The Best of Asia 2010

Best Hangover Cure
Bali, Indonesia

Traditionally, a Bloody Mary is something you order the morning after the night before. But if you're feeling so rough that you can't even stomach this traditional hangover cure, here's a thought: Try applying it externally.

After doing some research, the St. Regis Bali's former spa director, the health-conscious (and sober, it must be stressed) Shanti Krishna, decided that slapping a healthy amount of a Bloody Mary's main ingredient, lycopene-rich tomato, onto the skin made perfect sense. Thus the invigorating Bloody Mary ritual was born — a wholesome, oddly fitting way to honor a feisty cocktail that some believe was invented in the St. Regis New York in 1934.

The treatment, available at the St. Regis Bali's Remède Spa, supplements the Bloody Mary's traditional components with a few exotic additions, but the foundation of tomato and alcohol is unchanged. The session begins with a skin-smoothing body scrub of tomato, pineapple and wasabi, followed by a nourishing body wrap of tomato, French clay and vodka. "Vodka has a warming effect," Krishna explains, "so it helps to improve blood circulation." Then comes a massage using grapeseed and sweet almond oils that have been infused with parsley and, you guessed it, more tomato. Next is a vermouth-and-mineral-salt bath, after which you are served a concluding shot of mineral-rich oysters in coriander tomato water. If your hangover symptoms aren't relieved after all of the above, well, you're quite beyond help.

KNOW BEST: Paint the Town Red
The Bloody Mary was apparently called the Red Snapper when it was first concocted in the 1930s.

Read "Upon the Fields of Bali."