I have never tried yoga. I have never even come close to the idea of trying a detox week. However – wellness is more and more important for us the older we get and that we need to take good care of ourselves in order to stay as healthy as possible for all the remaining years.. The stuff you put into yourself as a twenty year old was maybe not good for you even then, but can cause real damage to your body when you are 55+ or more.

My husband and I do not need to buy more material things and for Christmas gifts it is getting harder and harder to find something meaningful to give to each other. Besides love and care of course, a good meal or something like that.  After having been to a dinner at our friend’s home in Singapore we learned about this place in Phuket where they had been not only once but also actually twice. They looked really positive when speaking about the place and when back in Bangkok we started talking about it again,  we decided to give ourselves this “thing” as a gift for Christmas.

So all excited on January 12 we went and we had booked this 5 day “Eat well program”. You can choose different programs such as Ultra Cleanse, Fitness program or e.g. Juice program where you only drink healthy fruit juices and have no salad, carbs, dairy products, bread or anything chewable. I was a bit nervous for the Colema room and the reaction I might have in there by myself.  Not that you would want to have anyone there – oh no!

It happened that you did not have anything to worry about at all. In fact on the third day (yes, you do this every single day) I kind of felt relaxed about the whole thing. I just massaged my belly with coconut oil as I had been instructed to do and after around 30-35 minutes 14 litres of fluid (coffee and apple cider vinegar) had been flushed through your intestinal.

The days are filled with a lot of interesting things, so you do not get bored at all and the resting time you get in between the programs – you spend by the pool enjoying the sun or take a nice walk on the beach or right into the sea also. The low tide made the beach 100 m longer right out into the ocean towards the island across Atmanjai. You can also take a walk down to the Rawai beach and have a look at all the fishing boats there. It is around 3 km away along the main road.

At Atmanjai you get the chance to try healing, astrology, pilates, get knowledge about oriental medicine for example and you practise yoga every day, the first thing you do at 7:30 a.m. and it was amazing. The yoga instructors Carrie (Am.) and Aldis (I am not sure the name is correct she was half Thai and half Islandic) were both just amazing. To do yoga in an open room where soft relaxing music is played and the main thing you hear outside are the tropical birds and maybe a rooster in the distance, was magical. The sun about to rise to the sky and palm trees right outside. Loved it.

The personnel working at Atmanjai is absolute fantastic – all of them. You can see that they are a good team together and you hear them laugh a lot. The smiles are always there. The “team” are very international and not only locals. The chef Charlie is American e.g. and has been there for more than 10 years.  The food we had was also very, very tasty and nice and I never thought I could live 10 days in a row without my usual cheese sandwich and three cups of coffee in the morning, but it was quite OK. I got head ache from the lack of caffeine for a few days and also felt a bit nausea in the afternoon day 1, but after day 2 it was all fine again.

The age among the guests varies a lot and were everything in between 30 to 70+ they come in all kinds of shape and forms. Some come for loosing weight and some just to start fresh with healthier food and yoga like we did. Thai food is maybe not the best choice you can have even if it is yummy. It is as we all know a lot of deep fried food cooked in the not so good and cheaper corn oil and it contains lots of sugar. Our daughter who has diabetes always gets very high blood sugar when visiting and it is not good for her in the long run. Not at all.

I would highly recommend this Health retreat for anyone either you have experience since before or have not tried this kind o thing at all. You get very well treated. Super nice organised and in a cosy environment too. Go for it.

www.atmanjai.com