Sleeping with the enema

Is there no proclivity to which the hospitality sector cannot cater?

Depending on your tastes, you can stay in an igloo, a prison cell, a tree-house, a house in a tree (different thing), a storm drain, an Indian sweat lodge, loads of caves and a hotel shaped like a giant beagle.

Bet you never thought you’d be able to stay in a human intestine though, did you?

Yes, for something, shall we say, fundamentally different, check out the CasAnus Hotel in Belgium.

Hard to digest, I know, but the world’s oddest lodging has been attracting hordes of visitors since it was launched in 2007.

The anatomically correct bowel sits in a sculpture park run by the Verbeke Foundation, set up by an art-loving Belgian couple.

It is made of polystyrene and part of the colon has been artistically distended in order to make enough space for a double bed, table, shower and, of course, toilet.

From the outside, the entire edifice is unnervingly leathery looking and coloured a deeply unattractive brown, with a weird string-of-sausage like tapering at one end and a giant anus at the other (through which the sun actually does shine).

It’s a relief to find that the interior, however, is a pristine white, almost enema-like in its cleanliness, in fact.

CasAnus is on a manmade island in the park, which is halfway between Antwerp and Ghent, in Flanders.

An overnight stay for two, including breakfast, costs ¤120 and gives a whole new meaning to the notion of staying in a dump.

verbekefoundation.com