Friday, January 20, 2006

Pampered Out

I really am a spoilt girl. For my anniversary/Christmas gift Jacky bought me a voucher for a 5 hour Spa Pamper Package at the Observatory Hotel

The service was very professional and after filling out my forms I was given a dressing robe and asked to change out of my clothes. I've been to a day spa before and despite having to strip down to my underwear I was covered by a towel so I didn't feel too uncomfortable. I was glad that I had worn my black Bonds – safe, conservative and good coverage.
The Massage
When I was ready I was introduced to a Japanese lady who lead me to a room that was filled with candles and the warm smell of lavender. Meditation music whispered from the speakers to help set the mood. My Japanese lady was very little and extremely polite. Speaking with a strong Japanese accent she held up something white and said “Thank-you for coming to-day, to pre-pare prease remove all jewellery and change into this disposable g-string. I will give you a few minutes, but prease put your robe back on and wait for me on that seat when you are ready”.

Disposable g-string?!!? I nearly died.

When she came back into the room I think that she could sense that I was very uncomfortable (or maybe having my robe wrapped tightly around me and double knotted gave me away). For my first massage I was wrapped up in warm linen, soaked in herbal water (to detoxify the body). Instead of being face down on the table, I had to lie on my back feeling exposed and self-conscious.

Having said that you do get over it. The next 2 hours involved a very relaxing full body massage with heated stones as well as the Ayurvedic Shirodhara treatment. This is where your head gets massaged as warm oil is dripped on your scalp to nourish and moisturise your scalp and hair. Everything was going really well until I was lead away to have a shower to shampoo the oil out of my hair before my facial. The showers were in quite an open area (next to the sauna and steam room) shielded with see through glass doors and not much else. I felt really exposed and prayed that no one would walk past.
The Facial + Manicure + Pedicure
Dressed in my robe I had to jump into the lift to go up a level to the facial floor, on the way up all these tourist jumped in my lift, I must have looked pretty strange walking around with a towel in my hair and a robe on. One old guy looked at me and said "let me drive Honey, what floor?".

I’ve never had a facial, the beautician did say that I had really good skin so she didn't need to do too much besides refine my skin tone and give me a hydrating mask (the facial massage took 1 hour). After that I was given a manicure & pedicure, had my arms and legs exfoliated, moisturised and dipped in paraffin wax (leaves your hands and feet feeling silky soft).

The facial was lovely and my hands and feet look great, my toes a cute pink colour (I just wondered why I had to do all of this part naked?? although I was covered with a towel this time!) I’m back at work today feeling happy, relaxed and with enough nakedness to last me a lifetime.
Thank God for Clothes!!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you keep the G string?

PiCkLeS said...

Betty Lam!! As soon as I had my shower I changed right back into my own underwear!

I'm so going to book you into a naked day spa for your birthday and watch you squirm!!

Anonymous said...

you dare book me into that naked monstrosity! I, unlike yourself, did not grow up in a naked house!

Sarah said...

Emily...(and Betty) you are such a moron. The whole purpose of going to a day spa is to relax and unwind....not too tense up 1000x more times because you are naked!!!

U cannot say that you are naked because you are never fully exposed....I suggest 1 day of topless sunbathing at Bondi to defeat all ur naked demons....

DJ Ho said...

i think you need it after all your pole dancing injuries. Haha i can just imagine that Japanese lady saying to you after you got changed into the g-string: "oh you seem a little tense?"

Victoria A said...

ooh that sounds like heaven. And paraffin wax is just the best!!!

Dianna said...

oh Em!!!! It sounds better than you described at Pancakes!! Now i want to be pampered like that too =D
I'm a bit paranoid about facials though, I'm scared of getting warts and other strange infections from the people's hands on my face.... and I'm scared of them breaking my facial capillaries (I've seen some women with Rosacea-like skin, they all blame vigorous facials when they were younger)
So... what do you think? To facial or not to facial?

Anonymous said...

"Let me drive Honey, what floor?" Haha XD Now that's a pretty new pick-up line.

Scared of getting strange infections from other people's hand? Er... no matter how many times you wash your hands and face, there will always be germs on them, unless you want to wash them in some strong disinfectant ALL THE TIME?!! (E.g. during the time when SARS was rampant.)