April 1st and 2nd Purgation Days and then Freedom April 3rd and 4th

Wednesday, April 1^st

April fool’s day was David’s special day for his purging enema. He was first given a full hour body massage with oil, then the enema. He had an allergic reaction to the material, which was even apparent as a skin rash after two showers. This changed the Doctor’s plans such that now he was to have only one more medicated oil enema the following day. He had a limited diet for the entire day and was basically confined to the room as food was delivered. Good thing the room has a television and he watched the news and several old movies. As in the USA, watching the same Indian advertisements over and over got a bit boring. He thinks India has more ads per hour than the USA!

David’s allergic reaction was happening on Leslie’s free day. She was able to go to Yoga at 7 am, followed by an unrestricted diet for breakfast, fruit snack and then intermediate yoga. Her morning treatment was the ongoing oil massage and in the afternoon it was a foot massage. David joined her for dinner (only lentils allowed) at the restaurant.

Thursday, April 2^nd

David started the day early and had a “hard oil massage” with two men using their elbows, forearms and palms to massage the whole body, front and back. The pressure on calf muscles was a little uncomfortable, but otherwise it was fine. They used special oil supposed to be good for skin. After that, he had 10 minutes in the sauna, then to breakfast, where he was disappointed to be allowed only the soup! Must be that restricted diet again. The dining staff knows who we all are and are quick to make sure we don’t eat anything not on our diet!

At 2:30 PM he had a second massage for a half hour with a special oil for the back only, then oil enema to complete his “cleansing” or detox process. Glad to be done with that!

Leslie had been instructed not to go to yoga in the morning, there would be no breakfast and thankfully was given a milder purgative which was so thick that you had to use a spoon to eat it, followed by warm water.

Purge Yuck

The Doctor had said that the room temperature needed to be above 82 degrees. Leslie had to drink warm water every 15 minutes and was also given a hot water bottle to put on her stomach while she sat in an elevated position in bed. In between dashes to the bathroom she read a travel guide for Morocco. At 1 pm she was given a soup to eat and then at 4 pm she was given some fresh pomegranate juice. Dinner was served in the room and consisted of Khichadi which is rice and moong lentils. (We have been calling this a mixture of rice and dhal but Khichadi is the proper name for this food). David found out he was also having only Khichadi for dinner when he got to the restaurant.

Khichadi

The Doctor called several times during the day and then stopped by at around 6pm. She is off-duty for 3 days. The Doctor had given David information as to who was in charge of us during her absence. Leslie’s stomach cramps had not been too bad but she was asleep by 8:30pm.

Friday  April 3^rd

Leslie continued to have a restricted diet of soups and Khichadi but her therapy treatments started to vary. She had a herbal scrub (Udwarthanam) in the morning and a head massage in the afternoon. The benefits of Udwarthanam are softening and exfoliating the skin, improving muscle tone, improves blood circulation and eases joint pains. Her herbal scrub was one containing grains and milk. This paste was rubbed all over her body and then she had a shower to wash it off. The next phase was a yellow paste (milk and something else).

We escaped the Resort in the late afternoon to Old Goa which is only about 15 minutes drive plus ferry-ride away and is where we catch our ferry boat to come to Divar island. There is not much remaining other than a gateway arch dedicated to Vasco De Gamma and the Basilica of Bom Jesus with the relics of St. Francis Xavier, who was a friend of the founder of the Jesuit order (UNESCO Heritage Site).

We attended mass in Sé Catedral de Santa Catarina, which was standing room only and overflowed outside. The Se Cathedral was built to commemorate the victory of the Portuguese over a Muslim army, leading to the capture of the city of Goa in 1510. Since the day of the victory happened to be on the feast of Saint Catherine, the cathedral was dedicated to her. Mass was in Konkani, the language of Goa, so we did not stay too long. We were then taken to some high-end tourist shops that were in old homes. The prices made me laugh – an Indian tunic top with hand embroidery that I buy in Muscat for $15 from an Indian lady’s home and here they were asking $50. No purchases from us.

At the Basilica of Bom Jesus we were determined to keep our tradition of lighting candles but we had a hard time locating where the candles were sold and then getting them lit and placed while still lit – we ended up with a mini bonfire.

Saturday April 4^th

We had our usual morning hour and afternoon 1/2 hour therapies. Leslie had the Podi Khizhi (herbal boluses that are warmed in oil and then pounded and rubbed on the body) which she likes in the morning followed by the dripping hot oil (Shirodhara) which for many guests is their favorite treatment but not really hers. David had the whole body oil massage and the Padabhyanga (Indian foot massage.)

 We have met many nice people here at the Spa and as we are well under 20 people you talk to just about everyone. In the last few days we have had more Indians come but previously it had mostly been tourists from Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Holland and the UK. Two weeks seems to be the time most guests stay with a few doing 3 weeks or 4 weeks depending on their purpose in coming. We have never spent 2 weeks focusing just on our health. They would give us each a personalized diet if we had requested but I think we are doing okay with out it.

We left at 4:30 in the afternoon to go to the Saturday Night Market in Arpora, a one hour drive away back on the mainland. Others from the Spa have said it was interesting and they kept talking about “the old hippies”.  We decided to arrive as the venders were setting up, so that it would not be so crowded. What an interesting, eclectic group of stalls teeming with creativity! The meandering lanes upon lanes of kiosks snaking through this vast open field selling everything from fruits to hand-made leather belts, jewelry, apparel, Tibetan items etc. There is also a concert stage where the performances change from ethnic Indian music and dance to “old hippies” performing with their guitars.  There are many bars and signs saying "Drug Free Zone" but as pointed out by our Dutch friend who came with us, she saw several vendors sitting there calmly smoking pot. She was more sensitive to smokers because she just gave up cigarettes when she arrived at the spa.

Leslie was delighted to come across a Desigual seconds stall in the market.  If you wanted to try anything on you had to do it over your clothes but that didn't stop her from checking it all out. We left around 8pm and we had arranged for our dinner to be left in our room so that we could eat when we returned. While we had talked about treating ourselves to a fresh coconut water, we were all too busy looking around to hunt them down in the food area.  We did notice the big mugs of beer being enjoyed by others.