Recycled spirits

Published on September 14, 2007

Pampering yourself does not have to hurt the environment. And at Suk Spa, the owner makes sure you get pampered with good services without ruining a single thing that nature has to offer.

"We use recycled furniture to decorate the whole place and we stick with natural ingredients that can be naturally dissolved in our practices. We also use local products in the main treatments to make sure that we do not waste unnecessary energy in transporting foreign products into our country," says Thanwat "Pop" Suwinai Puksabenja, the spa's owner and creator.

Suk is located opposite the Ambassador Hotel on Sukhumvit 11. You will enter another world when you walk up the alley that is packed with trees and shrubs that surround the old Thai-style wooden complex that features a hostel, a Thai restaurant and a spa. Suk Spa is opposite the restaurant, and you will not miss the place thanks to the spa's staff being dressed in colourful Thai traditional sabai dress.

"When my restaurant got successful, I expanded with the spa," says the 37-year-old Phatthalung native Thanwat. "I wanted to stick to the original concept of bringing back the past of Thailand, the true life of Thai people that has been extinct for over 50 years, back into the heart of Bangkok,"

The result is a spa unlike any other. While most spas in Bangkok are designed for luxury, Suk Spa emphasises the comforts to be had in ordinary Thai households.

The decor features old wood panelled walls, doors and window frames from old-style Thai houses. The first floor features a line of foot massage chaise lounges and two Thai massage rooms decked out under the concept of Thai ordinary housing. The upper floor features a slum community with a row of corrugated iron-roofed wooden house, complete with a fake pool of putrid-looking water.

"Everything here that you see, including the furniture is recycled from actual old Thai houses or old schools," says Thanwat. "Instead of letting them throw the old valuable wood away, I brought them back to life. We are not just saving the forest but we also preserve the air from more chemical substances because the woods here are so old they do not attract termites anymore - thus no need to spray them like new wood."

Decorations aside, the treatments at Suk spa are created from Thai traditional medicine and use natural things to substitute modern needs. For example, bai plub plung (crinum lily leaves) and banana leaves are used to substitute plastic film in body wraps. Local herbs, both fresh and dried, which are abundant in the healing ingredients, are put together to create the aroma, instead of imported essential oils.

"Authentic essential oils are very expensive and there are the cheaper versions of chemicals that destroy your respiratory system," explains Thanwat. "So, I decided to use local fresh herbs to give the scent to my spa. We have so many local herbs that give aromatic scents; why don't we maximise their benefits?"

Local herbs are used to make the house's massage oils and scrubs as well. Salt is baked in clay pots and wrapped with the lily leaves and pressed to the aching body. Kaffir limes are sliced to rub the feet at the beginning of the treatment and din sor pong (white clay pallets) are dissolved into thick mud to coat and scrubs the designated body areas.

"After all, there is amazing wisdom behind everything our ancestors did in the past and we have ignored them for too long," says Thanwat. "You know that the lily leaves are naturally antiseptic and baked salt can firm up your muscles and ease muscular tensions for those working long hours in front of a computer."

And Thanwat hopes that the much-talked-about global warming will not be just another fad in the end. 

"I hope the crisis can really change people's mindsets about life because the world belongs to us all. If we don't preserve it, who will? And we can all help by doing the little things that count. Starting by recycling and reusing simple things and it will lead on to bigger things in the end."

Thai wisdom and environmentally friendly ways of the past

Suk Spa

1/30 Sukhumvit 11

Daily: 9.30am to 8pm

(02) 651 2672 www.sukspa.com

Sirin P Wongpanit  

The writer can be contacted at www.ohsirin.blogspot.com.