In the spirit of the holiday weekend, cheap plane tickets, and my new found ambition to get healthy Laura and I booked a last minute trip to Nepal... A nice resort in The Gokarna Forest just outside Kathmandu. A place to read and write and relax with amazing spa deals and spiritual enlightenments. Now I don't want to turn this into a travel blog by any means but this place was pretty sweet!! Mornings filled with Nature Hikes trying to avoid the leaches and monkeys while the Himalayan Massages consumed the afternoons.
I think more than anything the time away from reality... the opportunity to gather my thoughts was the major highlight. We woke up each morning to the sound of rain outside our open window, a situation I rarely find myself in these days, and went to the 8am yoga class. Now I've yoga'd before but by no means would I appear to know what I was doing. Luckily the class mainly consisted of some light calisthenics, some twisting, stretching, breathing funny, closing eyes, opening them slowly, etc... very minimal up dog tree airplane stuff. My favorite part, however, was the mediation... 20 minutes at the end of each session where we could escape to a tranquil place and relax our minds... relax our face, relax our arms and our legs. Our first instructor pretty much asked us to relax every bit and piece you can think of, with no filter. Quite entertaining.
Either a run or a quick sauna session in 72 degrees celsius, depending on the rain, usually followed. Then onto breakfast filled with fresh juices, omelette guy, some nice morning curries, and an assortment of fruit. One in particular I recently found out is a superfruit, Papaya along with Pears and Pineapples and Mangos and Cute Little Bananananas made me very happy as I prep'd for the busy day ahead!!
That afternoon we took a trip through the winding dirt roads and into the heart of the city. Lots of shopping and strenuous negotiating took place over the next couple hours. One spot "Boudha Stoupa" was filled with monks praying and tourists commingling as we all walk clockwise around this specular circular monument, we must have made at least 15 laps. Upon return we went straight to the spa and contemplated the next indulgence as we sipped on our seven spice tea. In Proper Healthy Fashion I decided upon the Detox Algae Wrap not really sure what to expect other than a small Nepalese women rubbing green paste all over me. It started with a nice scrub down followed a quick shower and an invigorating algae lotion application. Laura was next to me laughing when they started wrapping me up like a big burrito fueling the giggling masseuses. Anyways, they put the heat on and massaged my face for about a half hour and all I could think about was tearing free in a cloud of hissing steam, transformed like superman with a perfect 6 pack. That obviously didn't happen but hey, at least it removed some of my harmful toxins... and much easier than a leach would, hehe. Will just have to work on those abs.
