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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Room Service: The Shanti Guest House

filed under: Jet Sex, Room Service by Lux Nightmare | Leave a Comment

At Sexerati, we believe that there’s nothing quite so hot as a romantic weekend (or evening, or lunch break) at the perfect hotel. But how to know which hotels are tryst-worthy, and which are strictly business? In Room Service, we check in to (and check out) hotels so you don’t have to. Up this week: The Shanti Guest House, in Varanasi, India.

If you’re going to Varanasi, you have two choices when it comes to accommodations: you can stay in a nice, modern hotel in the new part of the city, or you can stay in a spartan guest house in the old city. Since I wanted to be near the river (the main reason one goes to Varanasi), I opted for the latter, swapping a bit of comfort for convenience at the Shanti Guest House.

Atmosphere: The Shanti Guest House is a popular choice among travelers, and it’s not hard to see why: it’s clean, brightly colored, and the rooftop restaurant has a gorgeous view of the Ganges.

The Shanti is also extremely spartan, which has its pluses and minuses.

It also attracts a lot of hippies, which accounts for the minuses. Especially when the hippies have late night Jimi Hendrix jam sessions. Unless, you know, you’re into getting it on to bad renditions of the hits of the sixties.

Amenities: Guest houses (which rent out double rooms at Rs200 (about US$5) per night) are run on the cheap, and don’t have room for frills. Be prepared to bring your own toiletries, toilet paper, a sheet, shower shoes, and just about anything else you think you might need (and be sure to book a room with an attached bathroom: many of the rooms require guests to use a communal bathroom down the hall. While there’s a certain charm to that set up, it’s not really conducive to a hot weekend in bed.).

On the plus side, they do supply you with a blanket.

Facilities: Indian beds tend to be rather hard (no box springs here), so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the beds at the Shanti Guest House were actually rather comfortable. It was odd to note, however, that the “double bed” was actually two twin beds pushed together (Fifties nostalgia? Low budget? Your guess is as good as mine).

Moving on to the more important matters: what the Shanti lacks in, well, most areas, it makes up for with its shower. Unlike their Western counterparts, Indian showers lack walls: the shower is simply a wall-mounted faucet in the middle of the bathroom, making the entire bathroom into a shower.

Overall: C+. If you’re determined to have a romantic weekend in Varanasi (and you very well might be: it’s a beautiful place and a relaxing getaway), the Shanti is a pretty good bet. It’s clean, the rooftop restaurant has a wonderful view, and it’s just a few steps from the river (and there is something to be said for the romantic potential of roughing it with someone).

However, if you’re hoping for a pampered weekend away, you’ll probably want to steer clear of the Shanti: it lacks the amenities usually associated with hotels, and requires a lot of effort on your part. And really, isn’t the whole of getting it on at a hotel having someone else take care of all the details?

That, and the hippies can really get to you after a while.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Places to Make Out: Lodhi Gardens, New Delhi

filed under: Jet Sex by Lux Nightmare | 5 Comments

From 2/18 to 2/25, Lux traveled through India, hitting up Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi. This week she reports back on her experiences.

Should you find yourself feeling amorous in New Delhi, you might want to head over to Lodhi Gardens. This beautiful park, dotted with tombs dating back to the 16th century, is a favorite spot for local lovebirds. According to my Delhi sources, late afternoon on the weekends is prime time for Lodhi Garden make outs: as the happy families pack up their picnic baskets and head home, couples start to make themselves more comfortable, hiding under their blankets, heading for the bushes, and getting down to some good old fashioned public loving.

These amorous outings aren’t just driven by exhibitionism: for many couples, they’re born out of simple necessity. Since most young Indians live with their parents, heading home for a quicky isn’t really an option; and a motel — even a sleazy motel — is a bit of a stretch for an Indian budget. Enter Lodhi Gardens: scenic, romantic, and with plenty of bushes and hideaways for discreet (or not so discreet) afternoon love.

Public sex is often associated with cruising — but the vibe at Lodhi Gardens is more about connecting with an established partner than finding a new one. Lodhi Gardens doesn’t act as host for a casual pickup scene, it provides a semi-private retreat for lovers who lack access to a private space of their own. When private space is at a premium, public space often steps in to make up the difference: as a result, Lodhi Gardens has become the Make Out Point of New Delhi.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Sexerati Interviews: Rachel Kramer Bussel

filed under: Erotic Elite, Sexerati Interviews by Lux Nightmare | Leave a Comment

Rachel Kramer Bussel may just be one of the hardest working women I know. In addition to a full time job as an editor at Penthouse, she somehow manages to find time to write stories, edit anthologies, host a reading series, and blog about sex and cupcakes. I had the good fortune to find Rachel during one of her rare free minutes, and get her opinions on writing, sex writing, and how blogs (and the Internet) are changing our culture.

Back when I met you, you’d just left law school. How’d you go from being an aspiring lawyer to a sex writer?
Well, it certainly wasn’t a planned career change. At the end of law school, I realized I just couldn’t hack it and didn’t want to be a lawyer. In a move I now regret, I never got my degree and wound up “taking a year off” which became a permanent break, and started temping. I temped/did administrative work for five years and over that time just began writing everything I could, including erotica. Then, through luck and good timing, Penthouse Variations had an opening for a Senior Editor job, and they called me, and I started there in March 2004, then later that year the Village Voice asked me to become a columnist. Most of my work has come about kind of like that⎯someone asking me to do something, versus me pursuing projects, though I’m starting to do more of the latter. I also spent a lot of time writing for free or very little pay for various sites and publications like Lesbianation.com and then did a column for the New York Blade. I was always working on something, whether essays or book reviews or pitches and through making contacts, people started to get to know my work. And before I knew it was a “sex writer,” though I much prefer “writer.”

Where did you get your start in sex writing? Did you have any big breaks?
I would say I really just worked gradually up to where I am now. I never envisioned getting to do all of this stuff for a living, especially when I had some really awful day jobs. I’ve also always pursued projects I was naturally enthusiastic about, and people have asked me to work on things, like editing Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2 for Pretty Things Press, because they knew I already had an interest in the topic. Things developed slowly but surely, one book here, one book there, various articles, and now I’ve got a balance of projects I’ve pitched (like She’s on Top and He’s on Top, and the sequels, Yes, Ma’am and Yes, Sir, which are coming out next February) and ones people have approached me about.

Sometimes I feel like it’s all been big breaks, even though I’ve worked really hard. I do think there’s some level where you can’t predict or plan for the work that’ll come your way, you just have to put yourself out there and work on things you believe in and go after what you want. That’s advice I don’t always take but that seems to have panned out for me. The hardest thing right now is figuring out “what I want to do next” because sometimes I want to do everything all at once, so I have to pace myself and slow down a bit and work on one (or, okay, three) thing at a time.

Read more

Monday, February 26, 2007

Unsolved Sex Science Mysteries: The Orgasm, Revealed!

filed under: Do It for Science by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

From a review by Tim Spector of The Science of Orgasm, via Mind Hacks:

Orgasms apparently alter pain perception and increase pain thresholds, and this link may explain bizarre reports of women having orgasms during childbirth.

Bizarre, you say? I don’t think this is science hitting on (right there, yes!) the clitoral truth, so much as totally not dealing with the concept that mothers can come. I can’t claim that my studies are peer reviewed, but I have heard around that contractions of the vaginal wall go with both territories.

(Ideally, orgasms also accompany contraception. Even more ideally: two orgasms or more.)

However, just when I was ready for the truth — a clear definition of orgasm and where it arises in the brain — I was told it was not a reflex, only a perception of neural activity and, even worse, probably a form of diffuse consciousness in an as yet undiscovered fifth dimension.

Though this might just be a pretty metaphor, or worse, a veil thrown over this gap in the science of sex, either way, the hint of female orgams perhaps not even existing if they can’t be quantified is not unfamiliar. Reminds me of the few lovers I’ve had who thought it was true measure of their abilities to count “how many times” to the exclusion of all other mutual feedback — and it’s not like I go to the bedroom with a clipboard and a lab coat.

At least, not unless we’ve negotiated that first.