Kona Coffee Cultural Festival: Sipping Kona coffee in style!

If you’re a java junkie head straight to Hawaii’s Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, happening on the Big Island on November 2-11, 2007. It’s Hawaii’s oldest food festival and the only coffee festival in the United States. The theme of the festival this year is ‘Kona Coffee Tradition of Excellence’.


The festival offers a variety of events, ranging from coffee samplings to several contests, such as the coffee bean picking contest and a Little Miss Kona Coffee pageant. This year’s celebration will have nearly 50 events including tastings, art exhibits, cupping competition, farm tours, contests, parades and sporting events. For the first time, the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival will include a professional espresso training workshop during its 10-day celebration of Hawaii’s coffee heritage.

Gevalia Kona Coffee Cupping Competition is the festival’s big event in which a panel of international Master Cuppers determines the best coffee of the year. Take coffee farm tour attend workshops on growing, roasting and brewing coffee, take part in a coffee-picking contest and tastings, watch a parade and enjoy sipping Kona coffee in style!

Chinese café replaces Starbucks in Forbidden city

It seems, the Chinese are very keen on preserving their heritage and culture. It is so much so that they closed down the American coffee store ‘Starbucks’ in China, and opened up their own version of the coffee and tea shop.

The state run coffee shop now stands on the premises where Starbucks once stood. This particular Chinese hot beverage shop stands up for everything Chinese. It even sells the chinese tea. I think China is trying to sort of nationalize everything and promote local brands to boost up local economy. One way, this is a good deal.

The American coffee shop closed down in July. It was in business since 2000. There is a lot of controversy based on the presence of the American coffee business.

Instead of brewing coffee, Starbucks brewed political and social storm. When asked for the opinion of the Chinese people, about 70 percent of the people voted against the American cappuccinos.

No one knew that the tiny coffee bar would create so much temper tantrum in the area. Starbucks had a lot of trouble with the palace management. Even though the Western coffee shop teared down the signboard, they had to close down completely in July.

Instead a Chinese version of the coffee shop was created in the heart of the Forbidden city.

An amazing thing about this Starbucks controversy is the fact that: it made internet users create a blog.

I think this is very interesting indeed, because there has never been a similar situation in the beverage industry that attracted the attention of the zillions of customers.

Attend the stinkiest Gilroy Garlic Fest this July!

No, doubt there are many garlic festivals celebrated around the world, but believe me, the Gilroy Garlic Festival of California is the stinkiest and (most flavorful).

It is said that if you eat fresh garlic and you will have garlic breath. But nobody at the Gilroy Fest seems to notice. After all, it’s in almost every menu item. Many volunteers that run the festival cook up everything from garlic-based tri-tip, pesto pasta, to flaming garlic-saturated calimari, and garlic bread. Not only this, visitors can also find garlic wine, garlic beer, and garlic ice cream.


The Gilroy Garlic Festival began in 1979 and is run by the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association which is a non-profit organization intended to support non-profit groups and projects in Gilroy.
In this festival, you can feast on food made with over two tons of fresh garlic, enjoy three stages of musical entertainment, shop in arts and crafts, view the great garlic cook-off and other celebrity cooking demonstrations.

Every summer this festival is celebrated in California in imaginative and dramatic ways. This year Gilroy Garlic Festival will take place from 27th July to 29th July, 2007.

Hours: Festival is 10am to 7pm

Admission fee: $12.

So, attend this Gilroy Garlic Festival to get one of the most memorable experiences of your life but after the festival, don’t plan any important meeting for some days.

Moving Rocks: Can you argue with nature?

Nature is great blessing for all the living beings and there are many things in nature that we human beings can’t argue about. Mother Nature sometimes surprises us so much that we just stand with our mouth wide-open. Consider the case of heavy rocks which are just plain stone-dead. Can you imagine these rocks moving? Yes, you’ve read it right. The Death Valley in California is a place where the rocks seem to just get up and move when no one is looking.


Located on the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, these rocks range in size from small pebbles to large boulders, some of them weighing up to 700 pounds. Do you think it’s easier for human beings to lift these?

No one has ever seen the rocks actually move, but the evidence is indisputable. As the rocks move, they create long winding trail behind as if they are alive. These rocks seem to slide rather than roll, but till date, no one knows the reason. The only certainty is that something is either pushing or pulling them.

For decades scientists have plotted the tracks and analyzed the soil in an attempt to solve the mystery. After spending many years of their life, many geologists have given various theories and reasons. But no one knows which theory is correct. This movement of rocks seems to be great challenge for geologists. I hope scientists are soon able to give the convincing theory to help us know the fact behind the movement of these boulders.

Can you afford a luxurious living in Beverly Hills?

Who doesn’t dream of a house in tranquil Beverly Hills? But do you think it’s that easy to afford a luxurious living there? Beverly Hills is known for the most expensive homes in US and has topped again. Recently, Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC made the comparison of home prices across 331 North American markets and found that with an average price tag of $2.21-million, Beverly Hills was the most expensive place on the continent in 2007 to buy a middle-of-the-road house.


Ranging from the most expensive and the most affordable the report concluded:

• Of all of the Canadian markets studied, Charlottetown was the most affordable. Homes with an average 2,200 square feet, four bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths were found to be just $157,630.

• There is not much difference in the home prices in Canada and the US. In fact, Canada mirrors the U.S. in that the costliest real estate markets are located on the West Coast.

• With homes averaging $1.32-million, Vancouver topped the list of Canadian markets studied.

• California has eight cities in the top 10 most expensive places to buy a house in North America.

• Greenwich is the second-priciest place.

• At a mere $136,725, Killeen was the cheapest real estate on the continent.

• Housing sales in Canada are have not witnessed slump and varied greatly.

However, famously expensive Manhattan and London, one of the world’s priciest markets were not included in the study. The value of the dollar has sunk against most major currencies (witnessing 15% slump against the euro) in the recent past and has made it difficult for Americans to buy a vacation home overseas but the weak dollar has made U.S. properties more attractive to foreign buyers.

70 Mile Yard Sale: Enjoying beautiful vista whilst shopping!

Each fall, Canada’s Prince Edward Island becomes host to the most remarkable yard sales around. Known as 70 Mile Coastal Yard Sale, it’s a sale that everything from junk to jewel, toys for big boys, antiques to new, entertainment and food for all. I won’t be wrong if I say, it’s a sale that has something for all. It’s a sale where you can enjoy shopping, strolling at the beach, witnessing the breathtaking beauty and sampling the local life.


The sale may not hold the record as the largest yard sale in the world, but it is one of the most beautiful. As you make your way from table to table, you’ll find a lot of the usual fare from clothing, trinkets and tools to garden equipment. The sale also features artwork, crafts, new items, secondhand things, antiques, farm equipment, produce, cars, trucks and cool gadgets.

Drawing over 40,000 visitors each year, this sale doesn’t leave the visitors disappointed. It’s a perfect event for renewing old friendships, meeting new people and having gala time on a nice fall day. To be a part of the sale one has to shell just $15.