There’s Something About Mary
Last Thanksgiving I had dinner at the home of my nephew, Eric. One of the other guests was Eric’s cousin Janna. During the dinner conversation I mentioned my upcoming trip to Thailand with fellow Dharma Bums Normano and Don B. When I laid out our tentative itinerary, including a stop in Chiang Mai, Janna told me she had a friend, Mary, who was working in a spa just outside the city of Chiang Mai. That conversation led to Janna following up a few days later by sending me a brochure from the spa and Mary’s email. I contacted Mary, gave her the dates we would be in Chiang Mai and requested appointments for all three Dharma Bums to receive a massage.
The Morning of Jan16th we arrived in Chiang Mai, the end to an overnight train ride from Bangkok. After sitting on a train for 12 hours, we opted to stretch our legs a little by walking to our guest house. Along the way the ever vigilant Normano spotted a barber shop where we each proceeded to get a shave (Dharma Bernie is now clean shaven once again). Upon locating our guest house we discovered that only one of three rooms was ready for us. We dropped our bags and headed toward the old walled city in the heart of Chiang Mai. Along the way we stopped for lunch, did a little gift shopping for some of you special people back home and arranged for each of us to get a Dharma Bums World Tour 2007 T-shirt. We arrived back at the guest house just in time for the driver from the spa to pick us up.
What an experience! As we arrived at the center we were greeted by name and served a cool tea while we filled out some paperwork. Next we were led to a small room with lockers where we disrobed and donned the clothing they provided, essentially a pair of shorts. From there we were escorted to the sauna building which was surrounded by a small gazebo, an outdoor (unheated) shower and a saltwater pool. We were invited to sit in the gazebo and served another tea then we were instructed to to step under the cold shower prior to entering the sauna. By sauna standards this room was quite large and, other than the wooden benches, unlike any sauna I’ve ever had. The steam was laced with some unidentified but very pleasant herbs. A 10-15 minute sit in the steam was followed by a dip in the saltwater pool, then we repeated the shower, sauna and dip process a second time. Next we were escorted to small temple like buildings where the actual massage took place. We had each selected a basic 2 hour massage and I doubt that any of us has been worked over so thoroughly, wherever knotted muscles had been they were detected and worked into submission. Afterwards we kind of floated back to our starting point and served a glass of water and a bowl of papaya to end the process. Up to this point we had not yet met Mary but as we were enjoying our post massage refreshment she appeared and introductions were made.
One of the other things Janna had told me about Mary was that she missed being able to communicate in English. Mary rode back into town with us in the spa’s van, where we treated her to dinner at the restaurant she chose, the Good Earth. During dinner we learned more about Mary and her reasons for being at this particular spot in Thailand. Her primary reason for being at this spa was to learn a particular type of meditation from the founder and owner of the spa, a man named Bob.
The Karuna Center (formerly known as the Rishi Healing Spa) is the brain child of a man named Bob. Bob hung out with the Beatles and the Maharishi back in the 60’s. Bob was able to persuade financial backers that his idea would succeed. He proceeded to build an elaborate facility where, apparently, no expense was spared to make the experience first rate for the clients. The problem seems to be attracting enough people with enough money to afford this treatment to this remote location. Now a man named Bob is about to lose the place because loan payments can’t be made.
Three very tired and body weary Dharma Bums went to bed early! Dharma Bernie
Tags: Travel
Dharma Don
Thanx for the wonderful description of Heaven on Earth. I’m in a swoon just hearing about it. Enjoying the good pictures too.
I like your site’s information and all and i enjoy the theme including the visuals but perhaps it needs a new look, its been quite some time, anyone else think the same?