Grand Adventure 2017 Day 19: Spa Experiment
This morning we woke up to one of the most beautiful mornings on the trip. I pulled open the curtains in our pool villa at a little after 7 AM and the sun was shining, birds were chirping (which Jenn loves) and there was a beautiful reflection coming off of our pool. It was one of those moments that I tried to take a mental picture of to remember when this trip is done. Speaking of we just hit 2 and a half weeks on the trip with only one week to go and that's starting to make us both sad. But enough of that, we had more relaxing to do today.
I went out to go for a run at the gym at 9 AM and got one of my best runs in of the trip. When I left I grabbed an iced caramel macchiato that was far better than my cappuccino yesterday. When I got back we had room service delivered for breakfast. Jenn got waffles with orange juice and I had an eggs benedict. Both were fine, but nothing to write home about. It was pretty glorious to have breakfast in the room though. Nice and relaxing.
Speaking of relaxing, that was the theme for today. As I've written about throughout the first 19 days of this trip, I love great meals. It's one of my favorite parts of traveling is going to Michelin star restaurants and trying top-notch cuisine. Jenn likes that, but what Jenn loves only second to crossing things off her bucket list is going to the spa. So that's what we did today. We both booked 3-hours worth of spa treatments.
We arrived at the spa a little after noon and were given a welcome juice. Originally we had booked the Thai Essence package which was a 60-minute wrap and a 90-minute Thai massage and then Jenn added a 30-minute milk bath. The gentleman at the counter mentioned that we might not like a traditional Thai massage as they can pretty rough and don't use any lotion or oils. That didn't sound great so we both changed to an aromatherapy massage for 90-minutes. What we didn't know before coming today too was that it was going to be a couples massage. After we drank the delicious fruit cocktail we were whisked away to a private couples room. There we were given disposable underwear that covers absolutely nothing and led into the bath which we shared. We de-robed and went into the bath in our birthday suits with our two masseuses looking over. Luckily neither of us are overly shy so it wasn't a big deal.
We enjoyed 30-minutes in a steaming hot milk bath with jets hitting us at every angle. When the thirty minutes was up the two came in and we exited once again in our birthday suits off to our wrap. Neither of us has ever done a wrap before and I'd compare it to marinating a piece of meat. We laid down in our disposable undergarment (once again covering absolutely nothing) on plastic wrap and they spread clay over Jenn and some other concoction over me. Once it was all over they wrapped the plastic wrap around us and then covered us with blankets while giving us a scalp massage. I found it to be claustrophobic at first but then found it to be a nice cocoon, Jenn absolutely loved this.
After an hour they unwrapped us from the plastic wrap and led us to an outdoor shower where we both showered off, once again put on disposable undergarments that covered nothing and went back and enjoyed one of the best massages we've ever had. The last ten minutes got a little painful for both of us, but otherwise, it was pure bliss. Unlike the bath and wrap which I felt the time, the 90-minute massage flew by. We left the beautiful room at 4 PM and enjoyed tea and cookies in their relaxation room overlooking a koi pond.
We left the spa feeling super relaxed and well taken care of. We made our way back to the room, enjoyed the outdoor space for a bit and then watched another episode of Stranger Things 2. Another perk for staying at the Renaissance is that all minibar snacks and drinks (outside of alcohol) are free and so I chomped on some cashews and sparkling water while we watched.
At 5:30 PM we left to go to dinner back at the beach restaurant, Sandbox. Jenn stuck with a burger (she's pretty predictable) and I had their Satay variety plate which came with chicken, steak, and shrimp with a peanut dipping sauce. Jenn had a pina colada and I went with a Heineken again. We lucked out and got a great spot overlooking the beach and another stunning sunset.
When we got done with dinner we walked along the beach and watched what turned out to be one of the prettiest sunsets in recent memory. The sky was such a beautiful red and purple that we stood there staring at it for at least a half hour. Afterwards we walked around the hotel grounds, got some steps in, played a quick game of ping pong and came back to the room to call it a night. I said yesterday we needed some time to relax, and today that's exactly what we did.
