Faraway in the mountains of the Eastern Himalayas, the luxurious is bringing a bouquet of holistic wellness services to the world’s happiest country. Join in for a retreat of the body, mind and soul.
If ‘calm’ had a sound, it’d be the deep, lingering timbre of a Himalayan singing bowl. That is what it felt like as Kinley, my massage therapist, gently struck one such hand-carved bell-metal bowl with a wooden mallet, and moved it around my ears. The pure tones emanating from it created a strange tingle that emerged from the back of my neck, travelled down my spine, and settled cosily somewhere around the pit of my stomach. That ASMR effect swiftly manifested in a sensation of absolute calm and a feeling of great relaxation, which put me in a state of tranquil acceptance for all the goodness that was to follow, over the next six days of my wellness sojourn with the recently-launched outpost of the Six Senses Hotels Resorts & Spas, in the Kingdom of Happiness—that is Bhutan.
That afternoon, I had arrived on a choppy flight at the exquisite Paro International Airport of our picturesque neighbouring country,
cocooned in a little nook of the Eastern Himalayas. Known for pioneering the concept of Gross National Happiness, Bhutan draws in architecture, nature, spirituality and Buddhism enthusiasts, with its magnificent dzongs (fortresses), peaceful monasteries, invigorating nature hikes, scores of chortens (stupas), and other such delights. As a first-time traveller to this colourful country, I too looked forward to experiencing all that Bhutan had to offer, but my primary agenda, quite predictably, was the elusive pursuit of wholesome happiness—of the body, mind and soul.
Earlier this year, ‘burnout’ was officially recognised as a medical syndrome by the World Health Organisation. I too, was inching towards this overwhelming condition, courtesy my fast-paced, peripatetic lifestyle that was beginning to take a toll on my physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It was about time that I hit pause, rejuvenated and rebooted myself. And Six Senses Bhutan, with its luxury lodges set across three gorgeous locations, sustainable practices and holistic treatments, presented just the right setup for a complete wellness makeover.
My first port of call was the Six Senses Thimphu lodge, located a little over an hour away from the airport at Paro, on a hilltop overlooking the bustling city of Thimphu—the capital of Bhutan. The vista that greeted me, as I walked into the high-ceilinged entrance courtyard, made me stop in my tracks. Fronted by an all-glass façade and surrounded by a serene, mirror-like pond that reflected the sky above, it looked over the Thimphu valley and the city sprawled below, with rolling mountains around, and the Buddha Dordenma—a gigantic statue of the Shakyamuni Buddha welded in bronze, sitting serenely atop a hill across.
My suite too opened to this all-encompassing view, and its design like the rest of the lodge, drew from traditional Bhutanese architecture—high-pitched roofs clad with wooden shingles, handbeaten and white-washed thick walls, timber-framed windows, furniture in muted, natural tones, and vegetable-dyed antique rugs. The soothing interiors, quiet surroundings of apple orchards and blue pine forests, and the piercingly fresh air, instantly helped calm my frayed city nerves.
Later that evening, I met the Wellness Manager, Dr Apurva Tamhane, for a very interesting session of wellness screening. A curious apparatus occupied a portion of his work desk at the Six Senses Spa. He made me sit down and place my palms on a flat hand-plate and my feet on a similar foot-plate below. He then stuck two sticky electrodes to my forehead, strapped a blood pressure machine to one arm, and fixed a Pulse Oximeter onto one index finger. Demonstrating its function, he explained, “Just like how an ECG collects signals from your heart, this machine uses Galvanic Skin Response and Bioimpedance to collect electric signals from all