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Other entries in Trivandrum

South India

On Tuesday, August 28 my flight to London departed at 7.15pm, with a short stop-over, then further to Mumbai, where I arrived after a flight of 8 hours and time difference to Switzerland of 3 1/2 hours. It was a British Airways flight, the flight attendants where half British and half Indians, the ladies wearing beautiful Sarees. A pre-taste to my upcoming 7 weeks in South India.
I picked up my backpack and exchanged for the beginning 150 USD into Rupees (1 USD approx. 40 Ruppes) and headed to a taxi driver (130 Ruppes) to bring me to my posh hotel Leela Kempinsky, which is close to the international and domestic airport.
It is the ending of the monsoon season, and Mumbai was humid, wet and raining. Sweat was pouring out of me (the taxi was really old and rain was running into the cabin, without air conditioning), and I got quite nervous and with mixed feelings about what I have to expect - beggars and dirt and everything else I cannot imagine and prepare myself in this moment....But this is the part of adventure I like, this tension and thrill...
I was happy to arrive safely to the hotel in a very short time, 15 minutes, where I rested and zapped through all the channels, news, music, Bollywood movies, fashion to get me slowly into India's spirit - a place weather one love it or hate it.
The next day I went down for breakfast and had a beautiful large choice on the buffet, very nice neat and tidy to begin the day and further journey with. Not difficult if one is staying at a 5 star hotel...
The hotel taxi driver was driving me to the domestic airport, and it was rush hour and we had quite a long time for the 6 kilometers. But it gave me time to have a look outside (raining again) to watch the street sceneries, people being soaked to their bones driving on their motorbikes. I talked to the driver and his day at work lasts for 12 hours, 2 hours comuting time one way!! This means 16 hours away from home, there is not much private family time left at home...

At 10.40am my flight to Trivandrum departed, flying time 2 hours, before landing a long coast with thousands of palms gives me a good feeling for my decision to have chosen India as my stop-over destination on my way to Australia. I felt suddenly confident and happy, and a driver from my ayurvedic institute was already waiting to pick me up and rive me 20 kilometeres down to Chowara. Now, here I am. I am having a very nice but modest hut with a beautiful view over the greenish garden with palms and heaps of other flowers and plants.
After lunch and having met other guests I had the consultation at the doctor Dr. Joseph Sony, explaining me the basics of Ayurveda, which is a healing method already known for 5000 years, our western school medicine is too young in comparison with this ayurvedic history...Dr. Sony explained me briefly the treatment methods and asked personal questions about my state of health. Originally, I planned and booked 2 weeks treatement, but extended it spontaneously up to 4 weeks being on spot and feeling confident that this is the place to be to detox, to heal and to prevent against future illnesses with the consiousness of lifestyle which will obviously bring a tremendous change after that stay at this institute, for sure.  Overnight the doctor will work out my personal treatment program for the next 28 days with massages, food and medicine. I am sent on my arrival day to my first late afternoon treatment, an oil massage, mmmmmmmhhhhh this feels sooooo good! The female therapist work with female guests and the male therapist with the male guests only.

Ayurveda can be translated into "knowledge or science of life", it's good for cleansing with a collection of purification techniques, herbal oil massages, medicated powder massages, steam bath...Ayurveda holds that the tastes of foods or herbs have specific physiological effects.

my first week ( 31.8. - 8.9.)
every morning I had to do without any breakfast and instead I had to drink my every day increasing portion of green Ghee (clarified butter) which is known in ayuvedic cuisine to have many diverse mind/body benefits, for lunch a rice soup and for dinner boiled rice and vegi curry, in the aftenoons a daily 2hour treatment of medicated powder massages, herbal oil massages and hot applications. The first couple of days I felt horrible, watching the other guests how they order beautyful diversified meals and fruits and juices while I was on this special diet. I was always tired, but daytime sleeping was strictly forbidden. I had problems during the nights to sleep through, but then it got better and I was used to my treatments, and every day I could see the end and looked eagerly forward to finally going on some excursions which where also not allowed during my first week. The contact to the guest was very good in exchange of informations, knowledge and I learned tremendously already in a short time. Mainly I had contact to two elderly Austrian ladies, as I was asked to help them in translating as one lady could not speak English at all. They arrived the same day like me and will stay as well 4 weeks. Soon an Australian guy joined for 2 weeks treatment, he has been living with his family in Tasmania which was one of my major travel goals while I will be in Australia. He invited me to come and stay with his family and friends. He used to be a yoga teacher, owned a clinic and is practicing as a naturopahty doctor since many years already using in his daily life for him and his family ayurvedic methods. From him I learned heaps of important things and backgrounds for my well-being.

The highlight of my first week was: drinking 23 glasses of milk (2 dl, which means 4.6 liters) in between some herbal magic drink, which makes me vommit for 6 times, which should have cleansened  my liver and stomach of the toxins. I hope it was worth this whole procedures...not want to do it ever again....

the following additional 3 1/2 weeks until 30-September
My treatments for all upcoming days consist of complete full body oil massages done by hands AND foot, oil pourring oil into a hatlike construction and leaving it on the head for 20 minutes, over the forehead (for 45minutes), oil bath of the body on a table sliding on it like on a skating rink, quite funny, very difficult to turn aside, on the back, on the other - you can imagine that more often I felt like a walrus :------------(. Having oil bath over the eyes, ear cleaning (not with oil... but with steam),  laxative/purgative treatments which have a purifiying affect keeping you for a couple of hours on a toilet party....and enemas which rock your body within feeling-good to feeling-dying in only a couple of few minutes and are a far better/worse toilet parties, I freeze my ass off sitting there on the toilet being shaked and those moments I very hard to stay positive minded and motivate yourself to keep remembering that this treatments will make me healthy again and are needed to detox and purify my body. I am very happy to have nice and friendly other guests around, with whom I can share experience and have some little cries together and more huge laughs as well.
Our Yoga teacher Ravi it's a great guy and sometimes we have very good asanas (postures), like being on our backs and cycling with the legs and then suddenly to start artificially to laugh and laugh and giggle, just pretending, like a moviestar plazing a laughter role, with closed eyes, and we laugh and laugh and cycle and cycle, and when it's time to stop and to go on to other asanas - we cannot stop anymore laoghing, and just keep honestly laughing and laughing, real deep laughs, until tear drops fall down the cheeks.

Thank you Mr. Ravi  - for this special energy, Pranayama and Kriya and for the cheerful satsangs (chanting Kirtans and Mantras at the end of the classes). A class lasts mostly 2 hours, beginning 6.45am.

4 1/2 weeks are over in this Ayurvedic Health Institute - which gave me an intense insight into this Science and most important it gives me the deep understanding for my health problems which have lasted for a couple of years already and which I ignored in the beginning and later on not been able to find the right treetments. Now, I have an excellent tool to continue to get healthy again.

Guests came from France, Germany, Austria, Norway, Finnland, Italy, Tasmania, USA, Russia - so quite a mixed crowd.

It's time to move on, and I decided to visit the nearby Ashram of  AMMA - the hugging mother, amritapuri.org to stay there for a couple of days. It is her 54th birthday and huge festive activities are announced. I hope to get a cuddle and hug from her.

Later on I will move on towards the beaches of Goa...

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