Manners are not something that are written in a book, but are something that come from within. Because manners come from the heart, they are sometimes better in a village than in Prague where people should really know better. Manners are intrinsically based on respect for others and on the desire not to offend. They are the glue that brings people together and makes them feel at ease.

“Not just another hotel, it’s a lifestyle…”

Buddha once taught that suffering is an inherent part of existence; at the Buddha-Bar Hotel Prague however, this noble truth is unequivocally refuted. Upon stepping off of Prague’s cobblestone
Jakubská [...]

South Africa’s location at the tip of the African continent might conjure up images of abundant sunshine,azure oceans trimmed with glistening white beaches and forests, and plains teaming with lions, giraffe, buffalo and elephant. Nature [...]

The vintage car market, it seems, continues to survive despite the financial crisis. Antique cars come in three varieties: classic, vintage, and veteran, though the terms are not strictly interchangeable. The youngest generation is the Classic, whose birthday typically falls between World War II and the early ‘80s. Vintage cars, meanwhile, are those which emerged between the wars, while Veterans refer to the first gas-powered spiders ever to have scuttled on four wheels (think Ford’s groundbreaking Model T).

But quite apart from the question of mileage – which in the case of high-performance cars like the Ford Mustang and Chevy Camero can be on a par with the fuel consumption needs of a Saturn V – the question continues to be: Are these cars a good investment?

Those in the know will tell you it’s a bit like putting your money in gold or silver. Basically, the investor gets a solid and reliable asset that can’t disappear overnight in the manner of a fragile ‘dot-com’. Rather, classic cars possess intrinsic value, and since by definition they are limited in quantity, their value follows a much steadier graph than that of the troubled stock market.

I pose the investment question to Pavel Lacina, owner of Bohemia Classic Cars in Prague.

It depends, Lacina says, on a number of factors: the make and model, how many were produced in a particular year, condition, whether you want the car to sit in a showroom, or whether you want to drive it regularly or just on weekends. It depends on whether it’s an original, and how heavily or not it has been restored.

For Lacina the question is not about doubling your money in five years but about enjoying the car for the bold style and performance of bygone days. He assumes you already have the money.

“In the old days,” he says, “only a few tinkering enthusiasts could enjoy these cars. Now the number of service centers stocking rare parts has increased. So now if you take out your Skoda Roadster on the weekend and it breaks down, just call us. We’ll come with the replacement part or a tow truck.”

Like automotive alchemists turning base metal into gold, Pavel Lacina’s team of restorers turn forgotten relics into machines so shiny they make your eyes hurt. With a flourish, they banish rust, straighten dents into smoothness you want to lick, and flute doors in ways only thought possible on ball gowns.

There is a lake called Skadar in the tiny southern European state of Montenegro. Surrounded by the mesmerizing natural beauty of a national park, it provides a unique bird sanctuary, the largest of its kind [...]

A new look at extreme sports with an interactivive focus on three of its particulars
To some, extreme sports athletes are considered courageous and inspirational, while others look upon them as nothing more than a group [...]

Polo Comes to Prague The Prague Polo Club, founded in 2008 by Naveed Gill, a budding Polo player, and his two friends Robert Chelberg, a former polo player and an award-winning veteran of show-jumping circles and Premek Marek, aims to develop the sport here in the heart of Central Europe. As Gill notes in the Club’s constitution, the aims of the Prague Polo Club are to “further the interests of polo in the Czech Republic”and to “train and support the national polo team of the Czech Republic”.