I have always viewed Karen Villarica Reina’s building of Mandala Spa—this pristine sanctuary of serenity and wellness in paradisiacal Boracay Island—as akin to a rebirth. In a very real sense, Mandala is Reina’s life refashioned after she rose from the ashes of her past one.

How Reina—once the country’s biggest exporter of costume jewelry—came around to build one of the country’s most luxurious spas is an inspiring story that should be told.

Inspiring Retreat

Separated after 17 years of marriage, Reina went to Harbin Hot Springs in Lake County, a massage and wellness center in the beautiful wine-growing region of Northern California. There, she found herself again. As she basked in Harbin’s 1,600 acres of serene, wooded splendor, Reina had a life-changing experience.

“For 17 years,” she said, “I gave so much of my life, I didn’t know myself anymore. I was always there for other people and never for myself. I would fix all sorts of problems—other people’s problems—but never my own. I was miserable, and when I got to Harbin, I realized I had enough of my past life. I knew it was high time I gave time for myself.”

Reina, who comes from one of the oldest families in Cebu, met Italian Antonio Reina in the tennis courts of the Cebu Tennis Club. After a whirlwind courtship, they got married in Hong Kong in 1982. Soon after, they put up Fil-It, which at one point became the country’s biggest exporter of costume jewelry.

In 1994, tired of “running after letters of credit, dealing with banks, buyers, and deadlines,” she and her husband sold their costume jewelry business and moved to Boracay on a permanent basis.

The change of address wasn’t enough to keep the marriage afloat. In 1999, Reina, solo, took the fateful trip to California. What was originally intended to be a three-week stay was extended to two months.

She went through the entire Harbin spa menu and also signed up for the watsu (water shiatsu) course, which was taught in the sanctuary by Howard Dull, an American who studied zen shiatsu in Japan and found a home for his original creation in Harbin’s hot-spring water pool.

Her stay at Harbin over, Reina flew back home to Boracay, to her almost
3-hectare property on elevated land that overlooks the island’s famed White Beach and azure waters. Reinvigorated and renewed after her trip, Reina took one look at her Boracay property and it dawned on her—“I’m going to build a spa!”

Meant to be a Spa

Reina had taken a hotel and restaurant management course at Geneva’s Vieux Bois, but that didn’t really giver her the training she needed to run a spa. Still, that did not deter her from her post-Harbin objective. With her former business partners German Dieter Schrottman and Sino-American Mo-Ching Yip, Reina began building the spa on her Boracay property in 2000.

Mandala opened its doors in 2001, initially as a day spa, with treatments and massages conducted in cabanas that had originally served as Reina’s private family quarters. In 2003, a dozen resort villas were added on the same beautifully landscaped, lush grounds. The villas—some 100 square meters each with teak flooring, marble bathrooms equipped with custom-built tubs and fixtures imported from Italy, and the biggest, plumpest bed with down pillows and duvets—are currently the most luxurious resort accommodations on the island.

Guests may choose to have any of Mandala’s expertly trained therapists give them a massage or most of the spa treatments in their own quarters. They may also have these pampering rituals at the Yin Yang Pavilion, a separate building built recently that houses the sauna area where Mandala’s award-winning Shodhana Karma ritual therapy is conducted.

Guests can have their pick of body massages, wraps, scrubs, facials, and other wellness therapies, which include the exclusive Watsu, Water Dance, Reiki, and Exhale! sessions, or go to Mandala for any of a number of yoga retreat holidays that have earned for the establishment a large base of regular clientele.

Recently, Reina also built Mandala’s restaurant, Prana, which serves some of the country’s best gourmet spa dishes.

Mandala won Spa Asia’s Crystal Awards for Best Rejuvenation program in 2004, and this year it is again nominated by the prestigious awards body in various categories. “I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would end up having a spa,” related Reina, who stresses that she herself is a “no-maintenance” person. She wears her hair short, “so I don’t need to take care of it,” and she doesn’t put on makeup nor adorn her body with jewelry anymore.

What she wears instead is beautifully tanned skin and an inner glow that radiates her sense of fulfillment in her new life. “I experienced what can be called healing and a strong sense of self-realization when I went to Harbin in 1999,” Reina said, “and I thought, why not share that experience.”

That’s what one undergoes when one goes to Reina’s Mandala: an experience—a memorable, unforgettable one—as one lies down and surrenders to the blissful pampering.