Petronas opts for etickets

The 452-metre-tall towers house the headquarters of the Petronas Oil Company as well as numerous shopping centres, museums and galleries. For a time, the Petronas Towers complex was the world's tallest building. Visit https://eticket.petronastwintowers.com.my. – DPA

 

Four Seasons in Seoul

Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts is venturing into South Korea with a property scheduled to open in Seoul in 2015. The 317-room, 25-story high-rise with seven levels of underground floors is being built in the Central Business District on a 4,087-square-metre site that is close to the city’s fashion district. The arrival of Four Seasons at Seoul is part of the brand’s expansion across Asia. It currently has 20 hotels on the continent in different stages of development. 

 

Dream comes true in Dubai

Dubai’s skyscrapers get even higher, at least among hotel operators – with the announcement of the coming Dream Dubai, set to open at the end of 2014 with 101 floors. Like its siblings Dream Downtown in New York and Dream South Beach in Miami, the 300-room Dubai high-rise, also planned to have 420 apartments, will offer many entertainment features, including an indoor and an outdoor pool, spa and separate men’s and women’s gyms with squash courts. Seven restaurants and lounges will include a nightclub on the 101st floor. Dream Dubai will duke it out for height bragging rights with the new JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, which opened in February as the world’s tallest dedicated hotel at 72 stories. 

 

Cable to Choquequirao

The ruined city of Choquequirao is currently only reachable by a two-day hike, so the Peruvian government has approved plans to build an aerial cableway to the site that will make it reachable in just 15 minutes from the nearest highway. Known as the “cradle of gold”, Choquequirao is a counterpart to Machu Picchu, 50 kilometres away, and was once the mountain top retreat for Inca royalty, replete with elegant buildings and plazas. Few visitors to Peru make the trip to the site because of its isolated location but the government expects the 5-kilometre-longcable lift over the Apurimac River will increase that figure to 3,000 daily by the end of 2015. – DPA

 

Thai kitchen to the stars

Los Angeles will celebrate its first Thai Food Festival on September 29. Held at Paramount Pictures Studios and organised by the Thai Trade Centre in Los Angeles, the festival includes cooking, fruit carving and Thai martial arts demonstrations as well as folk dancing. Guest chefs include the Los Angeles-based Jet Tila, recently named culinary ambassador of Thai cuisine by the Royal Thai Consul-General; Andy Ricker of Pok Pok restaurants; and Susan Feniger, author of “Street Food”. Booths from local Thai Town restaurants will offer dishes representing all regions of Thailand. 

 

Rocking with the planes

Old-fashioned rocking chairs have recently been introduced at four airports in Finland. Four or five traditional rocking chairs, handmade by a small family business in Finland, are clustered in the boarding areas of airports in Vaasa, Turku, Oulu and Kittila, where passengers can view planes taking off and landing. They can be moved if more privacy is desired.