Inside the spa visited by King Charles and Queen Camilla, with lush tropical gardens and sheep grazing on the lawns (and no gym)

That the Indian spa town of Soukya, about an hour east of Bangalore, is unique is evident from a look at the long list of celebrities who have passed through its gates, including Dame Emma Thompson, Sting, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and, this week, King Charles and Queen Camilla – their eighth visit.

On a previous trip, the royal couple stayed in the same suite as mine. Spacious and comfortable, with a shower in the tranquil garden, it’s not opulent in a five-star or even royal way. Although it has a four-poster bed with floating curtains, a huge bathroom with a hydrotherapy bath and a large sitting room, it feels relatively simple, furnished with traditional Indian heavywood furniture.

But you don’t come to Soukya for the rooms – you are here for the healing.

Within a few hours, I was seen by three doctors, starting with Dr. Issac Mathai, who founded the retreat in 2002. Just by examining me closely and taking my pulse, he concludes that I am breathing at only 60 percent of capacity, there is a blockage in my liver, something is not quite right with my kidneys and I have neurological problems. “Most people over 50 have symptoms of future problems,” he says. “They can be reversed.”

The questions he asks all his guests are penetrating and reduce them to pure emotions. Were you afraid of the dark as a child? Do you cry easily? How has grief affected you? What work stress do you experience?

The prescribed solution for me is a detox and rejuvenation program.

This includes a daily morning dose of shirodhara, a wonderfully soothing treatment where oil is dripped onto the forehead to release your emotions. It is followed by a wonderful Ayurvedic massage where two therapists rub you with oil, making you feel like a chicken that has been buttered for the oven. Finally, warm compresses filled with herbs are applied to reduce back and neck tension.

The products are made on site. Huge barrels of oil are heated with herbs, stored in a jar-filled room that resembles an old-fashioned pharmacy. The herbs come from the medicinal garden with its 130 species of plants, from serpentine with red berries to treat high blood pressure to leaf water hyssop to improve memory.

Jane Knight visited Soukya, where King Charles III and Queen Camilla enjoyed a blissful holiday this week

Previous guests have included Dame Emma Thompson, Sting and Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The refuge’s medicinal garden features 130 species of plants, from red-berry serpentine to treat high blood pressure to green water hyssop to improve memory

It is worth going through the garden with a doctor and stopping at the flowerbed in the shape of a human body, where plants are designed to help a certain part of the body grow in the corresponding area.

There is no gym (they discourage too much activity as it interferes with the treatments), but there is a pleasant path to walk around, past sandalwood trees, grazing farm animals and through a bamboo forest.

Although a busy road passes the site, this 30-hectare organic estate immediately exudes a sense of tranquility, with lush tropical gardens, sheep grazing on the lawns and tinkling wind chimes. It’s easy to understand why Dr. Mathai says that “half of healing happens in nature.”

It is also sustainable, producing enough solar, wind and biogas energy to put a smile on King Charles’ face. Women work in the organic vegetable garden, and whatever they pick that day is turned into the tastiest meals in the restaurant with few herbs, little oil and low fat, where no meat or alcohol is served.

Guests are asked to eat mindfully – not to socialize or discuss symptoms with people at other tables, nor to use mobile phones (a request blatantly ignored by a fellow patron who talked loudly on the loudspeaker throughout the lunch ).

‘Although a busy road passes the site, this 30-hectare organic estate immediately exudes a sense of tranquility,’ writes Jane

Jane’s program included twice-daily yoga in the open-air thatched shala (pictured)

Soukya makes its own herbal products on site. ‘Huge oil barrels are heated with herbs, stored in a jar-filled room that resembles an old-fashioned pharmacy,’ explains Jane.

Regular visitors: Camilla and Charles will plant a tree in Soukya in 2019

Delicious soup is served to those on a liquid detox; it doesn’t make you hungry at all.

Of course, the detox doesn’t just involve food: it starts in the colon (although the less said about this the better).

And at the end of lazy afternoons of acupuncture and reflexology, which involves applying pressure to different parts of the foot corresponding to different parts of the body, guests head to the dressing room for eye, mouth and nose rinses (using the contents of a small watering can being poured). can go into one nostril and, somewhat bizarrely, drip out the other).

Then it’s on to the twice-daily yoga in the open-air thatched shala, whose dark floor is supposed to absorb negativity.

Simply elegant: Upstairs is one of the suites. “You don’t come to Soukya for the rooms, you are here for the healing,” says Jane

Every few minutes a loudly whistling train passes the resort, notes Jane, who adds: ‘This happens at night too – bring earplugs’

It’s not your average yoga, but much, much slower with lots of meditation, although it proves quite difficult to clear the mind with a loud whistling train passing by every few minutes (this happens at night too – bring earplugs).

There is also evening meditation, held in a room below the chapel, where we roll our eyes repeatedly to practice them before gazing into the flame of a candle in a practice known as trataka.

And so the pampering days flow into each other, starting with medical checks, perhaps at some point a dip in the pool, and ending with a homeopathic remedy and going to bed at 9 p.m.

Although there is an excellent library, guests are advised not to read for more than two hours per day.

It’s hard not to love the place. Most people leave at least a little lighter in the body, but also a lot lighter in the soul.

It’s easy to see how, like King Charles and Camilla, you could become addicted to Soukya, if your bank balance allows it.

The good news is that Dr. Mathai plans to open centers in Britain and Greece in the coming years.