Gadling

True, the Tour de France ended last month, but this is the perfect time to plan for next year's event. Here to tell us how to bike in the legendary race yourself--or at least have a good time in the stands--is Lauren Hefferon, a former professional cyclist who has logged 35,000 miles cycling across Europe in her early years after college. She now runs a bicycle touring company, Ciclismo Classico, which runs biking trips throughout Italy, France, Spain, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, and New Zealand.

I've been following a wonderful NYTimes blog about an amateur who raced in a leg of this year's Tour de France. How hard is this to do?

Considering the race is two weeks long and covers over 130 miles a day over the some of the toughest passes in the world, it is considered one of the toughest races in the world. The racers must train all year long and begin at a very young age training their muscles and their mind. The sport is very strategic, rider must not only be fit but they have to understand how to best work together as a team to gain the most advantage over each day's ride. The team will always assist the favorite rider by blocking, drafting and out sprinting their adversaries,

And what's the process for those who want to train and get involved in racing--and not just touring?

Potential racers should first be passionate about the sport, have solid endurance and be committed to training regularly and vigorously. The best thing is to join a team so you can have some of your expenses sponsored. Being on a team you will get coaching, support from team members and some of your equipment covered. Cycling can be a very expensive sport and the winnings are not that much. You must commit 3-4 hours a day to training, additional rest and a healthy lifestyle.

Finding real massage parlors in much of Asia can be a Herculean effort (as massage unfortunately means something completely different across the pond). But this tale from one Australian businesswoman shows us all that it can be done! Even in Thailand!

Before a conference in Bangkok, our group spent a few days in Chiang Mai. There were 20 of us on the trip, and we were all encouraged to sign up for the famous Thai massage of Chiang Mai.

...

Once we all gathered in the lobby, we were told to hop on a rickety smoke-spewing bus that was going to take us to the best Thai massage parlor in the city.

I remember thinking that you can't judge a massage parlor by a bus. And I also remember thinking that the place must be absolutely huge to accommodate 20 people in private rooms.

This video seems to suggest so. In the West, there's some who think Asians, especially those from China, Japan, and Korea, look pretty much the same. There's even a famous website that challenges you to tell the difference.

But perhaps less-than-honed cross-border facial recognition is a universal problem. It seems in China, Westerners all look the same too. In this clip, a BBC reporter is confused for Michael Phelps. Hilarity ensues.

In the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, Texas, is a curious sight: a house being sucked into a wormhole. It's the handiwork of two artists, Dan Havel and Dean Ruck. From their press release:

Havel and Ruck will create a large funnel-like vortex beginning from the west wall adjacent to Montrose Blvd. The exterior skin of the houses will be peeled off and used to create the narrowing spiral as it progresses eastward through the small central hallway connecting the two buildings and exiting through a small hole into an adjacent courtyard.

More photos here.

Last week, I wrote about the soon-to-be world's tallest skyscraper, being built in the heart of Dubai. Here's another outrageous sight. This used to be the helipad at the luxury Burj Al Arab hotel, temporarily converted into a tennis court for an exhibition match between Agassi and Federer.

"I have been in Dubai many times and have stayed at Burj Al Arab before, but this was an absolute treat," said Roger Federer of Switzerland. "To play tennis with Andre on top of such an amazing hotel and overlooking the whole of Dubai was absolutely spectacular."

The court is some 200 meters off the ground and covers 400 square meters, or about 8 times the size of my apartment in New York.

So I'm some two years behind the curve when it comes to buying Beijing Olympic tickets. There's been several phases of ticket sales, and suffice to say, finding one now is about as easy as finding a good surf spot in the Sahara.

I've already come across eBay auctions of closing ceremony tickets for $20,000, granted the poster was nice enough to offer a "buy one get one free" sale.

If you're still keen on catching an event or two before the end of the Games this Sunday, here's a cheat sheet on, well, not getting cheated.

If you're watching the Olympics on TV, you're quite familiar with the over-the-top athletic venues here. To say they boast a "wow" factor is an understatement. These testaments to China's growing architectural prowess (or at least their deepening wallets, as most of the designs are by foreign architects) are sure to be tourist destinations long after the end of these Games.

But if you're a bit confused as to what's the bird's nest versus the bird's egg or whether the water cube is made out of water, here's a cheat-sheet for you.

I'm here with Mark Jolly, founder and editor of globorati, the top luxury travel site for the stylish jet set. Mark is also a contributing editor at Conde Nast Traveler, having reported from over 60 countries and lived on four continents. He's here to talk about everything from which diamond-infused lotion is appropriate for your next getaway to Miami to the next big luxury destination (in South America, but not Brazil or Argentina).

globorati has covered some pretty over-the-top vacation packages. Are such experiences becoming more prevalent. What are some particularly extravagant ones coming up?

Most of what globorati covers is focused on useful, up-to-the-moment stories that capture the thrill and beauty of travel. But every now and again we'll run something on a big-ticket, through-the-roof, ultra-luxe experience. The sort of stuff I call "sick travel" - stuff like a $700 breakfast at the new Ritz-Carlton Moscow, or a $30,000 private-jet expedition to Antarctica, or a $50,000 one-night package at the Four Seasons Miami (the massage uses lotion infused with ground diamonds). The other day, we ran a story on a $1 million vacation to Dubai. You can file that one under "vacations for the cash-rich, sense-poor traveler."

What's been the cushiest trip you've ever splurged on?

Sounds like an odd thing to say, but I'm a professional traveler: I normally get paid to travel and experience different cultures. The most singular journey I've ever taken has to be the Concorde. The experience was a thing of beauty: the captain invited me to sit in the cockpit, and from my seat, at 60,000 feet, I saw a panoramic sky that was an incomparably richer, darker blue than anything I'd seen at subsonic altitude. And at 23 miles-per-minute, I could make out the curvature of the earth. For the foreseeable future there's absolutely nothing in commercial aviation that will come close to the Concorde.

This should wake you up on this Sunday morning. Check out this incredible daredevil, who's just invented a new sport by doning a rolling bodysuit and then skating down a mountain road in the Swiss Alps.

I think it speaks to the craziness of this stunt that it's managed to upstage the Swiss Alp backdrop, which is stunning eh? Oh, and notice the zooming bikes and vehicular traffic.

That's tall, isn't it? Though Dubai might not be high up on your vacation list, as we've frequently posted about various unfortunate mishaps travelers have gotten themselves in over there (mostly at the airport and involving poppy-seeded bagels), I think it might be worth it to jet over there once the Burj Dubai opens.

It'll be hands-down the world's tallest skyscraper. Here's a multimedia introduction to the place. First, a cool video with unique footage from the top.

Now, some unbelievable photos here, here, and here. My favorite is this one that seems almost CGI.

[Image courtesy Burj Dubai Skyscaper]