The Barai Spa at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Hua Hin Thailand is truly uplifting. I am not trying to give free plugs here, but the beauty of the building contributes much to the whole experience of the spa.

The design was inspired by the Baton Temple in Cambodia's Angkor. Barai is named after "Barays", the large man-made reservoirs created by the Khmers to channel irrigated water for their daily use, believed to be the life arteries providing wellbeing and healing.

The spa complex is an extraordinary interplay of thick walls, repeating corridors, earth colours, lightness, dark, and water. A trip to a "treatment" at the spa winds around corridors of thick walls, moving up & down small steps in semidarkness & quiet. The trip is punctuated by sunlight streaming through fissures in the walls & ceilings strategically placed to highlight design features. In transit one loses all sense of direction & the outside world - the experience imposes mindfulness - awareness only of the here & now, a great prelude to a relaxing massage.