Warning - this trip report is long.

I visited the Barberyn Reef Ayurveda Resort in Beruwela, Sri Lanka in March 2008 because of its reputation for offering the amenities of a resort along with alternative medical treatments. People dealing with chronic health conditions represent a large portion of the guests, who seemed to hail predominantly from Germany, the UK, and South Africa. The belief that the body can heal itself is fundamental to ayurvedic teachings, so detoxification is the pre-eminent goal here. Healing the mind and achieving inner peace are companion goals at Barberyn, and relaxation is an essential first step. Since relaxation has always been a challenge for me, I hoped to learn something useful that I could translate into my daily life. Despite the ongoing strife with the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist country where concepts such as compassion and peace are revered. After the December 2004 tsunami, despite the fact that much of the... more