Most Expensive Spa in the World Opening Soon! Six Senses Spa to Introduce its Destination Spa and 7th Sense Spa Experience
by Susie Ellis

Had a sneak peek at the soon-to-be-launched new Six Senses Destination Spa here in Thailand. It was a 30 minute boat ride from the Six Senses Hideaway Yao Noi where I am currently staying. During a tour of the property which is nearing completion (although it looks to me will need more time than they think to be ready for opening), I kept saying, "wow," "wow," "wow" with every corner I turned.

The opening of this Destination Spa is going to be big news, - both inside the spa industry and outside of the spa industry. My guess is that these will be the big media stories:

1. You can eat the landscaping around your villa and pretty much eat everything else growing on the property.

2. This isn't one spa - it is literally four spas in one: an Indian spa, an Indonesian Spa, a Chinese Spa, and a Thai Spa. And I don't mean "area" but "spa"! There is also a salon called the hair spa as well as color therapy spaces, colonics, Watsu area, Pilates, kenisis, a feng shui'd gym (finally!), and a host of other offerings too numerous for me to remember. It would be easier to try and list what they don't offer.

3. Although not a medical spa per se, there will be master practitioners and medical doctors and an emphasis on both Eastern and Western wellness options - no aesthetic medicine.

4. It will no doubt be lauded for its ecologically embedded practices.

5. The food will likely get rave reviews because of the garden-fresh ingredients, their raw food restaurant option, and the status of their spa-celebrity chefs.

6. The 7th Sense will be introduced which will trump the Sixth.

7. It will be the most expensive spa in the world.

There are very few true destination spas left. In Asia there are just a handful - Chiva Som in Thailand (the most well known), Como Shambala in Bali (very small but exquisite), and the Farm at San Benito in the Philippines (unfortunately, a well kept secret).

North America has Canyon Ranch, Miraval, Rancho La Puerta, Golden Door, Greenhouse, Cal a Vie, and about 10 others. All destination spas are gems in my opinion. Very expensive to create and operate yet offer the greatest chance to pursue wellness and transformation. Bottom line for me is that I always feel my best (and am told I look my best) after a stay at a destination spa.

In fact that reminds me of how I recently heard someone describe the difference between a resort spa and a destination spa: When you return home from a resort spa you tell others how great it looked. When you return home from a destination spa others tell you how great you look!

Stay tuned....and fasten your seat belts.

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Sallie and I are at Chiva-Som to conduct the first Spa Specialist Training Course for Virtuoso travel agents. We are joined by six top-notch travel agents for the few days we are here. (We decided to teach our first course at a spa, since there is no better way to learn about spas than being at one – and in this case, one of the best in the world!) Every day was filled with spa experiences as well as a few hours of training guided by the extensive course we developed in the past six months. If I do say so myself, it was a grand success.

Chiva-Som staff planned some unique experiences for us, as I felt there was no sense in coming all the way to Thailand for a Swedish massage. Our little group was scheduled for one of their most distinctive Thai offerings, Meridian Tapping. Editor-in Chief Gary Walther had written about this in the Jan/Feb issue of Luxury SpaFinder Magazine, although admittedly I didn’t “get it” from reading about it. After experiencing it, I realize how hard it is to describe to someone else.

The basics: Decide on an area of discomfort in your life (physical or mental). You are asked to think about this area of personal challenge while a therapist taps your meridian points. This is supposed to repattern your body, resulting in an actual noticeable change.

We were given an example of how Meridian Tapping has been used with some miraculous results: A woman who for many years had a water phobia where the sight of water brought on extreme anxiety. After going from doctor to doctor for years, she ended up being relieved of the phobia after a ten-minute meridian tapping session. OK, that got my attention.

Our group’s collection of “issues” included a sore knee, a bad back, insomnia, fear of public speaking, jet lag, e-mail addiction, and a few other maladies I can no longer remember. Tap, tap, tap! Each of us had a two-minute session, and then we learned to do “self-tapping” for follow-up. Hard to gauge the results at the moment, but I want to be open-minded.

Should my list of 700+ emails that I need to answer suddenly be of no concern to me, I’ll make sure to keep tap dancing.

Traveling in Asia with our COO, Sallie Fraenkel, has been a delight. We share many interests, but adventuresome eating is not one of them. Sallie will try every fish ball and oddly named indigenous delicacy with great enthusiasm, while I stick to basics when traveling (spaghetti and Caesar salads all through Asia is fine with me). But when it comes to spa experiences we are both very adventurous. So when Joy Menzies, the managing director of Chiva-Som, suggests that we each have a session with their new Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor, Ken Rosen, we are “in”. When it comes to spa treatments I am always game. Bring on the TCM; sure, I’ll try Meridian Tapping, iridology, colonics, stomach massage, acupuncture in my ears – whatever. And there is no better place than Chiva-Som to sample something unique from all over the world.

Ken (pictured at right) has a 90-minute TCM session with me where he diagnoses weaknesses through taking my pulse (it is “wirey” but otherwise strong) and then looks at the color of my tongue, etc. The last part of the session consists of an acupuncture treatment in which he endeavors to strengthen my immune system and to help me relax. Not sure about specific results, but I do feel like it is a great thing to be able to go to a spa and try a large variety of health-enhancing modalities. Chiva-Som must have one of the most extensive spa and holistic therapy menus in the world. I would probably have to be here a month to try them all. Guess it’s a good reason to come back.

The plane from New York directly to Singapore is 18 1/2 hours long, a record for me. Actually, I didn’t know that planes could fly that far without stopping to refuel. Then another two-hour flight from Singapore to Bangkok and another one-hour flight from Bangkok to Hua Hin. I must say I was quite pleased when my colleague Sallie, COO of Spa Finder, Inc., and I arrived at Chiva-Som. It was a return trip for me to this award-winning destination spa in Thailand and a first for Sallie. Chiva-Som means “haven of life,” which was just what we needed after the lengthy trip to get there. I couldn't think of a better place to collapse.

Sticking with my personal policy of having a spa treatment as soon as possible after a plane trip, I booked a Thai massage, which was performed one hour later. This was followed by a visit to my favorite relaxation room in the world. I remembered it well from my last visit. It is a dark room with just a few flickering candles and two very large waterbeds separated by hanging white gauzy silk-like material. The beds are slightly heated and covered with comfy towels and sheets. Someone I couldn’t see was snoozing away on the bed in the back, so I surrendered my body to the bed in the front--and promptly conked out. Woke up an hour or so later when the therapist came in to retrieve the other person in the room. To my surprise, it turned out to be Sallie, who had apparently also found this cocoon the perfect place to sleep off some jet lag. We had a good laugh later.