Javanese Jungle Workout
Sun Herald
Sunday February 11, 1996
I'M swaddled, tight as a drum, in a steaming linen sheet, a woollen blanket and the kind of metallic overcoat favoured by astronauts. I resemble a gumnut baby and I smell like my husband's herb patch.
Yesterday my face was expertly hoovered with a vacuum the size of a spaghetti strand; my body hosed with a force that would enrapture the local fire brigade.
This afternoon my considerable bulk is to be enveloped in seaweed and gently steamed, which for the doll-sized employees of the Javana Spa conjures visions of the world's largest sushi.
Indonesia's health resort in the highlands promises rest and rejuvenation of mind, body and spirit, a package which comes wrapped in the emerald embrace of the Javanese jungle.
Just two hours from the carbon monoxide-cloaked capital of Jakarta, Javana Spa offers apple-crisp mountain air, a squadron of waterfalls and fairy floss clouds drifting over bubbling volcanoes.
The 23ha complex is modelled on San Diego's Golden Door Spa. For the exercise-challenged, it follows a regimen of drill and diet which leaves them breathless and issuing frequent exclamations to the Almighty.
Guests are pummelled and polished, massaged and manicured, stretched, scrubbed, steamed and sauna-ed.
On the culinary front, there is a dearth of red meat and salt, ditto alcohol and, lest a midnight binge beckons, no in-room fridges. And unless guests wish to gain or maintain their weight - a body in the minority - a daily dietary intake of just 1,000 calories.
There are no phones, radios, books or newspapers and the nearest shop is a few kilometres down a rocky mountain road which pitches at, conservatively, 45 degrees.
In other words, there's no escape. And if all this sounds just a little too forbidding, rest easy; it's not.
For the unfit and reluctant - read yours truly - it is, short of climbing Everest, the closest they may come to an out-of-body experience.
Javana Spa works on the carrot-and-stick principle. One hour's vigorous workout is rewarded by an hour's massage; 60 minutes of yoga equals a strawberry scrub - which leaves you comatose and smelling like a sorbet.
Classes are conducted in glass-walled gyms with wrap-around views of rainforest-clad mountains; the pain of unaccustomed exercise on state-of-the-art equipment is soothed by flighty families of swallows in nest-building mode.
Days at Javana begin at the mind-bending hour of 5.30am; but stretch to the sight of a cinnamon sun tipping over the mountain, gulp a lung full of misty morning air and even wimps never want to start the day any other way.
Morning walks can be as gentle as a rainforest rummage, along rock paths studded with lichen; or as invigorating as a hernia-inducing hike to a wheezing volcano crater.
A typical day alternates health and beauty treatments with meals, exercise with free time in the sauna, spa and steam room. Massages are of the iron fist in the velvet glove variety; the slender stature of the Indonesian masseuses belies fingers of steel.
For the truly energetic, tennis courts and outdoor heated swimming pools offer additional options.
And while guests are encouraged to enjoy every facility that the spa provides, exercise is by no means compulsory; some happily spend their time transported by the tranquillity of the Japanese gardens which are a feature of each guest room, or feeding the white geese and black swans which lord it over the landscaped lake.
I followed the former, lost 2.5kg in five days, and chalked up a mind, body and spirit that felt like a million dollars. A fellow guest took the latter option; her mind, body and spirit, she said, felt just the same.
FACT FILE
Javana Spa offers accommodation for 40 guests. Its 20 double bungalows are spacious and comfortable, each with small garden and private facilities. Provided in each room is a terry cloth bathrobe, kimono, slippers, sweat shorts, T-shirt, training gear and wind breakers. Spa facilities include sauna, spa and steam room, private treatment rooms, tennis courts, swimming pools and three gyms.
A variety of packages, from one to six nights, is available, each inclusive of air fare, accommodation, meals, transfers, treatments, classes and use of spa facilities. Further information and bookings on 1800 999 468.
© 1996 Sun Herald