Siddhartha Returns: India Journal vol. 2, part 1

Siddhartha Returns: India Journal vol. 2, part 1

Since I am back in India on holiday these days, I thought I would do a follow-up to my original India Travelogue that was published last year.  If you haven’t read the original and are interested in hearing about this great and diverse country, I recommend starting there.  You can find the first installment of my initial trip around the country here:  https://libertinereflections.blogspot.com/2018/02/india-journal-part-i.html

Thursday, January 10 – Monday, January 14, 2019

"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go."  Hermann Hesse

It’s been a year since my inaugural trip to India where I spent a fantastic and enlightening month traveling around the subcontinent, experiencing new cultures, meeting varied people, eating incredibly diverse foods and finding fresh thoughts and ideas about life and how to live it everywhere I went.  Last year’s trip was a highlight of 2018, so when my family decided to return again for a winter vacation this year, I decided to join them for a couple weeks. 

I wish I could stay longer this time and explore other parts of the country that I didn't make it to the first time around (especially Dharamshala), but the last six months have been not been the easiest for me on many fronts, and I just couldn’t manage such a long getaway this time around.  Nevertheless, it was time to return- I could use a recharge.  Also, since I didn’t plan on jumping around and road tripping to so many major cities like last year, it would be nice to just settle into the region of Kerala and hopefully find some peace of mind and rejuvenation.  

Getting here was a snap.  I found a great flight from Chicago direct to Delhi where I had a short layover and then transferred for another flight to Cochin and then on to Thiruvananthapuram/Trivandrum.  It was about 14 hours on the first flight, then about four and half hours more to get to Thiruvananthapuram.

I arrived at Thiruvananthapuram at 10:30pm and the airport was totally empty.  This was a stark contrast to my arrival last year at around 3:30am when the place was packed to the gills with people and activity.  I got through the E-Visa line within only a few minutes, got fingerprinted, grabbed my luggage and Part II of my Indian adventure had begun. 

What’s interesting is how fast we become familiar with a place, no matter how exotic or different it is.  Last time I arrived here everything jumped out at me and was fascinating to behold.  This time, it all felt comfortable and normal.  Don’t

Kovalam Beach- A timeless
and fantastic place

get me wrong, I still greatly enjoy people watching and going on excursions around the region, but the excitement that comes from stepping into new places and new cultures for the first time has been replaced by a comfortable understanding of my surroundings in this place. My thoughts are more stoic and reflective than expansive this time around.  This is both a positive and a negative, as I enjoy the feeling of coming “home” to my favorite beach and this region, but I miss the excitement and feeling of adventure that comes from experiencing something completely new and the sensory overload that usually accompanies it. 

Since my trip is much shorter this time around, I decided in December that I wasn’t going to do an Ayurveda spa treatment so that I could maximize my time kicking back and relaxing with the family while exploring the region a bit.  Despite agreeing to this in December when I was in Kiev, Irina changed her mind and booked us into an intensive one week Rejuvenation and Detoxification Ayurveda treatment that started two days after I arrived (jetlag be damned!).

While I wasn’t very excited about this (and even that is an understatement), I didn’t protest this decision and decided to just go with the flow.  In Chicago before I left, my pal Bruce, who’s idea of relaxing is to breed discontent among his circle at my favorite bar- the Old Town Ale House- tried to goad me into making a stand and not doing the treatment, but I didn’t buy into it and accepted that Ira was acting in my best interests.  

Doing the Ayurveda, a treatment that has been around for thousands of years that was clearly beneficial to my health last time I was here- both physical and mental- couldn’t be a bad thing, even if the process itself isn’t really my style and thus, doesn’t bring any immediate pleasure to me.  At the end of the day, I usually spend most of my Chicago nights at the Ale House (or some other bar) and taking a week off while doing an intensive treatment that rebalances my mind and rejuvenates my body cannot be a negative to either my mental or physical health. 

The first day of treatment was a gas. (Again, I recommend you read in last year’s travel blog linked above, which described the entire experience in much greater detail and humor.)   This year I had Babu as my main massage therapist.  Babu’s hands and feet are extremely callous from years and years of working in this profession.  They feel like a low-grade sandpaper, and thus, for me, it is not a relaxing or soothing massage experience in the least.  This also doesn’t take into account the massage itself, which consists mostly of Babu hanging onto a rope and massaging my entire body with his feet. 

Nevertheless, I knew what I was getting into this time, so I was much more mentally prepared for the task, or so I thought going in.  Throughout the first day of treatment, I kept relying on the scar tissue from last year’s experience to get me to the goal line.  I had already been here and done this, so I just tried to meditate my way through the experience this time around.  It wasn’t easy and my thoughts were constantly jumping about to many random things and concerns that were stuck in my mind.  It’s really fascinating how today’s society makes our minds run on short little bytes of thought.  I found it hard to just relax and focus, or, as I say when running on a treadmill or swimming laps at my fitness club in Chicago, find the void and just zone out.  I was happy when the massage ended.

The little bags full of spices
wet with hot oil

The next treatment was the one where two masseuses beat and rub your body with course little bags wet with hot oil and full of spices.  It was painful and my skin burned throughout, but I kept telling myself that I’ve been here before and can get through it.  I again wasn’t able to find the void and my thoughts were constantly jumping around, which only prolonged the therapy.  I barely made it to the end.  

After the hot oil bag rub, came the powder treatment.  They coat your body in some Indian powders to absorb the thick coat of oil that generously covers your entire body and then they start rubbing and pinching- back and forth- pinch- back and forth-pinch- slowly from the feet to the your neck.  This is the one I liked the least last time around and that hasn’t changed.  I kept telling myself I could get through it and it was good for my skin and circulation, that I was strong enough, but by the time they made it up to my chest area and were rubbing and pinching my stomach, I mentally threw in the towel and said to myself “screw it, this hurts!”   Once I did that, I couldn’t help myself from laughing out loud at the situation I

The powder for the body rub

was in, which surprised the masseuses and led them to intensify the rubbing and pinching!  Pretty wild, but once my mental fortitude collapsed, the process was actually easier to deal with.  Sometimes, you have to let go to move forward and this was one of those times.  After another twenty minutes, the day’s treatment was over.  I got up from the table a bit wobbly and was wrapped in an Indian toga/diaper type of large shawl and left the room.

When I met Ira after this, we both just looked at each other, covered in powder with oil sopped hair in our Indian togas/diaper garb (hers pink, mine purple) and we just laughed.  It was a good time.  We then made our way home to shower and move on to other, more pleasant, experiences before crashing out for the night.

 

The road back to our house after the treatment

I will post another installment in the coming days, so stay tuned- More to come-)