UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

It’s a Swiss-made prefabricated construction situated on top of a building in downtown Paris, as part of an art installation. Yes, you the guest is part of the exhibit.

And no matter how much money you’ve got, they’ll only ever allow you to say one night for about USD600.

Breakfast can be delivered, and in direct contrast to other hotels, taking of the golden embroidered bath towels are actually not just allowed, but rather encouraged!

What it looks like from from the outside

Click here to see more pictures

Not too long ago there was no such thing as Kota Kinabalu - Australia direct flights, let alone affordable flights.

But in a short while things have changed, and the world seems so much smaller now.

There are now direct Kota Kinabalu - Brisbane and Kota Kinabalu - Perth flights, both introduced this year, if I’m not mistaken.

To make it even crazier, AirAsia has recently offered zero fares for the Perth flight, for travel between 2nd November 2008 and 30th April 2009! That is guaranteed to cause one hell of a mad scramble.

I should really plan my trip to see my relative in Perth now which has been sitting on the drawing board for too long already. Homestay accomodation is guaranteed there, no need to check out Perth Hotels. As for the other flight, I’d need to look up Brisbane Hotels. Of course the stay can then be extended to the other must-visit cities Sydney and Melbourne, hence it would make sense to ask around for Sydney Hotels and Melbourne Hotels too.

It is the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York.

Since 1931, it's an annual tradition and lighted late November at the earliest, with the lighting broadcast on TV in the US.

It's even more famous than the US' own National Christmas Tree.

It's not the same tree every year as they'd switch off the lights a the week after New Year's Day, then remove & recycle the tree for other purposes.

Tree specs:
- Type: usually Norway spruce.
- Height: 23m - 27m.
- Number of lights: 30,000
- Length of wiring: 8km
- Size of star at the top: 3 m in diameter & weighs almost 250kg.

Source
Wikipedia
Bayou Graphics Studio

Yahoo! News reported on 5th December 2007 that there’s an X-rated exhibit on libido opening this week at the Francois Mitterrand National Library in Paris.

The exhibit runs until 2nd March 2008, and understandably, it’s only open to those 16 years and older.

Called “L’Enfer de la Bibliotheque, Eros au secret” (Hell at the Library, Eros in Secret) it has 350 pieces of material, including:

- libertine literature
- pornography, including an 1830s pop-up, where lifting a paper door reveals a man showing his private parts to a blushing young woman. The caption reads: “This, Mademoiselle, is how you can sum up the history of France.”
- Japanese prints
- photographs
- audio recordings of persons reading once-censored poems.
- dozens of banned books, including a manuscript by the Marquis de Sade
- political pamphlets, including:
(i) an anti-royal one which shows Marie Antoinette, the 18th century queen of France, lifting her skirt in “undignified poses.”
(ii) an anti-clerical 1790 one containing a list of priests caught dallying with prostitutes, complete with the ladies’ names and addresses, plus sordid details of what kind of things the priests liked to do with them.

Actually the section has been in existence for about 170 years but was kept secret and locked away. Librarians would hide documents from the library’s collection that they thought “dangerous for public morality.” Apparently it was not simply destroyed because the collection is “sometimes very precious for book-lovers and have a great monetary value,” as the then library director, Joseph Naudet described it in 1849.

It was dubbed L’Enfer (Hell) and has its own classification category.

Source
Yahoo News, 5th Dec 2007
CBSnews.com
The France National Library’s page on the exhibit

According to Forbes Traveler, it is located on the island of St. Lucia, an island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean.

The resort is called Jade Mountain Resort, located on top of a volcanic bay and officially opened December 2006.

From the rooms, you can see the Pitons, St. Lucia’s most famous landmarks. The Pitons are two volcanic mountains within a World Heritage Site. The Gros Piton is 770 m, and the Petit Piton is 743 m high; they are linked by the Piton Mitan ridge.

Note that there is no door or wall from the bed to the balcony.

This is the view from the balcony (well, the entire room is actually a long, covered balcony). In fact, there are no sliding doors, screens, or French windows at all:

There is an infinity pool in every room, and they are not small: up to 900 square feet! Lined with iridescent glass tiles. They fill nearly half the suite and at night they change colour.

Specs
- 24 suites
- infinity pools are located 16 stories above ocean
- designed by Nick Troubetzkoy, a Russian Canadian architect
- rates start at USD950 per night, topping out at USD1,470 per night
- no TV, phones or electric communication: no internet
- totally open air layout, even toilet and shower are exposed. In fact, even insects and birds can fly in and out!
- going to the beach entails quite a long and tedious walk

Not surprisingly, despite the steep price, it’s full booked for the rest of this year.

The resort management claims that the current client record for not stepping out the door—not even once—is five days.

Apparently, this is what those who have been there said:

The reviews from most of the travel glossies to date have been almost embarrassingly breathless. Online comments from recent patrons feature a more nuanced range of opinions—some near incoherent with praise, others more measured, especially considering the prices involved.

Source
Forbestraveler.com

The usual urinals have us staring at walls, so what could be a better way to perk up the experience than to replace concrete with glass and have them on top of highrises?

Source
techchee.com and lackcolor.com

South Korea’s Love Land is a theme park located on the northern part of Cheju (also known as Jeju) Island, an island off the south coast. It’s full of statues, photographs and sculptures of the sexual nature.

On the way to the park, the traffic signs are already suggestive:

When you first enter the park, you will be greeted with this statue:

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Beauty is a subjective matter, but your truly believes that the world’s most beautiful waterfall is the Iguazu Falls, located on the border between Argentina and Brazil. It’s so spectacular that it’s been featured in the James Bond film Moonraker (1979).

It is much larger than the Niagara Falls. It’s only worthy contender as the world’s most beautiful and spectacular waterfall is Victoria Falls in Africa. However I think Iguazu clinches the title because it is wider and and has 270 separate falls. Having said that, Victoria has the world’s biggest interrupted water curtain: it has about the same length as the Iguazu’s total and > 90 metres tall. The Iguazu is 82m at its tallest.

The most impressive part of the falls is the Garganta del Diablo, also known as The Devil’s Throat (pictured below), a U-shaped, 150m wide wide and 700m long cliff.

 [pic source: wikipedia.org] (more…)

Everybody knows about Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. But considerably less knew about the last person ever to have set foot on the moon, Eugene Cernan. (more…)

L’Arbre du Tenere (The tree of Tenere) was once the most isolated tree on earth - no other tree can be found within a 400 kilometre radius. (more…)