In an oasis of wellness

Revive your jaded spirts and feel rejuvenated. The Farm, near Manila, is just the place to be.

August 31, 2009 05:06 pm | Updated 05:06 pm IST

Back to Nature: A healing journey for both body and soul. Photos: Gustasp and Jeroo Irani

Back to Nature: A healing journey for both body and soul. Photos: Gustasp and Jeroo Irani

When they pricked our index fingers at The Farm to get a sample of our blood, we were swamped by childhood fears of doctor's clinics and lethal injections.

But our picturesque surroundings (The Farm is a two-hour drive from Manila) soon put us at ease and we were fascinated with the Live Blood Analysis procedure, which was supposed to reveal our state of health at the cellular level.

But we were at The Farm for all too brief a time - a day and a night - to see if it delivered on its promise of health and fitness to tired refugees from a troubled world. But what this 48-hectare wellness oasis did do was to envelop us in its scenic embrace and provided solace to our jaded spirits.

Organic and natural

We wandered down the cobblestone pathways, past the residential villas, red-tiled roof meditation and yoga pavilions, green ponds, cascades, vast areas of a pruned wilderness studded with picnic benches and large old mossy trees including a 300-year-old mango tree.

Yes, everything on The Farm was natural and, thanks to the muted earth colours around us, it would be hard to envision a place where serenity would be easier to grasp. (There are no TVs here and use of mobiles is discouraged.)

The brain child of a German doctor, Eckhardt Rempi, who believed that mankind has to go back to nature to recover his natural state of wellness, The Farm is now largely owned and run by Delhi-based Naresh Khattar.

Everything at The Farm is organic and the fundamental concept is that all diseases start with the stomach. While, to us, it sounded suspiciously like Ayurveda, the methodology at The Farm is German. It offers a combination of Prevention, Recovery and Wellness programmes that include detoxification techniques (such as colon hydrotherapy, etc) spa and fitness therapies, emotional and psychological counselling, spiritual development and lifestyle management.

The bill of fare includes yoga and meditation sessions, belly dancing, martial arts training, trampoline aerobics, and even Tibetan rites of rejuvenation, which were once-secret exercises with age-reversing properties that are practiced even today by Tibetan monks in the Himalayas. There are Pilates and callisthenics in the amphitheatre and Qi Gong and Tai Chi which are energy and breathing exercises and yoga.

This intriguing potpourri is stirred with marvellous creative vegetarian cuisine based on the life-giving coconut and comes with the assurance that most of the ingredients come from The Farm's organic gardens.

That first evening, we had a massage in a couple's treatment room with the tranquil outdoors just an arm's stretch away. The hour-long full body massage done with a mixture of coconut oil and essential oils was a penetrating kneading of muscle, bone and cartilage, which left us in a hypnotic state. There were also herbal wraps, salt glow on offer.

We followed up the massage with languid laps in the swimming pool, a gourmet five-course dinner in the raftered dining room called Alive where blood-red birds-of-paradise flowers and mint-green banana leaves trailed from large grain pots and tree trunks served as support pillars. Here meals that resembled edible works of art came studded with exotica like glazed cashew tofu and cheese made from coconut milk and nuts while the fusion cuisine satiated our pangs of homesickness: samosas with a coconut wrap, stuffed with cauliflower and bell pepper, curried pumpkin soup garnished with coconut crackers; Kerala curry with red beet raita; and coconut baklava and much more. Though The Farm lays out five-course meals, the culinary repertoire is so varied it does not repeat a dish for 60 days.

We drank fresh spring water with a sprig of lemon grass in it though there was organic French wine on offer too. In the night, the Farm was decked up in fairy lights and lanterns and awash in violet pools of shadow. It resembled a fairy-tale wilderness .

We woke early the next morning, went for a walk and saw that a splendid performance was being staged in the sky above the mountain {ndash} the hump was wrapped in a rosy glow and slowly the rising sun seemed to set it afire as we started doing our yoga asanas facing its magnificent spread.

Our morning limbering up session was followed by a hearty breakfast - a fruit salad in a scooped out coconut shell; ginger-lemon tea; granola with prunes, banana and coconut milk; whole wheat bread could be had with a dab of pesto, orange marmalade, cashew cheese and lentil walnut pate; scrambled eggs made of corn and a sliver of "bacon" that was actually coconut flesh.

As we bade goodbye, we realised that we had briefly embarked on a healing journey which for lack of time was a journey interrupted.

Quick info

The Farm is a two-hour drive south of Manila.

A Taste of the Farm: a special package of three nights/two days starts from $1020 (plus taxes). Includes a welcome drink, guided tour, live blood analysis, two spa treatments, three gourmet meals a day, use of The Farm's facilities, spiritual and fitness sessions through the day and return transfers from Manila airport.

Other packages: There is also a 'Rejuvenating at the Farm' package and Prevention, Recovery and Wellness Programmes.

For more information, visit: http://www.thefarm.com.ph

But naturally

Magnetic Clay Foot Bath: the feet are soaked in a solution of magnetic clay and herbs.

Kidney Cleansing: not as frightening as it sounds. The skin is used as a third kidney for it is the largest organ of de-toxification. A mixture of natural organic ingredients is applied and left on for 45 minutes in order to extract toxins through the skin. A prior medical consultation with one of the doctors on The Farm is mandatory.

Body Salt Bath: A 30-minute bath that eliminates toxic wastes. The skin absorbs important minerals from the salt solution applied on the body. Said to be as effective as a three-day fast.

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