I am lying in a deep tub near a large arched window with no glass, overlooking a winding river in central Bali. The room is lined by mismatched tile and is hardly antiseptically clean.
But then I forget the less-than-perfect details and sink deeper into the water, covered with a layer of freshly plucked frangipani, bougainvillea and African tulip blossoms. A few years back, I started visiting salons, spas and baths when I go on trips because travel is hard work that deserves to be rewarded with a little pampering. Then, when I visit spas in the U. Ayurvedic medicine is an ancient Indian science that, among other things, uses herb-scented oil massage for detoxification, strengthening the immune system and curing ills from sinusitis to postpartum depression.
The two women who massaged me in unison, for two hours, must have used about a liter of oil, while another attendant kept a flask poised above, leaking more of the stuff on my forehead and hair.
I was ready to be sauteed when I finished. Malo while on a four-day hike along the coast of Brittany. Coated in green slime made from algae that grow in bays nearby, I lay en papillote, swaddled in plastic and an electric blanket. Afterward, the attendant hosed me down in the shower, as if readying me for a jail term. In the early s, before anyone here had heard of reflexology or would dare touch sashimi, she made an exploratory trip to Japan, staying in 21 inns in 25 nights and getting 21 different shiatsu deep tissue massages.
Not only did she incorporate shiatsu into the treatment menus at her spas, but she designed the Golden Door to recall a traditional Japanese inn. When I travel I favor hydrotherapies, or to put it plainly, baths. But I doubt that my favorite bathing experiences could ever be replicated. Following a float trip on the Salmon River above Stanley, Idaho, one summer afternoon, I pulled off the highway and went down to the riverbank, where a thermal spring bubbled up.
