Back on the Mountaintop

My annual sojourn to India each winter is truly a coming home for me. This place. The people, the villages, the way the light hits the tea, the markets full of vegetables and fruits in every imaginable color… these mountains. I just can’t sufficiently describe it all to you, and yet each year, I try.

For those of you who may be dropping into my India stories for the first time, welcome. If you have traveled vicariously with me before, I hope these posts are a wonderful revisit. I first came to Coonoor eleven years ago on the wings of an idea and a plan with my friend John to create this experience for others. My heart is full of gratitude just thinking about all the people who have joined us for this deep adventure into Ayurvedic medicine and the profound healing that can come of experiencing its magic in this way.

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The journey…

I kiss my kitties goodbye at 1:45 am, and Declan and I meet Annie and Peter in the dark of the night. I watch their sweet embrace and know that will be me in a couple more hours saying goodbye to my beloved. Dec drops us off at the Delta terminal, and I cling to him for a moment. He peels me off of him and says “off you go.” It’s hard to say goodbye each year for a month or more, but we are more used to it now.

After a quick hop from Boston to JFK, Annie and I meet Molly and check in for our flight to Delhi. It’s a 15-hour flight, but we nap a bit, pick at the airplane food, and I listen to a restorative yoga playlist that eventually puts me to sleep. Once in Delhi we are separated for a little bit going through customs, but we meet at our next gate and board our final flight to Coimbatore. The Fairfield Inn is nearby and is a 100 rupee taxi ride (just over $1). We talk about grabbing a bite before bed, but choose to skip dinner and instead take a little stroll along the street near our hotel. It’s loud and we are bleary eyed, so we head back, knowing we desperately need a good rest. If you know about the dosa at the Fairfield, then you’ll understand why we agree to get up early for the yummy buffet of fresh fruit, ghee dosa, various curries, chutneys, omelettes, and masala chai. It will be the last of grazing for a month, as we are heading into a full-on panchakarma, and that means no chai, coffee, eggs, or spicy foods. We rest well, wake up hungry, meditate for 20 minutes and then eat to our collective heart’s content. Sorry, no dosa pics–we were too hungry. Just a picture of this fruit:

Before we know it, our driver, Ganesh, has arrived to chariot us out of the hotel parking lot and into the web of morning traffic. Kids are on their way to school; motorbikes zigzag through dense rows of cars and busses. Horns toot, old ladies weave between bumpers, a cow crosses a highway, dogs sit in the dust as lorries thunder by… it is just like I remember and equally unbelievable that so many people, animals, and vehicles move in this mysterious rhythm that miraculously seems to work. We laugh, point, squeal, and shake our heads with amazement and delight. And we haven’t even gotten to the 14 hairpin turns yet!

Our ascent into the mountains comes after a solid hour of driving through banana plantations and little roadside villages. The road begins to tunnel through denser forest, and very soon hairpin #1 turns us uphill. It doesn’t take long before the landscape lifts us into the clouds. Huge trucks full of pineapples, veggies, bags of tea, and concrete blocks chug up this mountain. Motorbikes look for openings to snake through the thicket of vans and cars. Every once in awhile I close my eyes to avoid watching a near collision; but it all flows magically, and after an hour or so, hairpin 14 arrives. We roll the windows down to let in the cool mountain air.

The last mile to the retreat takes us on a single lane journey through the Glendale tea company’s emerald hillsides. We weave back and forth, squeeze drastically close to the edge of the road to pass a town bus, and then there it is: the driveway. And oh man is it a driveway! Up we go, and Ganesh does it beautifully. Doctor Sundara is there to greet us, and I offer a hug before running up to hug Jansi, Selvi, Seeranjeevi, Sathya, and Latha, our dear lady therapists.

I take a deep breath as I enter my room again, see the bed that Narayan made so carefully. Everything is just as I left it. Annie and Molly are in the room right next to mine, and together we look around, smile, hug, and feel the sweetness of this return. We have barely taken our shoes off before we are whisked away to massages and then treated to the most delicious lunch of yellow dal, green bean sabji, chapati with ghee, and a delicious cucumber and carrot salad in a honey-lime marinade topped with pumpkin seeds and raisins. Ohmygoodness!

After lunch, I hike the stairs to our porch and look out over the valley. The view from my bedroom is, by itself, enough reason to return. I love how when I pull open my curtain each day, the horizon is different. It could be that I wake up to see a thin glow over the mountains–a promise of the sun to come, or that the retreat is enveloped in a cloud, or that I can see valley after valley, all the way down to the plains. We are truly on a mountaintop. The sun rises over us to the east, follows us throughout our days, and we can watch it slide each evening into the hills on the other side of the retreat. Some days the clouds are so thick that the sun is like a white eyeball in the sky, doing its best to burn the fog away. I’ll leave you with a handful of snaps taken in the first two days:

I’m happy to be back in my nest on this beautiful hillside with my sweet friends, ready to embark on another amazing adventure into our health.

with love,

Katie