Secret Garden Hostel, not such a secret hideaway

Advantages: Great food, amazing views
Disadvantages: chaotic organisation, expensive

...The Secret garden is one of the most popular hostels in Quito and can be found in the San Blas area of the city just beside the old town and a half hour walk from the mariscal tourist area. The hostel is in a beautiful old style colonial house and on entering the hostel it is bright and airy with a small pond and garden. The reception is on the 4th floor so a long walk up at Quito's altitude (2850m). The hostel has a small computer room and common area and a roof terrace with reception, a bar and tables for breakfast and dinner. The rooms themselves are fairly mediocre and can vary in quality. The dorms have between 4 and 7 beds and there are 2 twin rooms and about 6 doubles, one of which is en suite. The front half of the house was the original hostel and the rooms are far more welcoming, often painted bright colours and the bathrooms...

flyingllamas 08.07.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Secret Garden Hostel, Quito

The Secret Garden

Advantages: A great film for all ages.
Disadvantages: There aren't any

...The Secret Garden is about a girl called Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly) whos parents die in India and Mary is brought to England because her uncle Lord Archibald Craven (John Lynch), who after losing his wife is hardly at the manor, is her only living relative (he was married to her aunt who also died) and is brought to Misselthwaite manor in the Yorkshire moor by Mrs Medlock (Maggie Smith) who is a sour and strict with the rules. While at the manor Mary finds out secrets, hears crys in the night and after a lot of snooping around the manor comes across her cousin Colin Craven (Heydon Prowse) who is the same age as Mary and is worried that he is ill and is going to die. With the help of Martha (Laura Crossley), Mary's maid who has a kind heart, Mary learns to play outside and makes friends with Marthas brother Dickon (Andrew Knott). They...

giantpanda21 02.03.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of The Secret Garden (DVD)

The Secret Garden- a worthy adaptation

Advantages: One of the best children's movies ever made
Disadvantages: Lack of extras

...The Warner Brother's movie adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's Secret Garden is many things. - It is a film where the main characters are children and yet, you do not want to strangle them because of their awful acting or turn the noise down because of the horrific noises that leave their mouth. - It is a film that faithfully follows the original story so that you are not left thinking, 'hang on, but they didn't explain that!... They left that out!... Where the hell did that come from??' - It is perhaps the only children's film that I will happily watch without feeling ashamed. Released in 1993, the Secret Garden begins in India in the early 1900s, with the selfish Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly). When an earthquake shakes the country, Mary loses her unloving parents and is sent off to dreary England, away from her servants...

madchillie 13.02.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of The Secret Garden (DVD)

The whole world's a garden

Advantages: Faithful adaptation of a classic novel, beautifully filmed
Disadvantages: The upper and lower class divide

...After her parents die suddenly, spoilt rich girl Mary Lennox is sent from India to the wilds of England to live in a stately home owned by her Uncle. Her Uncle, however, does not seem keen to have much to do with her, having recently lost his wife, so Mary is left to entertain herself, with only servant Martha and miserable housekeeper Mrs Medlock to talk to. Bored, she soon finds something to occupy her - the existence of a walled garden that has become sadly overgrown following the death of her Aunt. With the help of Martha's brother Dickon, Mary starts to bring it back to life. She also finds out that she has a cousin - Colin - who is deemed a cripple. Will Mary's new-found enthusiasm for life filter through to those around her? Or will she eventually be brought down to her level? For anyone who doesn't know, The Secret Garden was...

sunmeilan 25.07.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of The Secret Garden (DVD)

The Secret Garden

Advantages: Enormous
Disadvantages: If you are able to see things differently, none.

...Not interested, you live in a flat ? nonetheless you eat fruit ? perhaps flies, mosquitos, spiders visit your space ??then read last part of the review. You like gardening, you will find some interesting ideas. Gardening can be a pleasure or a nightmare. If we insist on having a perfect lawn, perfect borders with the latest plants found in the garden center, kitchen garden sterilised, well dug with perfectly aligned vegetables, no weed in site ; then it is in my view, a nightmare. Many of the plants we try to grow do not belong to the area where we live so we put them in green houses, well ventilated, well sterilised, well perfumed with the latest insecticide on the market. We will probably be very proud of the result, but at what cost ? so much effort ! and what we produced will not have any more nutritional value than the same...

Jossland 16.04.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Members Advice on Gardening

WHOLE WORLD IS A GARDEN

Advantages: cinematography, music, direction, spiritually uplifting
Disadvantages: those allergic to bunnies and lambs will think it twee

...Agnieszka Holland is one of my favourite directors. Her best films were perhaps the ones made in Poland which were not subject to any kind of a big promotion abroad, but some people might know her from excellent 'Europa, Europa' or (much less excellent but probably better known due to the appearance of Pretty Leo 'Total Eclipse'). 'Secret Garden' was made in 1993 and is an adaptation of a definite children's classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett. As far as faithfulness of the adaptation goes, it is neither exactly faithful, nor departed from the novel enough to be treated as 'based on'. The story, the crucial characters and the main moral are all present, but some changes have been made and a lot has been left out (the movie still is over 100 minutes long). Overall, and I am speaking as a fan of the book, I think that both the changes...

magdadh 30.11.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of The Secret Garden (DVD)

The secret garden

Advantages: A very original and detailed story, which sounds very realistic
Disadvantages: Since it?s supposed to be a children?s story I think it might be somewhat long and difficult to understand

...The secret garden was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett (the version I have was, anyway). It is wonderful tale about a young girl who was bought up in India. Her parents are killed very early on in the book and young Mary finds that she has to leave and go and live in a new country with her uncle (Archibald craven) who she has never met or seen. Mary moves from roasting hot India where nothing grows to damp and wet Yorkshire where wildlife is everywhere. Mary is at first a very sour tempered young one who doesn?t even know how to dress her self, because in India she had always been attended to by servants, but not in Yorkshire. Mary soon learns the basics and actually manages to make friends whom are Martha P.Sowerby (a maid in Mr craven?s house and a very lively character), Ben wetherstaff (the garden who can be as sour as Mary...

rose3000 21.04.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Shhh - Our Honeymoon Secret Revealed!!!

Advantages: Gave us rare sights of animals in trouble throughout the world
Disadvantages: None

...***Background*** The Secret Garden can be found tucked away in an area of The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, which is situated about halfway along the Las Vegas Boulevard section that is commonly known as The Strip. Siegfried & Roy are most famous for being spectacular magicians, who take part in illusions that no one else has done before. They have used a lot of big cats in their shows in the past and seem to have a genuine love to protect and set up a conservation programme so that we do not see a lot of rare animals disappear through extinction. They have come a long way together since they first performed at the Tropicana in their Las Vegas debut, way back in 1967 and have now performed in many of the big and well-known hotels in this spectacular city. They were first introduced to white tigers back in 1982 when...

belfin 23.10.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of The Secret Garden at The Mirage, Las Vegas

In the night garden ninky nonk train set

Advantages: strong, versatile, compact, nice bright colours, fun to play with
Disadvantages: none so far

...I decided to buy the in the night garden ninky nonk train set from Amazon as my young daughter is a big fan of in the night garden and whenever it comes on TV she gets really excited. So as my daughter already had some of the other characters from the show I wanted her to have the whole set and since buying it the train set the ninky nonk train set has become one of her favourite toys to play with on a daily basis. The train set can come apart and be attached on many different ways and my daughter enjoys looking at the nice bright colours and putting some of the other in the night garden characters onto the train set even though it keeps falling of now and again it keeps her busy and sometimes I hear her in fits of giggles. The train set is very cute and versatile and its great as children such as mine can have hours of fun with it...

jmarlene 02.11.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Hasbro In the Night Garden Ninky Nonk Train Set

The Secret River

Advantages: Great descriptions of the times, Australia
Disadvantages: None

...The Secret River London 1806 - William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is the book of the month at our book club and is probably not a book I would have chosen for myself but is an extremely interesting portrail into life for people in that age and of the two countries. This story is basically in two parts, Will's London life and then his Australian life. The two are most definitely linked to each other but in terms of Will's and Sal's feelings and adventures they are worlds apart, or you could say continents apart. The story...

Spottydog11 18.11.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of The Secret River - Kate Grenville