Home
- SEARCH OUR SITE - ABOUT US - ADVERTISING - SUBSCRIPTION - CONTACT US - BUSINESS INDEX - PHOTO LIBRARY - OTHER MAGAZINES -
- VOL. 12.9
Tatonka’s Globetrotter Cuisine
Never mind the sea view, this experience ranked close to the bottom of a wide range of options on Phuket. Towards the opposite end of the scale, on the other hand, lies the 25-times-more-expensive Banyan Tree Spa.
This is about as sybaritic as it gets. Right from the outset, customers are subjected to a concerted seduction of all the senses. A tangy scent of lemongrass hits you as a charming team of receptionists help select a treatment package. This is followed with hot ginger tea by the pool, an invigorating taste sensation that alerts all the other senses to what else is in store. First there's the view, the inviting waters and dreamlike prospect beyond - an immaculate lawn framed in coconut palms and giant elephant-ear plants sloping off between rows of frangipani trees towards the Banyan Tree golf course. Singles or couples are led from there to the lounge area of their private pavilion - a re-creation of the traditional royal Thai sala - where attendants bathe their feet in basins of warm water scented with fresh flower blossoms. The surrounding private garden and lotus pond present soul-soothing greens with vivid floral accents. Black-and-gilt wooden pillars rise from lustrous black marble floors cool underfoot. Sea breezes are augmented by overhead fans, while incense and essential oils rise from burners to add further magic to the weave of soft music, birdsong, rush of wind in palms, bubble of fountain, warm glow of polished teak … treats for eye, ear, nose, palate and touch. Sun-dappled sandstone walls dance with Hindu deities carved in bas relief, evoking a spirit of playful delight. At night, the whole of it instead shimmers in candlelight.
All this - as well as a number of other, similarly opulent suites and air-conditioned treatment rooms - merely provides the setting for a variety of spa treatment packages for couples or singles. "Romance", for example, begins with 20 minutes of herbal steam in an intimate, sky-lighted room. A cooling shower awaits just outside the one-way glass door that affords both complete privacy and a refreshing garden view. Next comes a cleansing and aromatic 40-minute loofah scrub, followed by a soothing 60-minute Lomi Lomi oil massage.
The treatment tables are draped in silk brocades and feature holes for the face, providing additional comfort while you lie prone, as well as a window on a china bowl of water with two gorgeous red blossoms floating amid fragrant white jasmine buds. The knowledge that your companion shares a similar view transforms the private meditative focus into the trigger for a sudden and subtle union. You slip together into a sensuous trance, discovering joys for the senses on deeper levels still. Crisp chimes struck from a silver bell finally signal the end of the treatment, precipitating your re-emergence into the world as newly relaxed, more youthful individuals and as a couple with more on the agenda. (The Banyan Tree, should you decide to stay a day or two, has upped the romantic-sensuous voltage to near-Olympian levels with their new Spa Pool Villas, promoted as a heaven made for two that "sets the stage for intimate bonding", which is one way of putting it.)
And the masseuses at the Banyan Tree in no way resemble a Chubb safe. In fact, aesthetically they are a good deal more appealing that a Chubb safe, besides which they have good hands. Wise and surprisingly strong hands.
"Some people are born with a healing touch," says Dorinda, a spa consultant who was instrumental in designing the Banyan Tree and Angsana operations and who now, with her husband K. Nikorn, runs Roseberry Co. Ltd., producing a range of distinctively Thai spa products. For Dorinda or Nikorn, who among other things has managed both the Banyan Tree Spa and the Nakalay Spa, Thavorn Beach Village, selecting staff on the basis of formal credentials isn't as important as recognizing that special touch. "You have to have a treatment yourself," says Dorinda. "That's the only way of telling." Tom Mockler, the man behind the Hideaway spas, has been in business longer than most and, he says, they employ only 4 or 5 out of every 100 women who apply every year. "The others just don't have the 'hands'. We call them bricklayers."
Thai spas The original Hideaway, in Patong - one of the oldest spas on the island and still among the favourites - concentrates on the basic traditional Thai massage and herbal sauna. All three Hideaway spas believe in keeping to the essential core of things, while maintaining the highest standards. Thai massage combines stretching with acupressure. It effectively stimulates the circulation, eases muscle tension, performs essentially chiropractic services for the joints, and, in some way, tunes the "energy body". Traditional Thai herbal steam or sauna treatments, meanwhile, provide a cleansing and relaxing experience that supposedly can have all sorts of other therapeutic effects, depending on which herb mixtures are used, with beneficial consequences for the skin, lungs, circulation, and more. "Basically, however," Mockler believes, "we're all in the business of repackaging massages." Maybe so. But there are packages and there are packages.
Asian/international spas The Hideaway arguably started the local boom when it decided, early in the game, to add oils to the basic Thai massage. According to Mockler, European customers wouldn't accept it otherwise. In any case, it didn't take long for other establishments to grab the ball and run with it.
The Banyan Tree Spa was the first on Phuket to introduce what is more properly speaking the "Asian" or "international" spa, and it's fair to say that, in terms of luxury and sensory self-indulgence, others of this type all more-or-less successfully approach the Banyan Tree model. These days you typically get body massage techniques, in pure or combination forms, from Thailand, Indonesia, Hawaii, Japan, and Sweden. Choose from herbal saunas, steam rooms, Jacuzzis, floral tubs, and other hydrological elements; foot and face massages; beauty treatments for hair, skin and nails; exfoliating body scrubs and polishes involving salts, oils, herbs, fruits and more; and body wraps with muds, herbs, seaweed, milk, honey and so on followed by rubdowns with oils, yogurt, and other supposedly healthful or sensual substances.
Add the lush tropical settings and the often opulent spa facilities, and you've got the ultimate romantic escape. All of the spas listed here qualify, in these terms, but some may be singled out for location and design. Like the Jasmina Spa, Six Senses Spa, Centara Spa, and Layan Spa Village, the Royal Spa affords a splendid view of the sea. This small but super-elegant facility offers one outdoor and three indoor suites. The outdoor suite includes a sizeable tree festooned with orchids and a Jacuzzi surrounded by a brightly tiled moat filled with lotuses. Even the indoor suites have massage pavilions both inside and outside, with al fresco lotus ponds. Inside, there are private steam rooms as well as Jacuzzis and deep floral tubs with views of the bay. The beautifully polished teaks and silks and stone are of the highest quality, as is the workmanship, while the design is superbly restrained. The Jasmina, a charming and also rather luxurious establishment, enjoys a privileged site on a jungly hillside overlooking the sea at the secluded end of the Amari Coral Beach Resort, which itself lies at the quiet, southern end of Patong Beach. Each of the four private areas has its own tiled and thatched Thai massage pavilion built of wood and bamboo, a sunken body treatment area off to one side and a little garden off the other, and a lounge area for two at the front. One of the suites has a hot Jacuzzi and steam room for two. Other garden terrace areas offer facials and oil massages. The Centara has a similar sort of location, but is less extravagant and lacks private facilities for couples. The Six Senses Spa at The Evason Phuket Resort is distinctive, aside from its superb view of Chalong Bay, for having brought in a staff of qualified therapeutic consultants from around the world. Thus Swedish massages are conducted by Swedish experts, Ayurvedic treatments are administered only by highly trained Indian practitioners, and so on.
The Angsana Spas, part of the Laguna Phuket integrated resort hotel complex, were inspired by the original Banyan Tree Spa. They provide a similar quality of therapy but less extensive menus, less luxurious surrounds, and less cost. Nevertheless, they do provide exceptionally pleasant environments, with open, airy Thai/Japanese-style pavilions and rooms. By December 2001, the Angsana at the Dusit Laguna was to be joined by others at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket (eight treatment rooms facing the lagoon and another two with garden and lotus pond views) and at the Allamanda, Laguna Phuket. Nutmegs, the adjoining spa restaurant at the Sheraton, has an especially privileged location on the lagoon. The Hideaway Day Spa, meanwhile, is presenting competition for the Angsana Spas. Lying just at the entrance to Laguna Road, Bang Tao, this branch of the Hideaway offers a selection of "wholly Thai" half-day treatments, including sauna, herbal scrubs and wraps, and massage.
The sumptuous yet elegantly designed Nakalay Spa doesn't have a sea or lagoon view, but as visitors approach the spa area, they are presented with ponds, a pool, a great grove of frangipani trees and extensive garden, while the resort itself incorporates very appealing and exotic Thai architecture. You truly have the sense of being away. Similarly, but on a less lavish, and less expensive, scale, the Santi Spa offers an open and airy garden environment, with elegant design throughout, including the steam and sauna rooms, hot and cold Jacuzzis, both open-air and air-conditioned massage and body treatment rooms, and a beauty salon. The Mandara Spa, at the Pearl Village Hotel, caters for individuals and couples in a secluded and scenic area by the sea, and, as of December 2001, a larger Mandara was due to open at the J. W. Marriott on Maikao Beach.
Operations such as Island Herb and Spa, the Andaman Garden Spa, and Spa Varee, cater more for package tourists, many of them Asian, and offer their own distinctive personalities. Island Herb and Spa is set in a cheery eight-rai park, with one rai planted with herbs, and the whole is the more interesting for the little wooden bridges and canals and fountains and lotus ponds, splashes of bougainvillea and orchids, and the banana, durian and jackfruit trees. Besides the massage and treatment pavilions, there are airy big salas by the canal for simply sitting and relaxing and a large outdoor Jacuzzi under a shelter. The 15-person herbal sauna, and the foot and face massage facilities have a bit of an assembly-line flavour. The men's and women's facilities are generally kept separate, although couples can request a degree of privacy.
Those are some of the basic choices. You have "Thai spas" ranging from beach-blanket operations to the Hideaway, and "Asian spas" ranging in opulence, and cost, all the way up to the Banyan Tree. There are spas that provide ideal romantic escapes for couples, and those that specialize in tour groups. What else is there?
Healing and holistic wellness spas Phuket spas have yet to climb on the "cleansing and fasting" bandwagon, so popular on Koh Samui. In terms of healing, some go as far as sunburn recovery body wraps or remedial massages, a great prescription for aching muscles unaccustomed to beach volleyball or windsurfing. More and more local spas are also offering yoga and meditation, cultivating a more comprehensive wellness - something beyond mere relaxation and sensual self-indulgence. Still other operations are combining fitness centres and spas for what the Spa Cliniques at Le Meridien, Relax Bay, and at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, for instance, describe as "holistic whole-body health".
The Spa Cliniques haven't forgotten the relaxation and feast-for-the-senses side of things. The "couples rooms" provide simple luxury and lavish pampering for lovers and suchlike. But the focus remains on a combination of physical, mental and spiritual wellness. Unlike most hotel spas, and unlike virtually any non-hotel operations, the Spa Clinique has, under the same management, a large and very well-equipped fitness centre, including tennis and squash facilities. There's also beach volleyball, basketball, archery, a climbing wall (to come, as of this writing), and more. Meanwhile, they plan to expand their spa therapies. An American consultant, a world-class trainer whose clients have included Sylvester Stallone, Jodie Foster and Nicholas Cage, is to help set up some longer-term packages.
Soon, they'll provide detoxification, weight-loss and health rehabilitation. Already, in the winter season, guests can enjoy the services of a Chinese acupuncturist.
Long-stay spas The Thavorn Beach Village, together with the Nakalay Spa, meanwhile, is considering long-stay bungalows for 50-60 guests, including spa facilities and complementary activities such as tai chi and yoga.
There is a move afoot to promote the whole of Thailand as a long-stay destination for people - notably the huge number of post-WW II "baby-boomers" now entering their senior years - who want low-cost, high-quality medical care plus the traditional Thai massage, herbal therapy and beauty treatment skills. What with the evolution of its spa industry, its first-rate local medical facilities, its wide range of available accommodation, and the local surge in residential real-estate development for foreigners, Phuket should appeal to a large portion of that market.
Over the past few years, Koh Samui, on the other side of the peninsula, has become known as a "spa destination". The same cannot be said for Phuket. Spas are proliferating here just as fast, and some of the higher-end establishments are as luxuriously decadent as it gets. But Phuket is a bigger island, with a more complex character. Spas and wellness are certainly part of Phuket's appeal, but there's much, much more to the destination. Phuket offers world-class dining, golfing, and convention and incentives facilities. It's the base for some of the finest sailing, diving and gamefishing anywhere. It has a significant stand of virgin rain forest, and the neighbouring mainland has much more.
Phuket is a spa destination for those who want to enjoy relaxation, beauty and rejuvenation treatments in splendidly exotic tropical settings. At the same time, it's many other things to many other people.