The Round-Bed Suite at Empire Sauna, Macau — and the Hour After the Door Closes

Friday night on Rua de Xangai. Two colleagues in the back of a car: one a regular whose Macau nights we arrange, the other inside a Macau sauna for the first time. The regular gets his line in before the door is even open. “Look up before you do anything else.”

The car door is held for you, and above the lobby a rectangle of the ceiling has been cut out and filled with a night sky, blue and violet, drifting. Nothing is wanted from you, because the booking reached the venue before your car did, and the dark runner under your feet ends where a butler steps forward.

The round bed is picked at the counter, minutes before you are on it

He goes through the rooms one at a time: the Water-Bed Suite, the Marble Themed Suite, the White Marble Room, the Private Shower Room. He helps you choose your therapist too, and neither decision is hurried or was made weeks ago on a form. Tonight it is the themed suite with the round bed, and he walks you up to the second floor.

The bed is a true circle on a dark timber plinth, wide enough that it has no head and no foot. The floor is laid in herringbone, a mirrored wall runs the length of one side, and there is a low tan sofa in the corner for your clothes. Set into the ceiling directly above the bed is a light panel, and it is running the same blue and violet you stopped under downstairs — a slow swirl of it, still moving while you get onto the bed.

The door closes and the hour starts

The butler withdraws, the door closes, and the therapist comes in. That is where your hour begins — not in the car, not at the counter, not while your head was tipped back. Everything before it was yours to spend as slowly as you liked.

You lie face down in the middle of it. There is no right way to arrange yourself on a bed like this and no edge anywhere in your eyeline. Wherever you settle is the middle, and it takes your weight evenly enough that your shoulders come down before anybody has touched you. She lays a towel over you and starts.

The oil is warmed in her hands before it reaches your back, so it never lands cold, and the smell comes up as it spreads. The warmth goes in ahead of the pressure. Your back is heating from underneath by the time the first pass is over.

The neck and the shoulders go first, and the hard piece at the top of the shoulder gives after a few passes. From there the pressure travels down the back to the waist and comes back up, a little deeper each time, until the long muscle either side of your spine stops holding itself up. Your breathing slows down somewhere in there without you deciding to slow it.

Then the glutes, where the weight sinks straight in and reaches further with every pass. If you spend your days at a desk and flew into Macau with that body, this is the block that has been carrying it, and you find out how much it was holding only when it lets go. The lower back goes with it.

The thighs are pushed up and drawn back, several passes before the muscle stops holding on. Somewhere in there she eases your legs a little apart, so the inner side can be reached, and the first time, that is the moment you go stiff. There is nothing to hold in. The therapists here are trained professionals and this is ordinary work to them, so close your eyes and leave the rest of the hour to her.

The calf is followed all the way down to the heel, unhurried, and then each sole is opened one spot at a time and the toes are done one by one. Feet are the part people expect to be rushed through, and they are not.

Turning over is not something you have to work out either. A hand comes under your shoulder and brings you round, the towel stays where it should, and on a round bed there is no wrong way to end up. Then the arms and the hands, finger by finger. The underarms, easy to skip and not skipped. The stomach last, lighter and slower than everything before it.

By then you are heavier than you arrived and have stopped keeping track of how long you have been in the room. Your legs feel like they belong to somebody calmer. You have no interest at all in moving, and nothing here is going to make you.

That is the state the hot towel arrives in. It comes across your shoulders first, then down the back, then along each arm and each leg, taking the oil with it, and there is a second one kept for your feet. You never sit up, you never reach for anything, and nothing gets folded or carried or tidied by you. She sets your gown down within reach and leaves you a moment before you want it.

Afterwards, a recliner in the lounge

She helps you up and walks you to the door, where the butler is waiting to take you out to the recliner lounge: a row of pale recliners facing a wall of turquoise light. You sit back into one of them and a different masseur takes over, because the two free add-on services that come with booking through this site happen here, not in the room. Body scrub, foot reflexology, head massage, ear cleaning — eight to choose from, and you pick your two once you are here.

One practical thing, since nothing else is asked of you: bring your passport. ID is checked on the way in, and carrying it is ordinary practice for visitors in Macau, so keep it in a pocket and leave your hands free. The rest of the arrival is laid out in the first-timer’s guide.

Getting here is the other part you hand over. Tell us where you are staying and a private car brings you to Empire Sauna on Rua de Xangai, free when you book through this site, from a hotel, the ferry terminal or the airport. The NBA China Games play two nights at the Venetian Arena in October, and a late finish changes nothing: the door is open 24 hours.

Questions people ask before they go up

”How late can I still have a session?”

Therapists are on duty 14:00 - 06:00. Late is fine. Early is better, because that is when the choice is widest. Tell us roughly when you expect to arrive and we will have it arranged for that hour.

”Can I ask for the round bed?”

You can tell us your preference when you book and we will pass it on, but the rooms are gone through with you at the counter on the night — the Water-Bed Suite, the themed suites, the White Marble Room, the Private Shower Room — and the last word is yours there. Photographs of each are on the suites page.

”Can I book in English?”

Yes. Message us on WhatsApp, Telegram or LINE with your arrival time, how many of you there are and any room preference, and an English-speaking team handles the rest.

”Can I come straight from the airport with a bag?”

You can. Towels, amenities and gowns are all provided, so you can arrive practically empty-handed, and whatever you bring is looked after for you while you are inside.

One message is all it takes

Date, how many of you, roughly when you land and where you are coming from. One message on WhatsApp or LINE covers it, the car is at your door, and the room and the therapist are settled when you get here. Asking is free as well, and a question is not a booking. Bookings go through the contact page.

On the way out, the sky over the entrance is exactly where it was, and you can stand under it as long as you like. The one you will describe to somebody next week is the other one: blue and violet, turning slowly, an arm’s length above a round bed, with a hot towel across your back and nothing left for you to do.