Thai way to health: On a wellness trail in Thailand like never before

Nothing can top vitamin sea for the soul. I’m sure the pernicious darkness and delicious perversion of The White Lotus, the upcoming season of which is shot in Koh Samui, cannot get to it. As I marinate in the pleasance cast by the shimmering sea and plan a yoga escape to Koh Phangan across the gleaming waters next, I’m summoned back to reality. “You don’t want to move that arm too much,” I’m cautioned preemptively by my learned neighbour on the adjoining chair, that I have an IV in the dorsal vein of my hand.

As my liver detox IV kicks in, Kabir Saluja’s earlier admission of being “weirded out” by the casual usage of “wellness” really comes into perspective. Wellness travel is getting a definition overhaul, and outfits like Samui’s Miskawaan Beachfront Villas are at the forefront of it. When I stepped out of my exceedingly well-appointed suite onto palm-fringed Maenam beach this morning, I didn’t imagine a place like this could need anything else. 

But the thing is, the fourth-largest wellness tourism market in Asia now wants the ‘wellness’ in wellness travel to be primary. To the extent that visionaries in the industry are now increasingly rejecting guideline therapy for major chronic illnesses. And it’s supplementing the existing buffet of therapies offered in tranquil natural environments with a new slate of diagnostic tech, non-invasive therapies and new-age recuperation programmes, all at costs travellers can afford. 

Resorts such as Miskawaan also have their sights set on founding a new global bastion of medicine that can address chronic illnesses, with a particular focus on alternative cancer care. And leading the charge is functional medicine, a branch of holistic healthcare that rejects the ‘one pill for everybody’ school of thought.

“Functional medicine originated in the US but Thailand refined it by blending the latest techniques and knowledge of IVs, diets and supplements. They have combined the Eastern philosophy of yoga, naturopathy, acupuncture — not to mention lifestyle changes — with meditation. And it’s offered at various resorts at very economical prices compared with most European and American resorts,” Dr Sanjay Sachdeva, a Delhi-based nutrition scientist who runs his own functional medicine centre in the Capital, tells me.

More and more nutritionists and scientists over the world increasingly debunk detoxification as a myth nowadays. But at resorts like Kamalaya, the country’s unshakeable belief in the Eastern philosophies of abstinence and the great outdoors persists. “Detox is all about rest and reset here. One cannot stress enough on the power of food being medicine. And spending a week or two not consumed by your phone screens but looking at the Gulf of Thailand,” sales manager Siriporn Tongwijit teases my errant hand that doesn’t seem to have registered how serious these people are about their methods, over a pre-lunch round of in-house ginger ale. 

It isn’t just the views — this resort that has over the past two decades bagged multiple industry laurels, combines serious and comprehensive health assessments both pre- and post-arrival with gymnasiums, plunge pools and sauna chambers peppered all over its 20-acre beachside expanse hugging the thickly forested face of a hill. Regenerative therapies, women's health programmes and diagnostics are combined with nutrition science, ayurveda, naturopathy and other traditional forms of medicine.

You call this an embarrassment of riches? Well, if two days of zipping around this not-so-small-after-all island left us immune to its many charms, the exceedingly luxurious InterContinental Koh Samui Resort will recalibrate all of it. Its cavernous promontory-like lobby majestically overlooks the ocean on three sides, including the famous “five islands”. But intent on undoing as much damage as possible to my newfound good habits, I follow up a round of grilled seafood and Thai rum cocktails (oops) with a furious night stroll by the beach, where I now have the lonely pier and the lapping waves for company.

Back in Bangkok, we’re at RXV Village Sampran, a state-of-the-art wellness resort that blends modern scientific movement therapy with other integrative programmes that, again, arrange themselves around a rainbow diet programme, ingredients for which are all sourced in-house. But what impresses me most is the sprawling hydrotherapy complex, named Bor Naam, where the pop culture appeal of cold plunges and cryo-shock is elevated with an assemblage of vitality pools, oxygen baths, soda baths, infrared sauna and the like.

Here, I also have the chance to once again put to the test sound therapy, which I’ve always dismissed as pseudoscientific hokum. Our therapist gets her drumkit-like singing bowls to work as we prostrate ourselves, eyes wide shut and the corpus surrendered, on the cool floor. But even with its extremely calming effect, I conclude one 50-minute session is only enough to coax the exhaustion of an early morning flight and a somewhat tiring drive through muggy Bangkok out of your body.

But then, this is how health is a harmonic collision of contradictions in Thailand — specific and holistic, preventive and corrective, fundamental and technological. It works because this acceptance of physiology as requiring diverse forms of course-correction, makes it realistic and feasible. Just like how a liver detox IV drip doesn’t claim to completely reverse the harmful effects of alcohol, but is to increase liver efficiency to detoxify the body and change fat-soluble toxins into water-soluble ones. The infusions menu at Miskawaan addresses both quick recovery and longevity-based treatment programmes, including ozone therapy, NAD infusions and even IV drips for jetlag and hangover.

From Samui to Bangkok, it’s clear that Thailand situates itself in feeling well. And that comes irrespective of income bracket. For instance, at Healthworld Onsen Spa & Massage in Bangkok, a great massage can be had for as low as 700 baht (INR 1,716). But if you want to see for yourself the country’s busy chiselling of the rather nebulous concept of wellness, The Sukhothai Bangkok presents an opportunity that’s more than a salutary hotel staycation.

Spread out amid landscaped verdure and pleasing water features, this coveted luxury hotel on Sathorn Road boasts a newly spruced-up spa that also features the Miskawaan Clinic. A teaser to the one-of-a-kind hospital that the group has coming up later this year, the plush spa complex gives me a glimpse of its capabilities through a body massage. My therapist Cindy, a smiling and energetic local whose petite stature belies her enormous prowess at pummelling the human body into relaxation, delivers a blockbuster performance, making me feel every numb inch of my mass.

The next afternoon, after a long walk along Saithorn Road, I wonder aloud about the feasibility of spending more than they would otherwise on a wellness holiday abroad. “You see,” proffers Tim, our witty tour guide. “Spending to prevent is better than spending to treat; cheaper, too. And then, you have travel to boot,” she winks at me, reaffirming the status of prominence the country aims to give to wellness. And like Saluja said earlier, “If people have to get treated, why do they have to be surrounded by white walls? Why can't they be here?”

Everywhere in Thailand, skin clinics fill up streets and sidewalks. IV drip bars and lounges and concept spas find pride of place in malls and luxury hotels, just like domestically set-up massage places and Muay Thai clubs where you can learn to throw a punch or two. No wonder, according to Mckinsey, the Thai capital is set to upstage Dubai as Indians’ favourite leisure destination in 2024. That Indians can travel visa-free till further notice, is an added incentive.

The author's trip was sponsored by Tourism Authority of Thailand.