Mini Golf Maniacs

Posted by salsabilahanun | July 24th, 2010

START YOUR DREAM VACATION WITH US

Salute Vietnam warmly welcomes you and your dreams of sunshine, food and friendly faces in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and beyond to China and Thailand. Let us show you the sights – as well as the nooks and crannies – that will indulge your senses, open your mind and free your inhibitions!

 

What sets Salute Vietnam apart is our flexibility. This may be our neighbourhood, but we want you to see it your way and at your pace. If you are having fun somewhere we want you to stay. If you ‘get the itch’ to see something new we want you to be able to follow that itch before it wears off.

 

We offer an outstanding suite of services – call it your travel sketchpad – that allow you to design your dream trip through Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, or to any one of these countries in exciting detail. If your trip involves passing through Thailand or China, we have extensive services in those countries too. A tour of the beach towns in central Vietnam then a hop over to Siem Riep to see Angkor Wat? A customised tour of all there is to see in North Vietnam? Whatever suits you suits us.

 

In addition to custom tours, we offer several basic travel services, including domestic and international airline tickets, hotel and resort booking, Vietnamese tourist visas, car rental, and bus and train tickets, throughout Indochina and beyond. Our services are delivered through www.salutevietnam.com (our main webpage), (our online visa processing service), and our many agents and partners around the world.  

 

Salute Vietnam confidently offers you control over the entire trip planning process. This of course means you need to know what is on offer and where  – so we support you with custom searches and a rich library of information on what to see (as well as what not to see!), who to see it with and how to see it from the right angle. Your door to this library is this website, a few electronic windows you can use to peek through at the beautiful scenery, rich culture and amazing food that is Vietnam, Indochina and the region.

 

Salute Vietnam is proud of our reputation as an extremely reliable online tour operator and travel service. No matter what part of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, China or Thailand strikes your fancy, we will help you put together the trip that best suits your taste and price range. Call or email us today to find out how we can turn your travel dreams into a real itinerary.

 Vietnam Travel ,Vietnam GOLF TOURS

If you are also in the travel industry and committed to excellent customer service, we would invite you to form a business alliance and join our trusted list of strategic partners. Please contact us for further information on how we can work together to benefit each other and, most importantly of course, the traveller.

Tags: Airline Tickets, Angkor Wat, Central Vietnam, Electronic Windows, Processing Service

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Posted by salsabilahanun | July 19th, 2010

Portugal is a great choice for golf. It’s close enough to get to easily and far enough to offer a very different feel to back home. On top of that, Lisbon is great for food and culture and has plenty of very good courses within easy reach. Luxury golf holidays near Portugal’s capital “tick a lot of boxes!”

Here are five golf courses near Lisbon that you must sample while you’re out there. You simply won’t find a stronger concentration of quality anywhere else in the country.

5. Quinta do Peru

This is a fairly flat and generous course for the most part, punctuated with a couple of soft climbs and two long par 3’s where you’d do well not to drop a shot. The real bonus about this course is its setting – in a pine forest of more than 300 acres and with the Arrabida Mountains as a back drop, this fine golf course in Portugal not only provides a great game but is a real pleasure for the eyes as well. It’s one of the most exclusive in the area but we can book you a tee-time or two.

4. Penha Longa

The first thing that will strike you when walking around Penha Longa is that you’ve left in your camera in your room! The combination of waterfalls, ancient monuments and gorgeous countryside make playing this course a real treat – but don’t let it distract you from the course, for this is Trent Jones at his most subtle. Well-protected greens and hilly terrain make club selection and playing with your brain vital. One of Europe’s finest and past host to the Portuguese Open.

3. Praia d’El Rey Obidos

The par 72 Praia d’El Rey is a soft links course that offers a real taste of “the way golf should be played” without being overly difficult. It’s also beautiful. Spread out amid pine trees, beachside dunes and inland water, it’s very easy to find yourself distracted but stay focused, look at how the terrain is shaped and enjoy! Designed by the highly-regarded American architect Cabell B. Robinson, this golf course near Lisbon should definitely be on your list for a rewarding round of golf combined with Atlantic Ocean views.

2. Troia

This is a very fine test of golf and very difficult off the back tees. It’s also extremely attractive with the trees, fairways and dunes mingling to perfection. Robert Trent Jones Senior designed one of his best courses here and he is deservedly proud of it. It’s got his typical hallmarks: bold bunkers, raised greens and challenging doglegs but it’s got that X Factor too. To get to the club, you need to take a short ferry crossing from Setubal to the Peninsula of Troia – it all adds to the magic of the day.

1. Oitavos

Regular host to the Portuguese Open, this course is a master class of how to mix bogey, par and birdie holes. You can attack, you have to defend and you have to think. Play Stableford or Matchplay and try to play the course twice as there are lots of surprises first time round. The wide fairways lead to narrow greens through dunes and umbrella pines so you can be relatively loose off the tee but then it’s down to the serious stuff! Close to the Atlantic, there’s definitely a links feel and the “design” clubhouse and delicious estate wines provide the perfect frame to a great day’s golf.

Tags: Great Game, Hilly Terrain, Holidays Portugal, Lisbon Portugal, Waterfalls

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Posted by salsabilahanun | July 17th, 2010

This week I test drove the Vauxhall Astra VXR and was asked whether I was the type of person who’d buy this type of car – a powerhouse of a hatchback. “Well am I?” I thought, so here’s my CV. I don’t profess to be many things but I like to think of myself as a nice guy, who’s hard-working, law abiding, music loving, car worshipping and sport mad. I also like to advertise myself as somewhat of a film expert and enjoy dropping into conversation with like-minded people the Spanish language film I saw last night or what actually happened in The Matrix. Until this week however there was a gaping hole in my film repertoire that ensured that my cinematic ramblings were denounced quicker than Usain Bolt running the 100 metres – I had never seen The Usual Suspects.

Having been garnered with more stars in reviews than the night sky above me, it seemed odd that I’d never taken time out to watch it. The content seemed up my street too, with the film being billed at the time of release as ‘the Reservoir Dogs of 1995′, so plenty of guns, violence, swearing and death then – not Toy Story in other words. So I finally settled down 13 years later than intended and can report that if I had any clout as a film critic there would be another maximum five stars winging their way to Bryan Singer’s masterpiece.

The premise is far from simple, but involves five criminals being brought together by the police in unusual circumstances and being blamed for a lorry hijack they (in all probability) didn’t commit. Whilst biding their time before release, they decide to wreak revenge on the police and make a tidy profit whilst doing so. Throughout the film a mystical master criminal called Keyser Soze is mentioned and via a serious of flashbacks and narration from one of the five suspects the story unravels, culminating in a bloody finale aboard a container ship and a twist so implausible that it contorts your brain into believing it’s possible – who is Keyser Soze? The beauty of the storytelling is that you know there will be a twist but cannot pinpoint how or who will be involved.

It was a similar scenario I found myself in whilst driving the Astra VXR. Obviously gunfire and hijacking aren’t part of the Vauxhall lifestyle but in many ways, the Astra VXR is part of the automotive equivalent of The Usual Suspects. The world of the hot hatchback has always been comprised of familiar faces that have been slugging it out over many years. The current crop includes the main five suspects: Vauxhall Astra VXR, Honda Civic Type R, Ford Focus ST, Volkswagen Golf GTi and RenaultSport Megane.

It’s a formidable line-up worthy of the silver screen but seeing as I had the keys to the Astra, let me throw some facts and figures at you – starting with the styling. Aggressive doesn’t begin to do the Astra justice – even Vauxhall’s advertising slogan of ‘GTi – RIP’ had an air of hooligan about it. Huge alloy wheels adorn the gaps in the wide and low-slung body kit, with a roof mounted spoiler and mesh front grill completing the look. It’s a bold statement which gives the impression the car is travelling at serious speed even when parked at the kerb.

When the 2.0 litre turbo-charged engine is awoken it does happily propel you to speeds that befit its looks. Developing 240bhp, the Astra VXR covers the 0-60mph dash in a mere 6.2 seconds but more importantly for a front wheel drive car, develops no discernible torque steer thanks to more processing power than a string of computer shops. Vauxhall honed the Astra’s chassis at the fabled Nurburgring racing circuit in Germany and it shows. Despite the twisty roads and sheep that kept darting out in front of me, the Astra avoided becoming an abattoir on wheels thanks to responsive handling and the aggressive front end scaring them off.

My only concern is that to develop 43bhp more than the Volkswagen Golf GTi and Honda Civic Type R, Vauxhall have bolted on a turbo that with all the will in the world means one thing – lag. Often I found myself in the overtaking position only for all that power to have a sit down, make a cup of tea and then decide to get to work. There were also occasions when having zoomed past the car on my inside that the engine wanted to have another brew before stopping the flow of power. That said 43bhp is one heck of an advantage over the rivals so it’s worth waiting for.

The Astra VXR is also priced to be cheaper than the Golf, Megane and Focus ST and comparable with the Civic Type R despite this extra grunt and sublime handling. So am I the type of person to buy a Vauxhall Astra VXR? Well unless there’s a massive twist in this tale then the answer would be “Yes please”.

Tags: Flashbacks, Gaping Hole, Soze, Usual Suspects

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