Has anyone seen my elephant..?
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2008
1
47
54
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Coonoor, India
Monday, October 20, 2008
It always amazes me that unlike American airports, which seem to be chaos filled, the larger airports elsewhere in the world are far more serene. There are no long snaky cues, no congestion, no one yelling at everyone to take their shoes off and get their boarding passes out... everyone just manages to do the right thing and move in the right direction with no drama! Refreshing really!!
I am through in no time and my gate is easily located...now it's time to sit and wait for my plane to leave. I note that there are only 3 other non-Indian people on the plane, everyone else is either returning to visit family and friends or returning after visiting family, friends or business
Me on my balcony looking over the mountians
.Seeing as I have chosen to book myself into an Ayurveda Retreat I have also chosen the vegetarian option on the plane.... first time for everything...a little lead into what lies in front of me...and also a major detour from what I have been eating and drinking whilst being back in Cayman, Ireland and the UK!!!!!!!..I see NO PINTS in my future NO WINE and definitely NO RUM!!!...and for all of this I am not sad...it will be refreshing to see how the other half live!!! Haha!!! The old stories of going to Asia and losing a kidney in some back street operation will be reversed here I will go to India and maybe get fresh liver and kidneys again!!! *grin*
After 10 hours in the air I am finally in India, Chennai to be exact a city of 10 million...I am glad that I don't have to venture out there at 3am ... I am catching another flight with Kingfisher Airlines to Coimbatore, a town in the southern part of India, from here I shall be collected and driven a further 2 hours to Coonoor, high in the mountains and my final resting place for one month at the Ayurveda Retreat Hospital...now don't read this and think I am sick, they call all Ayurveda Retreats hospitals but really they are places to go and learn yoga, healthy living and of course detoxing....purging the body of the years of toxins that build up
My hotwater delivery guy!
. I will also be taking in some of the local sites, am free to venture into local villages and will be having cooking lessons.... so look out for your invitation to dinner in the future!! :o) The yoga component is about 3-4 hours a day with another hour of meditation ...this will be interesting as my mind wanders after about 7mins of meditation so maybe I will learn to relax and stay in the zone for longer while here!!
Krishna, a lovely older man collected me from the airport and from here we drove to the retreat...hmmmm...more like rally car driving dodging in and out of everything and everyone on the roads... I was pretty sleepy and I think this drowsiness prevented me from being too fazed by it all...well that was until we started the climb up the windy road thru the mountains... must admit that Krishna could probably try out and win at Formula 1... there are great signs all the way up the mountain saying "don't overtake on corners" Sound Horn on Blind Corner" etc etc...we just did the complete opposite most of the time...especially tricky are the hair pin corners where we would take the outside lane...the right hand side and people coming down the mountain preferred to hug the inside turn - left...just your average swap sides of the road rules that you don't see anywhere in the world...all done as fast as possible whether you are a bus a truck a motorbike or tuk tuk!!!! Oh boy!!!!!
I did arrive safely and as Krishna said he had been driving up and down that road for 25 years so I should not be scared to be with him...he says watching me instead of the road....urgh!!!! *giggle* what can you do!!? :o)
I am pretty shattered from jetlag but the day is only just beginning here (9.30am) so I am to participate
Tea crops
. First I met with my Dr...he takes my pulse and whilst holding my wrist starts telling me things about myself...which are true and not so much medical...all this from my pulse...very tricky!!! And so the treatment begins...we discuss my program of treatments...Yoga first thing in the mornings at 6.30 after I have knocked back a shot of something that smells like Jaeger but tastes a lot different!!!..hmmm like not nice different, massages in the morning...some sort of beating in the afternoon...I will explain later when I understand more....lol ... some more yoga before lunch, lunch- which was really yummy .... Now if all vego food tasted like this I would leave the cow alone too!!
There is an optional class after lunch but by this point I choose to sleep for an hour as I am fading fast due to jetlag. Then I go to my beating...lol...which is a type of massage and not painful but therapeutic. I don't leave traumatized only still a bit sleepy so I don't do meditation on the first day and opt again for a little sleep before dinner.
Dinner is again another wonderful array of vego dishes that I hope to learn how to cook...with another shot of the yukky stuff....and a little dish of green powder I am to mix with hot water before bed and drink.... It could be supergreens or maybe wheatgrass powder it doesn't taste bad.... especially now I know what bad tastes like...the non Jaeger shot which I get 3 times a day...oh joy!!! :o( It's a pretty early night for me, a bit of reading and then lights out I'm done!!! Zzzzzzzzzzzzz......
Day 2
I have a sore throat...I sort of started getting one in London but now it's really sore...:o(...but I take my shot of yukky herbal stuff at 6.15am and then off to yoga I go
Chef
. Easy now that I have had enough sleep. Brekky is after and I get some yummy cous cous stuff more like a porridge but with veggies in it...and a lot yummier than cous cous usually is...I also get some lentil soup which is fine and lots of green tea...there is heaps of fruit and other stuff but I think the tricky yukky shot has something in it that curbs my appetite as I only eat a small amount of the cous cous and half the lentil soup and I'm done! The other Dr comes to meet me at my room for a second consultation and he is even more accurate than the previous one with the things he tells me by just reading my pulse.... he tells me all about my knee soreness and lower back pain...hmmm did he read my blog about the Inca trail???...:o) He then went on to explain why this happens etc etc.... extremely interesting stuff. He also gave me some powder for my sore throat which he also detected thru my pulse..clever bunny!!!..He said it would be gone in a day.... warm, not hot, ginger tea and honey will also help!
The rest of today will be a similar repeat of yesterday...massage at 11.30, yoga, lunch, the highlight being the cooking lesson- where we get to cook some of the foods we have already eaten...yummm.... more yoga, then another beating and meditation which I will attend today!
It was lovely doing yoga in a big round glass room overlooking the valleys of green tea fields the fire crackling away and the mist rolling over the mountains this morning....it is raining as it is the monsoon season but with all that is going on the weather will make no difference to this part of my journey! The journey is on the inside where the rain doesn't touch!! :o)
The people who run this place are all Indians and are happy smiley people...they have a great sense of humor and unlike me they manage to remember my name and I manage to forget all of theirs...but I think I will start writing them down so that I can get my tongue around them all
.bird of paradise plant in the garden
. As far as the other guests there are about 17 in all, majority of them are students taking the yoga teaching training course and are amazingly flexible.... hopefully I will get like that in the time I am here. Everyone is from everywhere...there is one other Aussie lady, 3 guys - US, Belgium and South African, and the rest of the girls are a mix of USA, Belgium, German, Dutch & English....all lovely and very chatty and helpful! So far I am enjoying the change of pace ..Ask me in two weeks time tho when I am in serious detox mode and not eating anything but ghee for a few days....hmmmmmmm. Week four is rejuvenation so everything will be lovely that week! Something to look forward to.
My room is a deluxe room...which I would say was a very fancy backpackers room and not in the league of hotels rooms...but I knew that coming here...the antiques are really old wooden furniture not so much prized possessions, the room is big, as you can see in the picture and has brilliant views over the mountains and valleys. My bed is a king size and there is plenty of warm donnas' and comfy pillows, a TV- which I don't intend to turn on, a fireplace & heater and my own bathroom with piping hot water. So all needs are met. I will be comfy and cozy here for the month.
The cooking lesson was fantastic and it is amazing how easy it is to make great tasting food using a few ingredients and lots of different spices
The garden where we have breaky and lunch weather
. She also taught us a lot in terms of Ayurveda medicine what each herb does or can do for the body if used to treat ailments or prevention of various illnesses, including diabetes which is totally amazing.... if the medical world would take note there would be a lot less people having to inject themselves all the time.Meditation was good although I am not able to concentrate on the one thing for the whole time...I drift.... I think I would be better with guided meditation as I can't be trusted to keep my own mind focused in the right direction...but hey I might get better at it!! :o)
Day 3
I have to say it is the morning of day 3 and I feel fantastic...today's line up that differs from previous days is that I will also have a reflexology consultation. Otherwise all is the same as the previous two days except I will do an extra yoga class...funny in two days I can see the improvements in my capabilities so it's all up from here. I can't say I am missing anything from the outside world, I am even going to take a week to go into town so that I might break my shopping addiction!!! ... although I fear that with lots of new things to see I will buy stuff anyway! :o)
The intermediate yoga class I did today was probably the hardest yoga class I have ever done!!!
ahhh the dinner bell
! OMG...even all the student teachers were huffing and puffing and afterwards said it was really hard!!! So it wasn't just me...I was pretty pleased with how I went and was pretty tired afterwards, not forgetting red faced and sweaty...nice!I am getting slight headaches after yoga classes I have noticed...I spoke with the Dr about this and he assured me it is just from the yoga...a yoga headache...that's a new one! :o)
My sore throat has gone and I feel fine about everything else.
Slight tummy ache at bed time but otherwise a great day.
Day 4
Morning yoga was good ...my lower back is quite tight so I need to do more to loosen that up but otherwise a great class.
Today is the sandpapering and the pounding treatments...joy! I am also taking a trip out of the retreat to a temple and market...I see shopping in my future.
Yep there was shopping ...not much as it is only a small town but I managed to buy a dinner set...Indian style... for those dinner parties I will throw showing my Indian cooking techniques off with the friends I don't have in Dunsborough!!! Hmmmm..... hadn't thought that thru well had I ...oh well only one solution...make new friends!!!
I also bought some little nick knacks for the girls Christmas stockings...so that was fun too. I had thought I would venture off on a train trip on Sunday to Ooty...our free day...but no the Dr has scheduled me for my Purgation...sounds like purgatory and some how from what others have said I think it might be similar!!!!...and I paid for this!?? This treatment will take 5-7 days on and off and will mostly be unpleasant I believe...can't wait...this is the serious detox stage of the whole show...no more daily massages...no more yoga....just bed rest and well you don't need to know the details!!
Breaky
! Ewww!!Today the owners gave us all a gift...as if the sun shining wasn't enough...it has been cloudy and rainy for the past 3 days and getting a bit miserable and cold...but today the gods are smiling and it is a beautiful spring type day...birds singing....me still doing morning 6.30 yoga, now with the sun beaming in my eye and blinding me into a wobbly sun salutation due west!! *grin*
Anyway back to the gifty because we all like those for no reason....On Monday and Tuesday is the festival of Dwali...now I would like to explain what this means but I don't know more than it's like our Christmas except for the Hindus. So my gift from the owners was a beautiful green sari, which I am very pleased with!! :o) I actually even know how to wear one as my girl friend Layla has bought me one before and showed us all how to wrap ourselves up gracefully!
I have taken sunshiney photos today of us eating our breaky in the garden and of my surroundings this will give you an idea of what my little slice of India is like!! :o)
Today and tomorrow that is all will be very different on Sunday...wish me luck!!!
