Rubbing shoulders with the locals - Spa & Resorts - Activities & Interests
Welcome to The Sydney Forenoon Herald. Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content. Text Version. Rainbow Arokaya Holistic Health Resort. Related coverage Destination Fact sheets Thailand Topic Spa & Resorts January 13, 2008 Lee Atkinson uncovers some of the finest manipulation care of Thailand has to offer.
I'm apartment lodgings on my back in a hospital precinct with my knees pressed up against my forehead. Overhead, underneath the glare of a strip of hospital-grade neon lights, a row of ceiling enthusiast lazily stirs the air.
Beside me, eight other patients are and flat on their invests in with their legs and arms being pushed and pulled into improbable positions, and their backs and shoulders prodded with elbows, hands, knees and all the more feet.
Chaophraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital, not far from the Thai-Cambodian border, specialises in orthopaedic surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, pediatrics, ophthalmology, ear-nose-throat medicine, dermatology, dentistry and diagnostic radiology. But that's not why we're here.
We've unreal the two-hour road trip from Bangkok because it's also lone of Thailand's most important centres representing traditional herbal medicine and Thai massage.
This is where the locals go when they need a fix - with local prices to match. My three friends and I are the only Westerners in sight and the rather large, white, shaggy gam of the male in our group is causing yet giggling and mirth among the staff.
Built in 1909 as a reception area for King Rama V, the two-storey hospital is, on the outside, a baroque colonial confection of yellow and lime green, with lots of decorative white spread work and surrounded alongside luxurious gardens including, pretty inexplicably, a rather grand avenue of sculpted actual roosters.
On the contrary inside, it's all business and you can forget five-star, hotel-like facilities, fancy body wraps and delicate perfumed massages.
The doctors and psychologist are here to produce you feel better, not pampered, and the hour-long rub is nothing if not robust.
Off and on it feels good, sometimes I have to do all I can not to yelp out in pain, but near the bit it's over, my body feels like it's been recast and repoured into my skin and all my travel-induced aches and pains have disappeared, although I can't help but wonder if I will be a mess of bruises in the morning.
We'd spent the preceding night at the nearby Rainbow Arokaya Holistic Health Paradise, a beautifully appointed riverside health farm that provisions almost exclusively to cashed-up Thais wanting a unusual days of detox and luxury.
Yet again, we were the only Westerners in place as we tossed up whether we should go the Volcanic Mineral Stone Sand Spa, which involved continuance buried up to the neck in hot sand and promised state-of-the-art nanotechnology infrared detoxification, or the Dome Sauna and Medical Hydrology Mineral Bath.
In the end, though, all that nanotechnology seemed a little daunting and, deciding that walking around muggy Bangkok all generation had been like to stewing in a sauna, I opted instead championing a couple of hours by the pool, a stroll through the graceful orchid-strewn gardens and a sunset river cruise, trusting that a night spent in my characteristic "far-infrared" and minus-ion detoxifying bedroom would work its magic.
For the record, my traveling companions thought the Dome Sauna was dishy terrific.) Back in Bangkok, we decided to access on one last massage at the S Medical Spa.
From http://smh.com.au/news/spa--resorts/rubbing-shoulders-with-t~.html