/ 13 November 2009

Ayurvedic luxury make eco-retreat one to remember

The art yoga class is held in Swaswara’s gallery, opposite the banyan tree. It starts at 2.15pm and the process is simple. First you take off your shoes and sit down amid a spread of brushes, oil paints and crayons. Then you relax and meditate. At a point specified by your teacher, you stop, capture the first image that comes into your mind and paint it. In my case that turned out to be a polar bear looking for a hug.

Looking back, I’m not sure that my painting really represented the bear in my mind. The paws were quite good, I have to say, and I’m proud of the canary yellow and pink background but, ultimately, my bear looked too scared to hug.

This was disappointing, but I still stuck the picture on the wall of my cottage. That’s not something I normally do, but then I don’t draw much either, or meditate, in fact, or dance for 30 minutes nonstop, or swim before breakfast, or breathe deeply and calmly without being prompted.

All of these things I did at Swaswara, a resort of 24 self-contained villas across 10,52ha on the Karnataka coast — a state often overlooked in favour of Goa to the north and Kerala to the south.

Surrounded by woodland and arable fields, it overlooks Om beach, named for its resemblance to the Hindi symbol, the mythical sound from which the universe was created. Pass over the beach’s bays and through a stretch of farmland and you reach Gokarna, a town swarming with sacred cattle and famed for its temples (it also attracts year-round backpacker traffic).

The spiritual elements of the beach play into the ethos of the resort itself. Now entering its fourth year of business, it takes bookings that start at five nights and encourages all visitors to engage fully with a programme of yoga and Ayurvedic treatments designed to help uncover your “own rhythm”, which, in Kannada, the local language, translates handily as swaswara.

Such mission statements might bring out the cynic in some and I would normally include myself in this number. For example, when having the process of art yoga explained to me, I became convinced that a mental image would not, as was suggested by my teacher, Kirit, appear spontaneously at all but that, instead, I would manufacture one — and probably something rude at that. The potential consequences of having to daub such an image in crayon worried me hugely but, fortunately, it didn’t come to pass. Once that barrier had been overcome, I became a keen practitioner of other offerings on the menu.

Alongside the emphasis on personal balance, there is a focus on global sustainability. It’s common nowadays for hotels to nod at least towards helping to save the planet, but not only is the sales pitch at Swaswara more thorough, it’s also more necessary. The supply of electricity and water is never guaranteed on the subcontinent, but in recent years it has become even more unreliable.

The solutions Swaswara employs to accommodate these limitations are exquisitely done. Each of the cottages are a mixture of indoor and outdoor space — the bedroom behind glass, the shower under the stars. Next to the shower is advice on how to save water (lather up with the water off). There’s no television and only low-energy lighting. A reservoir at the back of the plot holds the resort’s water, and all solid waste is recycled, partly to fertilise the vegetable gardens.

The food — largely south Indian, with the odd Mediterranean dish thrown in — also aspires to a mantra of sustainability and is sourced locally. Every single meal I ate was incredibly fresh, flavoursome and, I noted gratefully, served in substantial portions: tuna stuffed in a snake gourd ring with pickled cocum, prawns sautéed in capsicum and onion with sweet tomato paste, side dishes of cumin potatoes, mushrooms in pea sauce … and a pudding to follow.

Staff seek to play down the luxury elements, which I thought a clever ploy, as it made me feel more of a true voyager to the centre of my self. But by the same token, most bling-sporting holidaymakers are hardly likely to head to a place that offers stretches instead of cocktails (there is no alcohol available on site) and it takes three hours to drive to the nearest airport.

As for the massage, I can tell you that I spent a happy hour naked in the company of two men buffing my muscles in perfect unison. The only disconcerting aspect of this treatment was the medicinal oil they used. Apparently concocted from a variety of secret ingredients to fit my physical requirements, it smelt so strongly of the same spices that make the food so great that I thought I was destined for the grill.

Swaswara’s ethos may have been manufactured in a boardroom some years ago — I don’t know. All I can say is that I was thoroughly inclined to embrace it during the length of my stay. I was also inclined to quit my job and take up full-time polar bear painting. But, sadly, that desire has now passed. — ® Guardian News & Media 2009