The great thing about travelling overnight and arriving somewhere in the dark is that in the morning you get the feeling of having being led into a room blindfolded and - ta dah! - having the blindfold whisked off to reveal your new surroundings come daylight.
This is how I felt on my first morning at Dudhsagar Spa Resort, Goa, when I drew back the curtains, pulled open the French window of my chalet-style suite and stepped out onto my little terrace. I was greeted with lush exotic trees and plants, none of which I can name, birds cawwing loudly, a pot of herbal tea on my terrace table with a copy of that morning's Navhind Times, and a little path leading off into the heart of the resort. "Today is going to be a great day," I thought, as I skipped down the path like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, in search of the rest of my group.
I walked with the sun on my face, soaking in my refreshing new surroundings until a flash of movement in the grass caught my attention. I stopped to let a six-foot snake slither across the path in front of me. We sure ain't in Dubai any more, Toto.
What does it involve?
To start with, each guest undergoes the Signature 360 Degrees Screening Process, in order to determine your particular body type, your current state of health, your goals and your needs.
With this information, Dr Arjita Kumari and her team design a detox package that is exactly right for you. She says, "When you detox here, you'll lose a bit of weight - some people more than others, depending on how long you are detoxing for. But this isn't the main aim, it's just an added benefit. The main aim is to balance the body and the mind."
After the initial day of consultations and tests, your schedule is mapped out for you to start the detox on the second day, beginning at 7.30am with a herbal tea and some Ayurvedic supplements, finishing at 9pm with a soothing drink after a guided meditation.
At the core of the daily routine are the meal times, the yoga sessions, the evening meditations, the self-enemas (yes, the enemas), and the seminars, which you have at the same times every day. The gaps between are filled up with a variety of spa treatments, one-on-one consultations and hypnotherapy sessions, so each day has both structure and variety, with the opportunity to learn something new each day.
The results
After three days at the resort (one day of consultations and two days of detox), I felt calmer, healthier and lighter physically and emotionally. The jeans that I had worn over on the plane seemed to fit better when I put them back on for the return journey, my skin looked noticeably brighter and I could feel a slight aching in my muscles from my last evening's yoga session. In contrast to my new-found lightness, my luggage was slightly heavier, as it now contained herbal soap, a massage brush and, dare I admit it, my home enema kits. While two days is certainly not long enough to be able to enjoy the full benefits of a detox retreat, it was more than enough time to convince me of its effectiveness and whet my appetite for more. I left there wishing I was staying and promising myself to live a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.
The programme
Physical health
According to Ayurvedia, there are five elements from which everything in the universe is made: space, air, fire, water and earth. In our bodies, these elements occur as three different bio-energies - vata (space and air); pitta (fire), and kapha (water). Everyone has all three elements within them at varying levels, which determines your particular body type. Dr Amita, who is based at The Beach House, but comes to Dudhsagar regularly for consultations with detoxers, says, "Your body type is specific to you and is decided at the time of your conception, like your blood group, or your thumbprint. If you don't follow a lifestyle that fits with your body type, it will result in an imbalance of the three different energies and you will get weaker day-by-day and, eventually, you will develop disease."
Having established that my body type is pitta vata, Dr Amita reeled off a list of traits that I should be aware of, such as that when I lose weight, my eyes and face look tired, so my expressions are obvious, making it hard to hide my feelings (true), that my skin is dry (true again), and that my hair will grey easily (and true again). She went on to give me some in-depth nutritional and lifestyle advice. She says, "You need to drink three and a half to four litres of fluid every day to make sure your fire doesn't burn out of control, you must eat every two-and-a-half to three hours and never, never miss breakfast."
Additionally, she advised me to massage oils into my skin and onto the soles of my feet every two days, to always wear sunglasses and to "walk on the grass barefoot in the morning every few days."
At the seminar on self enemas, we all recoiled in horror at the thought of doing this to ourselves and, when the time came for our first enema, we sloped off to our rooms, shoulders heavy with embarrassment and trepidation.
The fear was unfounded. As a total enema novice, I have to say that it's much easier logistically than you may think, it's nowhere near as mentally disturbing, it isn't uncomfortable or painful and it's pretty effective. Enough said.
Another feature of the detox is the endless herbal supplements, which are usually in either tablet form, or liquid form, such as aloe vera. They all vary in taste from being pretty disgusting to downright awful.
Emotional health
Although the natural surroundings and spa treatments make a serious dent in your stress levels, Dudhsagar goes further by adding hypnotherapy and NLP (neurolinguistic programming) sessions into the detox mix. The sessions with Dr Asuzi take 60 to 90 minutes. I'm not sure if it was Dr Asuzi, or my afternoon head massage, but within minutes of her starting to talk, I seemed to fall asleep. In my defence, when she said, "Open your eyes" at the end of the session, I did - so, I'm hoping that even if my conscious mind was snoozing, my subconscious was still listening. After the session, my head felt spaced out, but my body felt strong and energised, like it wanted to take itself for a long, fast run. Time will tell if Dr Asuzi has helped me achieve my goals, but I have definitely felt calmer and less stressed since my session with her.
Spiritual health
A key element of the detox programme is the twice-a-day Hatha yoga sessions, and the evening meditations, under the guidance of Vinay Sharma, Dudhsagar's yoga instructor. He says, "Hatha yoga is not just exercise - if you want exercise, go to the gym. It tells you how to live a good and healthy life, it is the art of living and the science of being."
The yoga area is covered but open on all four sides, so you are surrounded by the jungle. When pausing for a stretch, you'll often see monkeys jumping through the trees. As someone who hasn't done yoga before, I was completely smitten with Vinay and his ‘science of being'. With each session, I could feel myself becoming more flexible and better able to hold the postures. At the end of the yoga sessions, we did 15 minutes of pranayama (breathing exercises) and a short relaxation meditation. In the evenings after dinner, we would meet with Vinay for a third time that day for a 15-minute guided meditation.
Vinay says, "This is just a starting point. If you build up slowly, you will see effects in all areas of your life. Morning sessions should finish before 7am and afternoon sessions should start after 5pm, but finish before dinner. Always do yoga on an empty stomach. Afterwards, eat something light, but only half fill your stomach with food. This way you will leave a quarter of your stomach for water and a quarter of your stomach for air. If you fill your stomach, you won't be able to breathe deeply and your short shallow breaths will send a message to the brain that something is wrong. Also, don't drink more than one glass of water with your food, but drink some water 15 minutes after you finish eating. If you follow these rules, you will never get sick. If everyone did this, doctors would wonder why business was so quiet."
A typical day at Dudhsagar
7.30am Herbal tea and supplements, followed by dry-brushing the skin
8am Yoga
9am A glass of juice, along with supplements and shots
9.15am Herbal enema
10am Breakfast
10.30am Ayurvedic head massage
12pm Consultation with an Ayurvedic doctor
1pm Lunch and herbal tea
1.30pm A short seminar on self-hypnosis
2.30pm Another, different spa treatment
4pm Yoga
5pm A small bowl of broth, plus supplements and shots
5.15pm Hypnotherapy consultation
7pm Dinner
7.45pm A seminar on Ayurveda
8.30pm Guided meditation
8.45pm A small glass of nut milk
9pm Back to your room
Get healthy on holiday
Check out our pick of the top three health retreats, all within a four-hour flight from the UAE
1. Yoga retreat: Ulpotha, Sri Lanka
Located in the heart of Sri Lanka, north of Colombo, Ulpotha offers Ayurvedic medicine, detox packages and treatments, and world-class yoga programmes with some of the best yoga instructors in the UK. The retreat was created by three friends who stumbled across a deserted village and made it their mission to restore it into a working, functional organic farming village, based around the old village manor house. As time went on, the concept evolved to offer yoga programmes, too. Now, it is open for about seven months of the year as a yoga and Ayurveda retreat and was voted Best Yoga Retreat in the World by Observer magazine. Prices start at Dh4,771 per week. Visit www.ulpotha.com.
2. Wellbeing centre: The LifeCo, Turkey
Set up by a business man who fell in love with detox programmes after his first detox experience at age 50, The LifeCo offers intensive detox and fasting programmes, anti-ageing and weight-loss therapies, health screening, yoga and meditation, and spa treatments all set within a stunning coastal resort. The programmes run for seven, 14 or 21 days, but for first-timers, there's the four-day Discovery Detox Programme. Prices start at Dh3,500 for the four-day programme, or Dh870 per day. Visit www.thelifeco.com.
3. Cleansing programmes: Stonehaven Himalayan Retreat
Stonehaven's Master Cleanse Guided Fast and Body Cleanse programmes, lasting for one, five or eight days, promise to rid your body of parasites, toxins and potentially cancerous cells from the colon. They also offer yoga, meditation, Dharma studies, journaling, cooking classes, adventure activities in the surrounding mountains or on the nearby lake, and spiritual excursions to sacred sites. Additionally, the retreat is eco-friendly, was built with stone quarried from the area, and has a treehouse. Prices start at Dh300 per night. Visit www.pokhararetreat.com.
