Retreat around the world

“My body and soul journey started in the late 1990s in Thailand at Spa Samui, a hippy health spa then known mostly to open-minded Americans, which I’d found using Google. I’d finished a long trek in Northern Thailand, and wanted more than just a few days rest on a beach. Surrounded by delicious smells of herbs and spices drifting on the warm breeze, I was encouraged to enrol on a 3-day ‘cleanse’, a supremely energising experience. I revisited the following year, when I gave up smoking with the help of a hypnotherapist and reiki master, and discovered meditation in a morning class. After my third trip, I was inspired to do my first 10 day Vipassana silent meditation retreat in a monastery on the mainland. From then on there wasn’t much stopping me.
My work as a travel writer gave me lots of opportunities to explore well-being in different countries of the world, especially India, where as as well as being a cotton-clad Western tourist I got oiled up on a full-on two week panchakarma detox at an Ayurveda centre in Kerala, spent a lot of time in ashrams and trekked to remote Buddhist monasteries in Arunachai Pradesh in the North East. At the same time I was getting more and more into Yoga, which I’d discovered years before in a chilly village hall in Surrey...
The best retreats and journeys available right now give you knowledge and skills to bring back into everyday life, so your trip doesn’t just become a one-off experience, but enables you to cope better with life and enjoy it in your own environment...”

Retreat around the world is taken from the book BODY & SOUL ESCAPES by Caroline Sylge, published by Footprint Guides. The book is available on SPECIAL OFFER to readers of Yoga & Health magazine. Please see page 16 of the August 2007 issue for more details.