SOOTHING SPICE IN A TROPICAL PARADISE

FUSION RESORT PHU QUOC, VIETNAM

Speckled across the Gulf of Thailand, off the southern coast of Vietnam, you’ll find the 20 islands that make up the archipelago of Phu Quoc. Swaying palms, translucent waters and sands the colour of freshly caught pearls all come as standard in this tropical paradise, but it’s the famed black pepper that attracts wellness retreaters.

The islands are known for growing the world’s best black pepper and Fusion Resort Phu Quoc, at the quieter, southern end of the archipelago, harvests its own. Its therapists are experts on pepper’s properties and how best to use them. That could be using the oil, which emits a deep warmth, to tone and ease aching muscles during their deep-tissue massages or in a diffusion, where it delivers a sense of alertness and mental clarity. Before your treatment, guests are encouraged to pick their own peppercorns from the farm to be turned into oils by the in-house wellness ‘mixologist’, who blends it with locally grown mung beans, turmeric and rice. The resulting oil, rich in natural muscle stimulants, is then applied during a ‘natural living pepper’ massage, which blends Swedish and South East Asian techniques to ensure strained muscles are soothed and made supple. The treatment is part of the resort’s wider, wall-towall wellness ethos, which also includes daily hatha yoga sessions, meditation and Tai Chi. Making the clean-living lifestyle even more amiable are the villas, complete with private pools, sunken wooden bathtubs and lovely monsoon showers.