Ayurvedic spa: Dousing the inner fires on a retreat in Bali

Ayurvedic spa: Dousing the inner fires on a retreat in Bali

Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Seminyak, Bali

As I gingerly squeezed myself into my snug economy class seat on
the plane ride back from Bali, the 50-something foreign man next
to me gave me the once over.

"Big guy for a little space," he quipped.

When the seat-belt sign went off, I beat a retreat to the
empty seat behind us. He turned back and gave me a wink, no doubt
relieved that, in the event of one of the now increasingly
frequent abortive takeoffs, there was a smaller chance of me
breaking from the constraints of my seat-belt and sliding
inexorably sideways.

And I smiled back, which was a small victory for self-control.

At most other times, I probably would have let the comment
rile me, itching to cast a look in the direction of the pregnant
woman with a bad bout of burping next to him and declare, as a
statement of fact, not an inquiry, "Sorry old fart for a pretty
young thing".

This day, things were a bit different. I was coming off a
blissful three-day Ayurvedic retreat, during which I had been
pampered, pounded and prodded, had three pairs of hands drizzle
hot oil over me and drifted off to sleep snuggling in a softly
cushioned lanai as mellow-voiced pak Budi trod all over me to
iron out my lower back pain.

The tiredness of arriving on the last flight from Jakarta at
midnight had been quickly forgotten as I stepped for the first
time into the garden of my villa at the renovated and refurbished
Prana Spas & Villas. I slowly took in the sight of the small lap
pool with the yin-yang sign painted on its tiles as the lilting
sound of Balinese gamelan came from the CD player.

Although the villas and spa are positioned on Jl. Kunti,
across from a deli and leading to the main shopping and
restaurant strip of Seminyak, I found the place to be an oasis of
peace and quiet.

My retreat actually began weeks earlier, when I had filled in
a "preferences" sheet, telling of preferred exercise times, types
of physical activity and foods. This is part of Prana's approach
of having guests "write" their own program, one which meets their
needs but will not be the equivalent of enduring a spartan boot
camp.

And so I had arrived early on that Saturday morning, ready to
put my mind, body and spirit back into working order.

Most fascinating of all to me was the opportunity to
reexperience Ayurveda, the "science of life", which I had become
acquainted with during a retreat last year to Sri Lanka, along
with India one of the two major centers for the ancient holistic
treatment, at a point much closer to home.

At that time, I had learned of Ayurveda's three life forces or
humors -- vata (air, corresponding to wind in the body), pitta
(fire or bile) and kapha (water or phlegm) -- which are
responsible for the functioning of the human body.

When the dosha are out of whack, due to aggravating factors
such as diet, stress, lifestyle or emotional imbalance, disease
can take over because they influence the dhatu, the seven
elemental constituents of the body: plasma, blood, flesh, fat,
bones, marrow and semen.

Ayurveda's holistic approach is to put them back in balance
through nurturing the mind and body.

In the privacy of my villa, Prana therapist Richard Rosen gave
me a a checklist for identifying characteristics for the humors
-- examining things like the pulse, hair texture, skin color,
shape of the eyes, the condition of the tongue, even the
frequency of bowel habits.

He pronounced that it was only a formality that I turned out
to be pitta, the same diagnosis made during my retreat in Sri
Lanka, and that I was operating on a short fuse.

"I could immediately tell from your gait, your voice, the way
you looked at me that you were pitta," said Rosen, an energetic
50-year-old certified martial arts instructor and therapist.

To keep the simmering fire inside me from flaring up and
eventually ending in burn-out, Rosen recommended that I cut down
on chili and other stimulating spices in my diet, and make a
concerted effort to take time out from my work schedule to
exercise and resume waylaid hobbies.

Those were measures to be taken in the future, but for the
time being I got to enjoy my spa experience.

The sumptuous seclusion of one's own villa with its own pool
(plus open upstairs loft area, with complete audiovisual system)
is nothing to write home about in Bali, where seemingly every
sybaritic pleasure is catered to.

The difference at Prana (the name means life or breathing
force in Sanskrit) is that the spa -- a brand-new, magnificent
interpretation of a 16th century Indian palace with spiraling
turrets and a maze of richly furnished corridors leading to
treatment rooms -- is only a few meters away from the 50 villas.

Guests can saunter over for their treatment at the designated
time, and return a few hours later, suitably rejuvenated, to the
comfort and privacy of their villas.

I started out with a consultation with Karen Biancardi, the
spa trainer and consultant, who, like Rosen, comes from the
internationally acclaimed Chiva Som resort in Thailand. It was
supposed to be a yoga session, but I managed to shirk that as we
talked about the spa's offerings.

"You need no less than three days, but it's probably best to
have at least a week if you are coming from an urban center like
Jakarta," said the Los Angeles native, who has an eclectic
background of fitness training, yoga and the current fitness
favorite of pilates along with facial and make-up expertise.

"We go with what is comfortable for you ... My philosophy is
that when you have made yourself stronger physically, your
spirituality grows because you don't have the physical thing
blocking it ..."

Later, I underwent my Prana Rebalancing Treatment, where I was
ushered into a grandly appointed treatment room and rubbed
down with aromatic hot oils by three masseuses, emerging with an
intense feeling of calm an hour and a half later.

In the evening, I returned for a reflexology treatment from
Budi, flopping down in my bed an hour later and enjoying the
best, uninterrupted sleep I have had in ages.

The next afternoon, it was time for the appropriately named
Divine Renewal Treatment, the ultimate in pampering consisting of
a 210-minute treatment starting out with a dip in hot and cold
plunge pools, a scrub with aromatic seal salts, a seaweed
bodymask in the steam room, lymphatic massage, a cleansing
facial, reflexology and then a cream bath.

It was sheer pleasure at every turn and touch, with the
simplest considerations, from the ginger-lemon welcome tea, the
soothing choice of music, even the selection of therapists --
Rosen pairs up guests with attendants who have balancing humors
-- making it a painless, thoroughly stressless experience.

Rosen plans to have the most complete set of Ayurvedic
treatments available in Bali, although it does not include the
intensive "panca karma", a cleansing and rejuvenating process
including use of emetics.

As I reluctantly prepared to leave my villa the next day, I
reflected on the entire trip. Yes, it had been by invitation,
with all the special considerations that are entailed, and it
would be beyond my budget (packages for two persons range from
US$1,500 net for four days/three nights to $4,900 for 12 days/13
nights, inclusive of meals and treatments) except in a manic
spending phase.

But its real value did not hit home until a couple of weeks
later. As I faced the usual flood of e-mails on a Monday morning,
from the litany of spam to complaints about missing articles from
the paper, I could feel the fire burning inside of me. At that
moment, I would have gladly headed back to Prana for some more soul-
nourishing relaxation.

Prana Spa & Villas, Jl. Kunti II 8X, Seminyak, tel. 0361-
730840, www.thevillas.net.