RAKxa invests $27m to transform Suan Sampran into RXV for “Everyone’s Wellness”
YOU know the theme song from “America’s Greatest Hero”, Walking On Air, which goes, “Believe it or not, I am walking on air, I never thought I’d feel this way.” Well, that was the song (I know, showing my age) that came into my head when I checked out of RAKxa Medical & Wellness Retreat in Bangkok last week, but age is precisely why I did what I did.
That, and a need to just escape into a world of wellness, pampering and spending time on self.
Let’s face it. The past two years have been gruelling, much as we all put on brave and smiling faces, we in travel, that’s what we do. Just last night, I was exchanging messages with a friend who was at WiT Singapore 2019 and I showed him a photo of back then and he said, “I look so young pre-Covid. Gosh, it took a toll.”
Looking out from RAKxa Medical & Wellness Retreat: Another perspective of Bangkok.
Yes, it took a toll on all of us, which is why I thought it’d be a good idea for me to spend a few days at RAKxa and recharge before facing the last quarter of the year. Full disclosure – I was a full paying customer.
First things first, I am new to such wellness things. I can’t even sit still long enough for a facial. The most I will do is a two-hour massage minus all the frills of what they do at a spa. I also equate wellness retreats too with “bird food”.
Food at RAKxa: Clean, fresh and delicious.
Well, that’s the first surprising thing about RAKxa – Atty Attaporn Petthong, executive chef at UNAM Restaurant, does amazing things with bread (healthy, I am assured) and the freshest of ingredients to create balanced and clean but absolutely delicious meals. I did not have a single bad dish the whole stay, everything was good and popped in the mouth with the goodness of fresh food, done just-right.
You just feel so healthy, not heavy, after eating the food.
I know, typical Asian talking about food first. Now, I want to talk about the treatments. But first, the diagnosis. You do two consultations before they let you loose on the treatments – one with a wellness advisor (for the alternative therapies) and one with a medical doctor (for the scientific diagnosis). Then they each recommend what treatments you should take, and you can choose your own too – and then, your wellness advisor prepares your schedule for you.
So of course, you want to pack in as much as you can. What is good about this place is that it has the most concentrated set of multi-disciplines and expertise in a compact space – Western, TCM, Thai, Aryuvedic, energy and a medical gym offering fitness assessments, trainers and physiotherapy – so you just go from your villa to treatment rooms to restaurant in a buggy, if you’re too lazy to walk.
Let me tell you what I did – Functional Fitness Assessment, Oxygen chamber, RAKxa Relaxing Massage (2), Reiki, Singing Bowl, Acupuncture, Malma Healing Massage, Traditional Thai foot massage, Breathing Class and couple of exercise classes. You’d think I’d be breathless from all that activity but honestly, it’s not hard. All you have to do for most of them is lie down, and breathe in all that goodness and kindness from the skilled therapists.
You can understand why by the time I checked out, I was walking on air. I felt so light, so full of well-being, I was ready to take on the real world again.
The new-look and feel of RXV Sampran, 60 years after founding as the Rose Garden.
And as it turned out – the stars are simply aligned – the day I checked out was the day the owners of RAKXA, the publicly-listed M.K. Real Estate Development, held a press conference to announce they would invest 700 million baht (about US$27 million) to transform the family-owned Suan Sampran resort (called the Rose Garden at its launch 60 years ago) into RAKxa Village Sampran (RXV).
Following the success of its Bangkok retreat, RAKxa, which is a joint venture with Bumrungrad, one of Bangkok’s leading hospitals, is creating another wellness destination in Nakhon Pathom’s Sampran district, about 45 minutes outside Bangkok.
It’s a perfect match. Suan Sampran is a family business, created with Thai heritage and philosophy at its core. It started when the current third generation’s grandfather saw a pikul tree in danger of falling, and he bought the piece of land to save that tree and from that, his wife, Khunying Valee Yuvaboon created a nature-based theme park where they staged daily cultural shows.
In its heydays, it was one of Thailand’s biggest attractions and over the years, has hosted 16 million visitors to its shows. It evolved into a meetings and incentive destination with the building of a hotel. The grandsons, who took over about a decade ago, refocused the business into an organic learning village, creating an organic farm, making organic products and opening the Patom café in Bangkok, which has since become a go-to place for the health-conscious and young-at-heart.
Partners in the new RXV Sampran at the press event at Patom, from left, Anak Navaraj from Patom, Dusadee Tancharoen, M.K. Real Estate and Dr Brian S. Kunakom, naturopathic consulant at Esperance Integrative Cancer Clinic, a subsidiary of Bumrungrad International
At the press conference, Dusadee Tancharoen, managing director of M.K. Real Estate Development, who oversees the company’s health and wellness business, said it saw the spatial potential of Suan Sampran, as well as its proximity to Bangkok. “Surrounded by nature, shaded by large trees on a total area of 100 rai, along the Tha Chin River surrounded by more than 30 rai of organic farming” and combined with the group’s knowledge of the wellness business, she said RXV would offer “Everyone’s Wellness”.
Making wellness affordable and accessible to everyone is a great idea. Why should wellness be an exclusive privilege?
The Bangkok retreat is priced at the upper end. During the pandemic, (see related article) it pivoted to the domestic market with lower membership fees and prices and this has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It now has a following of local, loyal members and the ones I met at the retreat trended younger – solo men, couples. With the return of foreign visitors, it is bound to review its prices. Eventually, it will have 60 villas but right now, fewer than 30 are opened – so you can imagine the yields it needs to get to justify the investment.
Dusadee said, “The concept and development of RXV arose from M.K. group corporate plan which aims to penetrate the rental and service business (Recurring Income), especially in the health and wellness business. We look for opportunities to develop a health business that is accessible to all and to cover all health needs of all ages while raising awareness of health care in a way that is appropriate for all individual people.”
Rooms have been redesigned into different themes at RXV Sampran.
RXV Sampran is slated to open later this year. Rooms have been redesigned and diversified to cater to the needs of beginners and frequent wellness goers across all age groups. RXV will feature different zones to meet various levels of healthcare needs – from medical gym, salon, sauna, steam room to a clinic with treatments that include Hydrotherapy, Physical assessments, Eastern health checks, and modern medical-tech services.
The emphasis on food will be organic, naturally, with raw materials coming from the Patom Farm as well as the network of farmers in the Sampran Model Group, which was formed by Arrut Navaraj, managing director of Suan Sampran, and who is also spearheading Thailand’s organic tourism movement.
Said Arrut, “This is a great partnership. It allows us to focus on production of our organic produce and working upstream with farmers. We were looking to expand into this area of wellness but didn’t have the capital. They have that, and the expertise. It’s great synergy. The hotel was in need of renovation – we were never interested in running the hotel – and this allows us to do what we want to do, what we enjoy.”
Arrut, who is also working to develop a platform for the Thai Organic Consumers Association (TOCA) to match farmers with hotels and restaurants, also sees a good match between RAKxa and TOCA. “RAKxa also wants to expand beyond Thailand and we can be their suppliers of organic producer,” he said.
Asked what he thought his late grandmother would say about the partnership, he said, “She’d be happy, Even before she died, she was open to the new things we were doing. She didn’t mind when we stopped the shows.”
Dusadee expects that 60% of RXV Sampran’s business will come from corporate wellness programmes, and the rest from individuals seeking wellness. It has set a revenue target of 250 million baht in 2023. “Most importantly, the aim of RXV is to pursue the ultimate goal of fostering health-conscious society as a key driver of Thailand’s health tourism,” she said.
Certainly, if the crowds at the RXV consumer fair at Patom last weekend are anything to go by, wellness consciousness is at all-time high in Thailand among young and old alike. And speaking to the doctors, therapists and a few customers at RAKxa (I know, occupational hazard), the pandemic has increased that consciousness and let’s face it, after what we have all been through, all of us need a lot more wellness in our lives.
As for my diagnosis, turns out that four days of wellness treatments, great food, super company, own physical and mental space was just what the doctor ordered.
Now let me jump off a plane, and fly through air.
Featured image: Suan Sampran takes on a new lease of life as RXV Sampran, 60 years after founding.
