Archive for the ‘What the !?’ Category

Sometimes it’s the concierge who makes a hotel experience.

These friendly workers, found in most hotel lobbies, have been known to help guests with requests as simple as dinner recommendations and as complicated as buying a luxury automobile or tracking down live tarantulas.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has elevated the level of service offered by concierges by arranging a team of butlers, experts and even historians at their properties around the globe to assist guests by recommending local activities and cultural finds. You may have never thought you’d need the services of some of the below specialists…

The Savoy, London: The Savoy provides guests with a Green Butler who is able to recommend eco-friendly hot spots, including eco-pubs, eco-retail and environmental architecture around London to guests.

Fairmont Royal Pavilion, Barbados & Fairmont Monte Carlo: The Beach Butlers at these hotels tend to all guests’ sunbathing needs, whether it be providing sunscreen or frozen fruit kabobs. Beach Butlers will also watch the possessions of guests while they venture into the water.

Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, Montreal: The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth employs Carole Proulx, an expert Chocolatière who creates exquisite, exclusive truffles that are very in demand and available at the hotel’s outlets.

Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai: Head to the hotel’s Jasmine Lounge, which serves tea daily and employs a Tea Sommelier who selects and imports all leaves used in the lounge. The expert is also available to guide guests through a traditional tea ceremony.

Fairmont Beijing, China: Watch the hotel’s dedicated Noodle Makers whirl and twirl fresh noodles in the Asian fusion restaurant Lunar 8.

Fish valet at Fairmont Vancouver Airport. (Courtesy Fairmont Hotels & Resorts)

Fairmont Vancouver Airport, British Columbia: Never let the big one get away thanks to the Fairmont Vancouver Airport’s Fish Valets. These valets meet anglers at the hotel and store their prize catch in a chilly 575 cubic foot fish freezer until the fisherman or woman is ready to catch his or her plane home.

Fairmont Mara Safari Club, Kenya: Jonathan Ledama, the resort’s Resident Naturalist, leads guests on guided walking tours of the property where they learn about indigenous flora, fauna and the history of the native Masai people.

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, Alberta: Award winning naturalists keep the tradition of Swiss mountain guides alive at the Chateau Lake Louise. Mountain Heritage Guides not only educate guests about the area’s geography, but also accompany them on ice canyon hikes or snowshoe walks.

- Nicole Feenstra

This weekend marks the 11th annual North American Wife Carrying Championships at Sunday River Ski Resort in Maine.

To date, 40 couples have registered for the Oct. 9 event, but space is still available. Act quickly, though. It’s your last opportunity to try for the title before the World Wife Carrying Championships in Finland in 2011.

The winner of Saturday’s event walks away with his wife’s weight in beer and five times her weight in cash.

“Our annual North American Wife Carrying Championship attracts competitors and spectators from all over the county,” Sunday River’s president Dana Bullen said in a release. “For the resort, this weekend is an opportunity to celebrate the end of summer and gear up for another winter season ahead.”

Last year’s winners were Dave and Lacy Castro of Lewiston, Maine. They completed the 254-metre long course in an impressive 54.45 seconds.

- Nicole Feenstra

(Photos supplied by WENN.com)

Staff at Chessington’s Sea Life centre in England have given a topless mermaid statue a makeover after visitors to the aquatic attraction paid a little too much attention to her bare assets.

And here I thought Europeans were more liberal about nudity than North Americans. It seems Canadians have  Londoners beat, though. Since 1996, it’s been legal for women to go topless in public in Ontario.

“We hadn’t noticed quite how buxom Sally was until we clocked young boys, and not so young boys, spending a lot of time ogling her in the walk through ocean tunnel,” Justine Locker, Chessington’s Zoo Experience Manager, said according to WENN.com. ”None of us can avoid what is starring us straight in the face, so it’s time for a cover-up. After all, it’s summer, the perfect time to be sporting a designer bikini!”

Do you think the mermaid statue is too steamy for tourists? Is the bikini an improvement or simply ridiculous?

- Nicole Feenstra

Courtesy Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

Believe it or not, Feb. 27 is World Sword Swallowers Day.

Shows at more than a dozen Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Odditoriums in four countries are planned to celebrate the daredevils for whom swallowing a weapon is all in a day’s work.

“We sword swallowers risk our lives every time we swallow swords, but many people don’t believe it’s real, or they think the art has died out,” Dan Meyer, a sword swallower who has been featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, explained in a press release. “We established World Sword Swallower’s Day to raise awareness of the medical contributions sword swallowers have made to the fields of medicine and science, to honor veteran performers, to raise funds for esophageal cancer research and the Injured Sword Swallower’s Relief Fund, and to correct myths by putting on sword swallowing demonstrations for the public and media around the world.”

The Ripley’s Odditorium in Niagara Falls, Ont. is taking part in the spectacle, with swallower Vanessa Neil scheduled to perform at 2:27 p.m. Locations in Australia, Mexico, New York, California, Florida, and Texas will also put on shows at 2:27, symbolic of the show occurring on the 27th day of the second month.

Featured acts internationally include an attempt to swallow a record 52 swords at once in Atlantic City, an attempt to swallow hedge clippers in Grand Prairie, Texas, and even a bid to swallow a 120 degree curved sword in Ocean City, Maryland.

Sword swallowing originated 4,000 years ago in India, though today, just a few dozen full-time sword swallowers exist.

“It’s a huge honor for us to carry on the great tradition of sword swallowers who have performed at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums over the years!” said Meyer. “In light of this, [Sword Swallowers Association International] is sending out an open invitation to all sword swallowers around the world to contact us and join us in swallowing swords at Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums and other locations on the 27th!”

This is definitely a job for the professionals.

- Nicole Feenstra

While looking through the updates Canoe.ca Travel’s friends on Twitter had made, I came across an interesting video posted by the Times Online.

In the video, traveller Christopher Rehage documents a year of his life spent walking from Beijing to Hanover, Germany. Though he gave up on the arduous journey before completing it, his video is no less sensational to watch. More than 330,000 people have already watched it on YouTube.

“Walking isn’t freedom – you are not free in the desert when you are pushing yourself day after day,” Rehage told the Times Online.

It’s easy to see just how hard Rehage pushed himself – and not just by the progression from a clean shaven student to wild, wilderness man.

He videotaped and photographed himself daily, taking four months at the end of his journey to string together the more than 1,500 images he took.

Take a look at the video above. Would you – could you – dare to make your own longest journey?

- Nicole Feenstra