Traditional is an over-used word in Balinese spa speak, but none can make the claim as faithfully as the Spa at Hotel Tugu. Here, if it weren't for the chrome taps, the treatments areas would unannily replicate colonial times, right down to the 100-year-old massage beds, wrought-iron barber's chairs and carved and painted wooden mirrors where the glass has gone fuzzy at the corners.

The decor of the three spa treatment areas, scattered among ten thatched sleeping pavilions, falls neatly in line with the rest of this 26-suite hotel. Put simply, it tells the story of several hundred years of Indonesian culture, It could be described as a 'museum boutique hotel' honouring its owner's passion for history. He built It in a solitary landscape behind the beach at Canggu to house the overflow of his own personal collection of antiques.

The Molek Seger Waras (meaning "fresh, light and healthy") is fitted with antique Javanese room dividers and 100-year- old massage beds which are hollow inside to safeguard valuable belongings.

A selection of roots and rhizomes used in the preparation of traditional treatments.

The dentist's chair is one of the many old pieces offurniture which adorn this unusual hotel.

All ingredients used here are natural.

In the same way, spa treatments here have veered little from those therapies practised centuries agoThere are no manufactured products here; a large fruit platter displays most of the body scrub and facial ingredients, bubbly glass bottles contain the massage oils made in Java: avocado, jasmine, sukira and coconut. Bowls of kitchen cosmetics bear testimony to old-style beauty routines such as honey for face lifting, burnt rice stalks to treat grey hair, yoghurt for washing, and raw eggs and candlenuts for other treatments.

The mood of yesteryear inspires the imagination and treatments somehow feel better in a truly authentic setting. The owner's wife, Dr. Wedja Julianti, has personally devised the treatment menu and she concocts bespoke herbal potions for guests' ailments. This all adds to the home from home charm that Hotel Tugu has captured.

The Kamar Solek is translated as a room where a Javanese lady worked on her beauty regime in times past. This 200-year-old wooden structure. used today for scalp and facial sessions, was once the outer part of a bed of the king's minister in Sumenep in East Java.