The Detox

Difficult to gulp it down

The scale read eighty two. I shifted from one leg to another, but it refused to budge, with the obstinacy of a child refusing to put the chocolate back in the fridge. The last one kg was temporary, I tried to console myself, with all those festivals and sweets in this season, but it has never been temporary in the past. I wished my portfolio stock charts looked like my weight chart over the years. There were always excuses why it happened -the stress of working in a hedge fund, the late night snacks, the festivals, the injuries which kept me away from playing games multiple times, but truth of the matter was - I was just lazy and health hadn't been the top priority, irrespective of what I had liked to believe. Now having quit work, atleast for this year, it was time to get serious about health. It was time to detox.

Not the juices I had in mind

Colon Cleansing :-(

The image one gets after reading the detox Programme details is one where one would be sitting on the beach while getting served endless varieties of juices, mixed with some herbs, and soups and salads, with a little yoga here and little massage there. Little did I realize that the bentonite shake meant I would be drinking volcanic ash with psyllium, the juices are so watered down that only the color gives away its ancestry, the soup is a tasteless broth, and the herbs are specially prepared to make me wish I never needed detox again, and i better not put the details of other cleansing therapies on my blog! I really hope this works. Well the good news is, so far I am feeling better, despite the occasional cleansing reactions, and though I haven't lost much weight, atleast I am moving in reverse gear after a long time!

Yoga every day

Despite their Thai accents making their instructions some what funny and confusing (feet on the flog, lept hand to the lite chin etc), I like the yoga teacher here. He understands his audience's limitations, stretches them just to the point of challenge they can overcome, varying his routine and taking the whole class along. Definitely better than the real yoga classes I had joined where the instructions were in equally bad accent, and the instructors were showing off what they can do and expected every one to follow them. The class is literally on the beach here, so makes for a nice setting.

Massage on the beach

The most awesome are the massages. Luckily, I negotiated two per day before joining the Programme. Next to the beach, where you can hear the waves splashing across the shores, and gentle wind rustling though the coconut trees, the masseus takes care of every knot and every muscle in the body, making the stress and the pain melt away. The body is detoxing. Next on agenda is detoxing the mind. That's why going for vipassana in a couple of weeks is my next big step.

The Resort

Samui Airport

Samui airport is a gigantic version of one of those children's miniature airport play sets, made of wooden logs instead of Lego blocks. there are couple of immigration points which I assume will get choked if more than a single flight arrived at the same time. I was in no hurry to get to the resort, but it irritated me that they forgot to send the pick up car even after a reconfirmation before I left Singapore. However when I called the resort to complain, my curiosity was piqued by someone obviously a westner talking to me from the other side in heavily accented Hindi. He apologized and offered to send another car, sprinkling his conversation with hindi sentences, but I decided to take a taxi to the resort.

Beachfront Villas

The restaurant and hangout place

Infinity Pool

A very basic room

The resort itself was a collection of one bedroom cottages spread around the beach, which reminded me of another lego play set. Room are small but comfortable, and bathrooms very basic (after some colon cleansing, it becomes apparant why the bathrooms are not fancy) It is not built for high class tourists but for people looking holistic health on a budget. Some parts of the resort are in need for renovation, or atleast removing some of the eyesores, like a storage shed in the middle, or a broken bridge to nowhere on the side, but it doesn't look like owners want to reinvest in capital expenditure with no obvious return on investment. The staff is very friendly, like all Thai resorts I guess, but this is not the place where things get done by itself. You have to ask for things to get done, and then they are promptly taken care of. There is a pool in the middle, kind of infinity pool overlooking the beach, and I will post the photos of it when I figure out how to add photos to blogs. I am sure that's easy to figure out, unless you see all the menus on blogger in Thai, like I am doing right now. The good thing is, it has a free wifi, with out which this stay will be a lot more cumbersome!

A private beach

Sunset from the Kayak

The most wonderful thing about the resort is the beach. It's not only the the white sand, the gradual gradient, the calm blue waters, the gentle breeze and the designer sunset, which all beaches in Samui enjoy, but the fact that it is so secluded that it is almost like a private beach. There are hardly any tourists around, and one can jump in to one of the resorts kayaks, wander into the sea and watch magnificent sunsets along with couple of local fishermen. When I go in the sea, I don't take any electronics, just a life jacket, so the memory of a crimson pink sun spreading its rays through the freely floating clouds like a painter making quick brushstrokes on a canvas full of colors will not be captured by my camera, but will remain etched in my mind for a long time.

Koh Samui - the first stop

Nestled on the east coast off Suran Thani town is the third biggest island in Thailand -Koh Samui - with look and feel similar to any other beach town in Thailand. Small local population supports a large influx of tourists looking for sandy beaches, temperate climate and coral reefs while they are still around. I wasn't here for any of those. In fact Koh Samui was not even on my list of places to visit when I started out planning my travels for the year. I was supposed to be in Bangalore at the Jindal nature care center, if only I lied a bit on the registration form. They want patients with more serious issues than I had and being overweight wasn't serious enough ("this is a hospital my dear, not a spa!"). Well, that's ok because I would much rather be in the spa.

I called Ranga for some suggestions on spa choices in the south. He knows some people who own and run some of those high end ones. But the high end ones were frightfully expensive, and he himself had run away from a mid level one, not able to tolerate the mud-massage they made him endure. The spa people probably thought it was easier to chisel him away in shape, an idea that didn't find much favour with his body. So going to Thailand was probably the best alternative.

I had heard of Chiva-Som in Samui. If I remember correctly, Ashu and Neelu had been there and so did Gauri and Mohan. They only go to good places so it was definitely worth checking out first. I did that but at $700/night, I couldn't care if it was the gold standard of spa or platinum standard of marketing. Considering that I was going to be on a fast, their variable cost couldn't be more than $70 - that's a business I would rather be an investor in than a client!
I was going to be with out a salary cheque for the first time since I started work post MBA, and I wouldn't have paid that price in bull market that preceded 2008 crash!

I am more "value for money" type. A bit more search on google, and you can pretty much find any thing you want. Double check with tripadvisor, and you know what you are getting into. This is how I zeroed in on health oasis, which claims to be one of the oldest health spa in Samui. The resort itself was pretty basic, but with a very effective Programme. A few email exchanges to negotiate the price from published ones, throw in couple of nights of free accommodation, a few extra massages and I was ready to go. Unfortunately, only 2 airline fly direct to Samui from Singapore and they definitely overcharge, but no way to negotiate with them. In any case, I had a deal which I liked at the resort, I liked the Programme, and that's how I landed in Samui as my first stop.

Prologue

The alarm was ringing again. It was a soft melodious tune, but it sank my heart, as usual. Thursday early morning - time for another research meeting. Markets were roaring again after having collapsed the previous month, the daily battle of greedy bulls and fearful bears had turned decisively in favour of bulls, atleast in the last three weeks. We had correctly anticipated the bounce from oversold levels, but my idea of buying interest rate sensitives had been shot down as too risky. Now markets were up, the fund was not, some one had to be responsible and this was going to be yet another "I said and you said" verbal match, usually to be won by the person with highest authority!

I was starting to feel agitated just anticipating that when the fog started lifting. It wasn't Thursday! It was Wednesday and the alarm I had set up was to wake me up for the start of a series of journeys I had planned for this year - hopefully a year of transformation and discovery. A year of travelling, seeing the unseen, soaking one self in different experiences, connecting with different cultures, finding the balance, taking care of mind and body and not worrying about the bank balance! The thought of research meeting and market calls quickly dissipated and I rushed to collect all the electronic devices I had put up for charging - the iPad, the kindle, the extra phone (which I eventually left charging anyway) with out which no vacation could be dreamt off. I had already packed most stuff in my bagpack the night before. When you decide to take only one bagpack, managing space becomes quite tough and you have to narrow down to the most essential items. I had decided against taking my crocs as too space consuming, but i realized last minute that was going to need one pair of slippers. Since I don't have one, I flicked Sujata's embarrassingly pink ones - not really attention grabbing technique (who would want attention in a pink slipper anyway?) but more with "I couldn't care less" attitude.

Taxi was waiting downstairs. Every body in the family was still sleeping. I kissed Rohan and Rahul on the forehead as i always do before leaving them behind. They really are the two best little boys in the whole world (well, mostly they are!). The tough part of travelling while working was always to leave the family behind, but this time what made it harder was that it was a conscious choice. Few things I had to do alone before we start family vacations together. And we had a big one coming up in summer in US anyway. Sujata had had a fidgety night so didn't want to wake her up. The taxi driver called. It was time to go.

The taxi ride was uneventful. Singapore air had just sent me a letter that I didn't qualify for the Pps membership this year - the privileges of corporate life were slipping away slowly- so I was thankful that the check in line in economy wasn't long. It turned out that my membership was still valid for this month, so I could still get in the business lounge. Thanks to Atim's tip(he always knows where the good deals are) and HSBC visa infinite, I was still going to be able to use these lounges on my travels, which was a big plus point. As usual, no announcement for the destination was made, but I was on my way to Koh Samui as the first stop of my year of travel...