Word: spa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Most spas have names that conjure up an atmosphere of bliss and tranquillity. So I am a little taken aback by the sign outside the spa in the orange groves of northern Israel. It reads, ADA BARAK'S CARNIVOROUS PLANT FARM. Barak makes most of her income by showing off her plants, which eat everything from insects and reptiles to small mammals and schnitzel. She started grabbing one of the little snakes slithering in and out of the hungry plants' jaws and passing it around to visitors at the end of her act. And that...
...decide to get the $80 spa treatment, since I am dubious about both its calming and its curative effects. Barak's cousin Dr. Nava Becher reminds me that Moses coiled a bronze snake around his staff and thrust it upward to the sky ("to remind people of the Almighty," she says) and that the snake is a symbol for medicine ("meaning that what kills you can also cure you"). Many of Barak's regular clients claim that the snakes help ease migraines and soothe sore muscles...
...Bagalil, a boutique hotel offering tasty Mediterranean cuisine, views of the water Jesus supposedly walked on and a variety of massages for those who prefer a human's touch to a reptile's. It's also worthwhile to splash in the mineral-laden Dead Sea, renowned as a health spa ever since the Queen of Sheba raved about its medicinal properties 4,000 years ago. (Hint: resorts like the Mövenpick on the Jordanian side are more luxurious and, because they are less traveled, far cheaper.) Around the Dead Sea, though, stay away from the snakes: their touch might soothe...
...career in the restaurant business. He's an expert listener, overhearing conversations that enable him to rub off his rough edges and advance his interests. He begins as a waiter in a provincial pub and moves on to a posh Prague restaurant, then to service in a high-end spa. That establishment becomes a camp full of often naked Nazi boys and girls, earnestly attempting to create a genetically perfected Master Race. In time, as the war goes badly for the Germans, it becomes a military hospital. By then, however, Jan has married a Hitlerite, who dies leaving...
...next day's hangover will be ministered to in a private spa suite, and on a reserved "opium bed" at the hotel's Oasis Beach Club, from which you can contemplate the six-course dinner for eight that will be prepared for you in your suite that evening. And if there aren't any paparazzi staking out your floor, well, maybe the hotel can arrange that, too. For more information, call...