Kabini -The Spa

Kabini - the spa

I had to do it, if only to compare my experience today with my memory of my first-ever massage in 1980 at a resort in Cape Comorin. It came to be known in the family as the Crisco Massage because afterwards I felt like I'd been slathered in grease and against all advice I promptly went to my room and shampooed and washed it all off. The treatment was done in a thatched hut of some kind with a curtain for a door. Very simple, not spic 'n span, no English spoken. What an adventure. It led to me a lifetime of seeking out the perfect spa treatment, not a bad hobby for international travel.

Today I was greeted in a lovely Vaidyashala (treatment center) by the manager, who has a tidy desk complete with computer. My welcome drink was a glass of something they called apple juice, which was refreshing, if not appley. The treatment suite itself was quite spacious with a large wooden table in the center and a large wooden steam box in the corner. French doors opened onto a walled lily pond. My two beautiful female attendants managed to give me instructions that I eventually understood.

The treatment started with me swabbing my ears with something healthful. Then as I sat in a chair wrapped in a big towel, one attendant poured oil poured by the handful onto my head and then massaged my head and neck and shoulders. This was just the warm up and I already felt like jello. Next they escorted me to the wooden table where, using a lot more hot oil, they proceeded in tandem to give me a full body massage. Not just back and front but sides also.  I happily gave myself up to the sensation of four hands at work and even quit worrying about the spreading and very itchy rash I developed in the last 24 hours on the trunk of my body. (No idea what caused it, doctors on the trip mystified but wondering about a side effect of my anti-malarial med, and I have Zyrtec thanks to a fellow traveler).

At the point when I am starting to feel like a thoroughly greased pig, my attendant escorted me into a large wooden steam box. I begin to worry about the rash again. She closed the big slanted front door, leaving only my head showing and said something like "Tell me if it is too hot." Now I think what she said/meant was "Tell me when it is hot." Big difference. In any event it got very hot and just as I was about to yell uncle she asked if it was hot and then changed some setting for me to simply sit in the steam without additional heat. The point of the whole treatment called, Abhyanga, is to get your body to shed toxins. In my case surely this meant the excess calories worth of vada and idli I have been consuming. Improved complexion and vitality were he promised benefits.

I was relieved when she proclaimed me done because the head hold wasn't at a good height for a short person and my neck felt cramped. Now I feel like a sweating greased pig and my shower instructions are to rinse under warm water and use the shampoo once only on my hair only. I disobeyed the shampoo rule by doing it twice. Patted dry with a big towel I then got dressed, no longer feeling greasy, and sat at a dressing table where the attendant combed my snarly wet hair, asked me to reswab my ears, and applied some powder with special properties in a dot to my center part. This would help maintain my body temperature as I was going from warm treatment room to "cool" outside. I also got cotton balls for my ears for the same reason that were to stay in place for 30 minutes so the temp change would not shock my body. To me it was all warm, inside and out. I dumped the cotton balls before I got back to my cottage. The final part of the treatment was to send me home with two pills labeled Veda-lax, to be taken at bedtime with a glass of warm water to complete the toxin shedding. I decided to skip that part of the treatment since the last thing most travelers need in South India is what had to be a laxative. Besides, I already felt vitalized and my skin was glowing.

As I enjoy my morning coffee today I am blissfully reviewing all the weird and wonderful body treatments I have enjoyed around the world. This one gave me a new appreciation of the auyervedic approach, but I still have the rash and it seems to be spreading. Now off to wifi to try to figure out if this might be a side effect of medication and just how often I can take a Zyrtec. In the meantime, baby powder helps.