Day after Thanksgiving, Goa

Nov. 28 -- after a very lazy Thanksgiving day, I elected to hit the spa (I dissed sight-seeing in Goa. Hopefully the churches et al will be ready and waiting for my future visit. Frankly the idea of a 2 hour drive out of paradise didn't appeal).

This a.m. I checked in for my first massage in India. (Afterall, how could it be Thanksgiving vacation without me checking into a spa, noted Joe.)

I got there early so I could relax in the sauna, was then slipped into a robe, handed a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and shepherded into spa room 2 by a tiny Asian woman.

The first 25 minutes were devoted to deep tissue, back/neck. After all kinds of pressure point treatment, I'm sure I was partially into a heavenly coma.

Then she moved me to a chair for the Indian head massage. I'd experienced a bit of this in Jaipur (10 minutes for 20 rupees) and swore the guy found and addressed every bit of tension in my head/neck/shoulders in said 10 minutes.

This treatment was even better (music, aromatherapy, three times as long)...I was practically asleep.

Then I was shepherded back upstairs to the sauna, where I was allowed to relax for 10 minutes, pulled out (maybe they thought I'd pass out in there) and given warm herbal tea. (I'm not a big tea drinker but this was fantastic...when in Rome as the saying goes, or in this case, the Goa Intercontinental spa...).

After tea I was sheperded into a cold shower. I do mean COLD. The woman told me it was only for 2 minutes; that, I thought, would be a very long 2 minutes. Thankfully it was more like a 20 second rinse (automatic shower). Then into the steam room for 10 or 15 minutes of steam so thick she had to lead me to the bench.

I was then escorted to the shower. Plenty of service for a sauna experience that was absolutely over the top. No doubt it's spoiled the Lake Norman Y sauna for me...