Welcome back to This is India! I always have funny/weird stories about India to share with friends or family when I talk to them. This is just meant to be an honest portrayal about my life in India through short anecdotes. I also share here what I’ve been up to online outside Hippie in Heels.

What I was up to other than here:

  • I spent the week hiking around Coorg, jumping in waterfalls, and tracking leopards through the jungle with goMowgli.
  • I wrote an article about Diwali in Goa & the monsters that are lurking at that time for FairyTale Traveler
  • I celebrated one year of blogging this week- woo hoo! Thanks to all of you who read this site!

Now your story,

Based on my page views, it seems like my readers really like awkward massage stories? Well, you’re in luck because here’s another and it’s all about a sauna in India.

I was off to a fairly well known Ayervedic healing center near Baga with a friend. She goes for a special weight control powder massage and I was going to try out the normal Ayurvedic. I have a couple masseuses on speed dial that will come to my house, but this was only 700 and I thought would be a bit more proper.

I put on the paper undies as advised, which yes is very normal in India, and watched as oil was reheated in a big metal pan. It was on a small hot plate. You know how when you deep fry something, there are little bits of crunch in the bottom of the pan?

For some reason, there were little bits in this oil. Now, I don’t think he’d just fried up some cod before I stepped in, but it was mysterious. 

The massage was as I had feared- little bits of grit tearing at my skin. I wasn’t sure if it was purposeful (exfoliating) or not, as most Ayurvedic massages I had were normal oil (minus that one time it was cooking oil).

But here comes the BEST part!

After the massage, per usual, it was time for the sauna to really let that oil sink into the pores while you sweat out. It wasn’t a sauna… it wasn’t even a shower that some places just stick you in… it was a box with a head hole cut out

Once I sat in the box, they put the top on with just a cut-out for my head and I watched as they…

hooked the hose to a pressure cooker and placed the other end in the box.

I had fears of explosion, but actually enjoyed my pressure cooker steam sauna. It was hot as fuck though and I had to get out after about four minutes.

 

This is India!

 

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