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Holidays that require anything more strenuous than just lying on the beach can be challenging for someone as hot-tempered as myself and while I've travelled to many countries, few have tested my patience as much as India. It's a destination that requires the temperament of a saint.

Enormous, exotic, colourful and culturally rich, the subcontinent is as frustrating as it is fabulous, and that's even when you know more or less what to expect with regards to hygiene, traffic and comfort. So after a month of being jostled in Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Pushkar, I'm both surprised and pleased to find myself chilling out in Chennai.

Here, in Tamil Nadu's capital, the people didn't constantly call out "where are you from?" as I walked down the street. In fact, they didn't seem remotely interested in my presence.

Without any remarkable tourist attractions, Chennai is not going to figure high on a tourist agency's must-visit list of destinations. But if you are interested in yoga and ayurvedic therapy, it is a great place to linger.

I pick up a rickshaw in the popular tourist area of Tripliclane and for 80 rupees (Bt60), the driver is happy to driv- building housing Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM). Founded by TKV Desikachar, a son of yoga master T Krishnamacharya, KYM is renowned for its tailormade yoga sessions. Here, yoga is not taught in a group but adapted to suit the needs and abilities of every individual.

Classes, which cost US$30 (Bt1,065) each, start with a consultation and physical checkup with a doctor and are followed by two ses¬sions with a yoga teacher.

Dr N Chandarasekaran asks me to stand so he can check my back and spiral. He then has me sit down and stand up a few times before requesting that I lie down flat and raise my legs.

"You are very flexible," he says, assigning me 12 yoga postures for the morning session and five asanas for the evening course to broaden my sloping shoulders and stretch my curved spiral. The postures mainly focus on upper and middle back, which he says should help relieve the back pain I suffer after working at the computer.

"These are your postures. Practise every day. You will feel better within three months," says Chandarasekaran.

I sign up for two more 50minute yoga classes with Renu Dawar, who'll instruct me in my postures and leave the institute with a course sheet hand drawn by Dawar.

My next stop is Ayush on Khadar Nawar Khan Road for the essential ayurvedic massage experience.

The receptionist recommends I try the shirodhara, a one-hour head oil massage for 1,250 rupees. That's cheaper than the same service in Bangkok so I readily agree and follow the therapist to a private room, which is simply furnished with just a wooden bed and plastic chair and smells strongly of oil.

The therapist smilingly hands me a small piece of sheer cotton cut in a T-shape and indicates that I should remove my clothes.

I feel awkward - being almost naked with a stranger is difficult for a 40something conservative Thai woman, though it will be less of an issue for Westerners.

Finally, clad in the strangely designed underwear, I sit on the chair and for the next 10 minutes, the therapist gently but firmly massages my head. She then tells me to lie on the bed.

As I make to move, another therapist enters with a picnic gas stove, which she places near my feet and starts warming the oil. I start worrying: is this a massage session or a cooking class?

Soon, the two women are applying warm oil on my body and working in perfect synchronisation as they massage from feet to my head. I feel like a giant slab of bread dough being prepared for the oven.

The therapy finishes with shirodhara, the continuous pouring of warm oil on my forehead. The therapist then leads me to the restroom and bathes me with herbal powder from head to toe.

I felt light and very relaxed once the oil has been washed off and I'm once again dressed in my own clothes.

I finish my relaxing ritual with an evening stroll along Marina Beach, at 12 kilometres, India's longest stretch of shoreline. It's a popular hangout for people of all ages and there are several families enjoying dinner on the sand.

The colourful beach is also lined with stalls selling peanuts, fruits, deep-fried vegetables and ice cream. I buy a chicken biryani and eat it slowly as I make my way back to the hotel.

I fall asleep easily after the yoga session and massage and dream that I've turned into a lump of dough.

If you go ...

Thai Airways International operates flights between Bangkok and Chennai,  the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India.