It´s time to celebrate, and at the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we are all set to welcome Christmas and the New Year. That´s why today we are travelling to China, specifically to Hong Kong, to enjoy it famous winter festival.

In winter, Hong Kong´s skyline dazzles more than usual, as the buildings are getting ready for Christmas. The beautiful Victoria Bay shines even with more glamour and the festive ambiance passes on both tourists and locals.

Hong Kong´s winter festival, known as Hong Kong Winterfest, is the centre of Christmas celebrations in Hong Kong. This is a popular festival, which fills the city with Christmas colours, lights and sounds. This past December 1^st, as every year, the lighting of the huge Christmas tree located in Statue Square, and built from 20,000,000 pieces of glass, kicked off this Christmas celebration, which lasts until January 1^st.

The festival includes a series of events sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Administration. Let´s go over the most important ones:

Hong Kong Pulse Light Show. This is the first festival of Hong Kong Winterfest. This is a multimedia performance with spectacular lighting effects and 3D projection mapping, music and sound effects at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Open Piazza. It projects from random geometric shapes to anime cartoons for the little ones. This is one of the most amazing shows performed during the Winterfest, the reason why it is performed three times a day, from November 25th to December 28th.

Xmas In The Air at Harbour City. This show consists of a giant Santa airship which is 20 metres long, 7 metres high and built of 2,000 blinking LED lights. This is the main attraction of Harbour City shopping mall. This shopping mall invites its customers to experience Christmas from the air at the Ocean Terminal terrace. It takes place from November 21^st to January 1^st.

Besides, other shopping malls also join Hong Kong Winterfest with sales before New Year´s Eve and many flashy ornaments. They dress up with Christmas balls and their facades light up with festive images.

The amazing Hong Kong´s bay has moved to the luxury resort in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa to welcome the new year. Celebrate the most special night of the year in Southeast Asia in the Mediterranean.

Christmas is approaching, and at the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we are getting ready to dazzle from the inside out. Today we are travelling from our Temple of Relaxation to Thailand to discover the different types of Thai massages. Are you joining us?

Thai massage is a millenary technique, which is applied all over the body, from head to toe. This is a stretching and deep massage.

Which are the different types of Thai massage?

Traditional Thai massage. This is the most popular Thai massage and also the most traditional one. It is known as the “Yoga massage”, and it is performed while you are fully clothed, usually on a padded mat on the floor. It combines acupressure and yoga techniques. It helps relieve joint, muscle and tendon tension. It also provides vitality and promotes complete relaxation.

Thai oil massage. This is a very smooth type of Thai massage applied with oils. It is much more relaxing than traditional Thai massage. It is performed on a traditional massage stretcher, with a towel over the body. Its function is stimulating through acupressure the meridian or energy lines of the body. Due to these aromatherapy oils, this massage improves blood circulation, softens the skin and calms the mind.

Thai pinda massage. This is a combination of traditional Thai massage and ancestral healing methods based on the application of plant pouches all over the body in order to make energy flow. Pindas (hot poultice filled with medicated herbs) allow acting onto the acupuncture points to relax the body. It relieves muscle and joint pain and improves blood circulation.

Thai foot massage. It consists of massaging the feet with massage oil applying pressure to specific areas of the soles of the feet, which correspond with different organs of the body. The pressure on these points release toxins and improve its functioning.

If you are planning on visiting us soon, we have a suggestion for looking stunning this Christmas: Getaway to the 5 stars resort in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa + our 3 day-Dusit programme at the Thai Spa. Are you coming?

One more week at the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we continue discovering new curiosities about the Asian continent. Today we are travelling to Japan to get to know more its gastronomy and fins out which are the main fish used in Japanese cuisine. Are you joining us?

There are several fish, which are considered very important in Japanese traditional cuisine. Do you want to know which are they? Keep reading!

Salmon. This fish is very popular in Japanese cuisine, as well as in Japanese restaurants worldwide. Besides its flashy orange colour, it is very valued due to its tasty flavour. Its fillets are the most used part of this fish, which is always a must sashimi ingredient.

Bluefin tuna. Considered sashimi king, besides being one of the main ingredients of any type of sushi, it develops a very important role in Japanese cuisine. The tuna belly, the tastiest part, is known as toro.

Butterfish. It is a must in the menu of any Japanese restaurant. This is a white meat fish and whose texture is soft and fatty, ideal to be eaten raw. It is a very common ingredient of nigiris.

Mackerel. Despite of being one of the cheapest fish, it is a delicious and very healthy one. Known as saba, Japanese restaurants serve it as an ingredient of sushi and sashimi, marinated in rice vinegar. Among the bluefish specie, mackerel is the richest source of omega-3.

Horse mackerel. Along with the mackerel, this is one of the most spectacular fish on sashimi preparation. It allows many cuts and its belly is a perfect ingredient for Hyoshiki-Giri, one of the main ways of cutting fish for sashimi.

If you are planning on visiting the luxury resort Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa, you have a mandatory stop in our Mediterranean restaurant Palapa, where you will be able to enjoy delicious rice with fish and seafood.

At the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa, as the good Asian food lovers we are, we love discovering new cooking techniques. Today we are travelling to Japan to tell you about the famous teppanyaki. Are you joining us?

Teppanyaki is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word teppanyaki is derived from teppan, which means iron plate, and yaki, which means grilled. While the cook prepares the dishes, the guests place themselves around the griddle.

In countries such as the United States or Spain, where the number of Japanese food lovers is increasing, the cooks who perform this technique are usually Japanese. A Teppanyaki lunch or dinner is a real show for all those who experience it.

From the very first moment the cook starts cooking, there aren´t any pauses between the dishes. While diners enjoy the first dish, the next ones are already being prepared.

Typical ingredients used for teppanyaki are: beef, chicken, vegetables (especially onion, aubergine and courgette), seafood (prawns and scallops) and noodles and rice; all of them cooked with soy sauce.

These stainless steel plates let cooks prepare low-fat recipes. Eating meat, fish or vegetables cooked on these iron griddles is very healthy and light.

The authentic teppanyaki, besides offering a tasty and healthy menu, is a fun alternative for a special lunch or dinner. People witness how their food is prepared.

The cook, who is dressed up with a characteristic kerchief on his head, cooks all the ingredients showing his acrobatic skills with the cooking tools. He cuts the fish or meat by doing fast rhythmic movements with the spatula.

Teppanyaki is a relatively modern invention in Japanese cuisine. The Japanese restaurant chain Misono was the first to introduce the concept of cooking food on a teppan in 1945. Their objective was to catch the attention and interest of tourists showing the authentic “show-cooking” of the best Japanese chefs. Foreigners enjoyed both watching the skilled manoeuvres of the chefs preparing the food as well as the cuisine itself. Throughout the years, t heir success increased to the point of opening many teppanyaki-style restaurants worldwide.

If you are thinking about visiting our 5 stars resort in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa, during your stay you can´t miss our program of activities, courtesy of the hotel. Our suggestion: the Asian Cookshow, which will let you learn the different cooking techniques in Asia.

One more week, at the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we keep travelling around the Asian continent. Today, we are taking you to Thailand to discover the Wat Phra Singh Temple.

Wat Phra Singh, also known as Temple of the Lion Buddha, is Chiang Mai´s most important temple and one of its main tourist attractions. It is also one of the most famous temples in Thailand. King Ananda Mahidol bestowed on it the status of Royal Temple of the first grade in 1935.

This is a Buddhist complex built up by several buildings and stupas. Its origin dates back to the 14^th century, it was built in 1345. The resulting complex was named Wat Lichiang Phra until the statue of Phra Buddha Singh, which gives its current name to the temples, was brought in 1367. Since it was built, Wat Phra Singh has been restored in several occasions.

The temple was restored by King Kawila, when he assumed the throne as King of Chiang Mau in 1782. He had the ubosot (ordination hall) built and the chedi enlarged. Later successors restored the Wihan Lai Kham, the main attraction of the temple, which contains the statue of Phra Buddha Singh and the temple library.

The origins of the statue of Phra Buddha Singh are unknown, but according to the legend this is a lost statue, which anciently was located in Mahabodhi Temple in BadhGaya, India. The statue was brought across Ceylan (now Sri Lanka) and Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai. People say there are another two statues of Phra Singh in Thailand, and each one of them supports being the original one. These two other statues are located in Nakhon Si Thammarat and at Bangkok National Museum.

Regardless Phra Buddha Singh is the original one or a copy, it is one the most important statues of Buddha in Northern Thailand. Every year, during Songkram Festival, the statue of Phra Buddha Singh is carried across Chiang Mai streets while locals worship it and sprinkle sacred water over it.

Wat Phra Singh is an excellent example of Lanna Thai Style architecture. Inside the building we find different sanctuaries with other Buddha statues, a tall stupa, a small garden and a monastery.

If you visit the 5 stars resort Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa, enjoy discovering the different Buddha statues spread over different spots of the hotel, one of the icons of our Asian paradise in the Mediterranean.

At the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we still have many places left to discover in the Asian continent. Today we are travelling to Laos to visit the Vieng Xai Caves. Are you coming?

Vieng Xai is the most important tourist destination in Houaphan Province, in Northern Laos. It is located a few metres away from the Vietnam border. It is a village hidden between rice fields and surrounded by limestone cliffs. This is a spectacular scenic beauty ideal to soak up the history of Laos. Here we find the popular Vieng Xai Caves.

Vieng Xai Caves are known as the most attractive spot in Vieng Xai. Its visit may be very interesting due to audio guide recordings. It is a place that allows us to take a close look at Souphanouvong or “The Red Prince”´s life, leader of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, who lived in the caves for almost ten years, the nine years of almost constant bombing from the Americans. Vieng Xai Caves were communist revolutionaries´ headquarters during the Second Indochina War.

Under these 48 caves an underground life was established for over ten years. More than 20,000 people lived, building up cavernous towns with all the necessary equipment: theatre, hospital, schools… Currently, since 1997, a circuit with 18 points of interest is the only one letting people see the seven cave complexes. Khamtay Siphandone´s cave, whose name belongs to one of the presidents of Laos, is one of the caves open to the public.

Travel to Asia without leaving the Mediterranean. Start 2018 in the luxury resort in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa and welcome Hong Kong in the Mediterranean. Are you joining us?

At the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we never get tired of discovering new Asian dishes. Today we are travelling around Southeast Asia to get to know its most popular recipes. Are you joining us?

Southeast Asia´s cuisine brings together Chinese and Indian millenary traditions, leading to a wide range of dishes. Let´s go over the main dishes of each country:

Thailand. The most famous Thai dish is Pad Thai. This is a stir-fried noodle dish, including fish sauce, tamarind sauce, red pepper and a mix of soy sprouts. All the ingredients are also seasoned with crushed peanuts, coriander and lime juice.

Cambodia. The most important Cambodian national dish is amok, which is also popular in Laos and Thailand. Its most extended version, and Cambodian people´s favourite one, is the one served in a coconut shell. The recipe also includes coconut cream, vegetables and some spices; which are mixed with chicken, squid or fish.

Vietnam. Vietnamese cuisine is known for offering a huge variety of noodle soups. The most popular one is Pho, which is considered Vietnam´s national dish. It is the traditional meat noodle soup, served with a piece of lime, which is squeezed and added to the soup. It also includes coriander leaves, basil or mint. The most popular Pho recipe is the Pho Bo, Vietnamese beef noodle soup.

Laos. Larb is Laos´ national dish. This is a spicy minced meat salad made with chicken, ox or fish. The recipe includes other ingredients such as coriander, ginger lime juice or citronella.

Indonesia. The most representative Indonesian dish is nasi goreng. This is fried rice prepared with chicken, vegetables, prawns, sweet soy sauce and a fried egg on top.

Philippines. Philippine adobo is one of the most famous dishes and cooking techniques from the Philippines. It involves pork or chicken meat marinated in soy sauce, chicken soup, bay, pepper and vinegar.

Myanmar. Myanmar’s unofficial national dish is mohinga. This type of rice noodles is Burmese people´s favourite one to have for breakfast. It consists of rice noodles served in a thick creamy herbal fish-and shallot-based broth.

Malaysia. Nasi lemak, literally “rice in cream“, is considered Malaysia´s national dish. It consists of rice steamed with coconut cream and served with anchovies, hard boiled egg, sambal (a hot spicy sauce), peanuts and vegetables.

Singapore. Crab in all its varieties is the most traditional dish in Singapore. But the most popular one, due to its flavour and its symbolism is chili crab, which is prepared with a spicy sweet and sour sauce.

If you visit the 5 stars resort Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa, you have a mandatory stop at our Asian restaurant par excellence: Koh Samui. Travel to Southeast Asia for a couple minutes while enjoying the choicest crossover cuisine.

As you already know, at the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we love discovering the hidden details of Asian culture, and furthermore its celebrations. That´s why today we are taking you to Japan to celebrate its famous Bunka no Hi.

Culture Day, also known as Bunka no Hi, is a national holiday held annually in Japan on November 3 for the purpose of promoting culture, the arts, and academic environment. It was first held in 1948, to commemorate the announcement of the post-war Japanese constitution on November 3, 1946. This festivity replaced Tenchō-setsu, a holiday held in honour of the birthday of Emperor Meiji.

As Bunka no Hi´s main purpose is promoting arts and several fields of academic activity, local and prefectural governments pick this day to celebrate art exhibitions, cultural festivities and parades.

Every year, the prestigious Order of Culture, presided by the Japanese Emperor, rewards those who have contributed to Japanese science, art and culture over the past year. The awards are not restricted to Japanese citizens; the competition is open for everyone and besides receiving the prize, the winner also receives a lifelong pension.

During Bunka no Hi, different types of events are held to spread the Japanese culture to everyone. Schools, high schools and universities have exhibitions and activities on what they called bunkasai or “cultural festivity”.

Are you planning an autumn getaway? In November enjoy incredible days in Zen paradise. The 5 stars resort Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa offers its guests, courtesy of the hotel, a wonderful program of activities designed to enjoy a full Asian experience.

When it comes to travelling and Asian food, we never say no. Today from the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we are taking to China to fin out which are their main cooking methods. Are you coming?

We find different techniques to cook in Chinese gastronomy; there are about 40 and 50 cooking techniques. Which are the most common ones?

Stir-frying. The main cooking utensil is a wok. Food is tossed in a little hot oil in a wok over high heat. All ingredients are thinly sliced or cubed. Due to this cooking technique food is crunchy inside out.

Shallow-frying. It also uses the wok. This cooking method uses less edible oil than deep-frying and lower heat than stir-frying. Shallow-fried dishes are usually rather tender inside, appearing golden or slightly burnt outside.

Deep-frying. It is the same cooking technique that European cuisine uses. It uses much more edible oil than stir-frying and cooks over high heat. It is considered one of the healthiest cooking techniques.

Steaming. It is necessary to have bamboo steamers for this cooking method. They can be stacked one on top of the other, allowing several kinds of foods to be cooked at once. It is considered one of the healthiest cooking techniques. One of the most famous steamed dishes is dim sum.

Red-cooking. This technique is used primarily for cooking a tougher cut of meat or poultry. Meat is browned in large quantities of soy sauce. The sauce adds flavour and a reddish-brown colour to the meat, which is very characteristic in many traditional and popular Chinese dishes.

Feel a taste of summer in autumn. At Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa it is still possible to enjoy magical evenings outdoors. We suggest having dinner at the In Black terrace for enjoying a journey into the heart of Asia´s tropical jungles. Are you joining us?

As you already know, at the luxury hotel in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we love discovering new secrets of the Asian continent. Today we want to take you to Japan to tell you about Japanese chopsticks, their origin and their use. Are you joining us?

Chopsticks or hashi were introduced in Japan, coming from China, in the seventh century. Unlike Chinese chopsticks, Japanese ones are longer, their body is more polished and they are sharp pointed. At first, they were just used during religious ceremonies, but later on, as they were increasingly used, they became the official eating utensils.

But, why is so important eating with chopsticks in Japan? Food in Japan is a sign of its culture and its search for harmony in colours and flavours. Japanese people consider metal alters the harmony of the flavours of the dishes. That´s why, rarely, flatware or cooking utensils are made of metal.

The most used chopsticks in Japan are wood ones; reused chopsticks, such as the popular waribashi or disposable chopsticks. Traditionally, they were made of bamboo. Currently, it is common to see plastic or wood chopsticks, although there are other materials for their manufacturing. We can differentiate several types of chopsticks based on their shape and material.

The four cultures that are still using chopsticks as eating utensils at the moment: China, Japan, Korea and Thailand; have their own type of chopstick.

If you visit the 5 stars resort Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa don´t miss our Asian Cookshow, a workshop where you will discover the differences and nuances between the different cooking methods in Asia.