After a few very long days of travel, we arrived in Kerala,
India this morning. I don’t really have any entertaining or remarkable stories
to tell about the trip here. It was fairly uneventful—just very long. We left Columbus,
Ohio the morning after a snowstorm (with only a two-hour delay—which was a
relief), flew into Chicago’s O’Hare. We
splurged on a nice dinner at the Hilton across the street because we had about
five hours to kill and really didn’t want McDonald’s. From O’Hare we had a
13-hour flight to Abu Dhabi. That was rough…many screaming babies and I thought
the plane felt like it was about 80 degrees. It was like a 13-hour hot flash.
At Abu Dhabi I bought a t-shirt at the souvenir shop because I just needed a
change of clothes!
Unfortunately, it was dark when we landed in Abu Dhabi. I
wanted to see what the city looked like. The airport was very large and very
crowded. After a few hours in Abu Dhabi, we boarded our final flight—four hours
to Trivindam, India. We arrived in India around 3:30am Kerala time. Of course,
at this point, our bodies had no idea what time or day it was. Other than a few cat naps on the plane, Mom
and I had not slept since we awoke Wednesday morning in Ohio.
Getting through customs was a piece of cake. We exited the
airport and found our group waiting for us outside.
Again, it was dark as we traveled the half hour or so to our
resort, so I didn’t get a chance to see the area. But it was nice getting to
know the people we would be spending the next ten days with. It’s very warm and
humid here (my hair is extra curly). But you also have to dress somewhat
conservatively (no shorts, but it appears my sleeveless yoga tops will be
fine), so the heat will take some getting used to!
Since we arrived at the resort very early in the morning,
the rooms were not ready. So as much as we really wanted to shower and sleep,
that would have to wait a little while longer. But we had a delicious breakfast
and walked around the resort a bit. It also gave me time to Skype Mark and let
him know I had arrived safely.
Around 9am we were able to check into our little bungalow.
It’s very small and simple, but nice. After a long shower, I settled in for a 4-hour
nap (I meant to just sleep two hours—enough to keep me going until bedtime—but
my body just wanted more). I have to
say, I still don’t think I’ll have any problem having a good night’s sleep
tonight.
It was a pretty mellow day. We walked down to the beach and
stuck our feet in the Arabian Sea (a first for my feet!). I was going to take a dip in the pool to cool
off, but it closes early in the evening.
We just returned from dinner with our entire group—19 people.
Tomorrow morning we will have breakfast around 8am (they are
taking it easy on us since many of us are still very jet-lagged). At 9am we
will officially get the retreat rolling by meeting with the Ayurvedic doctors
and receiving our first treatments.
Since I’m a novice here when it comes to yoga and Doshas,
people have been guessing what mine is. The general consensus is Pitta with
some Vata. More on doshas tomorrow, but
basically the belief is that everyone has a certain make-up, and you should eat
foods that compliment your body type. The food here is labeled for different
body types, or there is “Common Food” which is okay for all body types. (since
I have not officially been diagnosed with a Dosha yet, I ate EVERYTHING)!
I met a few others in the group who are interested in
running on the beach, so hopefully I will have a few running buddies so I can
get my fix while we’re here. (If I keep
eating like I did today, I certainly won’t come back any leaner). I am really
interested in seeing how my body likes eating for my body type.
More tomorrow—I need a full night of sleep.
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