Find the fine balance of Wellbeing and Lifestyle at The Shamana Spa, the Grand Hyatt Goa
The world famous holiday destination Goa, with its sun-kissed coconut strewn beaches and balmy climate is a holiday maker’s delight. My destination, the newly-opened Grand Hyatt was a mere seven km. from the capital Panaji, and a 25-km drive from Dabolim airport. Opened amidst much media hype, the resort is situated on a 28-acre property with a 1.2 km beach front offering spectacular views of the Bambolim Bay. Wooded by many coconut and ancient 200-year-old banyan trees and lavishly planted with flowering plants such as white lilies and frangipani, lush green lawns roll on to the water’s edge giving a park-like ambience to the resort. The entire resort is built facing the bay, affording a sea view to every aspect of the hotel.
I am met by the ebullient Stefan Radstrom, the GM of Grand Hyatt Goa who was in charge during the build and opened the resort end 2011. He tells me how the resort was conceived and built.
Architectural Inspiration
Not every property tells a story. But the Grand Hyatt’s unique 17th century Indo- Portuguese architecture is inspired by one. When ChandraShekhar Architects Pvt. Ltd. pitched for this project, they created this story concept for the resort. Themselves inspired by the fact that there was only one original Portuguese house left in Goa at that time, they thought this concept would be intriguing.
As the story goes, a wealthy European family came to Goa in the 17th century to trade in the richness of spices. They are successful and the merchant builds himself a summer palace and a monastery, on a stretch of land at the waterfront at Bambolim Bay. Over the years his business thrives and his family grows. Soon, they build several guest houses at different periods of time, and come to occupy 28 acres of the fertile waterfront property.
“We took this story and said that this is a great legacy that we have and incorporated it in everything that we do,” says Stefan Radstrom. Built in the Indo-Portuguese style, the distinctive sloping tiled roofs and grilles reflect the Portuguese influence while Indian influences are seen everywhere, even in the rough red laterite stone used to pave all walkways. However, the interior is contemporary and modern with a beige, brown palette and flashes of orange everywhere. Exquisite carved ‘jali work’ in teak or metal replace walls in many places heightening the design element and adding to the airy feel of the property.
The Palace forms the main building of the resort with the reception, lounges and restaurants; the Shamana Spa is in the Monastery, while the rooms are in the Guest Houses. “Even our restaurants are named after different rooms in a normal home, like The Dining Room, and The Verandah.”
The property inherited the ruins of a 16th century chapel, which they have preserved. “It’s the only genuine part of the story, but so many Goans now thank us for reviving what was lost,” Radstrom tells me. The story evidently has helped in creating intrigue and a great opening for the Grand Hyatt.
The Spa Concept
All Hyatt Spas are based on the ‘authenticity’ of their respective geographic locations and create their own identity. I meet Dr. Jayachandran Thampi, Director of Spa* of the luxurious 36,000 sq. ft. Shamana Spa who tells me that it is based on the South East Asian influence. So everything reflects this philosophy, the products as well as the treatments.
‘Shamana’ in Sanskrit means ‘balance’ and the Shamana Spa seeks to create a perfect balance between ‘Wellbeing’ and ‘Lifestyle’ through its healing Thai, Balinese and Indian Wellbeing Therapies, while their Lifestyle Programmes are designed to enhance one’s capabilities through Yoga, Pilates, Swimming and other outdoor activities such as Archery, Volleyball and a soon to be opened Sailing Academy.
Given that they are located in a holiday resort, Dr. Thampi tells me that guests have the flexibility and freedom to choose from the menu, based on the time available and he has devised tailor-made programmes to suit them.
The Spa uses bespoke coconut, pearl and jade-based products created especially for them by specialty product manufacturers from Indonesia and Thailand, while pure Ayurvedic therapy products are sourced from the South and aesthetic products from North India. Other brands used include Iraya, Voya from Ireland and Natura Bisse from Spain.
Spa Architecture
The Shamana Spa is housed in a magnificent two-storey building built right at the entrance of the hotel. Its 36,000 sq. ft. area is split between two floors. Read the full version of this article at http://emag.spamantra.in
Where do I get started on my FAQ page? When I built my first website, I had no idea even what a faq was…..So I skipped that page! Now that I know what it is…..I highly recommend you not to skip your Frequently Asked Questions page! This page is directed to help your vistors at your website. Many website viewers end up having questions about the website they are visiting.
On your frequently asked questions (FAQ) page, you want to stop and think about what your questions or concerns might be when visiting your website. Think of what your website is about and imagine you knew nothing about it. There should be some questions that arise from that thought. You should now think about what question is more important to answer? Put this question and answer at the top of your list. Post the question and then the answer. Continue reading this page for a good example.
Officelive website users have the faq page layout ready for them. They just delete the text provided and insert their own questions and answers. Microsoft officelive has provided a wonderful set of questions that website users have when creating their faq pages.
Privacy policy
Welcome to www.spamantra.in (the “Site”), a website owned and controlled by C&E Pvt. Ltd (“C&E”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). We operate the Site, and C&E products and services made available through the Site (collectively the “Services”), which make link creation in copied and pasted content effortless to readers and, in certain cases, enables easier searches from copied content. We provide this privacy policy to let you know what information we collect, and how we use it, share it and protect it.
Privacy Practices for Visitors to the Spa Mantra Site
(a) The information we gather and how we use it: The Site is primarily directed to Publishers, although we welcome End Users who want to know more about our Services. We do not collect any PII from End Users through the provision of our services. When a Publisher signs up for our site, we will collect the Publisher’s e-mail address to enable us to offer the service. A single e-mail address from the Publisher is the only Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) that we collect and we do this only to enable login to the site and to enable us to contact the Publishers that use our Services.
(b) Controlling our use of Publisher Login Information: If you have provided your email address when registering for our Site, you may modify that information at any time by visiting your account settings (https://id.C&E.com/account/account_settings). You can also delete your account at any time. You can opt out of receiving certain email communications from the Site by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of each email.
(c) Information Sharing: We will use a Publisher email address provided at login exclusively as follows:
With third parties if we have a good faith belief that access, use, or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy applicable law, regulation, legal process or an enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce the applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of C&E, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.
In the event we go through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, the Publisher’s email address may be among the assets transferred.
Privacy Practices for End Users Who Visit Publisher Sites that have C&E Services Installed
We do not collect any PII from End Users who visit Publisher Sites.
We operate the Services, which make link creation in copied and pasted content effortless to readers and, in certain cases, which make searches from copied content easier. When you, an End User, copy content from a Publisher Site and paste it into another document, the Services that have been installed on the Publisher Site may, at the publishers discretion, automatically append a link back to the original content. When you visit a Publisher Site, we collect certain non-personally identifiable information (“Non-PII”) for use on our platform (the “C&E Platform”). We enable our Publishers to use this information via the Platform for analytics purposes, and we also use some of this information to market our products and services to you and those of third parties we believe may be of interest to you as described below.
(a) The information we gather and how we use it:
PII – We do not collect PII from End Users who visit a Publisher Site.
Non-PII – We collect Non-PII through the provision of Services for use on the C&E Platform. For example, when you visit a web page on a Publisher Site, our server logs may collect your Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time you visited that web page, and the web search that landed you on that web page. We may also collect information regarding what content you copy from the Publisher Site. Also, when you visit a Publisher Site, we will place a cookie onto your computer or other device. “Cookies” are small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer’s web browser while you are viewing a website. We use cookies to improve the quality of our Services, including identifying user preferences and interests and identifying user trends. We also use cookies to help advertisers and publishers serve more relevant ads to users.
(b) Controlling our use of your Non-PII: If you don’t want us to (i) enable C&E-generated links in connection with copied content, or (ii) track your Non-PII, you can opt-out by clicking the Opt Out button on this page. You will need to Opt-Out for each browser you use and have cookies enabled.
(c) Information Sharing: We share Non-PII with other companies or individuals as follows:
We use Non-PII to enable us to provide our Services to our Publisher partners. We also use Non-PII to enable advertisers to serve more relevant advertisements to their audience.
We share any information we have with third parties if we have a good faith belief that disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy applicable law, regulation, legal process or an enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce the applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of C&E, its End Users or the public as required or permitted by law.
In the event we go through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, we expect that any and all information that we have will be among the assets transferred.
In addition, we may aggregate your Non-PII with the Non-PII of others and share that aggregated information with third parties without restriction.
Information Security and Retention
We take reasonable security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include firewalls and encryption, internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems.
We restrict access to Publisher email addresses to C&E employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our Services. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline, including termination, if they fail to meet these obligations. However, we are unable to guarantee that the security measures we take will not be penetrated or compromised or that your information will remain secure under all circumstances.
We retain records of Publisher email addresses for as long as the Publsher maintains its account.
We retain detailed records of End User activity for a maximum of 90 days. Statistical summaries and data aggregations may be kept for longer periods.
Children
We do not knowingly collect or maintain PII from any individuals – especially individuals who are under 13 years of age, and no part of our Site or Services are designed to attract people under the age of 13. Protecting the privacy of children is very important to us. If we obtain knowledge that a user is under the age of 13, we will take steps to remove that user’s data from our databases.
Links to Other Sites
Our Site and Services contain links to, and allow you to share content on, third party websites and services. The fact that we link to a website or service or allow you to share content on them is not an endorsement, authorization or representation that we are affiliated with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices. This privacy policy applies only as provided in the “Scope” section above. Other websites and services follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit.
International Users
The Site and Services are hosted in the United States. If you access the Site or Services from the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure that differ from United States laws, please be advised that through your continued use of the Site or Services, you are transferring your PII (there is no PII associated with services – we need to alter these sentences) to the United States and you consent to that transfer. Additionally, you understand that your PII may be processed in countries (including the United States) where laws regarding processing PII may be less stringent than in your country.
Questions or Comments?
C&E regularly reviews its compliance with this Privacy Policy. Please feel free to direct any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy by contacting us through this Site, by emailing us at [email protected] or writing to us at:
Privacy
C&E Pvt. Ltd
210 Srikant Chambers
Sion Trombay Road
Chembur, Mumbai
400071
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. If you have any additional questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us any time through this Site or by writing to us at the address set forth above.
Cancellation & refund policy
Return Items
If you are not completely satisfied with your purchase, you may be eligible to return the item for a refund.
To return an item, please visit online Order Status for assistance 24 hours a day, or call xxxx-xxxx, Monday – Friday from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., or Saturday – Sunday from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Pacific time.
Returns policy
Items that cannot be returned include:
•
•
•
