Chiang Mai  - The elephant that chose the site of Doi Suthep temple must have been a truly far-sighted creature. Legend has it that King Kuna wanted to build a temple to house a relic of the holy Buddha. He ordered that the precious artefact be strapped to the back of a white elephant which was let loose into the jungle.

The elephant stormed through the undergrowth and stopped just short of the summit of Suthep mountain. The monarch took this to be a sign and in 1388 he ordered that a spectacular golden temple be erected on the site. The building still clings to the slope of the peak today. Northern Thailand is hillier, cooler and compared with the south of the country, it calls for more effort on behalf of the tourists intent on discovering its charms.

Sydney - One-third of the 34,684 applicants for the dream job of caretaker on a paradise island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef were from the United States, Queensland state Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said Monday.

Some jobseekers were unable to lodge their 60-second video clips because the website crashed under an avalanche of last-minute applications for a post that pays a lot of money for very little work.

"We'd been advising people for a couple of weeks not to leave their submission until the last minute," Boyle said. "This massive amount of traffic slowed the site down and, regretfully, some people weren't able to get their video application in by the deadline."

Sydney - If life were always as it seems, the dream job of caretaker on a paradise island in the Great Barrier Reef would go to Sydney swimming pool technician Nick Aitkin.

After all, few of the other 30,000 people who lodged 60-second video applications have hands-on experience cleaning filters, and not many of them live in Australia and could relocate to Queensland's Hamilton Island so cheaply.

The job description asked for someone to look after the pool, collect the mail and keep a blog on lazy days snorkelling and feeding fish. The lucky appointee gets a six-figure pay packet and rent-free luxury accommodation for six months.

Tokyo  - They are as soft as silk, no larger than half a thumb, and conquer Japanese hearts every spring: cherry blossoms, known in Japan as "sakura."

Anticipation starts building across the country in February. When the first buds open in the south-west, national euphoria breaks out. Newspapers follow the north-easterly advance of the flower front until millions upon millions of the delicate blossoms adorn the Japanese archipelago.

Antibes, France  - It comes as no surprise that artists loved the view of the deep blue sea on the right, the proud old town walls of Antibes on the left and the hazy outline of the mountains on the horizon.

Claude Monet painted this scene in 1888, Henri Edmond Cross captured the same image 20 years later and now visitors can decide whether he captured the atmosphere as the painting is being exhibited as a poster on that very spot.

It is only one of 50 works of art on show as part of the Chemin des Peintre, The Painters' Way, which holidaymakers can follow in the Cote d'Azur.

The series of posters stretches along the coast from Menton to Cannes and extends inland to Grasse, Mougins and Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

La Maddalena, Italy  - With its jagged cliffs and fjord-like coves, Italy's Maddalena Archipelago, in the Gallura region off the north-east coast of Sardinia, is like a Mediterranean version of Norway.

Designated a national park 15 years ago, the scattered seven main islands and numerous islets are alive with palm trees, small juniper and stone pine forests and gigantic oleander bushes. They also have wonderful beaches rimmed with bizarre rock formations.

Maddalena is the largest island and the only one inhabited year-round. At the moment, it is busy preparing to host the G8 summit of the leading industrialized nations in July. Ferries arrive at La Maddalena, the island's principal town, every half-hour from Palau, on Sardinia.