Aaahhh, to be Herbally Pounded

June 1, Monday

Today everyone in the group did different things.  Scott headed in to town to go to the Monkey Forest Preserve.  It is a several acre preserve with forest and a few temples, with a huge population of mainly Macaques monkeys – the friendly, not aggressive sort – well fed by the tourists.  Quite a bit of fun to see the monkeys playing and the families moving about all together. 

Courtney went back to the spa at 10am for her favorite treatment of all – the one that came to be known as “herbal pounding”.  Having now had the message a more technically correct name would be “herbal kneading”.  The treatment begins with a Swedish-style back massage but soon turns into something quite different.  The therapist heats up herb bundles and first touches them lightly to different parts of the body and then begins the kneading.  The first touch is absolutely scalding but as she moves around touching lightly the temperature of the herb bundle cools quickly.  It’s rather like when someone hands you a hot towel you can barely touch it at first and then in two seconds it’s cold.  She does different zones – arms, legs, back, shoulders, chest, stomach, legs and arms again.  It was absolutely my favorite and I’m so glad I experienced it. 

To continue my day of hedonism I headed to the pool to meet up with Scott.  We were happy to have a few hours to just enjoy the hotel and look out at the trees.  It would have been a shame not to have this time given our glorious surroundings.

Had a quiet dinner at the hotel and early to bed.