On a wellness pilgrimage to Kerala, India

By Thelma Sioson San Juan
Inquirer

MANY people’s idea of a leisure trip today is going on a wellness pilgrimage.

In the ’80s, futurists predicted that going back to nature and cultivating spirituality and well-being would be the rage in the next decades. While we believed that prediction, we didn’t foresee the paradigm shift such a trend would create in today’s lifestyle.

Today, spas and wellness centers are the new mecca, akin to the shopping mall was in the ’90s. They provide the lifestyle business boom everywhere. Baby boomers — the biggest economic force worldwide — are moving heaven and earth to keep their body and mind fit. Their example is being emulated by generations X and Y.

That’s why Singapore Airlines’ idea of flying a media group to Kerala, India, to discover its ayurvedic resorts two weeks ago wasn’t only timely, it was also right on the pulse of the market.

While seven days with nine media personalities with perhaps double that number of characters and eccentricities may not exactly spell well-being, but Singapore Airlines’ marketing head Rita Dy managed the feat anyway. Indeed, the trip and the company were good for one’s well-being.

Kerala is in the southwestern tip of India, flanked by the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats mountain range, with a backwater artery that’s perfect for sailing — in a fully decked houseboat.

Kerala is said to be India’s No. 1 state, its most affluent with a strong middle class, with 100-percent literacy and also its cleanest. It shows. The place is not congested. It’s not only rustic, it’s near idyllic. You could see people deriving livelihood from the sea and land.

Kerala is India’s age-old source of spices, the variety of which is enough to overwhelm you. You could smell them in the air.

Kerala was the destination of conquerors of centuries ago, led by Vasco de Gama 500 years ago. That’s why the architecture of the Portuguese and the Dutch (who came later) is still beautifully evident—those stimulating ochre and melon colors diluted by the onslaught of time. And those saris on women—in vibrant saffron, fuchsia, gold, you name it, there’s a color to lure the eye.

Discovering Ayurveda

Today, Kerala from Cochin to Thekkady is not only a scenic gem; it’s on top of the global pursuit for wellness. Its ayurvedic resorts and hotels put an ancient science into today’s cool lifestyle.

It prides itself in being the center of ayurveda, the age-old Indian science known to a few Filipinos, especially those into yoga and meditation. Ayurveda (ayu meaning life, veda meaning knowledge or science) is an ancient, intricate system of health and healing indigenous to India, particularly to Kerala.

We have neither the expertise nor the space to dwell on it here, but briefly, Ayurveda is practiced by physicians in India who work for a five-year Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery.

These physicians believe equilibrium is the key to a person’s health. Ayurveda isn’t so much treatment as the prevention of disease. The ayurvedic doctor uses herbs, leaves, bark, roots, stems of shrubs—health and healing from nature — and even spices and metals like silver and gold. These go with strict diet and rejuvenation sessions such as oil massages.

In Ayurveda, a person is believed to be made up of five elements—space, air, fire, water and earth — combined with physiological functions of vata (i.e. circulation, respiration), pitta (metabolism, digestion), kapha (growth). It is the imbalance among these that causes illness, even death.

At the Marari Beach Resort, the ayurvedic doctor told the diabetic member of our group that daytime sleeping or napping doesn’t do her good. Daytime sleep is not good for diabetics, he told our stunned group.

We went to the nature resorts of the CGH chain, a network of hotels and resorts founded by an Indian visionary, Jose Dominic, who believed every development must be environment-friendly. These hotels are veritable botanical gardens, bird and even wildlife sanctuaries that recycle their water, use biogas from food wastes and organic fertilizers on its land, and solar panels. They are a heartening showcase of eco-friendly systems.

At the Spice Village in Thekkady, Kerala, we got our first taste of ayurvedic massage. The place was unlike any spa we’ve seen, whether here or in Thailand or Bali. The room is so spare, there’s only a flat wooden bed in the center and a stove (!) in the corner. You strip naked — as in everything goes. You’re given cheesecloth with strings to wear like a G-string. You sit on a chair and the masseuse pours coconut oil on your scalp, your forehead.

The massage begins on your head, because like an inverted tree, that’s where your roots are. The head massage alone is enough to put you to sleep, even as you’re seated upright.

You are led to the high massage bed for the oil massage. The masseuse rubs the oil on her palms so that her hands are soothingly warm when they run down your body in kneading motion, sometimes using her thumbs to apply pressure. You feel the energy seeping into you from those hands. Then she uses two heated herbal pouches to rub down your body.

The shower is just as spartan. You sit on a monobloc chair and the masseuse pours water and herbal powder on you.

At the Coconut Lagoon, two masseuses do synchronized massage, with sesame oil. It is vigorous, those two pairs of hands incessantly rubbing and kneading your back, from shoulders to toes.

“Come back to nature and be present. Feel the energy being transmitted to you,” the ayurvedic doctor at Spice Village told us.

It is welcome news that Singapore Airlines is preparing reasonably priced travel packages to these Kerala resorts and hotels giving ayurvedic treatments. The menus of treatments are attractive, from slimming/stress management program to treatments for back pain and longevity.

There’s even “ vajeekaranam — only for men — (that) ensures longer sexual pleasure and treats disorders,” the Marari Beach brochure said; it’s a 7-14-day program. Nobody in the group got to try that, obviously.

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