Tamarind SpringsWhen Shelly Poplak went looking for a new entrepreneurial niche in Thailand in 1998, she found it in an actual niche - the gap between two gigantic boulders in a hillside coconut grove on the resort island of Koh Samui. So was born Tamarind Springs. Using the granite boulders as ready-made walls, she and her German and Thai partners built a cave-like herbal steam sauna that became the heart of a popular new day spa.
Inside the sauna, hot water percolates up through an inlet in the floor and emits steam scented with lemon grass, wild lime and Thai ginger. Afterwards, there's a refreshing plunge in a rock-lined pool outside. Next guests can select from a menu of massages in a big, open pavilion, followed by herbal tea.
That's the Tamarind Springs spa experience - about US$32 for the two-and half-hour treatment just described - and it's catching on. Starting out with just two masseuses, the shop now has a staff of 10, busy all day with a growing flow of vacationers anxious to rejuvenate themselves. "People are so stressed out these days, caught up in wild consumerism and working really hard. Going to a day spa forces you to let go," says Poplak, a 41-year-old South African who left behind a career in publishing. "People are forced to look at their health, and they admire the Eastern approach, which focuses more on preventative measures rather than dealing with symptomatic problems later on."