I reviewed the Peak Spa and Beauty Salon on Wednesday July 14, 2010. The staff was not aware that I was doing a review. The Peak Spa has been in Chiang Mai since 2008. They are located past the Night Bazar, just before the Shangri-La Hotel.
The spa itself has a spacious feel, the decor is a contemporary Asian style. All parts of the facility that I saw were clean and fresh. Each member of the staff that I interacted with was polite, friendly, and accommodating.
The Peak offers an assortment of treatments and massages. Their website has a complete listing. I opted for a package which included an Aroma massage for one hour and a honey scrub. My therapist was a charming woman named Mo, who has been working at the Peak for two years.
The session began with choosing a treatment from their menu and a cup of tea. They have three essential oils to choose from for the aroma massage, lavender, eucalyptus, and ylang ylang. They are in a base of sweet almond, jojoba, and rice bran oil.
My package included a scrub done with a heated honey and grain mixture. The scrub was done first and lasted about thirty minutes and was pleasantly energizing. This was followed with a shower to remove the honey mix prior to the massage.
I tend to not micro-manage when I receive a massage, I like to see what the therapist offers without any directing. Usually they will do the style that they enjoy and are most proficient at and you then get the best they can provide. With that said it is also completely appropriate to suggest the general tone of the treatment, such as relaxing, invigorating, etc. One of the determining factors in this is the pace or tempo of the massage. Generally, a massage done with slow rhythmic strokes is most relaxing and a faster pace with changes in rhythm will be more invigorating.
I would describe the massage I received from Mo as being a hybrid of Thai, Swedish, and deep tissue. She began with quite a lot of fairly deep compressions and stretches normally found in Thai massage. She followed that with some Swedish type strokes with oil. She worked quite deeply, sometimes with elbow and forearm. Her natural tempo was rather fast and as a result the treatment was more invigorating than relaxing. One of the essential qualities of a good therapist is the ability to be “present”. It is the presence that makes a technically good massage into a transcendent experience. Mo has that presence.
The price for the two hours of scrub and massage was 2100 THB (about $65 USD). At the time of this review, the spa is offering a “buy one get one free” promotion. Check their web site for current promotions.
I was pleased with the treatment and the experience overall, I recommend the Peak spa.
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