World's most bizarre annual events
Mardi Gras. Thailand's Full Moon Parties. Rio's Carnival.
It's all too easy for a traveler to have a stash of pictures, and memories, exactly the same as a million other travelers. So if you want an alternative story to tell, try these events for size.
1. International Ice Festival, Israel
Ice is not a commodity associated with the sun-baked Middle East, which makes Jerusalem's first-ever Ice Festival -- a concept inspired by a similar event in China -- all the more extraordinary.
Likewise the scope of its ambition -- to get Chinese ice artists to sculpt frosty replicas of the city's ancient sites, as well as scenes and characters from famous fairy tales.
Visitors will be issued coats at the door of the old Jerusalem railway station and invited to walk through an icy version of the city's Jaffa Gate. Awaiting them will be models of the Tower of David Citadel, the Montefiore windmill and other city landmarks.
A skating rink and an ice bar will be open throughout the festival, which runs from March 6-April 30.
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2. Day of the Dead Moon, Indonesia
Nyepi, the Balinese Lunar New Year, is a day of absolute silence, contemplation and meditation preceded by 24 hours of glorious mayhem.
The Day of the Dead Moon sees locals converge on villages accompanied by huge papier-mâché gargoyles known as the ogoh-ogoh. Music, firecrackers and partying continue throughout the night, ending just before sunrise with the symbolic torching of the ogoh-ogohs.
On March 22, the Como Shambhala Estate near Ubud will stage is own noise parade, using Balinese cymbals and other instruments to scare out evil spirits -- but as their own ogoh-oghos are organic, they will be left to degrade in the ground instead of being torched.
During Nyepi itself guests will be confined to quarters, like all other non-Hindus on the island.
3. Steel Phallus Festival, Japan
The penis rules at the Kanamara shrine in Kawasaki on the first Sunday in April. It appears not just as a giant statue at the heart of this Shinto event, but replicated in candy, carved vegetables and all manner of phallic decorations.
The shrine was originally the haunt of prostitutes praying to be saved from diseases associated with their trade, but now penis-worship at Kanamara has come to be associated with prosperity, marital harmony and easier labor in the delivery room.
Today the festival is used to raise money for HIV research.
tomuraya.co.jp (Japanese only) or www.visitjapan.jp
4. Goat and Crab Race Festival, Tobago
If you fancy being tethered to a speeding goat, or have an urge to poke a crab with a sharp stick, head for Buccoo's Family Goat and Crab racing day which takes place the Tuesday after Easter.
The event dates back more than 80 years to locals' response to their former colonial masters' pastime of racing thoroughbred horses on the island.
Barefoot jockeys race along the 100-meter track loosely tethered to their beautifully decked out goats, who like their equine counterparts, have trainers waiting in the paddocks. The goats, who have to follow special diets while training for the race, can be seen exercising in the sea in the run-up to the event on April 10.
A great place from which up to 14 people can enjoy the fun is Villa Petrus, a plantation-style house rentable by the week.
5. Les Camembertises, France
The Normandy village which gave its name to France's best-selling cheese celebrates the day in 1791 when a persecuted priest who was granted sanctuary returned the favor with a recipe for Camembert.
However, the annual festival known as Les Camembertises always pays homage to another country, and this year it will be held in the neighboring village of Aubry-le-Panthou, where a Tibetan temple and center for world peace was established 30 years ago.
During the Tibet in Normandy celebrations (May 26-28), fetival goers will examine the wild orchids growing on the hillsides, ride donkeys around the countryside and a re-enact "Tintin in Tibet."
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10 coolest hotel minibar items
While the worst minibar is undoubtedly an empty minibar, there's no escaping the fact that most, even when bursting with small clinking goods, are over-priced and underwhelming.
But some are worth a lingering look, even if to partake would mean forgoing the cost of dinner that night.
These hotels have reinterpreted the minibar to provide an alternative (and sometimes very luxurious) convenience for the discerning hotel guest.
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1. Bling H2O bottled water
Trump International Hotel & Tower, Chicago, United States
The star of the “water library” is Bling H2O. The water comes from English Mountain Springs in Tennessee. But what gives the Bling H2O its name (and its price tag of US$25) is the bottle, which is hand-decorated with Swarovski crystals.
If the Bling H20 is too decadent, the “water library” includes other designer bottled water choices that hail from Wales, Argentina and Australia offered at US$10.
401 N. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60611, United States; +1 312 588 8000; www.trumpchicagohotel.com
2. Oxygen bottle
Banyan Tree Ringha Hotel, China
Sometimes literally.
Luckily, their minibar has taken their guests' lungs into consideration, providing oxygen canisters for free. Inhaling oxygen is a way to anti-ageing -- if you believe Simon Cowell.
Hong Po Village, Jian Tang Town Shangri-La County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province; +86 887 828 8822; www.banyantree.com
3. 'Tiny Bubbles' Champagne package
The Peabody Orlando, Orlando, United States
The concept banks on convenience -- providing exactly what hotel guests need in an easy-to-order method so bypassing the bleary-eyed midnight run to try and find a convenience store.
The family-friendly “Night at the Movies” package includes concession-stand classics like soda and popcorn. A fancier “Tiny Bubbles” package includes two small bottles of Champagne and a Carr cracker and cheese combination.
Or go for the the "Micro Brewery" package, which includes three types of local brews: Ybor Gold, Napa Smith Amber and Hurricane Reef, for US$28.
9801 International Drive, Orlando, Florida 32819, United States; +1 407 352 4000; www.peabodyorlando.com
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4. SleepEase homeopathic spray
XV Beacon, Boston, United States
Available in the minibar are homeopathic sprays from Sprayology, with SleepEase and Life Detoxer sprays that do exactly as their names suggest -- soothe the symptoms of insomnia, jetlag and environmental toxins.
In addition to these all-natural sprays, the minibar also supplies other items to pamper the body including an eye pillow, cucumber eye cream and peppermint foot cream.
15 Beacon St., Boston, Massachusetts 02108, United States; +1 617 670 1500; www.xvbeacon.com
5. Full-sized liquor bottles
Grand Resort Lagonissi, Athens, Greece
All the rooms at the Grand Resort Lagonissi stock sodas and chocolate bars for the hoi polloi, but what marks the true VIP from regular folk are the minibar drinks in the VIP rooms.
Though by minibar we mean maxibar, because really, what minibar can hold nine bottles of liquor and a fully-equipped Nespresso coffee machine?
40th kilometer Athens-Sounion, 190 10 Attica, Greece; +30 22910 76000; www.lagonissiresort.gr
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