Newspaper Article

SPA VACATION / Getting the Treatment / Exotic indulgences at a top-rated Hawaiian resort. SEE SIDEBAR: INFORMATION PLEASE-(see end of text)

By Barbara Schuler. STAFF WRITER. Barbara Schuler is Newsday's Style editor

1997

Overview

Stretched out on a massage table in a darkened room above the fray, I wait in the altogether (somewhat apprehensively, I'll be the first to admit) while a Crockpot full of oil warms to a point just below boiling. Fiddling with the thermostat is Ruppa, a specialist in ayurvedic therapy, whose intention is to brush the hot oil rapidly over my body for the better part of an hour - after which, according to literature supplied by the Spa Grande at the Grand Wailea Resort, I will emerge rejuvenated, the combination of warm oil and herbs working in tandem \"to combat the aging process and (perhaps) help to reduce body fat.\" The siddha vaidya, as the hot-oil hour is called, is one of several ayurvedic treatments on the menu at Spa Grande, added after former spa director Darryll Leiman heard Deepak Chopra speak at a convention about two and a half years ago. \"It's not for everyone, certainly not the first-time spa goer,\" says Leiman. But for guests somewhat familiar with the principals of the 5,000-year-old Indian holistic medicine approach or those who want to take their spa experience beyond the basic massage and facial, ayurvedic treatments are the latest thing. \"There are some treatments which are absolutely so luxurious it's almost an out-of-body, out-of-mind experience,\" says Leiman, referring specifically to the 85-minute indulgence known as abhyanga-pizichili-shirodara. The three-step treatment starts with a carefully choreographed massage by two therapists (one male, one female), followed by a massage during which three gallons of warm oil are rubbed into the skin, followed by a tension-relieving application of a stream of warm oil to the forehead. There's also the siddha sandalwood wrap (ground sandalwood, spa literatuare notes, not only gives the skin a delicate sheen but can be \"slightly aphrodisiac\").

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