The Expo Shangai 2010 will be, undoubtedly, one of the events of the years (together with the Winter Olympic games in Vancouver and the World cup in South Africa). It starts in exactly 53 days and will last from May 1^st until October 31^st. It is expected to have a sum of 70 million visitors and at least 200 participants.

We all know that Expos always have a mascot. Shanghai’s one is called Haibao. The name is easy to remember and it comes from Hai Bao, a typical lucky name in Chinese tradition. Its shape was developed from a Chinese character meaning people. It has already been place all over Shanghai . Moreover, the theme of Expo 2010 is “Better City, Better Life,” representing the common wish of the whole humankind for a better living in future urban environments.

The UK pavilion is still under construction. It is an outstanding, visual demonstration of the UK as a creative and innovative nation. Developed by Thomas Heatherwick, the centrepiece of the UK pavilion is a six storey high object formed from some 60,000 slender transparent rods, which extend from the structure and quiver in the breeze. This rods will illuminate the interior by day and the exterior by night.

Shanghai World Expo will be the most spectacular and important event of its type. It is an Expo for the 21st Century and every participant is working hard to make be unique and unforgetable. If you haven’t decided what to do in your next holidays, this could be a candidate! Check your hotels in Shanghai in Hotelopia.

Amy Williams, Skeleton

Vancouver has been, during the month of February, the place to be if you are a winter sports fan. It has held (and will be holding until next Sunday 28^th February) the XXI Olympic Winter Games, an international multi-sport event.

It started on 12^th February with the traditional lighting of the Olympic torch, after the flame had travel by air, earth and water in a 106-days journey across Canada. Of course it was light in Olympia, Greece, as it is meant to be.

At the moment, the countries with more medals are the United States with 25, Germany with 22 and Norway with 17. Great Britain has achieved one gold medal, won by Amy Williams in Skeleton.

Of course, Hotelopia can find the best hotels in Vancouver if you have just decided you would like to see the last days of this magnificent sports event or the closing ceremony, a unique experience.

Jon Rawlinson is a filmmaker who specialises in documentaries. His career has taken him all over the world to capture his adventures on video in countless different destinations such as Tahiti, Bora Bora and Jordan. The videos on his blog are spectacular to watch and they also serve as a source of inspiration for planning a future trip. Instead of dealing with all the stress involved with the festivities going on at this time of year, why not sit back and relax with the images that Jon filmed at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan. Its main tank features the world’s second largest acrylic glass panel and it holds whale sharks and manta rays.

Google can be of great help to us on many occasions during our travels, such as to find a restaurant, the timetable for a museum, information on train arrivals and departures and it may even help us to translate a sentence. Today we are going to highlight three applications that this famous Internet search engine offers us.

Google Maps and Unesco
The association between Google and Unesco gives us the opportunity to go on a virtual visit to nearly 900 landmarks that form a part of Humanity’s cultural and natural heritage. We can journey to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and on to the ancient city of Lamu in Kenia, stopping off on the way at the Alhambra in Granada. It can be very useful in searching for information on a destination, and it is also a great source of inspiration when you are deciding where to go on a trip.

Planning your trip
Google maps can be a helpful tool in organising your trip. Before you head off, you can mark the places of interest that you want to visit, insert information (for example, timetables and public holidays) for these places and then programme routes. Once at your destination, you simply connect using your mobile phone and start up the guide that you prepared before you left.

Searching with an image
In the United States on 7 December, Google presented a new platform for mobile phones that can perform searches based on a photo instead of using words, as we have up until now. So now when you are standing in front of a building, you can simply take a picture of it to find out more information on it. This may be the end of conversations like the one that follows. (Two people in Rome): “Are you sure that this is Trajan’s Column?” “Yes…well it must be, isn’t it?” “So, what was the column we saw yesterday, then?
Having said that and in spite of our dear “friend” Google, here at blogtelpoia, we would like to advocate the traditional method of asking for information from the people we come across on our journey. This forms a part of the charm of discovering a new place.

The world’s first hotel made of key cards has been launched in New York.  Measuring 400 square feet, the hotel is decked out with over 200,000 of the Hilton hotel’s finest unused key cards.

Visitors to New York don’t have to book at stay to see this record breaking downtown Manhattan masterpiece but are invited to pop in and take a look around.  The hotel is open to the public from 17 September through 21 September on South Street Seaport.

Built by professional card stacker Bryan Berg, the hotel took some four months to construct.  During the five day event, Bryan will build a freestanding nine-foot replica of New York’s Empire State Building in the lobby of the Key Card Hotel, using Holiday Inn branded playing cards.

Commenting on his achievement, he said,  “This is my largest card stacking challenge to date and the only card creation I have ever made at full human scale.”

Built to celebrate a milestone in Hilton’s hotel history, the Hilton Key Card hotel room isn’t yet available to book on Hotelopia yet, but many other hotels in New York are.  Click here to view.

With all the recent media coverage surrounding overfishing and declining tuna stocks, Catalan chef Carme Ruscalleda is trying to create some balance in the ocean by getting jellyfish on the menu.

Anyone that’s been stung by these pesky sea creatures while holidaying in the Med will soon be able to take revenge and order them freshly cooked (minus stingers) at Carme Ruscalleda’s restaurant in Sant Pol del Mar near Barcelona soon.

A combination of warming sea temperatures and a decline in the jellyfish’s natural predators, such as turtles, tuna and sharks means jellyfish populations are growing to become potentially a sustainable oceanic food source.

The Mediterranean jellyfish haven’t yet been classified by the EU as legitimate food stuff, so currently the sea creatures have to be imported from China, which is crazy considering the amount of jelly fish we see during the winter months floating in the waters off Majorca.

Their popularity on menus in the Med will depend on how well they’ll be accepted by the diners and will mean a change in cultural attitudes towards these slimy sea creatures.

Found in restaurants throughout Asia, the Chinese believe jellyfish benefits, balance blood pressure, improves cholesterol, and helps joints.  It’s also good for the skin and great for the cardio-vascular system.  This is however, after the jelly fish has been correctly prepared and seasoned, so don’t try cooking jellyfish at home just yet folks.

In the first of a series of weird festivals around the world, Blogtelopia brings you inspiration for two great events coming up this winter.

Guaranteed to give you an experience of a lifetime and make your mates green with envy, book a break with a difference and head to where the parties at this winter.

1.   Roadkill Cookoff: On the 26 September, book a trip to West Virigina in the USA for the annual Roadkill Cookoff. The perfect event for the “recessionista” who can get inspiration from a festival of nature’s best cuisine – best of all, it’s already been slaughtered and it’s free.

Yes, join the fun as festival goers bring along their fresh road-kill.  The barbecues are lit and a chefs gather to cook up a storm by either grilling, flaming, or baking whatever’s brought to the table.

Expect some surprises, and dishes you probably will never find anywhere else.

Favourites in the past have included squirrel gravy over biscuits, teriyaki marinated bear and tasty deer sausage.

After this festival, animals everywhere will be taking care crossing the road.

2.  Hadaka Matsuri: The Japanese Naked Festival: If you’ve ever wanted the chance to get naked in the middle of Japan’s freezing winter, then here’s your chance.

On January 14th, head to small town of Konomiya, outside Nagoya.  And when you hear the cry “Hadaka ni narimashou!” it’s time to get naked – well almost.

Sake fuelled naked men take the streets, cover themselves in a loin cloth (although some don’t worry about that) in an attempt to touch the hin-otoko (or “god-man” an honorary position selected from the group of followers the day before).

When he appears, the crowd surge forward to touch the “god man” for luck. Judging by the video, it also looks like all that body warmth really keeps out the cold.

Red strips of cloth are given out to the thousands of spectators and participators.   Grabbing one is brings luck for year ahead.   And if  it at least wards off hypothermia then it’ll have definitely worked its magic.

This is what happens when celebrities start to blog.

Gywneth Paltrow, “A” list movie star and wife of Coldplay’s Chris Martin seems to have had enough of the being represented to the world by the tabloid media and has turned to the blogshere to share her tips on travelling, eating,  sustainability and relationships.

On Goop.com, the actress writes regularly about topics which she feels passionately about, giving an insight into her personality and life.

In addition, check out Gywneth’s own recommendations for hotels in London, Barcelona, Paris, New York and Los Angeles where she claims to have stayed.  If you can’t afford a room in these plush pads, then check out the Hotelopia website.

Plus read about her restaurant recommendations.  It’s also nice to see  one of her favourites, Wagamamas, is also mine.  This Asian chain restaurant  serves fantastic fusion food, although I’ve yet to spot her sharing a table with office workers and budget travellers.

Overall, Goop is not a bad read.  There’s some interesting stuff in here, which isn’t just targeted to other “A” listers with piles of cash.  But let’s just hope Gywneth writes Goop herself (and doesn’t have a team of blogsters to do the work for her).

Travelling the world isn’t just about seeing the sights or chilling out on a beach.  And getting to grips with a country’s fruity gastronomic delights is as much of an adventure as the distance travelled.

We’ve scoured Hotelopia’s destinations and found five of the world’s most unusual fruits to try to help you make the most of booking an exotic break.

1.    Durian Fruit
This South East Asian delicacy smells like “hell” and “tastes like heaven” – see the Youtube video below.  In fact, when I was travelling in Singapore, there are signs on the MRT underground metro to say that the passengers are banned from carrying the fruit.  And I can confirm, that it does smell like skunk but the flesh is actually quite tasty.
2.  Dragon Fruit
Found in Central and South America (and also Marks & Spencers) the Dragon fruit is also known as the Pitaya or Pitahaya fruit.   It’s actually a fruit from a type of catus and can be eaten on its own when you slice through the bright pink skin.

3.  Ugli Fruit
The Ugli Fruit isn’t the world’s prettiest fruit, but is a cross between a grapefruit and a Clementine.  The delicious taste detracts from its ugly gnarly appearance, and is most likely to be tasted by those holidaying in Jamaica.

4.  Lamut (Sapodilla)
Visitors to Mexico will probably mistake the the Lamut fruit or a potato.  In fact the taste is surprisingly tasty.  Also, the dried sap from its Sapodilla trees (chicle) is also used to make chewing gum (or “chicles” as it’s called in Spanish).

5. Soursop
Its green cactus-like appearance doesn’t look like the most delicious fruit, but again, looks can be deceiving.  The Soursop’s pulp is tasty (if you can get around the seeds), vitamin enriched and resembles something between a strawberry and pineapple.   However you’ll need to travel to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America to try one.

While someone’s idea of paradise is someone else’s impression of holiday hell, check out www.worstholidays.com for inspiration on places to avoid when booking a break. Don’t forget to take with a large pinch of salt.

According to the website, Norway tops the list as the world’s worst holiday destination, billed as the most expensive place in the world.

You can expect to pay $660 for hiring a small car, then easily pour $70 into crossing toll bridges.  And eating out on a budget is great, if you like hot dogs, which at  $7 a pop are the cheapest food around (and that’s from the street vendors).

However, if you’re looking for a chav free holiday, this is the place to go.  Another reader writes “I imagine the ‘pricey-ness’ would keep the rif-raff out, and that’s good thing.”

Other least favoured destinations include bizarrely Costa Rica, which is also blamed for being overpriced and touristy.  In France, the website claims people are arrogant, especially when it comes to visitors inability to speak French, and blasts the the country’s scenery as being unspectacular and urban areas as dirty.

Indonesia is blacklisted for being overly humid, while India is said to be swamped by bureaucracy making moving around a challenge, and where everyone’s out to make a fast buck.

Most bizarrely, creeping into numbers nine and ten in the websites “top ten” of worst places to go is Iraq and Afghanistan. Looks like you’ll be dodging a bullet if you avoid booking a break to these destinations.