By Tom Fin

A good massage is a sublime thing combining art and science. Its Arabic name, massa, meaning to touch, feel or handle, was first referenced in the Bible in 493 BC by the wife of Xerxes who enjoyed a daily beauty treat­ment that included an olive oil massage. The Chinese medical book Huangdi Neijing or the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, from the first century BC recommended “massage of skin and flesh.”

While practiced for centuries throughout the world, the techniques of Sweden’s Per Henrik Ling popularized mas­sage in the United States in the mid 1800’s. With the 1996 Summer Olympics, massage therapy became a basic in the medical services offered to Olympic athletes. Major corpo­rations utilize massage therapy to relieve stress among their executives and even the United States Department of Jus­tice provides massage services for its employees.

Thailand, known the world over for its spas with menus of massages, was introduced to the art over 2,500 years ago by Shivago Komarpaj of India. A combination of ayurveda – traditional Indian medicine still practiced in the west as an alternative to traditional treatments – and yoga combine to form the Thai massage (……….. Nuat phaen bo-ran) which relies on stretching or acupressure.

Looking to improve my outlook on life if not my own look, I decided to take the treatment. Bangkok has as many ‘spas’ as 7-Elevens but unlike the standard conformity of the prod­ucts and service one finds in the orange and green signed connivance stores, spas vary in services offered, quality and professionalism. I wanted upscale but not hoity-toity. I wanted elegant but did not want gold leaf leaves climbing up Corinthian columns and plaster of Paris nymphs spurt­ing water from every orifice. I wanted to feel good but did not want any hanky-panky.

I read about Pakin Ployphicha, President of Oasis Spa, re­ceiving the Thailand Tourism Award of Excellence and that seemed a good reason to indulge my senses at his Spa in Bangkok. Arriving in the morning, the spa, set back from a narrow, lightly used soi, was quiet and inviting with, dark green grass thick and lush, and an old shade tree setting off the low-rise white painted buildings generously accented with teak wood.

Greeted at the door, I sat to remove my shoes, was escorted into the soft and comfy ‘living room’ of the spa, rested on a sofa covered in white cotton with pillow accents, and sipped icy coconut juice. The simple elegance of the room continuing the white and teak theme was cool and hushed. Immediately, I seemed to have left the noise and conges­tion of Bangkok, of the world, behind and entered an inner sanctum of tranquility. Glancing through the comprehen­sive menu with massages, scrubs, wraps, facial treatments and hydrotherapy to choose from plus eight packages of healing and soothing treatments as well, I must have looked lost. A recommendation made, I simply nodded my head, and off I went, gently guided into a waiting treatment room with teak flooring and white walls, a sofa and treatment beds. I began with a sea salt scrub followed by a shower out in a small private garden of trees, plants, rocks, and a large rain shower. The blue sky was above my head, the birds sang, and the world was perfect.

Four hands massaged, gently pushed, kneaded, stroked, and soothed away anything in my life lacking consequence and that meant every concern or worry. Fours hands may seem excessive to some. But to me it was an example of the dictum ‘too much of a good thing is never enough.’

Following the massage, a facial with tender touching and smoothing of my face becalmed me fur­ther. I may have entered the heavenly kingdom. Left alone for a few minutes to allow the potion to perform its magic, I dozed into dreams of cushy clouds caressing and protecting me.

Too soon over, I dressed, and faced the world a new man. Did I look better? Yes. Of course I did. And I knew this without looking into a mirror. While the talented and impeccably trained staff worked on my outer shell, they unknowingly stroked the generator that produces smiles and feel­ings of well being.

Traveling to the Oasis Spa that morning, no one seemed to take notice of me. I traveled the trains, walked the sidewalks, drank coffee in a café, and a glance never came my way. Why was it, after three hours of tender loving care, heads turned, and people smiled as I passed? More color in my cheeks, better blood circulation perhaps. But I felt better inside, and I felt I looked better outside and that sense of pride in me radiated out to others. A day at the spa does that. You feel you are at the top of the world and everyone looks up to you.

Later I met with Toby Allen, who, along with partner Khun Pakin developed the vision of a Nirvana like sanctuary. Their dreams were realized when their first Oasis Spa opened in Chiang Mai in August of 2003.

Preparing to open their fifth Oasis Spa in Phuket in a few weeks, Mr. Al­len, when asked how business was, smiled. He said in five years they have welcomed over 100,000 people including many movie stars, government of­ficials, and business moguls, they employ over 180 people and, with a bad economy and tourism down, their business continues to grow with healthy increases.

Mr. Allen’s beguiling personality may be hiding a tech nerd. He relishes talk­ing of the behind the scenes technology, the online reservation system and centralized systems that allow each Spa to concentrate on the customer. But that did not interest me. I wanted to know how they could make me feel so good. Could they bottle it for guests to take home?

This is a one on one people business, Mr. Allen explained. So bottling for take home is not possible.

During my three-hour treatment, I was impressed by the seamless service starting with the greeting on arrival to my last sip of tea. How did they ac­complish that? Mr. Allen explained that each employee must strive to satisfy one customer at a time and to do that he and partner Khun Pakin pull to­gether a team of likeminded service oriented employees. They think outside the box and hire staff based on personality and desire to serve. They come from coffee shops, offices, or other unrelated industries. The background is not as important as is the desire to serve, a desire to learn, and a desire to be a success.

These are all positive attributes that the new Oasis Spa employee will use when attending the in-house Training Institute to learn and implement the Oasis philosophy. As all major corporations know, training employees in the companies methods, understanding the companies mission, treating them with respect and encouraging their daily participation in the company’s suc­cess benefits employee, company, and especially important, the customer. I began to understand. The homey atmosphere, the living room like ambi­ance when you enter the Spa is not just decorative artifice. It signals the philosophy of the company: No pretense, just friendly service in a comfort­able atmosphere.

With awards piling up – ‘Prime Minister’s Export Award’, ‘SMES Best Brand Award’- what is next? Mr. Allen suggests Copenhagen. Catching my look of surprise, he explains the philosophy of the customer-oriented company with a technology infrastructure can function anywhere in the world. There he goes again. That tech nerd stuff creeps back. But he is right, when you know what people want and how to supply it, you can go anywhere in the world and be successful.

Someday, no doubt, robots, made with a composite alloy, a smiley face, and a sweet motherboard for a heart, will be able to provide the perfect massage. Once programmed to ones likes, preferences, idiosyncrasies, the robo-mas­sager will be able to give the perfect massage every time, any place.

But an everyday massage, the perfect massage, may not be the goal for the average customer. And they may not even want a Thai massage. Most visi­tors leave Thailand thinking they have had a Thai massage when they didn’t. The average Thai massage is rough. They want soft and nice and the senses of sight, sound, smell and taste figure in as much as touch. They want the warm comfort that only a human can provide. They want the sensual experience provided by a subdued setting, calming colors, soft sounds, stirring scent.

A day at the spa is social, even when alone. It is an event, a bit of theater presented for your singular pleasure. It is a multi course meal that nourishes the body.  It feeds the soul, as much as removing the pangs of hurt.

My day at the spa was all of this. Leave the robots to the techies and the sci­ence fiction writers. I am a human. The human touch remains magical.