POSHA HAMAM AT THE AMAN SPA , NEW DELHI (UPDATE)

Dont you just love the image above, taken from their spa menu?

It was a very chance meeting when the beautiful Sandie Johanssen, the new Spa Director of Amanspa, in New Delhi came to my embroidery studio. Having discovered many common interests we planned to meet again.

You will see from my first blog on the same spa that I didnt have a very good experience so I was keen to see the changes that Sandie had implemented.

Dont miss the cow head!

As I walked in, the Aman looked more like an art gallery than a hotel. Two simultaneous exhibitions, AbsolutSoni and Apparao Galleries both competing for space.

No NOT hotel butlers-but part of AbsolutSoni Art show!

More art in the hotel!

Nevertheless Sandie met me at the desk and escorted me to the Spa. Unfortunately they didnt allow me to click my own photos so you will have to make do with impersonal ones!

My hamam therapist, Dickie, showed me to the very spacious changing rooms where I was given a thick cotton pareo to wrap around me (or alternatively a gown). The spa at the Aman is wickedly spacious and having so much room simply for their changing area is really a luxury. I locked my belongings and entered the hamaam area. I started my 90 minute treatment in the warm dip pool in the outer chamber, to loosen up my pores and soften my skin for a few minutes after which Dickie turned up to take me in to the inner sanctum of the hamaam.

The inner chamber of the hamam is warmer than the outer one and is where they conduct the water rituals. After sitting for a while, allowing my pores to open up, Dickie asked me to lie down on the heated marble bench while she slapped on warm water all over my body.  Beautiful silver bowls were used for this and the hard slaps of water gradually turned to gentle pouring of warm water all over my body. It was something like having a Shrirodhara with water but not just on my head but all over my body! I was also reminded of Masaru Emotos Secret Life of Water and wondered what great transformations could be taking place with my interaction with the healing properties of water!!

After this water ritual I was taken to the treatment plinth in another room. Dickie used a traditional "kese" to scrub my body with authentic olive oil soap, exfoliating my dead skin and massaging my body at the same time. This was followed by covering my body with a layer of giant foam created from a lather bag. Warm soapy water from a large silver bowl, is juggled through this bag (using the same principle as the childrens bubble toys) and the bubbles/lather is squeezed out of the bag to cover my entire body. I was delighted by the soft, feathery feel of this experience. It was extremely soothing to the skin after the scrub.

I lay there for a while trying to remember when was the last time someone bathed me with so much love and care. I did so miss my mother!! We all need to be nurtured and pampered in this way every now and then.

I didnt want the experience to end (who would?) so when the lather was washed off and my hair was shampooed, I felt I had come out of some magical, mystical place.

Lovely experience, thank you Sandie. My only suggestion would be to use a better quality shampoo/ conditioner ( my hair was completely dried out) and to round off the experience with a full lotion application. After spending so much time in the water I was so relaxed, that applying my own lotion seemed like very hard work indeed!!