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Thai high
Raise the bar for sybaritic pleasure as ELLE takes you on a truly Thai spa experience.
By Heather Buchan
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Thailand boasts the quintessential spa culture, with pristine hideaways and exquisite spa treatments, making it the vacation destination of choice for more and more people. Thai spa treatments will delight your sensory palate, engaging touch, taste, hearing, sight and smell -- leaving you with both mental and physical rejuvenation. But it's not just the treatments that make a Thai spa vacation so appealing; it's the surrounding landscape. Thailand is an exotically beautiful destination, so it's no wonder Thai spas take advantage of the beauty, offering a real sense of location.
Some of Thailand's most luxurious and serene retreats -- where you really get away from it all, just like A-list celebrities -- are found the luxurious northern Golden Triangle. This region, also known as the Lanna Kingdom (meaning "land of a million rice fields") was once known for its opium trade, but today is home to the world's most exotic destination spas. Chic properties are opening everywhere, and I recently checked out two of the latest, and greatest new openings.
The Chedi Chiang Mai
Offering stylish seclusion in the heart of Thailand's second largest city, The Chedi is a boutique hotel on the tranquil grounds of what was once the British Consulate. The spa features 10 private suites, each with a steam shower and terrazzo bathtub, and some with an herbal steam room and aromatic sauna.
After entering the serene spa and being greeted with the traditional "Sawasdee" (welcome) and gentle bow, I am lead to my suit. It's the little gestures that blow me away: the cold lemongrass-scented facecloth and aromatic cup of papaya and jasmine juice offered to me during my pre-massage, floral, petal-strewn footbath. And there's nothing quite like a traditional Thai massage in the land where it was invented. An ancient technique involving stretching, pressure point stimulation and gentle rocking to relieve muscle tension and improve circulation. After my treatment, I retreat to a bamboo chaise lounge overlooking a bamboo water garden and pool for a rest.
Click here for more on a Thai spa experience!
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