PICTURE spending your day in a world-class spa and later enjoying some delicious healthy sandwiches, roti wraps and drinks while sitting at a café overlooking the ocean along the Coral Coast.
This may sound too good to be true but it has been made a reality by owners of newly opened Moksha Spa, situated at Maui Bay Estates in Baravi, Nadroga.
In the Sanskrit language, “moksha” means freedom and it is also a state of eternal bliss.
Owners of the establishment Raja Ramji and his wife Susanna fell in love with Fiji and its friendly people and decided to build their second home in Fiji in 2012.
The couple then bought a property at Maui Bay Estates and build their home and later they acquired two more properties adjacent to their home.
“In 2017 we decided to make a long-term investment in Fiji and build a world-class day spa —Moksha Spa and Gazebo Café — on one of these properties,” said Mr Ramji.
When asked on why invest in a spa when there were so many similar establishments at most of the resorts along the Coral Coast, the couple’s response was “our main goals in this project are to encourage interest in wellness and nutrition as well as personal grooming, to help improve quality of life among the neighbouring Fijian communities, and also to provide employment to about 15 local people”.
Mr Ramji said the Maui Bay Estate area was experiencing a growth in tourism and gaining popularity for destination weddings and they were confident the Moksha Spa and Gazebo Café would offer another attractive destination in the area.
The couple have spent more than $1 million on the spa, including the equipment in the spa and the café and it’s their plan to make it the best spa in the country.
According to Mr Ramji they had set a timeframe for the spa to be ready and operational and they were happy to have met the deadline.
“We bought the property in late 2016, levelled the ground in January 2017 and opened for business just a year later in January this year.
“We managed to assemble a very capable and dedicated core management team and well qualified and experienced staff,” said Mr Ramji.
Mr Ramji said they bought and shipped all the equipment at the spa from Australia.
Guests at the spa can enjoy either an indoor jacuzzi or outdoors after their massage and beauty treatment at the spa.
He said they planned the facility to be fully integrated to provide a complete range of spa services in a single harmonious environment.
According to Mr Ramji the team at the Moksha Spa was pleased to offer its facilities and services to both local and expat customers, including tourists and wedding parties.
“We are proud to emphasise that Moksha Spa is a women empowerment enterprise as most of our management and staff members are well qualified ladies with experience and capability to run such a world-class operation,” he said.
Mr Ramji said the spa and the café was very special for them because he designed them both and had been a part of laying the foundation, planting the flowers around the place and picking out the equipment and feel of the spa and café.
His wife Susanna said they were very health conscious themselves and they also wanted the community and whoever visited them to be well, happy and feel good.
She said they were in the process of setting up a room in the spa especially for their wedding guests who would be able to get dressed in the room, have their makeup and hair done all under one roof.
With the local wedding market growing bigger day after day, she said they also planned to construct a function centre which could be used by the local from the community for their wedding function, zumba classes and other events such as women’s day celebrations.
Mr Ramji said their plans for 2019 included having their own solar power supply because they believed in being environment friendly. In addition to being environment friendly, they were also very strong advocates of disabled friendly establishment.
He said he designed the entrance to the cafe and spa keeping in mind to include wheelchair platforms and outdoor toilet and bathroom with wheelchair ramps for convenience.
Meanwhile the services available at the spa include massage therapies, facial therapies and make-up, hair styling, manicure and pedicure, outdoor jacuzzi and even a traditional Scandinavian steam sauna.
