I had a fun filled day yesterday. It all began with my neighbor coming over to inform me that she had found a Cobra in her house. Yes folks, IN her house. It was neatly removed by an Indian charmer who caught it with his bare hands and coaxed it gently into a basket before removing it from the neighborhood. I was in shock. So in shock, I couldn't even get close enough to take pictures to share with you. Sorry! But I did spend the rest of the morning looking around in every crevice of my home in fear that another way lay lurking in the shadows.
After a crazy morning, one of my friends asked me to go see a movie with her and her two daughters so away to see the new Batman movie I went. Ready to shake the snake out of my mind.
3 hours later, after loving the show, I head out to meet another friend of mine, and this is where my day got really interesting. My friend just said,"Hey let's check out this place I found that states it is an authentic ayurvedic therapy spa." Not really knowing what that was, I thought, hey why not. I thought well I could always just get my nails done. Boy was I in for a treat. I really should have asked, 'What is an authentic ayurvedic therapy spa?' But no, typical me. I just jump right on in.
Here's what happened.
I walk in with my friend to see what the spa does and instantly I realize that this is not my version of a typical spa. The list of options does not include nails and hair removal but instead includes some different options with names like Sarvanga Abhyangam, Mukhalepam Njavara, and Takra Dhara. My friend and I look at the list with growing confusion so the lady behind the counter takes pity on us and asks if we want a massage. I look at my friend. She looks at me. "Sure," we say at virtually the same time. I am still unsure why we agreed to something we didn't know anything about but what the heck...when in India right?
So, we first have a consultation with a doctor. This is a first for me at a spa but she smiles at me and asks all these invasive questions before taking my wrist to measure my heart rate. She then proudly announces, "You are an easy going person. Willing to try anything, aren't you." She states this as a fact rather than a question.
I smile, "Yes, that is true." Given my decision to come into this thing willingly I think she is SPOT ON. I begin to wonder if this meant something about my upcoming massage or if she was just referring to my general nature!
I am then lead away to a small room where a tiny Indian woman asks me to undress and put on this G-string looking piece of cloth underwear. I have seen these before while having a massage in Goa, so I head into the bathroom and quickly realize there is no robe in this room to cover my body once I put on the string thingy. So I strip off my clothes, put on my "loin cloth" covering thing, and drape a towel strategically over my upper body. I emerge back into the massage room only to find my little Indian lady waiting there for me...with the lights on. Seriously! Every light on. I was in shock but thought, 'well lady, you are gonna get an eye full today.'
She tells me to sit down on a stool and without ceremony she grasps the towel leaving me virtually naked sitting on the stool because apparently being naked is part of the therapy. My backside and front side are hanging out for the world to see. She then starts to massage my scalp, neck, and back with the thickest looking hot oil you have ever seen. She scoops it into her hands and drips it with one finger, like a funnel, wherever more oil is needed. I am intrigued by the specific way she users her hand to apply the oil as it has a very practiced and artful manner.
Afterwards she asks me to lie down face up on the massage bed, again I am embarrassed but thought, 'what are you gonna do about it Twitty!' So I lie face up with my body exposed again, as there was no sheet to strategically cover my body, as she proceeds to give me a VERY complete massage. Deep tissue. All over. I was shocked! I don't even think I could relax. Now, mind you she avoided the loin cloth area. Which was clearly good as that would have been a NO GO. I am not trying to say she wasn't a professional about the massage because she certainly was but this was not any ordinary massage. After finishing the front she asks me to flip over so she can do the back and same thing. Deep tissue all over my body. At one point she unties the loin cloth off my back side, which of course made me flinch and tighten up every muscle in my body, until I realized she was just doing this so she can rub my body head to toe. I did think to myself, 'what will you do if she does something crazy down there?' Immediately I think over my options...'kick her in the face and run naked from the room screaming like a crazy person?' I felt like a ham covered in that gooey brown sugar glaze at Christmas. Lying there pretty much naked, her fingers dripping oil all over me trying to work out the deep kinks in my back.
After she is done. She smiles at me and asks if it was good. I nod. She helps me to stand. It is hard to no slip and fall when you have just been covered in this slick stuff, and she helps me get into a steam shower, again with all the lights on. I never once caught her looking at my naked body. You could tell she does this all the time. Expert hands. Flawless steps. Flowing one into the next. Very complete.
I sat in the steam shower, trying to relax, and just started to laugh out loud. If you had told me an hour ago that my day would have entailed this kind of strange therapeutic massage I wouldn't have believed it but sometimes you just have to go with the flow of things. See where life takes you.
Later, I asked the doctor what I had just had done and she said it was a holistic, healing Sarvanga Abhyangam massage. She explained that this basically means that medicated, prescribed oil, is applied all over the body during massage to delay ageing, improve your sleep, and improve the skins color and texture. She asked me if I enjoyed it and I said yes, because it had felt nice despite the slightly invasive process and all my nakedness.
My friend and I laughed for hours after leaving the spa both agreeing we now had something funny to blog about. After rehashing all the details and finding out her experience was EXACTLY like mine, she headed off to get some Henna on her hands and I headed home to deal with Cobras.
All in all, it was a pretty fascinating Indian experience today. All in all.
After a crazy morning, one of my friends asked me to go see a movie with her and her two daughters so away to see the new Batman movie I went. Ready to shake the snake out of my mind.
3 hours later, after loving the show, I head out to meet another friend of mine, and this is where my day got really interesting. My friend just said,"Hey let's check out this place I found that states it is an authentic ayurvedic therapy spa." Not really knowing what that was, I thought, hey why not. I thought well I could always just get my nails done. Boy was I in for a treat. I really should have asked, 'What is an authentic ayurvedic therapy spa?' But no, typical me. I just jump right on in.
Here's what happened.
I walk in with my friend to see what the spa does and instantly I realize that this is not my version of a typical spa. The list of options does not include nails and hair removal but instead includes some different options with names like Sarvanga Abhyangam, Mukhalepam Njavara, and Takra Dhara. My friend and I look at the list with growing confusion so the lady behind the counter takes pity on us and asks if we want a massage. I look at my friend. She looks at me. "Sure," we say at virtually the same time. I am still unsure why we agreed to something we didn't know anything about but what the heck...when in India right?
So, we first have a consultation with a doctor. This is a first for me at a spa but she smiles at me and asks all these invasive questions before taking my wrist to measure my heart rate. She then proudly announces, "You are an easy going person. Willing to try anything, aren't you." She states this as a fact rather than a question.
I smile, "Yes, that is true." Given my decision to come into this thing willingly I think she is SPOT ON. I begin to wonder if this meant something about my upcoming massage or if she was just referring to my general nature!
I am then lead away to a small room where a tiny Indian woman asks me to undress and put on this G-string looking piece of cloth underwear. I have seen these before while having a massage in Goa, so I head into the bathroom and quickly realize there is no robe in this room to cover my body once I put on the string thingy. So I strip off my clothes, put on my "loin cloth" covering thing, and drape a towel strategically over my upper body. I emerge back into the massage room only to find my little Indian lady waiting there for me...with the lights on. Seriously! Every light on. I was in shock but thought, 'well lady, you are gonna get an eye full today.'
She tells me to sit down on a stool and without ceremony she grasps the towel leaving me virtually naked sitting on the stool because apparently being naked is part of the therapy. My backside and front side are hanging out for the world to see. She then starts to massage my scalp, neck, and back with the thickest looking hot oil you have ever seen. She scoops it into her hands and drips it with one finger, like a funnel, wherever more oil is needed. I am intrigued by the specific way she users her hand to apply the oil as it has a very practiced and artful manner.
Afterwards she asks me to lie down face up on the massage bed, again I am embarrassed but thought, 'what are you gonna do about it Twitty!' So I lie face up with my body exposed again, as there was no sheet to strategically cover my body, as she proceeds to give me a VERY complete massage. Deep tissue. All over. I was shocked! I don't even think I could relax. Now, mind you she avoided the loin cloth area. Which was clearly good as that would have been a NO GO. I am not trying to say she wasn't a professional about the massage because she certainly was but this was not any ordinary massage. After finishing the front she asks me to flip over so she can do the back and same thing. Deep tissue all over my body. At one point she unties the loin cloth off my back side, which of course made me flinch and tighten up every muscle in my body, until I realized she was just doing this so she can rub my body head to toe. I did think to myself, 'what will you do if she does something crazy down there?' Immediately I think over my options...'kick her in the face and run naked from the room screaming like a crazy person?' I felt like a ham covered in that gooey brown sugar glaze at Christmas. Lying there pretty much naked, her fingers dripping oil all over me trying to work out the deep kinks in my back.
After she is done. She smiles at me and asks if it was good. I nod. She helps me to stand. It is hard to no slip and fall when you have just been covered in this slick stuff, and she helps me get into a steam shower, again with all the lights on. I never once caught her looking at my naked body. You could tell she does this all the time. Expert hands. Flawless steps. Flowing one into the next. Very complete.
I sat in the steam shower, trying to relax, and just started to laugh out loud. If you had told me an hour ago that my day would have entailed this kind of strange therapeutic massage I wouldn't have believed it but sometimes you just have to go with the flow of things. See where life takes you.
Later, I asked the doctor what I had just had done and she said it was a holistic, healing Sarvanga Abhyangam massage. She explained that this basically means that medicated, prescribed oil, is applied all over the body during massage to delay ageing, improve your sleep, and improve the skins color and texture. She asked me if I enjoyed it and I said yes, because it had felt nice despite the slightly invasive process and all my nakedness.
My friend and I laughed for hours after leaving the spa both agreeing we now had something funny to blog about. After rehashing all the details and finding out her experience was EXACTLY like mine, she headed off to get some Henna on her hands and I headed home to deal with Cobras.
All in all, it was a pretty fascinating Indian experience today. All in all.
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