Letting off Steam !!
- 25/ 2/ 2014 <--Prev : Next-->
I am not hedonistic by nature......
Not one for facials, massages and manicures, I would rather buy new plants for the garden!
So it was much to my horror that She Who Must Wear Kevlar suggested a visit to a spa.
She needed pampering I know, she had been involved in an altercation with a Nairobi Matatu (taxi) and had come off second best and she definitely needed her poor bruised body to be healed. So once I had finished cooking a giant batch of Mummy's chicken soup for the deep freeze, with gritted teeth, I agreed to keep her company.
First port of call was the steam room...... I drew the line at a Rasul which is apparently a combined steam and mud bath, as we in Bulawayo have had floods for two weeks and I had had quite enough mud for the year!!
The spa at the Tribe Hotel in Kenya is quite remarkable, quiet, serene, magnificently decorated and with every possible treatment available for those who love to be pampered.
Subdued, exotic music played quietly as we sipped a delicious pre steamroom fruit cocktail, and then the crunch came.
She Who Must Wear Kevlar is obviously used to these bizarre pampering experiences and she was confused when I burst into hysterical laughter when the beautiful young attendant opened our lockers and showed us traditional steam room garb.
The fluffy, soft, pure white full length toweling gown was divine, but those disposable broekies we had to wear had me in convulsions. They were giant granny broekies in soft plastic, necessary for hygiene definitely but oh so unflattering!! I at first thought they were shower caps to protect ones hairdo, but She Who Must Wear Kevlar reprimanded me severely when I pulled over my head!! Disposable flip flops too were provided but I fortunately knew where to wear them!!
The steam room was well, full of steam of course, boiling hot and smelling strongly of fragrant eucalyptus. We sat on wooden benches placidly and serenely for about two minutes when the novelty wore off for me, it was difficult to see or hear and indeed to breath, although I am sure the steam was doing all sorts of wonderful medicinal detoxifying things to me. I had read somewhere that symptoms of too much heat include dizziness, vertigo, rapid heartbeat or excessive thirst. Outside the door were lovely bottles of cold spring water and we devoured several of those thirstily.
The steam grew so thick and so hot that before the stipulated twenty minutes of the torture I eventually succumbed to claustrophobia and dashed headlong out of the room into the arms of a beautiful young thing bearing elegant fruit kebabs dusted with rose geranium sugar and fragrant herbal hibiscus tea!!
She Who Must Wear Kevlar then went on to have her poorly limbs massaged gently while I read my book and dozed gently after my tempestuous ordeal in the beautiful Tribe Hotel steam room.
