01 Mar2017
Chivasuka retreat – detox retreat Chiang Mai days 6, 7, 8
Our last days at Chivasuka retreat
Day 6 – back to blended
pH 7.1 first urine
Papaya drink
30 min later lime with chili
30 min later green juice – bitter leaf, cucumber, jicama, turmeric etc.
In the morning we enjoyed all the drinks as on the previous mornings. Jan brought them again to our bungalow so I could sip on them while reading about Dalai Lama’s ideas and then taking notes about our stay. To be honest, I really appreciated the WiFi connection did not get up to the bungalow because I love my quiet mornings without any online disruptions or work. First I have some peace and quiet, then I can start working.
30 minutes after the green juice we walked down to the living/dining room to have breakfast. Again enzyme, antioxidants and milk thistle with water, a cup of tea, and I also had coconut water. And when the others enjoyed fruit with muesli and vegan milk, Jan blended a similar combination for myself, too.
It was my first day on blended food after a 3-day juice cleanse.
At first I so loved the smoothie taste but then I felt so full. You know, after no fiber for 3 days my stomach needed to adjust to fiber again. But it was a really tasty breakfast, that’s for sure.
Then again a few minutes online to update Instagram stories and answer some messages. As it was our last free morning at Chivasuka, we decided to go for a walk. There’s a small village down the hill with just 50 people and on a hill behind it a really cool Doi Taeng coffee house is located.We just walked there to check it and take some photos. Dad was not drinking coffee on this detox program, and I never drink coffee. But do they have tea and other drinks there as well. We were just still full from breakfast. Once again I realised the difference between food with fiber (the smoothie I had) vs. juices without fiber (the whole 3 days before that).
Fiber is really a lot heavier on stomach and it’s one of the things that gives you a full stomach feeling.
Anyway, on the way back to Chivasuka we found some banana and mandarin trees and waved to say hi to the locals kids in the village. It was on a Monday morning but the kids were not at school. They still had a so called Monk day because of the Full Moon 3 nights before which means holidays for them.
As we still had more than an hour until lunch, dad took a nap and I was writing details about our stay at Chivasuka. Then I was glad Jan made me a fresh veggie juice for lunch instead of a heavy smoothie. I was still feeling not very hungry so preferred it light. The three of them had a big meal of beans, asparagus, and a vegan sausage. To be precise it was mushrooms, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, bell pepper, tomatoes and spices in a form of a sausage. To be honest I am not really into vegan meals looking like meat (never really liked meat anyway) so I was completely fine with my juice.
It was very nice of Jan to make meat-looking meals for dad who was a big meat eater just 3 weeks before this trip with me. And he was making these meals on those days when I was juicing which I really appreciated. Their meals did not seem appealing to me which made my juice detox even easier.
After lunch I spent most of the afternoon on my laptop sending emails, writing and also planning some things for the next few weeks.
For 45 minutes I enjoyed some light sunbeams on the sunbed on our porch replying to Facebook and Whatsapp messages using Chatsim.
We also recorded our video from the day 30. Yes, our trip with dad started already 30 days ago! Who’d say it would pass so quickly?!
“OMG, I am so looking forward to our dinner tonight.” I said entering the dining room.
“Why?” Jan asked.
“Vegan sushi is one of my favorite meals ever. I make it at home quiet often, especially in winter. Cannot wait.”
And I was so right. Karin made amazing raw vegan sushi (not Jan as Karin is an expert in rolling nori). We had two different kinds, normal veggie rolls and those more complicated ones when Karin also rolled each piece of vegetable in nori and then altogether in cauliflower and another nori. What a great job! Finger-like get, seriously.
After dinner I could not finish online work as my web hosting was not working when I wanted to prepare and schedule an article for later this week. Facebook seemed to be slow as well so I gave up and went back to the bungalow.
Instead, I enjoyed evening steam sauna at the porch of our bungalow :D After two 13-minute rounds, took another cold shower and put coconut oil + aloe vera + lemon grass all over my body. Karin was so nice to had prepared this combined body care for us once she found out about our dry skin these days. Very helpful and what a nice smell! Coconut oil and aloe vera are two of my favorite skin care products. And if it’s fresh aloe vera that grows right there in the Chivasuka garden, even better, right?
Detox observations: I felt like doing nothing in the morning. I didn’t care that much about the beautiful trees around us when we went hiking which is not normal to me as I love jungle very deeply. Then in the afternoon I noticed mood swings, I felt a bit nervous and restless. At first I only thought it was detox worsening my feelings about having so much work to do in the upcoming days. But then just after sauna I got my period. No wonder I was having all those feelings during the day that seemed like a light PMS. Usually when I am on a detox diet, I get my period a bit earlier and stronger than normal because body is getting rid of many unnecessary things at once, also through old blood.
Sauna added to tiredness so we both went to bed at 10.45 pm. I felt asleep within 5 minutes just once I told myself 10 things I was grateful for during the day.
Day 7 – solid food
pH 7.0 first urine
pH 7.5 second urine
papaya drink
30 min later warm water with lime and chili
30 min later green juice
This is the third article about Chivasuka retreat close to Chiang Mai. I wrote about our first 2 days and then my 3 days on juices which happened before what I describe in this article. The following is the summary of our days 6,7 and 8 at Chivasuka.
Surprisingly, I had a very good sleep. Woke up just once feeling cold, then fell asleep again until waking up at 7.10 am. What a foggy morning it was with just 14 Celsius! When breathing out through your mouth, you could see the white breath. You know what I mean? That’s how we check if it’s cold back home in Slovakia :)
Once again I covered my body with coconut oil + aloe vera + lemon grass juice that was left from last night. Please remember that if you mix these 3 things together, keep it in the fridge as it would get bad within 2 days. Just use it quickly after mixing.
When sipping on our tasty morning drinks, I was putting together the first article about our first two days on this Chivasuka detox retreat. It was so warm and cozy in bed that I did not mind writing so early morning at all.
“There’s stunning red birds on that tree.” Dad started to run inside to look for his camera.
I also took my camera and got out of bed.
“Oh yes, I know those birds from Costa Rica. They would fly around me every sunset when I was swimming in the pool.”
All those great memories from Blue Osa came back within a second.
After the morning drinks, we walked down to the main building. Oh yes, it was time for my first solid breakfast after a week here finally. I was really looking forward to eat exotic fruit with the others. I was missing the taste and texture. And also wanted to try Jan’s home-made granola. Personally, because of the nuts I never mix granola with fruit in the same meal (fats in nuts slow down the digestion of carbs in fruit which starts to ferment in your body). But here I really wanted to taste Jan’s muesli as it looked really delicious!
I got some important work done after breakfast, and then had an hour full body massage in our bungalow. A super short Thai lady, a friend of Karin’s came to give us a massage. It was a very relaxing massage which with my period and detox I so appreciated. No strong weird Thai movements to all directions as I am used to. Was perfect at that moment.
After the massage I finished an article and was ready for amazing lunch which again looked so professional as in a top notch restaurant. Jan loves making food look great.
For our last lunch we had a cheese platter with dried fruit and nuts, carrots, jicama and 2 kinds of bread (I didn’t eat bread as it contained gluten). Boy, was that cheese delicious! Jan made 4 different kinds of fermented cashew cheese – with black pepper, saffron, tomato and red pepper; and onion, garlic and many herbs.
I could not decide which one I liked the most but the one with black pepper was my least favorite. I was never fan of black pepper at all. But I really give Jan thumbs up for a super yummy lunch!
Just after the lunch I needed to buy my flights to Israel in a month and send some emails. When I was finally finished at 4 pm, I could go up to the bungalow to relax on the porch. As it was St. Valentine’s day, Jan brought us ice cream with strawberries and cowslip flower up to the bungalow. What a treat! :)
Let me be honest, I was really happy to get vegan ice cream twice on the detox retreat. Then I let the ice cream digest and enjoyed a meditation on the sunbed getting energy from the Sun. Later on I asked dad to take some photos of me doing yoga in the yoga gazebo which is located just behind the second bungalow.
When a mosquito bit me three times (for the first time ever at Chivasuka), that was a sign to check the time. Oh dinner time it was! I quickly changed and we went down to have a glass of kombucha followed by a yummy dinner. Jan tried to make a dish that looked like salmon but it was carrots with onion and dill. Surprisingly, I liked it more than I thought I would.
After dinner we talked with dad and I packed my bag.
As it was our last night at Chivasuka, we had to use the steam sauna at our porch one more time.
That sauna time was precious… Listening to the birds in the background and staring at the mountains with sweat drops all around my body had its charm. I was so tired after sauna that jumped into bed at 10.30 pm.
Day 8 – solid food
Sodium bicarbonate test
pH 7.6 second urine
Papaya drink
30 min later warm water with apple cider vinegar and chili
30 min later green juice (dill, carob and some green leaves)
Dad woke up at 6 am to sit outside and relax listening to the birds in the background. As I had my period, I felt too cold to be outside in 14 Celsius. Instead, I decided to stay in bed in a relaxing asana until 7.15 am. Then did the pH test and also the sodium bicarbonate test until Jan came with our first papaya drink blended with papaya seeds.
In the meantime I finished packing my suitcase, counted money to know how much I still had left until the end of the trip. Also took more notes about our detox retreat at Chivasuka which was, unfortunately, coming to its end. We recorded our daily video with dad when sipping on the strong green juice with dill and then enjoyed our last breakfast here. Oh my, why don’t we have all those exotic kinds of fruit at home?
The whole detox week at Chivasuka retreat passed way too quickly. Both dad and me did very well, I believe. I had a super light detox, dad’s was stronger. He felt more tired in general, but for him it was also his first detox ever.
And a bigger change than for myself. I am super proud of dad for saying yes to Chivasuka retreat. And it turned out the whole week was the best part of our month trip together. As I want dad to change some habits and follow a healthier life, together with Karin and Jan, the retreat owners, we gave a week retreat to my dad for his upcoming birthday :)
Dad lost 2 kilograms and I lost 2 and a half during 7 nights at Chivasuka. Not bad at all, right?
TIP 1: If you are interested in this topic, learn more about raw vegan diet.
TIP 2: I also recommend you to check out my ebook How to be fit (not only) traveling which is focused on raw vegan diet and its benefits.
When I wrote this post, Chivasuka was still located close to Chiang Mai in Thailand which is where I did their detox retreat. (Un)fortunately, Chivasuka location changed from Chiang Mai to Curacao island in the Caribbean. But I bet you would get the same, or even better experience on Curacao :)
Many thanks to Karin and Jan for making our detox retreat unforgettable.
