India, Travel Home and Dubai

Today I said goodbye to my mother and the staff at Zamorins and departed for the Kochi airport at 4:30am. I knew that if all went well, in 36 short hours I'd be home in my own bed :)

Travel went smoothly through India, emigration had no issues with me departing the country. A four hour flight brought me to Dubai, UAE, where I had the problem/fortune to have a 13 hour layover.

I had heard a great many things about Dubai from friends and colleagues. I think the most accurate description I heard was

that it is like Vegas with less debauchery. Everything is larger than life. It has the single largest mall, the tallest building, the only 7 star hotel, and hosts of other "only"'s in the world. Given such a short timeframe, I knew I would have to optimize my time well. Given the fact that the ayurvedic is supposed to leave you physically spent for some time, I decided I'd skip the indoor snow skiing. I checked into the Riviera Hotel in the Deira part of town to have a home base and a place to shower later in the day. From there, I started walking down Baniyas Road in the 105 degree heat. I figured I'd cross over Dubai Creek and see some of the sites in Bur Dubai. I took the abra (water taxi) across for UAE 1. It was a pretty cool way to travel, with a nice breeze. I took to the streets in search of the Dubai Museum, which I found promptly. I've discovered I can only stay in museums about 51 minutes before running out of patience. Fortunately, this place was air-conditioned and interesting, so I survived my limit and learned a fair amount about the immediate area. There had been some semblance of civilization

in the area for thousands of years, mostly semi-nomadic bedouins that survived in the arid desert through wile and intelligence. Oil was discovered in 1966, which forever transformed the area into a land of wealth. Some of the recent leaders showed significant foresight in utilizing that oil wealth to attract other enterprises and entrepreneurs to build their businesses in the area. There's no sales tax and in general a lot of tax breaks compared with other areas. After leaving the museum, I utilized that no sales tax rule in order to go to Dubai Mall and purchase Raechel a small present :)

After that, I decided I'd play the par-3 course at Dubai Creek Country Club. Like everything else, the clubhouse there was ridiculous in terms of it's scale and design. Fortunately, the greens fee and rentals were very reasonably priced, I managed to only put down about $60 US to cover the entire experience. Afterwards I had a fruit cocktail for dinner (stomach isn't ready for meat just yet) on the waterfront, and headed back to the hotel for a shower. A few hours later, I was on my 14 hour flight back to DC, and another 3 hours to home.

What a trip. I am completely exhausted and worn out, but very happy to be home :)

India, Final Day

It's hard to believe that two whole weeks has already passed and I am heading for home shortly. I'm sad to be leaving a place where I had such a great experience, but I feel satisfied with the time I've spent at Zamorins and I'm excited to go home, most especially to see my wife, Raechel.

Today we had an opportunity for our final field trip, this time to

visit the Elephant Park as well as to do a little shopping in town. The Elephant Park was just that, but on a grander scale than I ever expected. There were around 90 elephants, and none were behind cages or bars, only secured with chains to keep them in place. It seemed like a fairly humane, the elephants seemed playful and generally good demeanor. They ranged in size and age, with the youngest being a playful one right at the entrance. It was probably one of the most entertaining animal in captivity experiences I've had, mainly because of how close the animals were.

We closed out my experience at Zamorins with Dr. Baji, Col Babu, my mother and I sharing in an evening discussion. Dr. Baji gave me my final examination, which said my health had improved with a lowered blod pressure and losing 10lbs. I'm looking forward to taking some of the learnings from the past two weeks and continuing to apply them at home.

My mother will be staying at Zamorins for an extra couple of weeks, which I think is great. If you have the opportunity, I think you have to take it. Which goes for anyone I suppose, I'd recommend Zamorins to anyone looking to help with a specific medical ailment, or just in need of some mental refreshing.

Day 15 India, The Physical Aspect of Ayurveda

Someone asked me a few questions on the physical aspect of Ayurveda and the treatment I’ve been receiving.  I figured I would give everyone the same response in case they were also curious.

Specifically, has the diet affected you in any noticeable way?

I weighed myself today, and right now I weigh just over 75kgs, meaning I’ve lost about 10 lbs since coming here.  That puts me just at the top of “normal” on the BMI scale from “overweight” before.  The biggest change for me personally was not having coffee or alcohol for two weeks.  That’s probably the longest I’ve gone without either in ~7-10 years (since boxing in college).  I didn’t really notice any withdrawal from either, perhaps because I was so jetlagged.  I usually work out ~3x/week, but the exercise is fairly strenuous like running or soccer, and it kicks up my appetite so I eat more.  I’ve noticed no increase in my appetite since being here, other than the occasional craving I’ve had recently for popcorn.  In terms of the food, I usually eat pretty healthy, though this was obviously vegetarian where as I’ll usually eat turkey or chicken at least once/day.  In terms of my body, the biggest thing I notice is that my tummy has gone down, presumably the fat buildup from alcohol getting consumed.  I still have my love handles, which I’ve always had, even small ones when I was 125lbs doing boxing.  Will the changes hold to my body?  I have no idea.  If I can maintain the weight, I’ll be impressed.  Although, for me personally I think my empty calories come from eating out and drinking.  I’ve made a pact with my Mom that if she continues walking an hour/day, I’ll limit alcohol to a max of 1 serving/day.  And we each get a couple freebies per month.  I suspect that will hold down the empty calories aspect.  In terms of food, like I said I usually eat pretty healthy.  Dr. Baji advocates eating 25% whatever you want, and 75% fruits and vegetables, fresh if possible.  If you do that, you can eat until you’re full and not gain weight.

 

Were the oral medications helpful?

No idea on that one.  They taste like crap, so I presume yes.  There's no one single variable I could say is doing x, but everything working together seems to be leading to fat and weight reduction.  We did get a chance to view some of the plants at Dr. Baji’s house last night, he maintains a garden where he grows many of them.  It’s amazing how potent the smells are in the plants when you break the leaf or root, you can almost feel that they exude some extra quality beyond the plants we have in the States.  BTW- in case folks were wondering, he does sell the medications in pill form, but they are generally less effective than eating many of the herbs fresh.  One of the advantages of Kerala, India is that all of the herbs grow fresh and naturally here in the rain forest.  That’s one of the reasons for actually coming to the location.  There are several places in the States that specialize in Ayurvedic treatment, but for the most part they lack the herbs and medicines that are part of the program here at Zamorins.

 

Does your body feel different with daily massage and yoga?

It feels very tired.  It's amazing how worn out I feel at the end of the day.  I’ll start yawning at about 5pm and I’m ready for bed by 9pm.  I wake up about 6am.  Dr. Baji ballparked that each massage burns about 100 calories.  And keep in mind, these are not your American style massage.  They apply oil, but then in the first one they are hitting/beating your body with sacks of herbs (feels like sand), in the second one they are scrubbing your body with what feels like sand.  It's enjoyable, but it's not like they are kneading my muscles or anything.  The oil is to lubricate your body, the pounding is to loosen up the impurities in your body to be washed out.  My muscles feel elongated and stretched, which is beneficial for me because running tends to make your muscles tight over a long period of time.  They’ve warned me that my system will feel pretty rundown for a couple of weeks, so I should take it easy upon my return.  Hopefully my immune system isn’t too compromised that I get sick. 

Have you been able to effectively  eliminate the toxins from your body?  I think two of the pathways were eyes and your bottom - so has digestion or elimination (talking about your BMs - and yes probably not comfortable to discuss:P) been improved?

Again, I presume yes.   I won't go into detail, but all of my bodily functions have been normal/regular.  I was concerned about getting diarrhea upon arrival, everyone warned me of it, but I’ve had nothing of the sort thus far.  I'm not sure about the eyes eliminating toxins, I haven't noticed anything in particular.  My pee smells like Indian food, so certainly the herbs are coursing through my body.  I drink a lot of water, but I’ve always drank a lot of water.  I run through about three liter bottles per day, and also drink water at all three meals and juice in the morning. 

 

Day 14 India, Yoga

Day 14 "...And feel better the change in our minds and bodies..."

Today I figured I would give a bit of information on the yoga that we're doing here at Zamorins.

 I'm no yoga master, so bear with me. In fact, the very first time I did yoga was actually at the

 beginning of my sabbatical when Raechel and I were at Westglow Resort in Blowing Rock. I enjoyed it enough there that I figured I would give it a try while I'm here in India.

Each day at 11:30 our yoga master, Anil, arrives on his motorcycle. Amelia, my mother, and I are what constitutes the

 class. The session basically breaks into three separate parts. I'm certain there are formal names for all of it, but I would call it stretching, exertion, and meditation. Each requires concentration of the mind and proper breathing technique. In fact, I have a suspicion that yoga is just a means of increasing the oxygen level in your blood to give you a "high." But point being is that the stretching involves each member of the body in various loosening exercises. The exertion generally means positioning your body into some sort of contortion that requires you to exert force on your muscles. It's still in a stretching fashion, but in a way that makes you sweat and your muscles tense. The final meditation is a cooldown period, where our yoga master asks us to visualize our mind and body at rest and at peace.

I had some experience with the meditation aspect in college from my world religion's course. T

he goal is to focus on the here and now. If you've never tried it, you should. It's very hard you'll find. It's amazing the different kinds of thoughts that will wander into your mind while you are lying still, focusing on your breathing. I swear I've covered at least half my life's memories over the period of the last two weeks' thoughts.

The end result is a body that feels better. There are many ways to describe in what way, but I always have the image of being at peace, and at balance. Things feel more right when you're done.

I'm not certain if I will keep up with yoga when I return to the States. I hope I do, if only from time to time to help center myself.

I will always remember the sessions here for the cadence and tone of the yoga master. I'm not sure if it's because English is his second language or it is part of his plan to put our minds at peace, but he uses the same words and inflection each time during the session.

"And relax, to feel better the change in our minds and bodies..."
"Take time, and take our minds, and put it to free..."

"Relax.....relax.....relax...."

Day 12 India, Field Trip #2

Field Trip #2, St Thomas the Apostle
Not two days after saying we only rarely go on field trips, we took another today. Francis, the manager of the property, invited us to visit with him at his local Catholic church. Because we had treatment, and because they try to keep us away from crowds during treatment since it's hard on our bodies/immune system, we departed shortly before noon for St. Thomas the Apostle Church. What makes that slightly ironic is that my local church growing up in Elkhart, IN was also called St. Thomas the Apostle. Or perhaps that's more of a coincidence than irony, or so my lawyer friends tell me.
Francis hired a cab for us that took us through the same route as we took a couple days ago, but veered to the left of the large Hindu temple (famous apparently). We pulled up next to the church, colored in blue and white. The most amazing thing upon approach was the gigantic statue across the street. We found out later on our tour that this statue was 45 ft tall! You can see my Mom is quite small standing at the base of it. It is the largest statue of St Thomas anywhere in the world.
We took a quick walk around, then Francis arranged a tour for us with a guide. He escorted us around the grounds for about an hour, showing us three main attractions. Inside of the church was the original foundation, which we were told was built in 52 AD, nearly 2,000 years ago. Incredible. He told us that St Thomas came to Kerala shortly before that, having sailed from the Holy Land through the Red Sea, across to India. I'll have to do some research, because this seems like an incredible journey for that long ago. St. Thomas upon arrival performed one of his miracles. The locals were worshipping their Sun God, throwing handfuls of water up into the air. St. Thomas said that their god must not be the Highest since their water fell to the Earth. He threw a handful of water into the air, and the water stayed suspended, "as if they were stars." The second part was to go inside the cave behind the church, were there were statues depicting the life of St. Thomas, including his martyrdom. Finally, we went across the street to the local museum, that had many artifacts ranging from a few hundred years old to well over 1,000 years old. That type of time is hard for people to imagine, particularly Americans where our history is much shorter. It was an amazing trip.
The monsoon has officially arrived per the newspaper. It rained this morning, making for a wonderful walk in the warm downpour. The rain disappeared, leaving a heavy humidity this afternoon. Hoping it rains again soon :)

Only a few more days until I get to come home and see Raechel!

Wedding Weekend Album!

Check out the wedding album I made using Shutterfly! Just came in the mail today ~ I love it. Thanks to everyone who was a part of our special weekend :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Day 10 Field Trip

The past few days have been great, if uneventful. There have been few interruptions to the routine. Which partly is what made last night's field trip so much fun.

Col Babu asked us in the afternoon if we would be interested in visiting a local Hindu temple, one to Lord Shiva, known as the creator. We were excited about the opportunity, both to visit the religious site as well as get more of a view outside of our walking radius from Zamorins.

We drove for approximately 30 minutes in Col Babu's car. We passed through Thissur, which had a small market selling local wares, clothing, etc.

We arrived at the temple shortly before sunset. It's always interesting visiting another religion's holy site because you're never sure what customs to follow, etc. Col Babu assured us that this temple permitted most activities and dress. The only requirement was that we remove our shoes before entering.

Col Babu took us inside the temple, which was perhaps an acre in total size and open-aired. The temple to Shiva was quite beautiful, with flowers and candles surrounding it. Col Babu took us around the perimeter of the temple, which also had shrines to other gods such as Ganesh (I believe he is the god that blocks or clears paths for people). As we went around, Col Babu also pointed out that there was a single link fence on one side of the shrine to Shiva. This was to indicate that we were to go no further. The symbolism to this is that Shiva, as creator, is associated with the Ganges River, which gives life to India. The link fence was to indicate the River, and also to remind people not to try to interfere with nature as it was intended. You could see how this has some bearing on people today as well as 5,000 years ago. After participating in the evening prayer, we departed for home and dinner.

Backing up a little bit, before we left for the temple, Col Babu showed us how our medicines utilized in our treatments were made. Two of the technicians were taking various plants and herbs, mixed with a couple of different oils, and heating them to condense them down. They were then tied into the sacks that have been utilized to apply the medicine to us in the mornings. He detailed a few of the different ingredients, which are grown locally. The fact that they are fresh is an additional benefit from being in Kerala versus a dried herb utilized in other parts of the world.

On a final note, my mother has decided she is going to stay an additional couple weeks on site. I'm very excited for her, as she has taken to both the treatments and to India with an excitement and eagerness than is very enjoyable to witness. It has been a great trip for both of us.