THE FINNISH WAY TO FEELING GOOD

I DRAPE MY TOWEL decorously and prop myself on a warm pinewood bench with a delectable smell of wood in the air. Pale light sieves in from the windowpanes. Soon I start glowing with the scalding steam, not surprising, given the temperature’s really high! I am spending a day at a sauna cottage in Eastern Finland’s Lakeland region, which includes the picturesque Lake Saimaa and many islands dotted with mökki or summer cabins.›

To mitigate the, but in Finland, it is a national obsession. I am told that there are more than two million saunas all over the country. Even the Parliament House has a spa, where ‘sauna diplomacy’ is practised. ›