10 plush places to de-stress - Luxury Travel

10 plush places to de-stress

These spas offer spiritual refreshment as well as lavish surroundings
� Breezes Beach Club
The Breezes Beach Club is situated on an untouched beach on the island of Zanzibar. The 70 rooms are decorated in ivory tones and have Zanzibar wood carvings. The Swahili style spa has dozens of treatments like "The Kili Foot Treatment," a restorative procedure for feet.

By Shivani Vora

If you're like many vacationers, your last trip was crammed with nonstop activity that left you feeling far from refreshed.

And let's not even bring up the BlackBerry.

That's why those in need of a break are foregoing a bike tour of Italy or a jaunt to Napa and signing up for the de-stressing getaway. Today, there are dozens of deluxe properties that offer these retreats.

"Upscale spiritual getaways have become a huge market," says Kathy Obbish, an agent at the Illinois-based travel company Custom Explorations, who has more than 16 years of experience in organizing such trips. "With the growing fast pace of our lives, people just don't want to go on vacation anymore. They want to go away and come back truly reinvigorated and recharged."

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In Pictures: 10 Plush Places To De-Stress

While these trips incorporate traditional spa services like massages, they are different than your average spa vacation because they usually include a spirituality element of yoga, tai chi or meditation. Some facilities even have an alternative medicine doctor on-site who creates a personalized program for guests.

Souped-Up Soul Food
It wasn't too long ago that the only "spiritual vacations" available were monastic retreats offering bare-bones accommodations and meager food. But spiritual seekers today (according to research company MediaMark, the number of Americans practicing yoga is up 144% since 2001) are often wealthy baby boomers who see no contradiction between lapping up luxury while groping for inner peace.

More From Forbes.comClick below for more information•In Pictures: Best Beach Resorts•In Pictures: Unusual Trips And Tours•In Pictures: World's Most Remote Travel Destinations•In Pictures: Most Unusual Restaurants In The World•In Pictures: Celebrity Winter Holiday Spots"They want lovely accommodations and good food," Obbish says. "They're not going to accept anything less."

Those meeting this demand include The Emerson Resort and Spa in Mount Tremper, N.Y. Spirituality is the emphasis at this 52-room property, which opened in March. It's even surrounded by monasteries. In addition to yoga and tai chi, guests can take advantage of Panchakarama, an ancient Indian tradition that matches the needs of your body with certain Ayurvedic treatments. Guests meet with a consultant who puts together a three- or seven-day program.

If rejuvenating under the warm Caribbean sun on sandy beaches with clear blue water is what you crave, then consider the COMO Shambhala Retreat at Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos. Parrot Cay, a tony Caribbean property on its own 1000-acre island offers week-long retreats several times a year. High-profile yoga instructors like Rodney Yee lead students through five hours of yoga and meditation daily. In between sun salutations, guests feast on organic spa cuisine and indulge in spa therapies from China, India, Japan and Thailand.

"We started off offering these retreats occasionally, but they were so popular that we increased them to a few times a year," says Yenni Maelianawati, sales manager for COMO Shambhala. "More guests were requesting this type of a vacation."

Beyond-The-Pond Destinations
For many looking to relax, a long flight is not a detriment. Obbish says that 95% of such trips she books are to international locales.

� Desa SeniBook a stay at the Desa Seni Village Resort in Bali and you’ll find full moon yoga classes in an open air studio, and Balinese villages and shopping nearby. Ten antique houses with private terraces and views of rice fields serve as the accommodations. Rooms also have flat-screen TVs and DVD players. All the vegetables used in the meals are grown on-site. "Sometimes people also want a sense of culture when they're looking to relax," she says. "They feel that if they're going to truly unwind, they should do it in an environment that is unlike any they could find at home."

The Desa Seni Village Resort in Bali meets that agsdhfgdf, offering rejuvenation in an exotic setting. The 10-month-old property is actually a collection of 10 antique homes that are fitted with modern touches such as flat-screen televisions and DVD players. You can spend the days taking yoga classes in an open air studio overlooking rice fields or even practice poses under the full moon. Guests wanting to sample Balinese culture can visit nearby villages for shopping and sightseeing.

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Africa has several plush properties that focus on renewal. The Breezes Beach Club and Spa in Zanzibar, for example, has a Swahili style spa with dozens of treatments. And, if you tire of the pampering, the resort arranges snorkeling and scuba diving.

But getting a taste of the spiritual life doesn't come cheap, and while you're lounging, your wallet is doing the heavy lifting. Obbish says these trips can cost up to $15,000 a week for two people without any airfare.

Nobody said enlightenment was cheap.

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� 2007 Forbes.com

Gibson sorry after DUI arrest - Celebrity News

Mel Gibson apologizes after DUI arrest

Police report alleges actor made ‘barrage of anti-Semitic remarks’
NBC VIDEO•Gibson sorry for tirade, alleged slurs
July 30: Mel Gibson apologized for "despicable" remarks, including reported anti-Semitic slurs, made during his DUI arrest.

MALIBU, Calif. - Mel Gibson issued a lengthy statement Saturday apologizing for saying “despicable” things to sheriff's deputies when he was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol.

“I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable,” the actor-director said without elaborating.

The entertainment Web site TMZ posted what it said were four pages from the original arrest report, which quoted Gibson as launching an expletive-laden “barrage of anti-Semitic remarks” after he was stopped early Friday on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

According to the report, in addition to threatening the arresting deputy and trying to escape, Gibson said, “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” and asked the officer, James Mee, “Are you a Jew?”

Gibson publicist Alan Nierob would not comment on the incident beyond the written statement.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. John Hocking said he could not confirm the TMZ report, and detectives would begin investigating Monday. Deputies at the Malibu sheriff’s station referred calls to headquarters. Numerous calls to other sheriff’s officials were not returned, and attempts to locate Mee, the deputy, were also unsuccessful.

The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site late Saturday that the sheriff’s department’s civilian oversight office will investigate whether authorities gave Gibson preferential treatment and tried to cover up his alleged behavior.

Sheriff Lee Baca defended his department’s handling of the case.

“There is no cover-up,” Baca told the Times. “Our job is not to (focus) on what he said. It’s to establish his blood-alcohol level when he was driving and proceed with the case. Trying someone on rumor and innuendo is no way to run an investigation, at least one with integrity.”

MORE ON MEL GIBSON•Gibson charged with drunken driving•Gibson admits remarks | Read his statement•Mixed response | Was apology too late?•Opinion: In any language, Gibson a schmuck •Newsweek: His true views or booze talking?•Malibu's Highway to the Stars strikes again•Gibson story laagsdhfgdf coup for TMZ.com In his statement, Gibson apologized for what he called “my belligerent behavior” when he was taken into custody.

“The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person,” he said.

“I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry. I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse.”

He said he was taking “necessary steps to ensure my return to health.”

if (window.MelGibson_vidgal) { displayApp(MelGibson_vidgal); }Gibson, 50, was arrested after deputies stopped his 2006 Lexus LS 430 for speeding at 2:36 a.m. Friday. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said deputies clocked him doing 87 mph in a 45 mph zone.

A breath agsdhfgdf indicated Gibson’s blood-alcohol level was 0.12 percent, Whitmore said. The legal limit in California is 0.08 percent.

The actor-director posted $5,000 bail and was released at 9:45 a.m.

Gibson won a best-director Oscar for 1995’s “Braveheart” and had a 2004 religious blockbuster with “The Passion of the Christ,” which many Jewish groups said contained anti-Semitic overtones. He also starred in the “Lethal Weapon” and “Mad Max” films, “What Women Want” and “The Man Without a Face,” among other movies.

� 2006 . .

Hep C infection may increase risk of lymphoma - Infectious Diseases

Hep C infection may increase risk of lymphoma

Virus can hike chances of immune-system cancer by 30 percent, experts say

WASHINGTON - Infection with the hepatitis C virus, already linked to liver cancer and cirrhosis, also increases the risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers tracked 146,394 U.S. military veterans infected with the virus and 572,293 veterans who were not, and found that hepatitis C infection boosted the risk for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma by 20 percent to 30 percent.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is cancer that originates in the lymphoid tissue that makes up the lymph nodes, spleen and other organs of the immune system, with tumors developing from white blood cells. It is more common in men than women.

Hepatitis C infection also raised by 300 percent the risk for a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma called Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. Risk for cryoglobulinemia, involving abnormal levels of certain antibodies in the blood, also rose.

The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The hepatitis C virus causes hepatitis, a disease marked by liver inflammation, as well as liver cancer and cirrhosis.

It is carried through the blood and spread from one person to another through the exchange of bodily fluids �" for example, by sharing needles during injection drug use or by sexual contact. It also was spread via blood transfusions before 1990, when screening for the virus began.

“The thought is that hepatitis C is a chronic infection, and as a chronic infection it results in chronic stimulation of the immune system. And these cancers are cancers of the immune system, essentially,” Dr. Thomas Giordano of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, lead author of the study, said in a telephone interview.

Infection with the hepatitis C virus, also called HCV, came before the development of these cancers and the increased risk was long-lasting, the study found.

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“Although the risk of developing lymphomas is small, our research suggests that screening of HCV-infected individuals could identify conditions which may lead to cancer,” co-author Dr. Eric Engels of the National Cancer Institute, part of the U.S. National Institutes of health, said in a statement.

“It might then be possible to prevent progression to lymphoma,” Engels added.

The study looked at patients in U.S. Veterans Affairs health care facilities from 1997 to 2004. All but 3 percent were men, most were white, and their average age was 52.

There are more than 4 million people infected with the hepatitis C virus in the United States, representing 1.6 percent of the population.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.