Review of Chiva-Som International Health Resort, by Caroline Major

Life has to be good when you can afford to build an ocean front health retreat to pamper yourself and your best mates. For the King of Thailand, it's perfectly possible. Chivasom is unique in that unlike the plethora of hotels adding Spa premises to their offering, Chivasom was designed as a spa, adding rooms later. The grounds are massive. You need a golf buggy for transfers between many of the 47 treatment suites and your room.

To want to check into Chivasom, is to want to feel healthier. This is not a relaxing holiday in the normal sense. You've got to be serious about changing your life here. It's a mental thing. People come to Chivasom to lose weight, quit smoking, start an exercise regime, detox, or kick a hard-partying lifestyle. Staff are trained professionals who've seen it all before, from some of the biggest and brightest stars in the world. They go to great length to get you in the right mental state to achieve your goals. For extended stays, they even take on the role of surrogate family: Chivasom people will eat with you, encourage you, haul you out of bed.

The treatments are inspiring. Have yourself wrapped in seaweed, Thai tropical fruits, salt, or flowers; have hot stones rubbed on your sore spots, cold packs on your other bits, needles in your ears, pressure on anything you can image or just immerse yourself, in your room in a bath-tub filled with milk and flowers. After three or four treatments, a yoga class, a session in the gym and a life coaching session, you can look forward to relaxing by the pool or on the beach with a fruit cocktail and some healthy no salt, no fat, no sugar snacks. You need a reason to come here, and if you have it, and the right mental attitude, you'll have a great time.

Have a nurse give you a check up at check-in is par for the course here. Extra services entice you to have your yearly engine 'fine-tuning' at Chivasom. Used as a clinic, they will check your cholesterol levels, liver function and heart health among other things. They can even help someone wanting to avoid western medicine. Check in before you check out, as they would say.