Just before I settle into one of the Datai’s four-hour spa experiences inspired by the Malaysian ramuan tradition of holistic potions sourced from rainforest ingredients, my therapist, Eny, asks what I would rather listen to: music or the jungle. I’m so used to somebody sticking on a CD of whale song or panpipes during a massage that I assume both would come out of a speaker, so opt for the latter — and am then baffled when my ceremonial flower bath begins in silence. But the more I relax, the more I begin to hear: the babbling of a brook that runs alongside; the strumming of cicadas; macaques calling to each other in the trees; humming dragonflies; and giant cretaceous-looking leaves falling from the canopy and…

Source: The Times December 15, 2018 00:01 UTC