Jaunt: Health is Wealth
The wellness movement is a global phenomenon, but few retreats can match the holistic and integrative experience waiting for you at RAKxa, an 80-acre tropical oasis in Bangkok. Our man had no choice but to surrender...
As a spirited New Yorker who is ceaselessly on the go, on terra firma or aloft, I had misgivings about spending a week at a wellness retreat where the raison d’être would be to slow down and take stock. But some time on the second day — and somewhere between the vitamin drip I had been administered, the protein-centric repast I had savoured, and the multiple rounds of therapy I enjoyed in the banya — it dawned on me: this might be exactly what I need.
The realisation, this epiphany, came not at some rarefied and chic Alpine clinic surrounded by snowy peaks but, rather, as I sat with my wife waterside in a terry-cloth robe at RAKxa on the outskirts of Bangkok, the dewy tropical air of the rainy season doing wonders for our epidermises. RAKxa, meaning ‘heal’ and ‘prevent’ in Thai, is an 80-acre, fully integrative wellness and medical retreat set in immaculate tropical gardens in the city’s green lung, Bang Krachao, with a restrained polish that emphasises calm and tranquillity and a footprint and design vernacular that is strikingly similar to those found at many Aman resort properties.
But that’s where those similarities end. Sure, there are the spacious standalone villas (42 of them) dotted alongside a man- made lagoon; a stunning emerald-green infinity pool on the banks of the Chao Phraya River; and multifarious pavilions where you dine, rest, relax and are greeted by an aesthetic that is unmistakably Thai. But what really sets RAKxa apart as a singular offering in a world where the word ‘wellness’ has become oft-used is their harmonious, next-level approach to holistic wellbeing. In fact, the motto you see everywhere on the property is ‘health is wealth’, a moniker that more and more au fait are happy to adopt.
Ours would be a hyper-personalised five-day integrated programme that started with questionnaires weeks in advance of our arrival and consultations and physiological tests (think: body composition analysis, postural alignment, flexibility and strength assessment, and a cardiovascular endurance, balance and stability test) that commenced once we were on site by a dedicated group of health and medical professionals, from which a daily itinerary was formulated, covering everything from exercise and nutrition to rest and stress management, as well as restorative treatments, embracing their five core pillars. Alcohol would, of course, be off limits, but smokers could get their fix in a designated area.
As all schedules were bespoke and tailored to individual goals, I took a more languid approach to things. My wife, on the other hand, would be out of the door early each day, having a pilates or stretch session followed by time in the gym as well as mindfulness exercises, such as yoga, tai chi and pranayama, among others. We did have some treatments together — a session in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber and getting our fill with the aforementioned vitamin-filled intravenous infusions — but mostly we met at mealtimes.
RAKxa is a car-free oasis, and while golf buggies abound, guests are encouraged to use bicycles between their villas and the troika of principal facilities — the fitness centre, the wellness centre, and, most importantly, the scientific and medical centre, an impressive offering powered by VitalLife in collaboration with the world-renowned Bumrungrad hospital. It is across these three outsized complexes where programmes that aim to rebalance, detox, de-stress, de-bloat, aid weight management, and boost immunity and gut health as well as mobility, fitness and general wellbeing are administered by an army of highly capable doctors, nurses, physical therapists, trainers, wellness advisers and traditional medicine healers of the Ayurvedic, Thai and Chinese variety, all of whom make a concerted and genuine effort to understand and assess each individual and in turn provide invaluable insights and treatments with warmth, care and consideration.
Find out more about RAKxa here.
You wouldn’t expect Aman’s latest Asian outpost to be anywhere else except the most prized parcel of land in Thailand’s humming capital. Unlike the city’s other haute hostelries, Aman Nai Lert Bangkok, named for a dynastic Thai family (and spearheaded by one of its fourth-generation scions, Naphaporn Bodiratnangkura), is tucked into a discreet and elegantly proportioned melanised steel-and-glass mid-rise in a bonsai-perfect private heritage park that was the hitherto hereditary Nai Lert family seat. The 52-suite beauty features all the requisite Aman touches (teak- plank flooring, textured walls, tapestries, tiles, endless flower arrangements and reliefs and local artworks curated by the Paris- born, Bangkok-based art designer Martin Gerlier) but also some revelatory interior design cues by longtime Aman collaborator Jean-Michel Gathy, such as a trio of bi-level atriums (each a unique homage to three variations of Japanese nihon teien) and an outdoor swimming pool halfway up the building, anchored by a bar as well as a 109-year-old Sompong tree that rises nine floors through a three-storey architectural oculus to provide shade superjacent. Forgoing the equally stunning service, the 16,000-square-foot spa, and myriad bars and restaurants, it is a masterstroke for Aman and for the owning Nai Lert family.
