How’d you like some calming yoga and meditation on a white sand bank, amidst a crystal-clear turquoise lagoon?  … a soothing massage while drowsing off above aquamarine waters?  … or out-of-this-world Full Moon Glow-in-the-Dark Yoga under the ocean stars? … It’s all yours at this one-off wellness getaway in the Maldives this March. Wellness is taking over the islands for 5 days this March 7 – 11 at The Standard, Huruvali Maldives, led by SEVA Experience, a leading yoga and meditation centre based in Dubai. Costs start at around $515 USD per night, excluding 10% service charge and 16 ..read more

Sunrise Stand Up Paddle Boarding class , taught by Stanton. Word-of-mouth is often the best way to hear about new places, especially from someone with firsthand experience. And that’s what led me to Phuket Cleanse, a boutique wellness retreat on the southernmost tip of Phuket. A couple of years earlier I’d seen promotional email flyers in my inbox from Phuket Cleanse, which to be honest, I’d barely looked at. As a journalist I’m on so many mailing lists and get dozens of marketing emails every day. So the word-of-mouth version was much more compelling than an email flyer. I was on holiday in K ..read more

The Olympic training pool at Thanyapura Phuket Health & Sports resort Thanyapura Phuket sports resort scared me big time when I first heard about it.  All those website  photos of triathlon and marathon training, Olympic pools and running tracks filled with teams vying for Olympic medals terrified someone like me, whose favourite activities are yoga and reading books, preferably while lying down. I’d rather stand on my head under a coconut tree than swim twenty laps around an Olympic pool. So why did I finally get myself over to Thanyapura after avoiding it for years? Though I wa ..read more

It was May by the time I realized it had happened again. As usual, my new year’s health goal was to get fit and lose weight, starting from day one of January. Did that happen? No. Of course this sort of thing doesn’t happen by itself. I meant to go off to a fitness retreat in January. Did that happen? No. Absolute Sanctuary is nestled on a hillside in Koh Samui Never mind the reasons I didn’t get to a fitness retreat in January.   I finally pulled myself together and made it to Absolute Sanctuary in Koh Samui in May. I knew the Absolute wellness brand through their many yoga studios ..read more

Did your New Year’s resolutions include lose weight and get fit?  The easiest way to do this is to go on a health holiday where the whole stay is devoted to improving your health, nutrition, and wellness in a  relaxing, supportive environment. As a spa book author, wellness journalist and a judge for the regional AsiaSpa Awards, I’ve been to many of Asia’s fabulous wellness retreats. People always ask me which ones are the best, so here’s my Top List of destinations for health holidays in Asia to lose weight, detox, get fit, and rejuvenate the mind, body and spiri ..read more

Balancing on a fit ball is a lot harder than it looks, let me tell ya. Engage your core! I’m like everyone else in making New Year / new body resolutions after the holiday feasting frenzy. I even like to get a head start on my list in December, setting goals to join a gym, do a fitness boot camp, join a zumba class, get a trainer, blah, blah, blah. Well next thing you know, calendar pages fly off into the air like a 1950’s movie, it’s June, and I haven’t done any of those things. Not one. Nope. Nada. I’m not fat but I confess, I ate too many cakes at Christmas and I didn’t care (not at the tim ..read more

Sometimes –  usually after I’ve overloaded on too much cake and croissants – my idea of a dream vacation is to go to a nice  seaside health resort to lose weight, eat good food, relax and rest without stepping inside a gym, and do hardly anything .  Hahahaha!  Sounds too good to be true? It’s not. Such places do exist! The hilltop swimming pool at Barberyn Beach Ayurveda Resort  in Weligama, Sri Lanka, has a stunning view of the Indian Ocean stretching out in all directions, but even on a gorgeous morning, with the sun-dappled s ..read more

A yoga class on the lake at Museflower Retreat & Spa Chiang Rai Psssst! … Guess what! You don’t have to pay big bucks for a wellness & spa escape any more –  if you know where to find it.  And I’m telling you here.  These  are the newest and nicest wellness retreats with the most affordable, professional spa offerings you can find in Thailand! Whenever I see the bill to fix my house or my  car, my heart sinks, but I cringe and get on with it for the greater good.  And if you’ve ever seen a hospital bill  then you kno ..read more

Ananda in the Himalayas, India’s first luxury destination spa resort Where best to start learning yoga?  At its birthplace in India, of course.   Little did I know I was on the Beatles trail in Rishikesh… I’ve been a yoga fan for a long time now, but there was once an unhappy, blurry Time Before Yoga when I didn’t know what it was and wasn’t interested. That was when I had a stressful job, an unhealthy social life, was exhausted, and didn’t even know what bad shape I was in.  My friend, who hated her job in Hong Kong and spent all her free time getting as far away ..read more

Everyone has a third eye. Yes, you have one too. Thankfully you can’t see it. Here’s how to take care of this important energy point in your body… Shirodara treatment A third eye may sound like something you’d rather keep hidden in the genetic skeleton closet, like a sixth finger or third nipple, but it’s an important part of your holistic well-being. Everyone has one, and thankfully it’s something you can’t see, except in your mind. Normally a focus point for meditation practice, the third eye is the point in the middle of your forehead where warm medicated oils are poured in the ancient ..read more