As I was quickly reminded during our first morning, this doesn't mean that Simon's yoga is not physically demanding, but that its challenges sneak up on you from behind. It is a kind of stealth yoga, deceptive in its ease, but powerful in its impact. Particularly alluring is the way he draws from other disciplines such as qi gong and t'ai qi.

Thus the flow of yoga postures is ornamented by beautiful hand flourishes or arm twists, or an occasional left-field posture such as my particular favourite the so-called 'karate kid'. The class ranged from complete beginner to teacher-level, but everyone felt catered for.

Breakfast was on a beautiful vine-draped terrace and was delicious. Apart from the usual offerings there was a 'Turkish breakfast' superb moist feta, richly ripe tomatoes and olives, beautiful bread, local honey, figs from the trees around the yurts, and a delicious mixture of tahini and mulberry molasses.

After a few hours by the pool (around which Fifty Shades of Grey was being read in three different languages) it was somewhat indecently time for lunch. This consisted of a wonderful daily vegetarian buffet, with so many different variations of vegetable, deftly prepared with a wide range of herbs and spices, that I never missed meat once.

After more poolside sunbathing, it was then back to the yoga shala a pavilion with open sides wreathed in more vines through which the sun shone softly for our yin practice.

Each afternoon Simon focused on a particular aspect of our body, adapting and intensifying well-known yoga postures to increase their efficacy.

The most memorable session was halfway through the week when we focused on hip-openers. Simon warned us that some of us might feel cross, because it is in our hips that we often store this emotion. Sure enough, after three hours of carefully yet doggedly working on opening up our hips a number of us, myself included, felt mysteriously bad-tempered. One woman was still disgruntled at breakfast the following day.

It is this kind of bodily discovery that makes a week with Simon Low so fascinating. You learn about the way your body works how it twists and tightens and becomes unbalanced in the course of our daily lives. And you learn how you can work with your body to untwist, unravel, liberate and get your positive energy flowing like never before.

What's more, in contrast to other yoga retreats I have been on, at no point does your body become weary or ache; Simon's restorative practice is exactly that.

Of course at some point your brain wants a rest from yoga, even if your body doesn't, and a few days in at Huzur Vadisi there is a boat trip from the nearest coastal town of Gcek. At first glimpse this seemed a pretty humble place, but once out on the water I realised it was anything but. We were sailing in a traditional wooden craft but many of the other boats were vast state-of-the-art superyachts.

Original post:
Yoga in Turkey: At one with a wonderful world