Spa Index Featured Spa: The Phoenician, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

Dulaya Spa at
The Davis Bangkok Hotel
88 Sukhumvit 24, Klongtoey
Bangkok, Thailand 10110
Tel: (66) 2204 0701 or (66) 2260 8000 Ext 8001

Spa Online: www.DulayaSpa.com
Hotel Online: http://www.davisbangkok.net

Spa Index was fortunate to enjoy an unscheduled visit the elegant Davis Bangkok Hotel and Dulaya Spa this summer. Travel plans went awry, but presented our director, Kevin McClain, with two days with which to enjoy this lovely boutique hotel, one of our newest members, in the bustling city of Bangkok. While Dulaya Spa cannot officially be considered a "destination spa" due to its compact size (and its renowned competitors nearby), its does an exceptionally good job at offering a comprehensive spa menu in a unique boutique environment, with impeccable style and attention to detail. My two hours in the private Dulaya Spa were sumptuous, and were it not for my raging hunger, I would have lingered much longer, taking in the courtyard and private swimming available to me. A guest booking in a stay in the Thai villas, with private courtyards, chefs in residence, and private spa experiences, will find a premier spa experience to rival many other so-called destination spas. A guest booking a stay in the hotel, with a visit to the spa, will find the perfect urban spa experience -- at the perfect cost. With these two options available to the spa enthusiast, this is a must-visit spa hotel in Thailand.

THE HOTEL

The Davis Bangkok is a new (2003) boutique hotel with luxury villas, set in the heart of the Bangkok business district. It is conveniently located and easily accessible from both incoming and outgoing expressways. Having become increasingly popular over the past year, it is almost always full, but I was fortunate enough to book a guest room on short notice.

Bangkok's first boutique hotel is a study in surprising but harmonious contrasts. I found it both sleekly modern and warmly traditional; luxuriously appointed while comfortable and intimate.

The common areas throughout the hotel are quite compact, but well-planned and expertly appointed. The ultra-contemporary marble lobby takes up the first two levels of the 9 story hotel. The reception area is on the ground level, the business center and conference room son the second level. Both levels are bathed in beautiful natural light and display contemporary designs and sculptures.

All lobby areas and meeting rooms have a wireless facility with internet access speeds up to 1,000 Kbps (if demand is high). Top of the line equipment is also available within the business centre and meeting rooms. Rooms have a fax line as well as data ports for internet access direct from your room.

My stay at the Davis Hotel was an unplanned event due to a change in travel itinerary. What could have been a irritant turned out to be both a pleasant opportunity to tour one of our member properties, but, to experience first-hand a well-executed business center within a hotel. Indeed, I fared better with the information technology available within the property than I have in many hotels in the United States. Of marked contrast was a recent experience at a very popular hotel in New York. I moved to another hotel in New York just out of sheer frustration with my inability to stay connected to my office in San Francisco. That was not my experience at the Hotel Davis. The staff was knowledgeable, attentive, and I was up and running soon after arriving in my guest room. The business center accommodated all of my needs for my brief stay, without a single misstep.

THE GUESTROOMS

The 164 guest rooms at the Hotel Davis are broken into several categories: Superior, Themed, and Deluxe.

The Superior rooms are the most economically priced and the most conventional by hotel standards. This is not to suggest that they are less elegant. Quite the contrary. While "compact" and "small" are words often used to describe this hotel, this is a boutique hotel, and the space is well-designed. The Superior rooms are Thai styled with vibrant colors, and both larger sized and more elegantly appointed than many other boutique rooms I've stayed in.

My superior guest room offered separate bath and shower cabinet units, a supply of personal amenities, along with makeup/shaving mirror, hair dryer and an extension telephone in the bathroom. My room was equipped with a 25" Flat Screen TV with remote control featuring a full selection of local and satellite TV channels, and I enjoyed complimentary bottled water and tea.

The deluxe rooms (16 of the 164 rooms available) (from $206US) each feature higher ceilings, and are of a split-level design. The sleeping area is contained on the upper level with a short case leading from the sitting area and bathroom. While the rooms have the same footprint as the themed rooms and superior rooms, the split level design and lofty feeling makes the room feel more spacious.

DULAYA SPA & FITNESS CENTER

The onsite Spa and Fitness Facilities were a welcome and wonderful break in a rushed travel schedule. Eight treatment rooms, a fully equipped gym, two steam rooms, a rooftop whirlpool (the view of the Bangkok skyline from the whirlpool is not to be missed), and an outdoor swimming pool with separate changing areas are available for male and female guests.

Spa and fitness facilities for Hotel Davis are available both on the 9th floor of the hotel, and in the "Baan Davis" Thai villas, where private villas, dining rooms, a private swimming pool, and spa services are also located.

Arriving at the private Dulaya Spa in the Baan Thai Villas was a unique experience. After leaving the ultra-modern lobby of the Hotel Davis, you travel through a garden corridor to what is a remarkably beautiful and private Thai village within the hotel grounds. I felt as if I'd left one area of a contemporary adult hotel and traveled to a luxury spa theme park of impeccable taste.

I learned that that a "Baan" is a complex of several Thai styled houses or villas, with a pavilion and an entrance gate, surrounding a common courtyard. Our western styled "private bungalows" are the equivalent of a Baan village, but nearly as beautiful. The Baan Davis, a little "getaway within the hotel", offers 10 Thai style villas with meticulous details in each villa, 2-3 bedrooms, in-villa dining, and other amenities.

Two of these villas have merged to create the private spa treatment area within the Baan -- this is the wonderful Dulaya Spa.

I enjoyed the spa's "Coffee Wonder" package ($48US) as an early morning treat after having spent 6 hours on airplanes the preceding day. My "morning coffee" took on a new twist, as my therapist mixed ground coffee and essential oils to first scrub my skin for 45 minutes, after which I received an hour long expert massage. the aroma of the ground coffee and oils was energizing, although I admit it also energized my appetite, which was a bit distracting. I hadn't eaten and the aroma of the coffee made me hungry for breakfast.

When I asked, my Dulaya Spa therapist told me that Dulaya means "balance." The spa works hard to give its clients a balance between the body, mind, and soul, which it believes is vital to a wholesome, healthy and energetic lifestyle. Dulaya Spa offers an experience of authentic Thai culture and heritage through the integration of the four vital elements of the Thai Traditional Medicine: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. The spa experiences include Body Wraps and Scrubs; Classes and Programs, including water aerobics; Couples Services; Consultations; Facials; Full Hair Services; Hydrotherapy; Cosmetic Services, including Brow and Lash Tint; Manicures and Pedicures; Massage, including tandem Thai Massage and Reflexology; Waxing; Online Booking; Membership Benefits; and Privacy Suites.

While Dulaya Spa cannot officially be considered a "destination spa" due to its compact size (and its renowned competitors nearby), its does an exceptionally good job at offering a comprehensive spa menu in a unique boutique environment, with impeccable style and attention to detail. My two hours in the private Dulaya Spa were sumptuous, and were it not for my raging hunger, I would have lingered much longer, taking in the courtyard and private swimming available to me. A guest booking in a stay in the Thai villas, with private courtyards, chefs in residence, and private spa experiences, will find a premier spa experience to rival many other so-called destination spas. A guest booking a stay in the hotel, with a visit to the spa, will find the perfect urban spa experience -- at the perfect cost.

My impromptu visit didn't me time to schedule interviews with the spa's director or hotel management, but I do know VSM Solutions Co Ltd operates the Dulaya Spa, and, has been officially commissioned by the Department of Export Promotion of The Ministry of Commerce Thailand to formulate a franchise business model of a contemporary "Thai Spa". Dulaya Spa was set up as the first model of a contemporary "Thai Spa" and coincided with the national policy of the Royal Thai Government to make Thailand a Wellness Center of Asia.

THE RESTAURANTS

The Gallery Cafe (pictured at left) at the lobby level of the Hotel Davis offers traditional Thai specialties, as well as International choices, buffet style, and operates 24 hours daily. Not wanting to "experiment" before flying back to the United States, I enjoyed the traditional vegetarian Pad Thai and a light broth soup with fresh lime, both of which were basic but good. I noted a number of Americans dining on traditional fare, including pastries and griddle options. Other choices include Club 88 which is an after-hours club offering bar food and cocktails. The pool bar offers healthy fare and cocktails and smoothies, and room service is available 24 hours per day. In-room chefs are provided to guests staying in the Baan Thai villas with kitchens.

Within steps of the hotel and spa is "Camp Davis" -- the name given to a complex of businesses available to guests. The omnipresent Starbuck's is here, as well as Pola Pola Restaurant (Italian), Sukothai (Thai), Yum Tum (a noodle shop), Fuse (cocktails and appetizers), and Absolute (club).

LOCATION

Situated within the heart of Bangkok's business district on Sukhumvit 24, you are a short distance to major commercial centers, shopping centers and the convenient Bangkok Transit System (BTS) sky-train by way of Prompong station. The Davis can be accessed from both Sukhumvit Road and Rama V Road, providing close proximity to the access points of in bound and outbound expressways as well as direct routes to the Silom and Sathorn areas.

Bangkok International Airport - 30 km., 30 minutes by car
Hua Lampong Railway Station - 10 km., 30 minutes by car
Skytrain -Prompong Station - 5 minutes by car - 10 blocks on foot
Chao Praya River - 30 minutes by car
World Trade Center - 20 minutes by car
Silom Road - 20 minutes by car

LOCAL ATTRACTIONS

The Hotel Davis is centrally located to most of the tourist attractions and business centers in Bangkok, including the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, the Royal Barges National Museum, housing a collection of ceremonial barges (spectacular), the Floating markets at Klong Damneonsaduak, and Jim Thompson Thai House Museum (pictured at left).

The Jim Thompson House is the home of James H.W. Thompson, a self-made American entrepreneur who was the founder of the world renowned Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company. Thompson's achievements during his 25 year stay in the Kingdom of Thailand have won him much fame as the "Legendary American of Thailand".

James Harrison Wilson Thompson was born in Greenville, Delaware in 1906. He attended public schools in Wilmington, went on to boarding school at St. Paul's and attended Princeton University, the family university, from 1924 to 1928. Although Thompson had a keen interest in art, he chose to become an architect and went on to study architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a practicing architect in New York City until 1940. His service in the OSS during the war took him to Asia, where he fell in love with the environs and its people. With his natural flair for design and color, and driven by his single-minded dedication to reviving the craft, Thompson soon gained worldwide recognition for his success in rebuilding the silk industry, for generating international demand for Thai silk and for contributing to the growth of the silk industry. However, during the Easter weekend in 1967, Thompson disappeared while on holiday with friends in Cameron Highlands, a northern Malaysian resort. An extensive and extended search failed to reveal any clues about his disappearance.

"In the twenty years before his ill-fated holiday in Malaysia, he had accomplished more than most men in a full life. He had built a major industry in a remote and little known country whose language he could not speak; he had become an authority on an art that, previously, he scarcely knew existed and had assembled a collection that attracted scholars from all over the world; he had built a home that was a work of art in itself and one of the landmarks of Bangkok; and, in the process of doing all this, he had become a sort of landmark himself, a personality so widely known in his adopted homeland that a letter addressed simply 'Jim Thompson, Bangkok' found its way to him in a city of three and a half million people."

Source: Jim Thompson Thai House Museum.