The Retreat for the Senses

Yesterday evening, a friend and I were walking down Orchard Road when my friend, who’s been living in Hong Kong for the last 10 years, remarked, ‘This is worse than Causeway Bay’. I knew instinctively he was referring to the faceless multitudes traipsing the boardwalks of our main shopping district. The cross junction of Scotts and Orchard Road was a mirror image of mazy headlights jostling for inches of space.  

‘We need to retreat from this plague,’ my friend shouted above the din. That sparked off a memory of an exquisite experience which I promptly went on to relate to him ...

Smack in the middle of bustling Orchard Road lies a sanctuary for the hustled and bustled. The Retreat@Marriot is situated on the fourth floor of The Singapore Marriot Hotel, where the hotel’s fitness club is also sited. There is a sister set-up at the fifth level of Grand Hyatt too. 

During my first visit to The Retreat, I had the opportunity to meet with Jeannie Sim, Managing Director and a woman who knows her spa literature. Over a healthy yoghurty concoction (I would have preferred my usual poison — coffee with a generous dollop of condensed milk, but Jeannie insisted that I had to prepare my body and mind for the total wellness experience that I was about to immerse myself in), Jeannie regaled me with spa adventures in Europe and her philosophy of achieving balance via a return to the natural healing powers of water, air, light, diet, exercise and herbs. 

The Retreat’s health and beauty treatments, Jeannie assured me, are tailored to the individual. However, the menu of spa treatments span body and head massages, body wraps, scrubs, facials, manicures and pedicures, waxing, therapeutic steam and sauna, hot and cold baths and foot reflexology. My cocktail sampler was to consist of a dry-brush scrub, a spinal mask and a Shiatsu-Swedish body massage. The last I heard, ‘fusion’ was meant for culinary delights, not massages. I was further intrigued by Jeannie’s slew of fusion spa cuisine ... ‘A Touch of Asia’: Japanese Shiatsu, Chinese Tui-n, Indian head massage, Indonesian body masks and Thai massage are carefully wedded with Swedish massage and aromatherapy to form a truly Singaporean offering; ‘Oriental Retreat’: a refreshing massage which combines Eastern pressure point and Swedish massage techniques: Czech Wet-Soap massage: soaps containing essential oils are used to cleanse, lubricate and nourish; ‘Executive Rejuvenator’: a smorgasbord of top-to-toe treatments, including body polish, facial, soaks and massages. 

Before leaving for an appointment, Jeannie handed me over to a therapist. Jeannie’s parting shot to me was to bake myself in the sauna for about 10 minutes and then to jump into the ice pool. She guaranteed this would work marvels for blood circulation with the added effect of preparing the skin for the following treatments. I shuddered at the thought, 

Needless to say, it was an experience not to be forgotten ... the first 10 seconds in the ice pool was a sensory explosion. Every muscle and nerve screamed. Jeannie had told me if I persisted in the pool, there would be a certain enveloping calm. My body is not made for persistence ... I ought to gain recognition in the Guinness World Records for the fastest ever jump out of an ice pool. 

My spa treatment started with the dry-brush scrub. I was rather perturbed when the therapist ran a fine-haired brush over my body in even, gentle strokes barely tickling the skin. The scrubs I’ve been used to were of the heavy duty sort, where layers of epidermis are to seemingly peel off with some vigour. This was so flimsy that I wondered whether dead cells were being coaxed into growing gossamer wings and lifting off the surface of my skin in fairy-like fashion. The therapist assured me that this was far more effective than your washer board variety. 

The spinal mask that followed was a revelation (and I’ve been on many a spa table ... not much surprises me anymore). A longitudinal aluminium foil was placed along the entire length of my spine. It was a cold mask of rich minerals. The therapist explained that the spine is the focal point of the nervous system and invigorating the spine with minerals allows for better circulation. As she was explaining, a strange phenomenon was occurring along my spine ... gurgling bubbles were forming from the mask and heat was surging into the back. It was like lying on a horizontal Jacuzzi with tiny water jets typing on your spinal chord. 

The hybrid Shiatsu-Swedish massage that followed was a welcome. It had been a good six months since my muscles had been kneaded and in that period they had contorted themselves into rather tight springs. I especially had a painful ache along the right side of the shoulder which I asked the therapist to pay particular attention to. Her massage, though did not seem spectacular at that point, redressed the tensions of a weary achy body. She offered to do a neck twist (Thai style) for me but gave up after a couple of futile attempts, declaring that I was too tense. I guess visions of lugging around a floppy neck were passing through my head. 

The horn blasted and another motorist lived to tell of a near miss. The boyfriend of a teenager was viciously staring at another passerby for manhandling his precious. Battles are defined by knowing when to do THE RETREAT. My Hong Kong friend and I concurred that that was the defining moment for us.