest aspiratiions.  And, humans keep trying to make that so. In 1900, Ida Hofmann, a German pianist, and her companion Henry Oedenkoven, the 25-year-old son of a businessman from Antwerp, purchased a hill in Ascona which had been known…

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Go your own way

You often hear stories of the "tin foil hat" wackos who hide in caves and have three years worth of tins of beans, just to protect themselves from their goverments.  Given today's state of affairs, maybe they're right. In an abandoned Marine Corps base in the Southern California desert lies Slab City, home to a makeshift…

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Just itching to go

If you're a regular of our site, you'll know that we're fans of Sir Richard Branson, he of the Virgin empire.  Yes, he's wealthy, but we feel like his heart (and wallet) are in the right place. Well, hold your breath and have a look at Moskito Island.  Sir Richard owns the entire island, near Virgin…

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Here’s looking at Loo, kid

Loo =  toilet (UK) Public works are often joyless, utilitarian, just-get-it-done affairs.  Whether it's a road, or a bridge or even public restrooms, it makes you wonder why a little je ne sais quoi can't be in the building specifications. Happily, though, that's not always the case.  And here are some fine examples of where good taste…

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Aria of the desert

Isn't it a delight when you run across something so unusual, so unexpected and somewhat puzzling, as well?  We here at Matouring love that kind of thing - it gives us faith that not is all normal all of the time. Here is an example: Marta Becket's Amargosa Opera House.  Located on a barren junction of…

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Like, how much actual money is there in the world?

If you added up all the money from all the countries in the world, how much would it amount to?  The short answer is, probably a lot. All jokes aside, to make this question answerable, let's start by asking, "How much money is there in actual United States dollars?" Since the statistics for the U.S. are…

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Never too small

There's a wonderful series on YouTube called Never Too Small.  It's short videos created by clever (usually young) people who, by choice or by necessity have taken an often tiny space and turned it into a comfortable and sensible dwelling. What we like about this channel is that, although the individuals have likely been forced…

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Mooooove

Very simply . . . Corsican cows won’t give up beach home to tourists, post lockdown.  Can you blame them? Or, is this a portend of things to come?  Have the non-human species finally had enough, and are collectively fighting back?  Between Covid, murder hornets and mother earth, herself, providing us with one disaster after…

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Y’know, homophobia, Seoul style

People are people.  It feels (to us, anyway) that as the world gets bigger and, at the same time it gets smaller (social media) it doesn't necessarily get any better.  And who would know better than our LGBTQ+ friends?  And their problems can happen anywhere. This article is about how Seoul’s LGBTQ+ district came back…

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Ninety days is not enough

If you like Europe (we sure do) you may often find that when you visit for a long time, even ninety days (the current limit) might not be enough.  There's just too much to do. Of course, you can maximise the rules by staying within the ninety day limit, take a rest for a short…

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