Bangkok Spa Review, Leyana Spa Bangkok

Tucked away quietly from the hectic pace of Thong Lor Road, Leyana Spa is a loft-like two-storey house set in a lush tropical garden. The entrance is stylishly decorated with stones sitting in a small pond leading to the front door. Once inside, I was welcomed by a charming receptionist who told me to slip into a pair of slippers.

Leyana offers a wide range of treatments all designed to help relax, revitalise as well as energise a tense and fatigued body. The treatments are categorised into six different varieties: massage menu, facial treatments, body scrub, body wrap, half-day and full-day spa package. After careful consideration, I opted for 'Rejuvenation', one of Leyana's most popular half-day spa packages.

Lasting about two hours and 20 minutes, it comprises of footbath, shower, Thai herbal steam, a choice of body scrub, and a choice of massage. Once the choice of treatment was decided, it was time to choose the scrub and massage oil to go with it. Freshly-prepared scrub comes in six different kinds: lemon, Thai tamarind, honey and oatmeal, sesame and honey, tropical fruit, jasmine rice, and coconut. Each concoction works differently, depending on skin type.

If you want to moisturise, soothe and polish your skin, try honey and oatmeal or lemon. While sesame nourishes and detoxifies tired skin, tamarind cleanses and makes skin appear brighter. For those with sensitive or sunburned skin, the coconut scrub is highly recommended. Having heard so much about the healing properties of tamarind, I opted for a tamarind recipe. As for the massage, I picked 'Leyana Massage', and the exclusively blended essential oil called 'Uplift' to complement it.

While the facilities and the 'food' for my skin were being prepared, the rejuvenating session began with a gentle footbath in rose petal-sprinkled water - a brief, yet soothing little indulgence that prepared me for better things to come...

Some like it hot... and herbal
After a footbath and a quick shower, my therapist led me into Leyana's Thai-style steam room, which consists of two small cylindrical tent-like coverings. Most of the facilities here are designed to accommodate a couple, so if you come with your other half or a friend, Leyana is the perfect place for double indulgence.

As soon as I stepped inside my little 'tepee', I was greeted by the aroma of a mixed variety of exotic Thai herbs. In order to obtain the maximum benefits from these herbs, I was told to inhale deeply and slowly. It is believed that a boiled mixture of fresh and dried essential herbs (lemongrass, khamin, prai, bergamot lime and camphor leaves, among others) has medicinal properties to treat skin ailments, muscle stress, and respiratory problems.

I also learned from my therapist that an added benefit of the herbal steam is to prepare the body for a scrub or massage. The steam enters the lungs, allowing the therapeutic herbs to effectively be absorbed into the body. The herbal oil applied will be absorbed more readily. Also, warm and relaxed post-herbal steam muscles can be more easily stretched.

In good hand

Lying face-down on the massage bed, the smell of fresh tamarind still lingered in the air. The masseuse applied tamarind paste onto my body, starting from the back, shoulders, arms and legs, then to the front. Half an hour of scrubbing flew by and my body was covered entirely in tamarind and oat meal.

I was told to go rinse myself off before the massage - the highlight of the day I shall say. My choice was 'Leyana massage', Leyana's signature soft to medium massage - perfect for those new to massage therapy and those who want to have a good dozing. I felt the aromatic lemongrass oil being kneaded into my back. The last thing I heard was her saying how I had 'knotted' back muscles. I must have fallen asleep through most of the session.

And to top it all off...

With clothes back on my oil-nourished body, I was invited to stay for the 'Leyana Brunch'. But wait, if I remembered correctly, I didn't order any food - there must have been some misunderstanding... As it turned out, the light and healthy 'Leyana Brunch', consisting of a tuna garden salad, fruit smoothie and fruit salad, was a complimentary meal for appointments made before noon (any treatment).

Leyana Spa truly embraces the spirit and tradition of holistic healing, and offers a spa menu that features a comprehensive and balanced range of exotic, revitalising 'feel-good' and 'look-good' treatments.

Leyana Spa

Open: 10:00 - 22:00 (last appointment is at 20:00)
Location: 33 Thonglor 13, Soi Torsak, Klongtonnuer, Wattana
Contact: +66 (0)2 874 4461
How to get there: Take BTS to Thong Lo station. Use exit 1 and walk to street level. Keep going straight until you see the road sign 'Sukhumvit 53'. Complimentary transfer service is available to and from Thong Lo BTS station.

by: http://www.bangkok.com

Bangkok Spa Review, Hapa Spa Bangkok

Hapa Spa Bangkok

Sukhumvit Soi 3's ultra-modern 'Hapa Spa' is one of these rare spas.
It has the exotic name: the word 'Hapa' originates from the paradise
island of Hawaii, and means of 'mixed descent'.And, it lives up to
the promise: its treatments and architecture are a hybrid, drawing
not only on Eastern and Western influences, but also other fashionable
dichotomies like past and future, organic and man-made, science and tradition.

Quirky spaces for organic indulgences
This eclecticism is apparent when passing through its funky circular glass door, into the chic oblong reception area. Cast in a cool Zen style, it is a bright, tranquil space with floor-to-ceiling windows and chic rattan furniture. At one end glass containers of roast herbal teas occupy trendy teak shelves, in the centre sits a raised tea bar, and at the other a beauty salon and foot massage area.

The six treatments rooms are also quirky. Found amidst retro sculptures and furniture, each is little more than an aluminium storage container (they wouldn't look out of place in a cargo shipping yard). However, step past their cold impersonal exteriors and they're gorgeous and private: minimal interiors decked out with cream shiny surfaces, splashes of Thai modern art and showers, deep tubs or jacuzzis.

Although Hapa Spa's setting is man-made and playful, there is one area it doesn't tweak: the ingredients used are nothing but 100% organic. Run your finger down the menu and you'll find rubdowns that use unforeseen natural substances like Arabica Coffee or organic rice, oddities like a body wrap that uses pure chocolate, or oil massages that utilise all manner of natural oils.

No synthetic additives or untested chemicals here. The duration of treatments is just as diverse, if not untested, ranging from half-hour breaks from the harassment of Sukhumvit (a face or foot massage perhaps) all the way up to exhaustive rejuvenating packages that take between two and a half to seven hours.

The Four Treatments Package

With treatments like the 'Infrared Thermal Sauna' available, that's not as exhausting an undertaking as it sounds. The infrared sauna uses radiant heat, a form of energy that heats the person but not the air in-between, to burn off calories, expel toxins and give you radiant glowing skin.

All I had to do was sit there in a small pine cabin and read, listen to piped in chamber music, meditate and reap the benefits.f I felt as if emerging from a chrysalis. Once I'd showered up afterwards my body felt translucent, as polished as a freshly shored pearl.

Hydrotherapy - exercise without effort

After doing low-tech, it was then onto something more bleeding edge: Hydrotherapy. Never before had I tried immersing myself in a deep tub filled with hot mineral enriched water, one that bubbles like a creamy volcanic pool courtesy of an aerated bathmat that sits beneath you.

Once you do though, you don't forget it: the fierce ultrasonic bubbles take over, quaking the body into a state of vigorous relaxation. So fierce are they, that each cm of skin is subjected to 15kg of pressure each second - the net result, you guessed it, more exercise without effort (15 minutes equals a 3km jog). Aside from weight loss, regular use is said to improve sex life, circulation, complexion, and, by stimulating endorphins, control pain and muscle tension.

If you're under whelmed by treatments like the old school Thai or Swedish, then I can only recommend what came after I surrendered into the able hands of awaiting masseurs. Yes that's right 'masseurs' plural - the unconventional 'Four Hands Massage' gives you two of them.

One takes the leg area, the other tackles the torso and arms. For the occasion I had the choice of four different aromatherapy oils - Flu Fighter, Geranium, Lavender, HAPA. The last (a signature mix of lavender, geranium, peppermint, lemon, cinnamon, orange and eucalyptus) was by far the most arresting. As it was applied in blends of long, sweeping Shiatsu and Swedish style strokes the air was filled with Elysian scents. My mind and body passed through a rarely used door of perception. Here there was no stress, no worries, only the serene calm of pure bodily sensation.

by: http://www.bangkok.com

Bangkok Spa Review, Ananda

Ananda Spa Bangkok, President Solitaire

Taking the one you love for a spa treatment might not spring to mind as the perfect date. However, treating them to the unspeakably delightful sensation of a hot stone massage, and experiencing it alongside them, is likely to change your mind in a flash...
Ananda Spa is a two-storey spa pitching itself as an oasis of tranquility in Bangkok's hectic Sukhumvit area. The tastefully earth-toned and deliciously-scented lobby sets the mood from the moment you arrive.

It came as no surprise to learn the name Ananda in ancient Sanskrit means 'harmony'; from the soul-soothing scent that lingers throughout to the treatments on offer, this is a place determined to restore it. What's more, while the spa experience centres on private sensations, many treatment rooms - with dedicated Jacuzzi, shower and toilet - are perfectly suited to sharing.

Hot stone massage: sacred and ancient healing at work

We opted for the 90-minute 'Hot Stone Massage'; a treatment dating back thousands of years to the ancient Greeks, and where water-heated Basalt stones (from the Philippines) are applied to the body to improve circulation and relieve stiff muscles. Although Ananda offers an array of signature treatments, specialised massages, spa body treatments, spa baths, facials, waxing and salon services - any of which can be performed for couples - something about the hot stone massage appealed to us...

Smooth, heat-retaining stones are heated to 70 - 75 degrees Celsius before being used to massage the body and rest on or underneath the body at particular points; including in between the toes. It's also said to be great for those with muscle injury or inflammation; the heat transmitted to the body helping relax muscles and aid nutrient-rich blood to flow more freely, thus aiding healing. But above all it sounded, well, rather sexy.

Double the pleasure, twice the enjoyment

We were led upstairs through warmly lit, earth-toned corridors, and into the soft arms of some Ananda treatment robes. Guided by two silent but smiling therapists to treatment tables, we were asked to lie facf the leg. She repeats the same for each limb, the fire-like sensation becoming compulsive as muscles are soothed and the body enters a deeply relaxed state.

A dialogue with volcanic stones

Therapists then slowly, ceremoniously place hot stones and pebbles under arms, palms, along the trace of the spine and cozily between each toe. Then they left us there, for five minutes - or perhaps five hours. They gave me penetrating heat, I give them thought, pondering their ancient history, their volcanic origins.

Then we turned onto our backs and a similar process repeated; oil application, stone strokes and a small stone placed on the temple to complete the Zen-like calm, before traditional Thai style massages close off the delightful ritual.

Showered up and back in the lobby, sipping on a re-hydrating herbal infusion, we were left to muse over the massage. As well as altering the body's state of being and feeling great, it also encourages a purity of mind, clearing out all the unnecessary filth that clogs perception. I can't comment on the medicinal benefits, but we also felt ready to take on Sukhumvit's seething streets again.

Note: The 90-minute Hot Stone Massage (2,500 baht per person) is one of many body and soul pampering treatments offered at Ananda Spa. Signature treatments combine aromatherapy, deep tissue massage, Thai, Shiatsu and Ayuverdic techniques alongside specialised massages, spa body treatments, spa baths, facial treatments27s seething streets again.

Note: The 90-minute Hot Stone Massage (2,500 baht per person) is one of many body and soul pampering treatments offered at Ananda Spa. Signature treatments combine aromatherapy, deep tissue massage, Thai, Shiatsu and Ayuverdic techniques alongside specialised massages, spa body treatments, spa baths, facial treatments, waxing and salon services. With several treatment rooms for two, all treatments and packages are available for either singles or couples. The 'Ananda Couple Retreat' package offers a refreshing salt scrub, Ananda massage and revitalising bath, costing 6,590 baht.

Open: Daily 09:00 - 22:00
Location: President Solitaire, Sukhumvit Soi 11 and The Capitol Club, Sukhumvit Soi 24
Contact: President Solitaire branch: +66 (0)2 255 7200 - The Capitol Club branch: +66 (0)2 661 1210
How to get there: BTS Nana station

President Solitaire, located in downtown Sukhumvit and yet away from the hustle and bustle, is one of Bangkok's finest serviced apartments, providing guests with cosy home comforts alongside the trappings and service of a top hotel.

In close proximity to Nana BTS station, its elegantly appointed suites come fully equipped with kitchenette and state-of-the-art mod cons like 42 inch plasma screen, DVD player and wireless internet. Read our review or find out about rates and booking.

by: http://www.bangkok.com