Places I Want To Visit

Reading the headlines on Boing Boing the other day, I came across a link to this hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. Not much I can add, really, other than that this would be a really cool place to stay, as long as you can sit close enough to (or, if you prefer, sufficiently far away from) the windows at breakfast. Check out the gallery for more pictures. Talk about communing with nature...

And I guess as long as I'm on the topic of hotels I would love to visit, here's one more: the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A mere architectural description doesn't really do this place justice:





The hotel's site has a large image library, and there are many more images floating around the web as well.

Of course, the nightly rate for a suite in this hotel is only slightly smaller than the GDP of a small Central American country, so it's highly unlikely that I will be going there any time soon. For those who do have the means (or have somehow managed to fannagle a stay there with an expense account), however, a word of advice: don't even think about sunbathing topless. From the hotel's FAQ:

Q. Is clothing optional for sunbathing at the hotel?

A. Topless sunbathing is not permitted under UAE law. In the event a guest chooses to participate in this activity, the Hotel's management will intervene immediately.

I don't know what that means, exactly. But I suspect it may involve swords, or forcible ejection from the the heliport. (I also notice that, strictly speaking, the answer given does not rule out the possibility of bottomless sunbathing, provided you're wearing a top. But before you do something like that, you should probably first ask yourself: "Self, do I really want to get into a semantic argument with this hotel's management?" Once again, I reiterate: swords.)

Of course, this is all basically wishful thinking on my part; my entire apartment would probably fit inside the bathroom of the BAA's smallest suites. But it can't hurt to dream, right?