Days 55 to 63: Panchakarma at Dickwella, Sri Lanka

From the touristy streets of Galle Fort to the serenity of Peacock Ayurveda Gardens – a specialist ayurvedic treatment centre on Sri Lanka’s south coast. It’s a laid back little place – feels like some little country estate with gardens, a lovely pool, villas with verandas, large lawn etc. Just missing the cocktail bar and happy hour . . .

Ayurveda is a 5,000 year old healing system coming out of India. It’s often referred to as the sister science of yoga – hence Jolanda’s interest over the years. The idea is that each person has a unique combination of elements (fire, air, water, earth etc) – in Ayurveda our personal combination is called our “dosha”. Like anything in life, things can get out of balance – ayurvedic medicine therefore is all about getting some balance back in our dosha. Ayurvedic specialists will be dismayed at my cursory explanation of their 5,000 year old art, but that’s probably enough background detail for me right now.

Our days involved up to 7 treatments – full body massages, steam baths, steam inhalations and a range of other goodies. My favourite was Shirodhara, a treatment that involved warm oil slowly cascading onto your forehead. It’s just incredibly relaxing – good for stress and even apparently prevents premature greying of the hair. Well I’m not sure that’s worked on me yet – maybe it takes time . . .

In between treatments there was time for swimming, relaxing and walking – all sorts of life on the quiet country street and kids everywhere riding bikes and playing. These ones gave us flowers . . .

​The whole process seems to be about detoxification of the body, overseen by the onsite ayurvedic doctor. Everyone here goes through one cleansing day, which basically involves taking some mild laxatives and being best mates with the toilet for half a day. Incidentally, having a cleansing day instantly makes you quite a topic of interest with the other guests, probably seeing as there isn’t much other entertainment on offer. One is expected to enter into the spirit of telling everyone how many times you have “been” – which sparked off a mini competition with one lady from Slovakia managing 17 (unverified I might add) which certainly dwarfed my paltry 12.

The guests were probably the most diverse geographically I have ever come across. Surprisingly there were only 6 of us, possibly due to the current off-season at the moment in southern Sri Lanka. We had two Slovaks, one Swiss, one Siberian (who spoke almost no English) and us – Kiwi and Dutch. To cap that off the owner was from Lithuania with the rest of the staff mainly Sri Lankan, as far as I could tell. The Slovakian lady, Janne (she of the 17 bowel motions fame) was the class character – unbelievably at a strict Ayurvedic cleansing programme she somehow got away with nipping out to the front gate for regular ciggies, and maintaining a personal coffee stash. She was such a nice person and so liked by the staff that it was no problem finding someone, for example, to nip out in a tuk tuk on an emergency ciggy purchasing mission . . .

We came together at mealtimes – all vegetarian as you can imagine. The food was simple, maybe a little on the boring side, but tasty.

​Our ayurvedic medicines were presented at the end of breakfast and dinner and comprised a number of small glasses of foul tasting gunk. Absolutely no idea what’s in it, but being the compliant chap I am they were suitably dispatched.

​So, was it all worth it? How do I feel now? Well to be honest, on a short-term perspective I probably feel little different – maybe a bit lighter of spirit and calmer. But by going through a good detox I do feel I have made a longer term gain, given that one of the reported benefits of Panchakarma is the elimination of many toxins in the body that contribute to chronic disease.
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Cancer rates, for example, seem to have shot up over the last hundred years and there is enough evidence around to suggest that everyday chemicals in things like processed food, cosmetics or even the air we breathe may account for a good amount of that increase. The World Health Organisation and the International Agency for Research on Cancer estimate that 7% to 19% of cancers are due to exposure to toxic substances in the environment (reported by the Halifax Project, for those interested). The world is certainly full of claims and opinions and I guess all I can do is that which feels right to me.

So now our detoxed bodies are next heading for some beach hopping in southern Sri Lanka. I just can’t wait for that first beer toxin . . . !