Spa treatment for eve

Only For Eve

In reel life, Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon), heroine in the movie Legally Blonde, has her heart broken after starting new life as a student at Harvard Law School. She finds out that the man of her dreams is engaged to an old sweetheart. So she drives off sobbing, upset to the point of hysterics, when suddenly she spots a beauty parlour. She hits the brakes, swerves to park, walks straight in and orders a manicure - nothing like a bit of pampering and some free, non-professional counselling with the manicurist to calm a girl down.

In real life, you've been working overtime for the past few aeons, fighting your way through traffic every morning, chasing impossible deadlines, being yelled at by your boss, colleagues and clients. You come home tired, cranky and downtrodden, sorely needing a hug but Mr Right is out for the night with his buddies. Comfort is nowhere to be found. What's a girl to do?

Take the cue from Elle and give yourself a treat. Like a kitten retreating to some quiet, secluded spot to lick her wounds, visit a spa and purr away in comfort for the rest of the day. Enjoy stress-relieving body massages, try out an invigorating body scrub or give your hair a special treat of freshly prepared herbal and fruit shampoo and conditioner. Get yourself a manicure and pedicure. Leave all your worries outside the spa (they're not going anywhere). Enjoy the moment and allow yourself to be treated like a queen.

The great queens of Egypt, Cleopatra and Nefertiti, certainly knew how to pamper themselves. They had milk and honey baths in a room filled with aromatic scents; to maintain a youthful look, they used mixtures of almond oil, fermented fruit juices and frankincense as facial masque. Javanese princesses of old adhered to the jamu tradition and a vast knowledge of beauty know-how, using local plants and herbs passed down through the generations.

Today, royalties and celebrities aren't the only people to enjoy such luxurious treatments. The rest of us regular folks deserve a little spoiling every now and then too. One of the choicest spots for some serious pampering is the exclusively female Martha Tilaar Spa Eastern Rejuvenating Centre. It isn't far-fetched to say that Martha Tilaar is the expert in Javanese/Indonesian spa tradition. With extensive use of traditional Indonesian jamu, Martha Tilaar clearly sets itself apart from contemporary spas.

The Ken Dedes treatment, named after a queen from the seventh century Majapahit empire, gives you all the pampering you'll need with rich lulur scrubs, hot oil massages, herbal baths and the ratus, a time-honoured cleansing treatment that promotes feminine hygiene.

The importance placed on privacy at Martha Tilaar is next to none. Located on the 18th floor of the Crown Princess Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Martha Tilaar's clientele sometimes opt to spend a weekend at the hotel, rest assured their visit is free from the prying eyes of men - the entire floor is for women only.

“But I'm too much of a pragmatist to fiddle around with spas and such,” so you say. Fine, be pragmatic. Spas are not merely hedonistic pleasure palaces; they also provide very practical and necessary services. Take the pre-wedding makeover. After all, wouldn't you want to awe your man with perfectly soft, silky skin, a glowing face and a pleasant disposition after all that wedding preparation stress? Surely if any moment is worth a trip to a spa, your wedding day (and night) takes the top spot.

Spa Indrani, with its exotic and serene setting gives you the option of a single-day, or if you feel like splashing out, a seven-day pre-bridal treatment package where you'll come out feeling like the princess bride.

And it doesn't have to end there. The spa experience can be shared with your significant other too. Spa Indrani, which started out as a spa exclusively for women, has recognised the potential and has now opened its doors to the other gender. Two masseuses will tend to you and your husband in a special couple's treatment room. And afterwards, the two of you can enjoy a poolside drink in Indrani's lush garden.

Fast forward to a year later and you're the mother of a bouncing baby. This calls for another trip to the spa as they provide traditional post-natal treatments catering to new mothers. To get back that flat tummy, the midriff is lathered with a traditional mixture of herbs, lime and camphor, and wrapped with a long piece of cotton cloth called a bengkung. Other treatments such as bertunku (a form of hot-stone treatment) also help speed up recovery as it's believed to improve blood circulation and expel wind from the body.

The House of Ezryn in Petaling Jaya, offers such post-natal treatments with masseuses who have been trained for years in traditional Malay massage techniques. The bertunku treatment here makes use of river stones that are heated up and wrapped with mengkudu leaves before gently applied to the body. After the complete post-natal treatment, all the curves fall back into place and no one would ever guess you've had a baby!

The reasons to visit a spa are endless. Perhaps you feel the need to just get away from it all – career, housework, family – and to be selfish for just one day. Maybe you yearn for that connection with your college friends, to re-kindle that bond of sisterhood that had been swept under by time; what better place to spend a weekend lounging around, catching up and re-living your youth while getting pampered?

But the fact is, when it comes to visiting the spa, the only excuse you need is simply that you deserve it.

HEAVENLY HIDEAWAYS

Martha Tilaar Spa Eastern Rejuvenating Centre
18th Floor, Crown Princess Kuala Lumpur, City-Square Centre, Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (603) 2775 3868/3268
House of Ezryn
No. 50, Jalan Kemajuan, Petaling Jaya, 46200 Selangor
Tel: (603) 7956 3595

Dewi Sri Spa
Lot 301, 3rd Floor, Plaza Alam Sentral, Jalan Majlis, Section 14, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor
Tel: (603) 5512 1733

Puri Santi
No. 11, Jalan Gelenggang, Damansara Heights, 50490 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (603) 2094 4428

Spa Indrani
No. 5, Jalan Stonor, 50450 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (603) 2142 7808

Zenith Spa
33-1 The Boulevard, Mid Valley City, 59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (603) 2283 2833

Puri Ayu
Lot LG13, Lower Ground Floor, City Square Centre, Jalan Tun Razak, 68000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (603) 2161 6268

~credits:virtualmalaysiamagazine