britain houseboat

Britain’s most expensive houseboat till date is a 128-feet work of art that was, interestingly, fashioned ages ago from an old steel barge. At the price of £3.7million, Matrix Island is truly a houseboat fit for the modern royalty, and its previous owner was a French filmmaker. It features five large double en-suite bedrooms, a state-of-the-art- kitchen, an open plan upper deck complete with a huge trampoline and table tennis equipment, and also includes a jet-ski platform. Along with the plushest of interiors it also houses a sauna and a foosball table, and a 5,000 sq feet dining room and reception area. Moored at St. Katherine’s Dock, London, the Matrix Island’s annual maintenance fee is £18,000 inclusive of mooring charges and it is currently on the books of the Riverhomes agency for sale.

prince aircraft

The chief guest for this year’s Republic Day Parade, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan owns a super-glam luxury aircraft—obviously— but after his Indian visit, the videos and pictures of the aircraft have gone viral on social media, after it was reportedly parked at Delhi’s Palam Technical Area.  Apparently, the plane is designed for both executive vacation and personal travel, complete with posh lounge for business meetings and an accompanying small lounge as well. The bedroom features an LED attached to the wall, and an uber luxe bathroom with all the posh amenities. The bedroom has yet another furnished room next to it packed with ‘princely’ necessities. The videos and images are unverified though, but who can dispute that the Crown Prince would be living life, well, king-style?

burj khalifa

On the eve of India’s 68th Republic Day, the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, decked itself from top to toe in the colours of the Indian flag, and will do so today, the 26th of Jan too, during prime timings 6.15 pm, 7.15 pm and 8.15 pm. The building shimmered and shone with the LED installation in the tricolour, as a tribute to the growing relations with India. It isn’t the first time a monument has worn the Indian tricolour, though. In 2015, New York’s Empire State Building lit up to celebrate India’s Independence Day, while in November 2015, some of London’s most iconic structures like the London Eye, dressed up to welcome the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to the UK.

luxury cars

Vanda Dendrobium, Singapore’s first hypercar, is all set to make its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show this year. The car’s final specifications will only be confirmed come March 9 when it is finally displayed, but what is known is that it was built using the Bugatti Chiron as a performance benchmark and so the speedster is most likely to boast a sprint time of 2.6 seconds in a 1500hp, all-wheel drive with a potential top speed of 400km/h. However, what marks the Vanda Dendrobium from all other  established supercars at this year’s event is that this hypercar will be a new generation plug-in electric vehicle, “inspired by nature and rooted in technology, a marriage of design and engineering”, as defined by Vanda Electrics CEO Larissa Tan.

mall rentals

From Emporio in New Delhi to UB City in Bengaluru, top-end malls all over the country are facing demands for rental reductions by luxe brands which cite note-ban woes as the reason for their request. Claiming to be one of the hardest hit sectors by demonetisation, luxury brands have asked for as much as 25% per cent cuts in rentals. Luxury retailers, such as Genesis Luxury that sells a bouquet of high-end labels in India including Jimmy Choo, Canali and Giorgio Armani, have also reportedly asked for rental concessions from malls.

chennai peugeot

French luxury car maker PSA, maker of the iconic Peugeot, Citroen cars, and India’s CK Birla Group will form two JVs to build and sell cars in India. PSA announced Wednesday that that it will be investing Rs 700 crores in Chennai for manufacturing vehicles and auto components. It has signed two agreements with Indian conglomerate CK Birla for both vehicle assembly and powertrains and hopes to launch as many as 1 lakh cars a year for the Indian market. The iconic Peugeot cars will be made from an existing facility in Tiruvallur near Chennai, which is currently being used to assemble Mitsubishi car models and Isuzu commercial vehicles.

atlantis the palm

Jackie Chan’s latest film Kung Fu Yoga, which was filmed in Atlantis and premieres on 3rd Feb  2017 in China is being celebrated by Atlantis, through a contest that gives away a 3 Night Stay in Atlantis as well as return airfares to Dubai. To enter the competition is easy, you need to follow Atlantis, The Palm on social media and fill out the registration form below. The competition closes on 14 February 2017, with the winner announced on 15 February 2017. Kung Fu Yoga showcases some of Atlantis’s major attractions.

mandarin oriental

With the ongoing extensive renovation of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, the bespoke collage ‘Our Fans’ by Sir Peter Blake will be taking up residence on the hotel’s Knightsbridge façade. Sir Peter Blake, a leading figure in the art world, and often referred to as the ‘Godfather of British Pop Art’, has been commissioned by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group to create the huge collage entitled Our Fans, creating an eye-catching diversion along Knightsbridge. Our Fans is the largest artwork Sir Peter Blake has ever created, and brings together 100 prominent faces, from Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren to Joanna Lumley and Jenny Packham. All are regular guests at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London as well as fans of the Group’s hotels around the world. “Some of my first works were collages of crowds of people; this piece is in the spirit of The Beatles 1967 Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album,” said Sir Peter Blake. The collage is the size of 38 double decker buses at 70.7m wide and 24.88m high.  It weighs over 1055kg and has taken over 10 hours to install.  Morgan Freeman, Sir Peter Blake, Sir Paul McCartney are over 15 metres tall.  All the confetti pieces are made up of small multi-coloured fans.

disney movie

You’ll soon be able to acquire an exclusive china tea-set straight from the fantasy tale of Beauty and The Beast, with Disney releasing accompanying merchandise for the soon to be released movie. The story of Beauty and The Beast has magical household objects that  come alive and talk and dance, so you have faces drawn over the exclusive tea-set, ostensibly representing Mrs Potts and Chip, from their animated film depictions in the 90s, plus three additional cups and four saucers. While Mrs. Potts features an attached golden loop with green ceramic feather charm and cut out detailing around the rim and lid, the Chip cup and his companions come adorned with gold decorations. The Beauty and the Beast tea set is yours for $249.95 and is available only in 2000 limited editions. Available officially on the Disney Store’s website, the tea set will be made available to buyers in an elegant presentation box with satin lining.

luxury vehicles

The first-ever Mercedes Maybach SUV will be making its grand debut in 2019 and will be based on the new generation of Mercedes GLS, due to arrive soon as well. The luxe carmaker has appropriately taken its largest SUV, the GLS, as the canvas to build the Maybach SUV. With a length of 5130mm providing the Maybach standard of legroom and comfort along with tonnes of boot space, and an aircraft business class-like layout, this sure is the cream of the cream. Luxe enhancements include everything from multi-coloured adjustable ambient lighting to options for seat back massage types and intensities, rear seat recliners et al. Instead of the current 4.7-litre V8 from the current Maybach S500, the GLS will get 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 motor which is compliant with the latest emission standard and built for the future.