Day: May 16, 2021

In 1931, Soviet scientists were on the hunt for a natural source of rubber that would help the USSR become self-sufficient in key materials.  They scoured the vast and various territories of the Soviet Union and tested over 1,000 different species looking for an alternative to the South American rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensi. Eventually, on the steppes of Kazakhstan, they found one.   By 1941, the Russian dandelion, Taraxacum koksaghyz, supplied 30% of the USSR’s rubber.

My Virtuoso Profile – “A Travel Advisor on Why Sustainable Tourism Matters” Expert insight on how to travel with a purpose. “Instead of Fly and Flop, my travel mantra is Stop and Sop,” says Virtuoso advisor Sheila Gallant-Halloran. “Sop up the culture and experience, immersing yourself wherever you are.”   Gallant-Halloran, a travel advisor for 12 years, has long championed sustainable tourism, and feels strongly that we can have a trip of a lifetime while also making a positive impact on the local communities and places.

Announced at Arabian Travel Market 2021, the Authority highlights over 20 projects across the destination including Jebel Jais, the UAE’s highest peak, from the Basecamp Jais and Jais Wings Paragliding to a fixed Hot Air Balloon viewing platform, Earth Hotels Altitude and more  
Investment will also support retail, hospitality and cultural projects such as a mega beach-front development by Marjan, new world-class hotels, a scallop farm and an aerial art installation – the Flying Arch

Beneath the almond and citrus fields of the San Joaquin Valley lies an enormous system of aquifers that feeds some of the world’s most productive farmland. Hundreds of miles north and east, along the Nevada border, is the Surprise Valley, a remote, high-desert region undergirded by cone-shaped hollows of sediment that hold deposits of water.