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Discover Sundown Spooks On Ghosts Tours At Colonial Williamsburg In Virginia

One of my favorite times of the year is Fall for its beautiful colors and fun seasonal events like local festivals, and of course, it is when the bewitching season comes to life. This is especially true in Williamsburg where they celebrate the season with entertaining ghost stories, colonial legends and haunting tours like these that are sure to educate and send chills up your spine.

Listen My Children: Legends, Myths and Fables for Families. This 45-minute gathering offers fun and interesting stories that the whole family will enjoy. Storytellers share their tales by firelight as young and old hear some of the same legends that entertained families of centuries past.

Ghosts Amongst Us. This one-hour walking tour shares mystifying tales of the day in the candlelit homes. Some stories may be too intense for younger guests. Historian Carson Hudson discusses Colonial Virginians’ beliefs in the supernatural and the existence of witches throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries. On October 28, guests will learn how and why Virginians conducted several witchcraft inquiries.

Cry Witch. Guests to participate in the re-created 1706 trial of Grace Sherwood, “the Virginia Witch.” Participants can question the witnesses, weigh the evidence and help decide whether the woman is guilty or innocent.

Lantern Tours. Explore the shops and workplaces of Williamsburg’s most accomplished tradespeople by candlelight. Enter four shops and learn about the masters, journeymen and apprentices who formed Williamsburg’s “silent majority.” Guests will discover the technology of the trades that shaped Virginia’s economy.

Crime and Punishment. Guests will explore and compare real 18th-century justice to that of today. On this walking tour, you will get up close and personal with 18th-century legal punishments by going back in time and meeting three people from the past who may be ghosts or may be real. The experiences they share are from actual cases from the 18th-century Virginia courts.

Tavern Ghost Walk. Let your imagination wander as your guide depicts dramatic tales of the ghosts that are said to still haunt modern Williamsburg’s taverns and sites.

Plan Your Trip Colonial Williamsburg

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is the not-for-profit educational institution that preserves and operates the restored 18th-century Revolutionary capital of Virginia as a town-sized living history museum, telling the stories of our nation’s founders, located 150 miles south of Washington, D.C. For more information call 1-800-HISTORY or visit www.history.org.

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Considering Emigrating To The US? Here’s What You Need To Know

The United States has historically been a popular destination for people looking to emigrate. In fact, it welcomes more immigrants annually than any other country. There are a number of reasons that the United States is such a sought-after destination.

Use This Link To Read More On Emigrating To The USA

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WORLD PREMIÈRE OF THE “REMBRANDT BUGATTI”

Bugatti is continuing its six-part edition series, “Les Légendes de Bugatti”, at the Geneva International Motor Show to honor some of the more important people in the company’s history. Last year the long-established French brand successfully presented the first three Legends models.

All nine vehicles of these model series have been sold. Now Bugatti is celebrating another high point with its fourth legend – named in honor of Rembrandt Bugatti, brother of company founder Ettore and one of the most important sculptors of the early 20th century. As with the other Legends models, only three will be manufactured

The Legends edition

The “Rembrandt Bugatti” is the fourth Legend from the brand. To launch the “Les Légendes de Bugatti” edition last year, Bugatti presented “Jean-Pierre Wimille” at California’s Pebble Beach, “Jean Bugatti” at the IAA in Frankfurt and “Meo Costantini” at the Dubai Motor Show. All nine vehicles of these three Legends have been sold. “The Legends edition is a great success for Bugatti. The response from our customers is amazing,” said Dr Wolfgang Schreiber, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.

The “Rembrandt Bugatti” is based on the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse. Its 8 litre W16 engine achieves an unparalleled torque of 1,500 Nm from 1,200 PS at 3,000–5,000 rpm, and can accelerate from 0–100 km in 2.6 seconds. With a maximum speed of 408.84 km/h with the roof down, the Vitesse is the fastest production roadster ever built.

“Rembrandt Bugatti had a special talent for capturing the movement of animals at their most expressive moment,” explains Achim Anscheidt, Head Designer at Bugatti. “The patina, the soul and the crafted character of his bronze sculptures guided us to the colour and material choices in the Legend car that carries his name.” Anscheidt continues: “The result is a super sports car that fuses beauty and elegance with great dynamics and sporting appeal.”

The body of the “Rembrandt Bugatti” Legend Vitesse was designed in the “horizontal split”, and is largely composed of bronze-coloured clear-coated carbon as a gesture to the artist’s favoured material. The vehicle’s lower half is painted in an elegant light brown, “Noix”. The famous Bugatti horseshoe gleams in platinum from the front grille, with platinum also ringing the EB logo at the vehicle’s rear. The wheels are painted in dark “Firefinch” and light “Noix” browns, and these colours combine to complete the elegant appearance and set the super sports car off against the asphalt. In reference to the artist and Legends car’s namesake, Rembrandt Bugatti’s signature has been lasered onto the petrol and oil cap.

The elegant and harmonious appearance continues in the vehicle’s interior. The Vitesse is completely upholstered with leather in light brown “Cognac”. The rear centre box between the seats has a striking design. It proudly sports Rembrandt Bugatti’s famous elephant sculpture, the hood ornament of the Type 41 Royale and today is the symbol for both the brand and the Legends edition. The elephant was cast in bronze with great technical skill and worked as an insert into the cover. The cover is made of bronze-coloured clear-coated carbon. The door trim is impressive evidence of Bugatti’s reputation for working high-quality materials in a unique style, with braided leather in the softly contrasting colours of “Cognac” and “Coffee”. This elegant design was developed exclusively for this Legends car

Platinum is also in evidence in the vehicle’s interior, on the EB logo on the steering wheel. Other interior details specific to this Legends Vitesse are the insert of bronze-coloured clear-coated carbon on the extended centre console with the lettering “Les Légendes de Bugatti” and Rembrandt Bugatti’s elephant, and the door sill plates displaying the sculptor’s portrait and signature.

In short, Rembrandt Bugatti is a super sports car that fuses beauty and elegance with great dynamics and sporting appeal. The “Rembrandt Bugatti” Vitesse costs €2.18 million Euro net and the three model series of the Legends edition have already been sold. Bugatti will present the fifth Legends model at the Auto China 2014 in Beijing taking place in April.

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Zeptair: Behind some of the most colorful private jets

Zepter, the Serbian group headquartered in Switzerland, is mainly known for its consumer goods business focusing on cooking and cleaning equipment. A less known part of its business however is ZeptAir, the private aviation company it started back in January 2011 to rent out its corporate fleet.

At the time, ZeptAir's fleet was made up of two Bombardier aircrafts. a Challenger 300 and a Challenger 605. The latter, was styled in a square, multi-color scheme that became associated with Zepter, and later on its corporate fleet.

In May 2013, the company took delivery of a new Bombardier Global 5000, styled in the same color scheme, during a ceremony at Bombardier's Completion Center in Quebec.

With a range of 5,200 nautical miles, ZeptAir's Global 5000 was configured to carry up to 11 passengers comfortably and able to fuel from London to Los Angeles without refueling.

Shortly prior to the delivery, ZeptAir partnered with Amira Air in an effort to be able to offer a larger fleet of airplanes to its customer base and help get more customers on its own aircrafts, with Amira Air overseeing the management of Zepter's aircrafts.

With an interior designed with bright red colors, an extension of the plane's colorful exterior, their Global 5000 features dark red window blinds and red overhead lighting with a white & cream base.

Interestingly, ZeptAir didn't become the only venture that the Serbian conglomerate took into the field, also building the 50-meter yacht, Joy Me. Featuring a similar bright red scheme, the yacht is currently for sale asking €22 million.

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Sightseeing in Brunei: A Visit to an Iban Longhouse

For the second half of our day trip to the Ulu Temburong National Park we went to visit the house of a local Iban tribe called a "longhouse". As the word "longhouse" indicates this is literarily a long house. Once upon a time it started out just as one small building ment for a single couple, but as the younger members of the family got married they would add a small house of the exact size and shape next to their parents/relatives' house, thus making the house grow longer and longer with each new generation.

Browse places to stay in Bandar Seri Begawan on Agoda.com.

Above: An Iban Longhouse

The picture above shows the Iban Longhouse we visited. The traditional longhouses of the Iban tribes used to be built in a simple style, but more and more of the longhouses are becoming modernized, and nowadays it is common that they come with both running water and electricity.

Above: The corridor connecting the various families living inside the longhouse

When you enter the longhouse there's a long corridor connecting the houses of the families living there so that they all can gather easily but also have their own private life. It sort of reminded me of a school where each of the classes have their own room that use in private for the lessons while still being able to socialize with kids from other grades in the break time.

Above: The sultanate has a strong position in Brunei, and it was interesting to see that there was a photo of the royalties inside the longhouse

From the corridor we were escorted into the living room of the head of the longhouse where we were given a warm welcome. As you probably know Brunei has strict laws prohibiting the locals from consuming alcoholic beverages, but the Ibans have a traditional sweet rice wine called 'tuak' that is produced for own consumption and used for festive events. Inside the longhouse they kindly offered us to try and taste a small cup each as a welcome drink, and I think it tasted somehow like sweet sake.

We also got the chance to put on a traditional Iban clothing called kain kebat (ceremonial skirt), which you can see in the photos below.

Above: We had a fun time trying out the beautiful traditional attires.

Above: It is forbidden to use Brunei coins to decorate the traditional attires, so the Ibans had instead used Malaysian coins for this dress.

Above: A collection of Iban weapons on the wall.

I have decided not to post too many pictures from inside the house since it after all was a private home. Visiting the Iban longhouse and trying out the local attire and rice wine was however one of the highlights of our trip to Brunei, and I would not hesitate to recommend it for anyone considering a visit to Brunei!

That's all for now, but hopefully my series of posts about Brunei can be of help to some of you out there considering a visit!

■ Basic Info

The Ulu Temburong National Park
Tour Operator: Borneo Guide

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Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
- Anette

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Superyacht Project Zephyr is Absolutely Stunning

The new 180-foot yacht Zephyr, designed by Federico Fiorentino and built by Rossinavi, reaches 32 knots but its high-performance hull is designed to cross the Atlantic.

Federico Fiorentino’s new 180-foot Zephyr concept makes use of a combination of gentle curves popular in ’60s automotive designs and taut lines to create a long, streamlined profile, embellished with stainless-steel accents. The Rossinavi-built yacht will have a Fast Displacement XL 500 hull by Van Oossanen Naval Architects. The XL running surface is the next step forward for the Dutch firm’s patented fast displacement hull form. It provides 20 percent more speed over the previous generation and, perhaps more critical to the owner, 20 percent more interior space.

On Zephyr, the hull is particularly noteworthy: With 16V 4000 MTU engines, it will deliver a top speed of 32 knots. At 12 knots the yacht has a transatlantic range of 3,540 nautical miles with fuel consumption of less than four gallons per nautical mile. One of Fiorentino’s primary goals was to put the owners and guests beside the water without using a conventional beach club. Instead, Fiorentino created a 990-square-foot beach area that covers the entire aft deck that is connected to a 300-square-foot raised terrace. With the huge swim platform deployed, the focal point of the stern becomes its 18-foot swimming pool. The views are exceptional from every point on this deck, from the raised terrace to the transparent edges of the pool.

The deck above also has a large open space, with sunbeds and lounges on the rear portion, and a dining table for 12, a bar, and a barbecue beneath the overhang. This outer deck connects to an enclosed saloon and pilothouse. Up front, the foredeck also has a generous social space, with lounges and sunbeds.

The master suite is located on the main deck, just forward of the saloon and dining area. The palatial design includes a separate office, bedroom with lounge area on one side and vanity on the other, walk-in closet, and a full-beam en-suite bathroom. On the deck below, the five guest staterooms also have their own en-suites.

“What really makes Zephyr unique is the mixture of livable space, high performance, low fuel consumption, and her aggressive-but-harmonious look,” says Fiorentino. “The yacht is intended as a futuristic piece of technology, but with a huge personality and presence.”

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Villa Etheras, Firostefani, Santorini

Sleeps 4: Euros 633 - Euros 2263 / night ($735 - $2,628 / night)

The quintessential rock, sea and sky of the Greek islands appear in all their glory at Villa Etheras.
This cliffside Santorini vacation rental was named for ether, believed by the ancient Greeks to be the mystical fifth element from which the world was created along with air, fire, earth and water—and, in their mythology, the pure air breathed by the gods. When you sample its panoramic views, gorgeous terrace and chic interiors, you may enjoy a spiritual experience, too.

Set into the rock of the hillside, the villa’s private oceanfront terrace commands views over the caldera and along the coast. Gather around the shaded dining table, stretch out on a seat in the sun or cool off in the infinity pool, which features a lounging platform that appears to be floating on the water’s surface. Inside, a TV, sound system, DVD player, Wi-Fi and air conditioning round out the amenities at this luxury property.

The white stucco walls so characteristic of the islands are carried into Villa Etheras, where they wind around an open-concept living room and kitchen. A sleek fireplace surround and polished marble coffee table contrast with the soft slipcovered sofa in the living room; in the fully equipped kitchen, a rock slab is a rugged counterpoint to the minimalist cabinets and breakfast bar.

The villa’s two bedrooms are the perfect size for a small family or two couples on holiday together—or even for an indulgent honeymoon in the Santorini sun. Both bedrooms have king beds, en-suite bathrooms and sea views.

With a location in the quiet village of Firostefani, Villa Etheras is a short drive from the larger town of Fira and scenic, unpretentious Exo Yalos beach. When it’s time to leave your island retreat, plan on a 7-mile drive from the villa to the ferry docks at Athinios Port Santorini.

BEDROOM & BATHROOM

Bedroom 1: King size bed, Ensuite bathroom with shower/bathtub combo, View of the sea

Bedroom 2: King size bed, Ensuite bathroom, Rain Shower, Television, View of the sea

FEATURES & AMENITIES

Fully equipped kitchen

Espresso machine

Television

Sound System

DVD Player

Wi-Fi

Air conditioning

OUTDOOR FEATURES