Sagara Beach Resort

Sagara Beach Resort is classified as a three-star hotel and is adjacent to the Light House at the southern end of Kovalam Beach. It overlooks and shares the Light House beach, the southernmost and most popular part of the crescent-shaped Kovalam Beach, which is the most popular beach destination of South India, veritably called 'the Paradise of the South’. Kovalam is just 14 kms
from the International Airport at Thiruvananthapuram, near the southern tip of the Indian Subcontinent.

Accommodation
Sagara Beach Resort is constructed in three blocks and having 92 spacious and elegant air conditioned rooms, classified into A/c Standard Garden view, A/c Deluxe, Palace Sea view, Suits and honeymoon suits. Each room has a balcony with sea view through the coconut palm fronds that gently sway to the rhythm of the ever-present and soothing sea breeze.

Facilities
Two Swimming Pools
There are two state-of-the-art swimming pools hygienically and flawlessly maintained with crystal-clear water reflecting the azure sky above and green coconut umbrellas around.

Multi-cuisine Restaurant
There is a roof-top multi-cuisine restaurant, overlooking the Light House beach and the Arabian Sea where the moisture-laden sea-breeze refreshes you all day and night. It serves mouth-watering delicacies of the Indian, Chinese, Thai and Continental varieties. The polite and helpful personnel look after your needs promptly and precisely.

Ayurvedic SPA
Various Ayurvedic treatments, including massage treatments for various diseases and for rejuvenation, are conducted under the expert supervision of qualified practitioners under Dr. V. Franklin, who has forty years experience in the field, including years in the post of District Medical Officer under the Government of Kerala. He hails from a family with four centuries of Ayurvedic-treatment tradition and he has been honoured as the ‘Tourism Man of the Year 1999′ for his contribution to tourism in Kerala in the field of Ayurvedic Health Tourism.

Yoga Centre
There is a Yoga Centre where qualified Yoga Gurus (Teachers) give training and teach the intricacies of the science of Yoga, the one-way highway to the wholesome well-being of the soul, mind and body. Facilities for short-term Yoga treatments are also provided.

Travel Desk
The travel desk has all the latest facilities and connections needed for making arrangements for travel to anywhere in the world, including booking of train and airline tickets, checking availability of accommodation and arrangement of taxi services, fast and easy.

Cultural Programmes During Season
Traditional dance and drama forms like Kathakali, the classic dance-drama performance, martial art forms like Kalarippayattu, the fore-runner of Kung-Fu, and other forms of traditional performing arts, theatre, music, etc are organised once in two weeks and/or on special festival occasions.

Internet Facility
All the latest communication facilities, including high-speed internet connections, are available for all your communication needs.

Safe Deposit Lockers
Safe deposit lockers are made available to the residents for the safe-keeping of their valuables, like documents and jewellery items, to free the minds of the leisure-loving tourists from such worries.

Money Exchange
Round-the-clock money exchange service is provided so that the visitors will never be short of local currency for excursions and shopping trips.

Amenities
24-hour running water and electricity with stand-by arrangements for uninterrupted power and water supply have been made so that the visitor never feels any discomfort from interruption of these essential amenities. Top-notch furnishings and fittings add class and elegance to the creature comforts.

Activities
Beach Visits
You can freely stroll along the adjacent beaches, drink in the panoramic view, take occasional dips in the foaming waves, lie in the sun or shade of coconut palms, or engage in aquatic sports and amusements which are available on the beach-front.

Sight-Seeing Trips
Short trips will be arranged and liaison work for long trips done using the available facilities of the resort and the travel desk.

Indoor Games
For indoor games, facilities equalling international standards and norms are available for indoor games like carom board and table tennis.

Outdoor Games
For those who are interested in outdoor games, Volley ball and Badminton courts are always ready.

Services
Laundry
To ensure that all your clothes and sheets are ready as and when you need them, there are modern facilities for laundry and dry cleaning.

Parking Area
You never feel congestion even in high season as the parking area is expansive and lay inside the compound itself.

Doctor on Call
For cases needing immediate medial attention, the services of an allopathic doctor will be made available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Baby Sitting
The services of experienced ayahs will be available for baby sitting as and when such services are requested by residents of the resort.

Room Service
Every day of the week, there will be a 24 hour room service and all genuine needs of the residents will be attended to.

Poolside Services
Some of the pool side facilities provided are Water Polo for the grown-up people and stuffed toys for the children with food service for all are some of the pool side facilities provided.

Ayurveda
Concept of Ayurveda
Ayurveda is the science of life and longevity of ancient India which led the world in health-and-wellness knowledge and practice. It was taught and practiced by sages since time immemorial. Though it was prevalent in India before 3000 years ago, it was perfected into a scientific branch of knowledge with uniform theoretical basis and guidelines for practice about 2000 years ago.

It is a genuine naturalistic system based on the diagnosis of the three humours of the body, viz. vata, pitta and kapha, and treatments aimed at restoring the right balance of these three in the body. It is also based on the theory that man is made of five basic elements, viz. earth, water, fire, air and space.

Unlike the allopathic system of medicine, it focuses more on the holistic spiritual, mental, physical and social wellness and welfare of the man than on the treatment of some diseases. Even in the treatment of the diseases, it treats the root causes rather than the symptoms as allopathic system often does. Ayurveda is traditionally used extensively all over India to maintain the health and prevent diseases rather than to treat diseases after they have set in.

Dietary controls, natural medications, body massages, nasal inhalations, fomentations, continuous pouring of medicated oils, exposure to sun, infusion of medications through the rectum, exercises, etc are used to root out physical and mental diseases, rejuvenate the body and increase resistance to diseases.

Kerala and Ayurveda
United Nations and other world organisations have wondered, in their reports, how Kerala, which has a very low per capita income, tops the charts, keeping far above the developed rich nations, when it comes to health and wellness. It is the widespread practice of traditional and undiluted Ayurveda in its pristine form that has helped Kerala to achieve this enviable position.

The high humidity of the atmosphere in Kerala is helpful in the easy absorption of the massaging oils by the body. The natural abundance of medicinal herbs and the perennially salubrious climate combine with the right medicines to work wonders on the human body and mind. Favourable climate and unpolluted atmosphere are key factors in making purification and rejuvenation therapies in Ayurveda really effective, and Kerala has both of these.

Generally, Kerala is considered the only place in India where Ayurveda is practised in its genuine traditional form with total dedication. Tourists with life-style-related ailments like arthritis, paralysis, obesity, sinusitis, migraine, premature ageing and skin ailments, come to Kerala for holistic Ayurvedic treatment to root out the causes of the maladies.

Treatments
According to ancient Ayurvedic treatises, the main processes in Ayurvedic treatment are shodan (cleansing), shaman (palliation), rasayana (rejuvenating medications) and satvajaya (treatment for mental wellness). Ayurvedic treatments do not suppress the main symptoms to create new ones as side effects, as allopathic treatment often does.

Unlike Allopathic treatment where the main stress is on medicines, Ayurvedic system is a multidisciplinary approach that removes the root cause of the disease to give a permanent relief to the patient. Corrections in life-style, certain dietary controls, some exercises, proper rest, etc are insisted upon when taking medicines. Powders, tablets, decoctions, oils, etc, made from natural sources, especially herbs, collected and processed as per traditional guidelines, are given for specified periods. Dietary controls may continue even after stopping the medicines.

General classification of methods of treatment is as follows:
Palliative Treatment
The increased doshas (vata, pitta and kapha) are reduced through this treatment. Palliative treatment consists of the following measures:-
Sneha Karma or use of oily substances externally (for massage etc) or internally
Sweda Karma or fomentation
Exercise
Exposure to sun
Exposure to fresh air
Taking medicines which increase digestion
Taking medicines which remove or destroy toxins in the body
Purification Treatment
Panchakarma, or a five-pronged treatment, is used for purification, which is the removal of accumulated toxins and doshas in the body. The five processes are:
Vamana or induced vomiting
Virechana or induced purgation
Vasti or enema
Nasya or nasal medication
Rakta mokshana or blood-letting.

Rejuvenation
Medications of the rasayana variety and external treatment using medicated oils and herbal extracts are used to restore the youthful vim and vigour of those who take the treatment. People suffering from several life-style-related ailments undergo these treatments and become fit as fiddles, returning home fully satisfied. Some rejuvenation treatments are described below:

Pizhichil
Rheumatic and paralytic ailments and nervous weakness and disorders are rooted out through this treatment. Herbal oils are kept moderately heated over low flame and applied over the whole body by two or four trained masseurs once a day. Each session lasts 60 to 90 minutes and the period of treatment may vary from 7 to 21 days according to the gravity of the ailment and the condition of the body.

Kizhi
Kizhi is very useful in rheumatism, joint pains, spondilosis, emaciation of limbs, cholesterol and blood pressure. Boluses tied up in muslin bags made up of medications are applied to the whole body or part of it by two or four masseurs for 60 to 90 minutes, making the body perspire profusely. The treatment usually lasts 14 daysNjavarakizhi It is the same as above but the muslin bags contain njavara rice together with other medications.

Dhara
This treatment is useful in insomnia, vatha predominated diseases, mental tension and certain skin diseases. Medicinal preparations in liquid form are poured in a continuous stream on the forehead of the patient, while he is lying in a thoni (wooden tub), from a dhara chatti (earthen pan with a hole) placed at a prescribed height. Oils, milk, tender coconut water and decoctions of herb extracts are the different fluid mediums used. Dhara usually lasts 7 to 21 days.

Vasthi
Paralysis, arthritis, acute and prolonged constipation, etc are treated with vasthi. In this method of treatment some herbal oils and other medications are applied through the rectum daily for a period of 5 to 25 days.

Sirovasthi
This is very useful in facial paralysis, severe headaches, dryness of nostrils and such other vatha-related diseases. A cap or head-band is fixed on the head and warm medicated oils are poured in it so that the oils stay on the head without flowing down for 15 to 60 minutes. This may be continued for 7 days.

Udvarthanam
A very effective treatment for hemiplegia, paralysis, obesity and some other rheumatic ailments, Udvarthanam is done for 14 to 28 days, massaging the whole body using herbal powders.

Abhyangam
For obesity and diabetic gangrene, the body is stroked with medicated oils continuously for 45 minutes a day. The usual duration is 14 days.

Nasyam
Prolonged and acute headache, mental disorders, paralysis and certain type of skin diseases are cured through Nasyam in which herbal juices, medicated oils, etc are applied through the nose for 7 to 14 days.

Snehapanam
Recommended in osteoarthritis, leukaemia, etc, snehapanam means drinking ghee/oils. Medicated ghee is taken for 8 to 12 days in a proportionately and progressively increasing quantity from the first day to the last.

Kativasthi
All type of back pain and spinal disorders are cured through this treatment which lasts for 45 minutes to one hour daily for a specific number of days as per requirement. For this, the patient is made to lie face down and warm medicated oils are kept over the lower back portion, bounded by herbal paste boundary to stop it from flowing away.

Urovasthi
Urovasthi is performed for asthma, other respiratory problems, heart diseases and muscular chest pain. It is the same as Kativasthi with the difference that here the oils are kept over the chest.

Ksheeradhoomam
Ksheeradhoomam, or fomentation with milk, is effective in facial paralysis, speech disorders, Bell‘s palsy and other nervous disorders. Medicated cow’s milk is used for this treatment.

How to get there

India
There is an old Chinese Proverb that those who do good deeds are rewarded by giving them rebirth in India. India had been held in high esteem, as the cradle of culture, religion and everything that elevated man from the mundane. This peninsular sub-continent of Asia has more geophysical and bio-environmental diversity than, perhaps, the whole of the rest of the world combined. The average life-span of a human being is not enough to cover all the must-see places in India.

Kerala
Kerala has the most literate, religiously and culturally most diverse and most friendly people in India. Stunning viewpoints, refreshing mountains, manicured plantations, gushing streams, placid backwaters, splendid beaches, perennial salubrious climate, variegated geo-physical features and infinitely bio-diverse environments make Kerala a unique piece of paradise on earth.

Kovalam
Kovalam is one of the finest beaches in India attracting thousands of visitors from inside the country and abroad, throughout the year. A high rock promontory jutting into the sand and forming a bay of calm waters, clean white sandy shores and the red-and-white chequered lighthouse are notable features of the Ligh House Beach, at the south end of the crescent-shaped Kovalam Beach, where the Sagara Beach Resort is situated.

Sagara Beach Resort
It is 14 km from the International Airport at Thriruvananthapuram and 15 km from the Railway Station at Thiruvananthapuram. Good road, very frequent shuttle bus services from the Trhiruvananthapuram City Bus Stand and any number of taxi cars and auto-rikshaws make the trip to Kovalam comfortable and cheap.