at the wensha spa

katz, rheih, jp and me at the wensha spa

before my 3-day trip to coron last weekend, my friends and i decided to have an evening rendezvous at the wensha spa in pasay city. it was supposed to be strictly for the girls only, but i felt that i needed to be beside JP a little bit longer before the long vacation. i literally could not let go of JP's hands and arms when it was time for me to say goodbye and take the bus to ayala where i was supposed to meet my friends. i dragged him quite easily inside the bus and declared that he was going with me to the spa instead of him going back to the office to finish his work :) fortunately, JP was not difficult to persuade -- all i had to say is that wensha spa comes with a buffet and that the bill would be on me, hehe.

from browsing several local blogs earlier, i have learned that they had a "haircut w/ back massage" service which i had planned on getting. when we got there, we found out that they are no longer offering that and had to settle for their wensha spa massage. i wasnt disappointed by that. what disappointed me more were two things: first, the receptionist at that time was not accomodating and was somewhat impatient which did not leave a good impression for first-timers like us. after giving us our "bracelet keys", she immediately shouted the next number to call the next customer. i did not recall hearing any pleasant words from this receptionist at all. my second complaint was that taking photos inside the building was prohibited. this surprised me a lot, since i saw several photos of the place taken from inside in the various blogs i saw. things have changed i guess.

from the reception area, we headed straight to the dining hall which was already filled with customers by then, this was around 930pm and the start of long weekend. i was not used to seeing people walking around in their bath robes, so i was somewhat uncomfortable. ignoring the bath robe people, we went further in until we found ourselves a table that can accomodate all four of us. i thought the place was too busy for a spa that was supposed to have a relaxing atmosphere. we were later able to confirm that it was indeed busier that night than usual.

the evening went on smoothly, though much slower than expected. we had our dinner, which we all thought was really good: we had pancit, lumpia, beef something, chicken something, tofu something... i forgot really. i was especially happy and content with the lumpia and pancit canton and had to get more than one serving. we had ice cream (mango, ube and chocolate) before heading to the locker room for a shower. it was not the special kind, but it was ice cream nonetheless and we just could not pass that up. we decided to skip the shabu-shabu and thought we could have that after our massage.

everything we needed was provided for in the locker. robes which come in sizes were available, clean white towels were unlimited, slippers, lotion, powder were also available. each person was given a plastic bracelet which serves as a key to the lockers also. i wasnt too happy to find out that my locker was impossible to reach without the use of a ladder, so i decided to share lockers with rheih. fortunately, one locker was big enough to accomodate both our things.

after shower, katrin went to take a dip on the jacuzzi pool while rheih stayed for a minutes within the steam room. i contented myself with sitting in one of the pool chairs nearby and waited for them to finish. there was a large TV in the area and i entertained myself by watching what was being shown. i wanted to try the jacuzzi pool, but could not bring myself to go in, naked all the way through. most of those who patronized the place were pinoys, some are chinese or korean, i think. that did not matter, i was self-conscious just the same. hehe.

at this point, JP had to be separated from us. the locker, shower and spa area for men are located on the opposite side. i wonder how he was enjoying the jacuzzi...

from there, we headed towards the massage area where we had to wait for an hour before getting our massage due to the number of people present that evening. we took advantage of this and tried to catch up on what's going on with each other's lives. the massage room was large enough to accomodate around 10 customers, i think. there is a wall separating the sections, and each section can contain 2 or 3 beds. light was dim as expected.

when our masseuse came, we were asked if we wanted a swedish massage or a massage with oil -- ginger or this other kind. we chose the other kind of oil, not ginger because neither of us wanted to leave the spa smelling like salabat. after one hour, we concluded that the massage was okay. the neck and head massage were really good, but something was not right with the back massage, i thought. something was missing.

as expected, we started to feel sleepy afterwards. it was almost midnight by then. we were asking ourselves if we still want to get some shabu-shabu, but since it was already too late, we thought we should head home. i told katrin that i haven't yet discovered the ultimate spa experience, one which is 100% relaxing and completely stress-free, but wensha will be among the favorites. for less than P700, its definitely a must-try especially with family and friends. im going back for sure, but hopefully, when there are less customers. i prefer more peace and quiet when i visit a spa.

that evening, i needed all the comforts a spa can offer. but more than that, i needed to be with friends, those who know me the most and love me just the same. it wasnt the perfect spa experience, but it was the perfect evening to spend with my perfect friends.