Spa-radise found
Wealth without well-being is meaningless. This is the rallying call of those who have discovered the Philippines as a destination for medical tourism.
“I was looking for something to do with the rest of my life before I came to the Philippines,” said highly successful New Delhi-based hotelier Naresh Khattar, proprietor of the Avalon group of hotels among many global property development projects. He visited The Farm in San Benito at Lipa, Batangas, for a 14-day detoxification program. After the first week of green-juice fasts, colonic hydrotherapy, kidney and liver cleansing treatments and other integrated alternative therapies, he lost a lot of weight and felt 20 years younger.
“I was dancing, brimming with joy and youthful vigor for I finally discovered the elixir to happiness and good health, which is the greatest wealth,” Khattar added.
By the time he left the country two weeks later, his group already owned majority of the property. Today, as chairman and chief managing director of The Farm in San Benito, it is his personal prayer and advocacy to share with the world the wonderful life-changing discoveries he found there.
Integrated wellness is the key to good health. Most people in the world manage their illness, not their wellness. Why wait to be confined in a hospital room when one can receive alternative treatments in a luxurious tropical resort-cum-medi-spa setting, a far more inspiring, relaxing and soulful environment to prevent disease? Most sick people don’t like going to hospitals and healthy people feel sick when they do. If you had the option to take a medical vacation in a stunningly beautiful haven where the glorious mountains seem to kiss the ethereal clouds, where the melodious sound of gurgling brooks in tropical rainforests serenade you, where fairies seem to bathe in cascading waterfalls and pools, where you can relax and enjoy the beautiful five-star villa accommodations with modern amenities, wouldn’t you take the opportunity? 
At The Farm, you can pick freshly grown organic greens from greenhouses, find tranquility as you meditate in cozy nooks and romantic pathways, savor spa cuisine that makes you realize healthy food can be extremely delicious. While you are pampered with exhilarating massages and delectable body scrubs, you feel like a princess about to meet your prince. Without batting an eyelash, I seized the privilege to indulge in what I consider the best kind of retreat — a medical holiday. More than that, I now embrace it as my lifestyle.
With Asia in the limelight as a destination for medical tourism, the Philippines is primed to capture its share of this booming market. I have traveled far and wide in search of that paradise where a fusion of both relaxation and wellness exists in a luxurious mis-en-scene.
America, Europe, Asia may have medi-spas with immaculate standards but we are so blessed to have in our own country the grandeur of this jewel of well-being.
Mr. Khattat describes it as “the secret to long life and happiness.”
Having bagged several accolades from the internationally distinguished Spa Crystal Awards for best medi spa, best retreat, best spa cuisine, guests from all over the world travel thousands of miles to savor the integrated medical and wellness programs offered at The Farm in San Benito.
For us here, it’s simply a two-hour scenic drive from Manila through well-paved highways. This priceless gift of impeccable health is just within reach.
This 49-hectare sprawling spa-radise, founded by my dear friends Eckard and Perla Rempe, whose philosophies and approach remain to be The Farm’s bible and guiding force, is not simply the quintessential resort with a spa feature or a five-star medical facility, but rather an integrated oasis of Asian-inspired traditional healing treatments combined with the latest technology of life enhancement and western science based anti-aging and preventive therapies.
Resident manager Jennifer DiLonardo shares the human body is a complex organism with the ability to heal itself if we learn to listen to it and respond by giving it what it really needs.
My advocacy for alternative medicine is born from the experience of having lost both my parents to lung cancer, 20 days apart, 12 years ago. Even the longest life is short. Mom and Dad were 59 and 60 years old, respectively, when they passed on. On their deathbeds, they called all of us to their side and requested us to take care of each other and maintain healthy lifestyles. I will never forget how devastating it was to hear the doctors at Stanford Hospital in California telling us siblings that our parents had barely two months to live and there was nothing that Western science could do to prolong their lives.
Feeling so helpless, we asked what then could we do at that point. They suggested we try alternative, herbal or organic medicine. From then on, we vowed that we wouldn’t wait till it’s too late to take control of our health and well-being.
Today, our family explores eastern modalities, engages in naturopathic consultation and holistic treatments, which The Farm in San Benito competently offers. Personally, I have taken the lead in this approach. Instead of my annual executive check-up, I have opted to take the quarterly seven-day preventive program which is focused primarily on eliminating toxic substances trapped throughout the tissues of the body, restoring the optimum ability of the body to absorb nutrients for its total health.
Why cleanse? What is the rationale for all this detoxification? The real source of health is the Divine Source, where love, the cohesive power of the universe emanates from. However, negative thoughts and feelings cause disease that blocks this flow. When we cleanse, we allow ourselves to become vessels of pure joy, bliss and love.
The Farm’s general manager Michael DiLonardo said, most, if not all, of today’s diseases (including cancer, digestive ailments, diabetes, hypertension, chronic degenerative diseases like arthritis) are caused by the toxins trapped in our body. Stress and strained relations, environmental pollution and cigarette smoking, food preservatives and repeated use of cooking oil, among other things are the culprits that bring toxins to our body. The Farm offers a five-day preventive/detoxification program. The program may vary, from three to six weeks, depending on what the client needs.
The program starts with one-hour of medical consultation. It is like having a checkup in a hospital except that at The Farm, the consultation is done in a 90-hectare oasis replete with extraordinary palms and other flora. The consultation aims to determine the illness or wellness of the patient, medical history, among other laboratory work-ups.
Body detoxification is achieved through colon hydrotherapy and target organ cleansing plus a medically guided fasting process relying primarily on pure vegetable juices and quality super food supplements. The colon or large intestine is the sewage pipe of our gastrointestinal tract and is cleansed through a procedure called colonics or colema. Colonics is a procedure of getting rid of toxic wastes that have accumulated and hardened inside the colon or large intestines through the use of a colonic machine. Colema is a procedure with the same purpose but it is done by flushing out wastes by the free flow of water. A new treatment I really like is the liver cleanse. The organic mixture of wet charcoal is thickly applied over the entire body for over 45 minutes to extract toxins from the tissues through the skin. After this deep-cleanse regimen, you feel so light and rejuvenated.
My stay at The Farm taught me that what’s happening in our system all starts with what we eat. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, said food is our medicine and medicine is our food.
At The Farm, spa cuisine is at its best. Contrary to common notion that food at spas is tasteless, the menu here is something to rave about. Cita Villanueva, sales and marketing director, joined me at the newly renovated Alive, the spa restaurant where healthy but delicious meals are served 85 percent raw and 15 percent cooked. Cooking destroys the enzymes and nutrients in food. Food that are enzyme-less make us lethargic and sleepy. Here, the focus is healthy eating habits in moderation, not starvation or elimination.
Mr. Khattar’s life-changing discovery of feeling youthful and invigorated after each cleanse is infectious. I, too, feel like floating on air after my preventive program. The world suddenly becomes a much more beautiful place from my perspective and I am filled with so much joy, loving kindness and compassion.
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For more information on The Farm in San Benito, call 884-8074 to 75 or e-mail info@thefarm.com.ph. You may also log on to www.thefarm.com.ph.
E-mail the author at miladay.star@gmail.com.
