Somedays you just have to do it, you know? Say bugger the expense, save yourself time and effort of running from pillar to post to get a hair cut here, a facial there and a mani-pedi somewhere in between. Somedays only a total spa experience is going to bring you back into a space of well being and grace. Yesterday a full Saturday to myself,with no internet connection to distract me and at the headache end of a bad hair week, I took myself to an Ayurvedic Spa in GKII.
The lovely young woman at the desk showed me the spa menu and I went weak at the knees. I estimated it would take me a month to work through the whole range and a years salary as well. She suggested a package deal that would only slightly dent my pocket and provide for more than I desired. Tranced out like a junkie promised a line of heaven, I followed her to the Spa upstairs. The woman there stripped me and sent me to the steam room. Unlike the steamy environment of Delhi, the air is tinged with the slightly antiseptic aroma of eucalyptus and the lights are switched off. I steam myself like a wonton until I am led into the massage room. I lie on the table as the therapist applies a scented scrub to my body as I drift away.
The scrub is scented like sandalwood and I catch a faint whiff of saffron or maybe I was just transported to some exotic Kerala location with the use of the ayruvedic herbs.As she works on scrubbing the body, a beauty therapist massages my face. There can be nothing more delicious in the world than to have both ends of your body attended to at one time. In between the feet and the face, I floated on a scented dream. Unfortunately the beauty therapist had a bit of a cough and there was also a few(discreet) sniffs. This makes me a nervous being as I am underneath the drop zone but she managed the job, even if some of the product went into my eyes. I didn’t mind enough to complain because I understand that most workers in India do not get sick pay and have to attend work in any case. It’s a shame because the worker also needs to be in a state of health if that is the service they are expected to provide. Anyway she left the scene while I was being wrapped and heated with lashing of sandalwood paste sinking deep into the pores of my body and I forgot about her and everything else until I was roused to stumble into the shower and wash the stuff off.
A hot stone massage followed, writing about it now triggers me back into the state of bliss that induced. I even forgot that Rocket Baba said that applying hot stones or metal to the body was against all the principles of ancient Ayurveda. My memory or what happened next fails me now, did I have another shower or did I dress to slink down stairs where the rest of my treatment awaited? No matter, I drifted on a cloud down to meet the team of hairstylists.
I think Hairstyling is a relatively new scene in India, which explains why the young man who did my coloring has a faintly seventies air about him, a kind of “I know more about your hair than you kind of attitude.” I was glad to see him go about his business and to be put into the hands of another young man. Yet another massage for the head and shoulders was included in this but what impressed me more than anything was the dual action blow wave. The hair stylists here do not have to hold their own blow wavers, but a young (apprentice?) directs the heat while the stylist does the brush art.
Just when I thought it was all over, they lead me down stairs for the piece de resistance, the manicure pedicure. Two young men took charge of my extremities and scrubbed and cut and massaged me again! At some point during the pedicure, during a moment of extreme bliss, a moment of enlightment came to visit me, a whisper of knowledge accessable only to those who have meditated for years and practiced the most sublime taspas but which somehow dropped down from the heights of esoteric wonder to inform me that a good pedicure was better than sex. If you doubt this theory then you are welcome to try for yourself. When the combined mani-pedi was over, I could see my reflection in my toenails for goodness sakes!
All too soon, after about six hours it was over. There was no part of my body that required further attention and it was time for me to go. But would I be able to leave this pleasure palace and return to the normal world? Would they have to forcibly eject me from the building as I clung to the door frames and jammed my feet in the door jamb? No, because to do so would have ruined a perfect mani-pedi. In fact I was liquid by this time and not able to resist anything, it was difficult enough to drag myself up the stairs.