Two Bunch Palms Spa
Desert Hot Springs
California

Like a Lilliputian stampede of wild ponies, twenty fingers of two masseuses prance up my front, through the valley between my breasts and spread out on the cliffs of my shoulders. Thus ends the massage portion of my Ayurvedic wonder treatment—not your everyday rubdown.

The masseuse duet begins with my laying facedown, privates carefully concealed. The only light that enters this small treatment room ripples through a stained glass window. The om-shanti-shanti chant plays softly. For a moment the pressure of the two sets of hands is quite different. Then, they move into sync. It’s as if a mirror, placed along the center of my spine, magically reflects the massage from one side to the other.

Herb-infused hot sesame oil drizzles along my legs as they are simultaneously kneaded and stroked. Then, four flat hands clutch my muscles as if to pull out the stress. The duet moves upward, one hand massaging each of my four higher charkas (yogic spiritual energy centers.) Then my spine, neck, shoulders, arms, and hands join my already mush-cake lower body.

Turning over, modesty again protected, hot oil drizzles over my front. Four hands knead, sweep, stroke and finally stampede.

Rolled mummy-like in sheets and towels, a thin stream of heated oil trickles onto my forehead and tickles my temples. All residual tension slides off with the oil. I’m guided to the sauna for a steam and that’s followed by a brisk mineral water shower. I feel quiet and still, but as this soporific effect wears off, I am full of life and mirth.

The next day, in the middle of a February cold snap—the temperature reaches only 60 degrees, down from its normal 80 degrees—I head for the mud baths. Big, blue ceramic tile tubs sit under piney tamarisk trees. Peat moss and Two Bunch Palms’ exclusive green clay—soaked for centuries in these mineral waters—fill the tubs. Spring waters flow into the tub at 114 degrees. A lovely moist woodsy smell drifts on the winter wind. Floating in this primordial muck, I recall that the ancient Egyptian queens used green clay to treat their aches and enhance their complexions. But, I don’t feel a bit like Cleopatra, I feel like a rose. A rose warmed by the spring sun, moistened by the spring rain and emerging from its winter retreat to bloom once more.

Two Bunch Palms is not your everyday spa.