I am not alone in this. Britain’s Tatler magazine, an early champion
of the Oriental spa, decided last year that Kaya Kalp at the Mughal in
Agra was the world’s best day spa. For me, the best part is that it is
only a three-and-a-half hour drive from Delhi and thus easily
accessible. Moreover, despite being far larger and more expensively
fitted than the Oriental spa, it is also a lot cheaper.
My experience at Kaya Kalp made me wonder: are Indians making a
mistake by going abroad for the spa experience? Could we get it at our
doorstep?
Till now, the evidence has been mixed.
The Oberoi chain has excellent
spas but they are hardly Indian. They are run for the Oberois by Banyan
Tree, a Far Eastern resort group. The Taj has invested time and money
in its Jiva spas but even though they have improved a lot over the last
year or so, I am not a big fan.
On the other hand, individual properties have managed to run
excellent spas. The only good thing about the Park Hyatt in Goa is the
spa. The Four Seasons in Bombay has a brilliant spa where, despite Four
Seasons’ international provenance, many of the best therapists are
Indian.
Spa managers will tell you that it is difficult to get Indians to
understand the concept of a spa. The original spas were European
operations run by over-muscled female nurses who pummelled your body.
But the concept only took off after east Asian hotels began running spas
that integrated Asian therapies and an Asian ambience with the original
European idea. It is no accident that Thailand is often regarded as the
spa capital of the world. The Thais have a long tradition of massage
and it is even taught at the Buddhist shrine of Wat Po in Bangkok.
Though Thai massage now has slightly dodgy connotations, its origins are
entirely pure. Thais will tell you that the best masseur is often an
old blind man who moves across your body guided only by the energy
fields.
The contribution of the Oriental hotel and other upmarket Thai
properties (the first Banyan Tree spa was in Phuket) has been to
sophisticate and finesse traditional massage so that it seems like a
combination of therapy and sheer pampering. Spa managers often argue
that India does not have the same tradition as much of east Asia. In
India, massage is done by pehelwans and maalishwalas who slap your
thighs with gusto. Alternatively, you have the very worthy Kerala
tradition where massage is used to cure a variety of ailments.
I’m sure
that Kerala massage works but it certainly has nothing to do with
pampering: you lie on a wooden bed while a swarthy Malayali gentleman
roughly slaps very smelly oil into your body.
Plus there is the gender problem. Until recently, it was difficult to
get anything other than a same sex therapist in India. Spa experts
claim that men do not relax in quite the same way with male masseurs as
they do with the gentler touch of female therapists. This may or may not
be true (by the way, I actually think that it makes sense) but
experience shows that the best spas all over the world are those with
female therapists.To know more visit our site http://allindiayellowpage.com.