Confessions of a massage addict
When asked who wanted to road test three luxury spas in Thailand, I could think of only one response.
Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!
That’s how I came to be staring down at a bowl of floating blossoms through a hole in a massage table at The Sarojin resort’s luxury spa in the emerging Thai tourist district of Khao Lak.
With its ethnic diversity and rich cultural history, Khao Lak’s primary forests and pristine coastline is a drawcard for backpackers, adventure and eco tourists, scuba enthusiasts - and upmarket tourists.
At my resort, I’ve started the day with a champagne breakfast, a boat trip through a swamp full of snakes, a jungle cooking lesson and an elephant trek.
Now a masseuse is ironing out the travel and elephant kinks with a “royal oriental”.
This combination of passive Thai yoga - she twists me to stretch muscles I didn’t know were there - and soothing strokes is amazingly good.
Some journalists get this kind of treatment all the time as I have just discovered, with more than a little envy.
“Another hard day at the office,” one of the regular travel writers had quipped as we floated in the Andaman Sea before breakfast.
Back on the job, I discover there isn’t anything here that isn’t delicious - from food to fabric and furnishings - in this honeymooner’s paradise where we are handed sparkling wine and lemongrass-scented towels at every turn.
As you might’ve guessed, this is no chain hotel but the brainchild of British couple Kate and Andrew Kemp - keen travellers who conceived the notion of their ideal resort over champagne at an airport in Africa.
It almost didn’t work. The hotel was inundated in the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004 just days before it was due to open.
Many of the staff, all fortunate enough to be off work that day, have stayed on through the rebuilding process along the sweeping private beach, an hour’s drive north of Phuket.
Three years on, their focus on the individual and the intimate has won them their third prize for Asia’s Leading Boutique Hotel and second nomination for most romantic luxury hotel.
Helping the romance along has been The Sarojin’s own “imagineer”, the gorgeous Jowell Philemond-Montout, a former Moulin Rouge dancer who helps people plan their perfect holiday.
Fancy an intimate dinner in a secluded bay? No problem. Jowell and the crew will arrange everything.
The resort boasts a luxury boat and staff for hire, and arranges tours of the local area, from sea kayaking to elephant trekking.
Source : Reservasion Morethailand.com site own by A2Z Professional Travel Co.,Ltd
Add comment July 31st, 2008
Krabi
