no modesty here, please!

Today we explored the hotel more and made appointments at the spa. The spa here specializes in Ayurveda techniques, which were developed in India to heal the body. Randy and I both signed up for a lymphatic massage. I have had a lymphatic massage and thought this would be a good course of action considering what I have put my body through the past three years. From what I understand, the lymph system is how our body clears itself of toxins. If the lymph system is sluggish, however, the toxins just sit there. The lymphatic massage is designed to get the lymph system moving. I have had it described to me as analogous to a top. Once the top starts spinning, then it will continue spinning as long as you continue to give it some momentum. The lymphatic massage starts the top spinning. As I made the appointment, I had an image in my mind of my therapist literally flushing away three years of Skittles, Mountain Dew, and beer!

So, we show up for our massage appointments dressed in our bathing suits covered by our hotel robes (as instructed when we made the appointment). We were each escorted to separate rooms with separate therapists (a woman for me and a man for Randy). Up to that point, everything seemed pretty typical of all spas to which I have ever been.

Once inside the room, things changed a bit. My therapist was very sweet and obviously of Indian descent. She took me to an area of the room in which there was a shower and told me to strip. I just stood there for a moment a little dumbfounded in my vain attempt to understand what she really wanted me to do. After a moment, she looked me in the eye and literally ordered me to strip down - in front of her. I thought, "All righty, then. I can do this." She stood there while I stripped down and then proceeded to help me into a crude "loin cloth" that consisted of a string tied around my waist and a six inch wide piece of cotton cloth that covered my lower extremities and wrapped around the front and back of the string. Then I was promptly ushered to the massage table. No nice white cotton sheet to cover me up....nothing.

As I laid there on the table, I was thinking about an article I read once about European modesty. Evidently, North America inhabitants are uniquely modest. This fact was punctuated this afternoon when Randy stepped out onto our deck to read. As he did, he realized that the 60 year old overweight German lady staying in the room next door had been enjoying the afternoon sun in the nude. I am posting some pictures of the hotel. As you will see, there really is no privacy on the decks.... Randy has indicated that it will take a long time to get that image out of his head. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that because according to Randy, she scrambled back into her room "like her ass was on fire," upon realizing that she was no longer alone.

Tomorrow, we are scheduled to visit the ancient ruins here on Gozo! I should have lots of photos to post!