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As they say in real estate, "location, location, location", and in Las Vegas, new Westin Casuarina is a real estate dream come true for leisure or for business traveler.

Although not located directly on Strip, Westin is within walking distance to Bally's Hotel and Casino for traditional Vegas entertainment, Caesars Palace for new Colloseum, Flamingo Hilton for magnificent gardens, and Bellagio for fine dining at Picasso's.

The new 825-guestroom Westin Casuarina is sister property to Westin Casuarina Grand Cayman, and it is built around eko-skeleton of former Maxim Hotel, but you won't recognized dramatic and expensive and expansive design changes of Asian owned and Sheraton branded Westin. Hopefully they add Maxim's infamous Sunday champagne brunch to list of amenities!

After pumping millions of dollars into makeover, first Westin in Nevada has rolled out red carpet for a price conscious clientele that still wants high end amenities, such as business services, high speed internet access, breakout business conference rooms, and a 3,500 square foot ballroom.

The Westin Casuarina features four two-bedroom suites and six one-bedroom suites, which are a cut above standard rooms, but each room has superb amenities, and most pillows I have ever witnessed in a hotel room: five queen size and king size pillows with a duvet coverlet on Westin trademarked Heavenly Bed, a custom designed pillow-top mattress set with a cozy down blanket, three crisp sheets, and soft duvet comforter.

The Heavenly Bath, a moniker also trademarked by chain, is a customized shower with two heads for power and wider water coverage, and each showerhead has five adjustable jets and spray options, from light misty feature to pounding massaging needles, so you can customize your shower depending on how grueling that business conference was. The Heavenly Bath features a curved shower curtain rod that provides eight additional inches of elbowroom and eliminates dreaded shower curtain cling, and oversized Brazilian combed cotton bath towels are as big a treat as custom designed velour bathrobes and spa amenities.

Other in room amenities included a fully stock refreshment center, cable TV, in room movies, a laptop-sized safe and a coffee maker.

For business traveler hotel features five contiguous meeting rooms with 10,000 square feet of meeting space and largest space, 5,000-square-foot meeting room, can divide into five sections, perfect for a variety of events. Two private boardrooms hold up to ten people each. There is something that sounds totally techy, called Starwood Turbo Net High Speed Internet access, which is available in all meeting rooms. Westin is number one upscale hotel chain brand for business, according to Business Travel News in 2003, so there is no excuse now to email or conference call home office when you road warriors come to Vegas.

What's even better for business traveler is new Las Vegas Monorail station across street from Westin Casuarina. With a ticket on new monorail you can attend conventions at MGM Grand, Sands Convention Center, or Las Vegas Convention Center, and soon monorail line will connect to downtown casinos. Westin offers best location in Vegas, and away from hubbub of congestion on Strip.

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Before a slave woman ran away into jungle from an eighteenth-century Suriname sugar plantation, she wove rice into her hair so that she would have something to plant. Under her breasts and her skirts she hid a piece of cloth, a kitchen knife, some thread or a spoon -anything of practical use that she could successfully carry away into an unknown new life fraught with uncertainty and danger. (Photo above: Miss Alida 2003 is Joan Dogojo.)

This was a time referred to by historians as "the golden age of Suriname" because of wealth exported in form of sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco and timber. Plantation life under Dutch colonial rule was hideous for black men, women, and children. The Dutch were such cruel slave masters that, to keep their own slaves inline, American planters threatened them with sale to a Dutchman. Slaves who fled into jungle were known as Maroons, from French word marronage, or runaway.

Slavery was abolished in Suriname in 1863. Today, on July 1, descendents of these Maroons celebrate their independence. This day of dancing, eating, parading and dressing in traditional koto, is called Keti Koti, from Sranan Tongo words for "cut chains".