Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere Thailand

Prior to my yoga retreat I spent 5 incredibly relaxing days in Koh Samui, Thailand.  I did nothing but read, listen to my ipod, eat, sleep and swim.  It was fabulous!  Here is the view from my bungalow.  I could practically fall off my front porch and land in the sea.  Not too shabby. 

Here is my bungalow.  It was fun to be in my own little house as opposed to a hotel.  My favorite part though was the sound of the surf all day long.  I cannot get enough of it! 

Here is the view from the dining area on the beach.  Hello gorgeous! 

Believe it or not, but that’s it for pictures from Koh Samui.  This trip wasn’t about sight seeing, it was about pure relaxation.  Mission accomplished.  Next stop, jungle yoga. 

Our retreat was located in Khao Sok National Park and in order to get to our floating oasis we needed to take a boat across the lake.  Here are some of the views along the way.  

About 20 - 30 minutes later we started to see some huts in the distance.  

Could this be it? 

Yep, this is it!  Home sweet, floating home for the next 10 days.  Exciting! 

Upon our arrival we were greeted by the smiling faces of the staff, our yoga instructors, Katy Appleton and Louisa, our jungle yoga hosts, Dick and Beth, and of course the other excited jungle yoga retreaters.  I sensed an immediate warmth from everyone and knew that this was going to be an amazing experience. 

We arrived just in time for sunset.  Wow!   

Before we get into the yoga and meditation, allow me to give you a tour of our little floating paradise to get you acquainted with the surroundings and put you in the mood for jungle yoga.   

Welcome to my hut, which was located at the end of the “street” towards the bathroom (up and to the right) and the yoga shala. 

Here is the inside.  You’ll notice the plug on the wall.  We actually had electricity from 7 PM - 10:30 PM.  What an unexpected surprise!  Truth be told, we didn’t really need the lights because we all had headlamps, but it was nice to be able to charge our cameras and ipods. 

This is my view from inside the hut. 

And here is my front porch.

This is my view from the hammock. 

And this is basically how I spent every free moment.  You can see the yoga shala off to the left.  Ahhhhhhhhhh, I am so relaxed!!!

This is a view from the back of my hut. 

This also served as my bathroom (number 1 only) in the middle of the night.  Nice visual, huh?  Let’s not even pretend that you don’t love this level of detail. 

Here is a view of my hut coming from the yoga shala. 

Here is the entrance to the yoga shala.  It was such a beautiful and serene place to practice.  I always sat close to the sheers, as I loved the feeling of them caressing my skin as they blew in the breeze. 

The next 2 pictures are of Katy and Louisa warming up.  Notice the perfect form. 

Here are some pictures of the shala.  I loved this space! 

This is my view from savasana.

Oh, savasana, how I love you!

This is the bell Katy would sound to bring us out of our meditation.  You’ll notice Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, overseeing our practice.  My friend, Amit, gave me a Ganesha pendant before I left the US to watch over me during my travels.  I wear it every day and was so thrilled to see him here with us at yoga. 

I was actually given several wonderful gifts from other friends to watch over me as I travel and help heal my wounds.  I love these thoughtful gifts and keep them with me at all times.  Some of them are to be worn until they break, while others fit nicely in my pocket or backpack to remind me that I am never alone.  I would like to say a huge thank you to all of my friends for being there for me.  I am so fortunate to have you in my life and I love you!  This includes the wonderful people I have met in my travels, some who I truly believe I will know for years to come.   

While on this retreat, I added a good luck bracelet to the mix, which has been blessed by monks in Thailand.  Gao, jungle yoga’s resident massage therapist, blessed the bracelet once it was on my wrist.  She plans to return to Myanmar and become a monk once she finishes putting her youngest daughter through university.  She is so gentle, loving, and kind and I immediately connected with her.  She asked me to send her a picture so that when she returns to Myanmar she can chant over my picture as well as the pictures of her other friends she has met along the way who helped her to provide for her family and allow them to have a better life.  I gave her a picture of my mother, the picture I featured earlier in the blog, which was taken the weekend before my mother’s accident at our lovely Mother’s Day brunch.  I asked her to chant for my mother’s peace and happiness.  As you can imagine, this was deeply moving and I will never forget Gao and her kindness.  Could she be more adorable? 

OK, back to the tour.  I promise I’ll share more about the yoga and meditation aspects of this retreat, but first we must finish the tour so that you can really get into the mood.  Here is a view from the front of the shala.

To the left we had this spectacular view.  On our last day the gibbons provided us with a lovely symphony of their beautiful songs.  Talk about inspiring!  Unfortunately I cannot post video to the blog, but if you go to www.jungleyoga.com you can hear the songs of the gibbon.  I could listen to this music all day long.  It is unlike anything I have ever heard before and so beautiful.  As you can imagine, it totally added to the ambience and experience of jungle yoga.  BTW, jungle yoga isn’t limited to just yoga.  A silent meditation took place immediately prior to our retreat and a massage retreat was following our 10 day escape.  What I’m trying to say is get your buns here ASAP because it is amazing! 

Here is the view to the right of the shala.

Here are a few more serene touches throughout the shala. 

Leaving the shala.

The bathroom, which was the only area on solid ground, is up and to the left of the shala. 

We actually had toilets and toilet paper!  Of course, we used the bucket system to flush and like most toilets in Asia, toilet paper was not to be placed in the toilet, but it was a pleasant surprise to see an actual toilet in the middle of the jungle.  I have seen a variety of toilets here in Asia and have become quite the pro at navigating even the most hygienically challenging toilets with my huge backpack, my regular backpack on my chest and my purse hanging around my neck. 

Here is the sink. 

and the shower.  Of course, we could also use the lake for our bathing. 

Here is our view from the shower.  I love this view!

Back on the “street” and headed to the dining area and bar.

Some of us would indulge in a few drinks in the evening, but we kept ourselves in check since we had to be up at 7 AM for yoga.  No way did I want to miss out on the yoga! 

In keeping with the potentially ridiculous level of detail, I will provide the views as you continue to turn to the left. 

This is where we had all our delicious meals.  You know this was another huge highlight for me!  

They even invited us in to the kitchen to learn how to prepare the meals if we so desired. 

This is our chef leading us in the preparation of pad thai.  I think she is cautioning the farang to go easy on the chili peppers.  These babies are no joke. 

These cute little wind chimes were featured throughout the dining area. 

Ok, I’m sure you are wondering if I’m ever going to get to the yoga.  Yes, we are finished with the tour portion of this post and now for some yoga.  I don’t have a ton of pics of our actual practice since I was also participating in the practice, but I have some amazing pictures of us practicing some of our poses on a floating log in the lake.  The log liked to roll around so getting into the positions was challenging, but you would never know it from the perfect positions here.  These next few shots are of our instructor and guru, Katy Appleton.  She is a wonderful teacher and I encourage you to check out her retreats at www.appleyoga.com. 

Here are some of my fellow retreaters. 

This is Nina and her yoga is AMAZING!  Notice that she is balancing on a log.  Wow! 

Moina brought her stand up paddle board (SUP for short), which of course provided yet another surface upon which to practice yoga.  I didn’t give this a go, but I did shoot around the lake on the paddle board.  It’s so much fun. 

This is me in triangle pose. 

Alien Invasion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

So, let me give you an idea of how we spent our days.  Each morning we’d have yoga at 7 AM and we’d generally practice for at least 2 hours.  I have only done yoga about 5 times in my entire life and that was approximately 5 or 6 years ago so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it was no problem.  Katy guided us through the practice and offered advanced iterations of some of the poses for those who were more experienced.  Additionally, Louisa was there to help us with our form and push us deeper into the poses.  One thing that I absolutely adored was at the beginning of the practice Louisa would suddenly appear and massage china gel on our neck and shoulders, which smelled amazing and would warm up upon contact with the skin.  It was totally luxurious and one of my favorite parts of the morning!  The yoga was invigorating and challenging and I absolutely fell in love with it.  I’m not sure how much of it I will be able to do on the road, but I plan to do some yoga and meditation during the 2 weeks I have free in India and hopefully later in the trip in either China, Japan or Korea.  I think it is the perfect kind of exercise for me, as it offers stretching to promote flexibility, strength with the poses, and peace and stillness with the meditation.  I am totally hooked! 

In the evenings we would meet for about an hour and a half or two hours for yoga/meditation.  These were guided meditations and no two sessions were quite the same.  The first evening Katy led us through a meditation and then we released flowers on to the lake.  The flowers could be for someone, something, anything you wanted, really.  It was such a beautiful ceremony, taking place right before sunset.  It was silent, intensely personal, and very special.  What a lovely way to start off the retreat. 

Here is a picture taken during our laughter yoga session.  It was so much fun!  We would start by fake laughing to get ourselves going and within a few minutes we were all genuinely laughing our faces off.  I’m sure the staff was wondering what the hell was going in the yoga shala that afternoon, as we were cackling like fools for over an hour.  Only the peeps from the retreat will get this reference, but it’s too good not to include.  Di mak mak, di mak mak yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The next photos are to help us build trust with our partners by using their bodies and resistance to hold our yoga poses.  We got a little creative and created a few new poses as well.  This was a blast and some of poses were quite impressive! 

Patrick Swayze, this move is for you!  Nobody and I mean nobody puts baby in a corner…not even in the middle of the jungle.   

One of the other sessions included sound meditation, which focuses on being in tune with the various chakras.  I don’t know much about chakras and prior to this retreat I wasn’t really sure if I really bought this whole chakra thing anyway, but I can tell you that during this practice I could feel the energy moving through the various chakras as Katy was leading us through the practice.  I kept wondering if what I was feeling was real so I kept testing myself to see if I’d feel the energy move to a new area and without fail every single time I’d feel the energy move. It was unlike anything I have experienced before and I’d definitely like to learn more about it.   

I had another experience with the chakra that was pretty cool and this one happened during one of the morning yoga practices focused on opening our heart chakra.  Seemingly out of the blue and in the midst of a demanding physical workout tears just started rolling down my cheeks.  At the time the tears started falling, I wasn’t even thinking about anything sad.  The only thing on my mind was trying to maintain my form while my body was burning from the demanding poses and the next thing I knew, tears were rolling down my cheeks.  So I guess that was my heart chakra opening up.  Wow!  It was very powerful and once the tears started falling I couldn’t really stop them.  It wasn’t the kind of tears where you are gasping for air, but streaming tears just rolling down my face.  It was kind of beautiful, really.  Throughout the various classes we’d witness each other being intensely moved by the various sessions.  To my knowledge, no one felt self conscious either.  They just allowed whatever was happening to happen and afterwards there wasn’t a big production about it or attention called to that person.  We simply all continued along with our day and occasionally, a few hours later, we’d check in with each other to make sure we were OK.  It was lovely and so special. 

Another great thing about being so isolated from everyone else is that it allowed us to have some really deep and meaningful conversations with each other.  We all opened up our hearts about things that have happened in our lives, both good and bad and I truly felt like I got to know people in a short amount of time.  This was not done in a group setting, but in intimate, one-on-one conversations.  It was really special and something I will always cherish.  I cannot say enough positive things about this retreat and I really encourage you to try one.  It is such a wonderful gift to yourself.  This is my first retreat and I plan to do more of them. 

OK, so I’m sure a few of you are wondering what the heck we would do with ourselves when we weren’t doing yoga or meditation.  One of the options was to take a kayak out on the lake for a spin.  I took the kayak out in the evening for some star gazing, which as you can imagine in the middle of nowhere was outstanding.  I also took the kayak out during the day with my neighbor and first friend at jungle yoga, Jo.  Here are some shots from our journey.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to spot any gibbons, but we were treated to their lovely song for the entire ride. 

Look at the mountain in the middle of this shot.  Doesn’t it look like someone snoring? 

Halfway through the retreat we took the day off to head into the jungle to see some wildlife.  We were all pretty pumped up for a field trip and giddy as we hopped on the boats.  It was literally like school children on a field trip. 

I love this shot.  Our driver looks like such a badass! 

Amy and I even dressed up like school children. 

Here is a picture of Dick, one of our jungle yoga hosts and our wildlife expert.  Unfortunately his wife, Beth, had to return home to the US to tend to some family matters and I didn’t get a picture of her before she left, but I’m pretty sure you have already guessed that like everything else associated with this retreat, she is fabulous!

Meet our jungle royalty! 

Here’s some of the crew chillin on the dock before dinner. 

Here are some other pics I thought you may enjoy. 

Here is another mountain that looks like a snoring person.  This one is taken from inside the yoga shala. 

Another activity included 3 of the retreaters getting bamboo tattoos.  The shot below isn’t very good, but it gives you an idea of the instrument used to perform the tatoos.  Essentially, it’s a piece of bamboo with several pins at the end held in place by very tightly wrapped plastic around the bamboo. 

Here is an action shot for you. 

And here is the finished product.  Charly and Sarah got this design, one in purple the other in black.  Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the black version for you. 

And Nina got this design.  Sarah designed both tattoos.  Way to go, Sarah.  They look fantastic!  In fact, the designs were so popular that a few members of the staff got them as well. 

OK folks here we find ourselves on our last night at jungle yoga.  One of the ceremonies we have planned is the releasing of a krathong into the lake.  We got to design our own krathongs.  The releasing of the krathong symbolizes the letting go of old grudges and starting fresh.  It is also meant to bring good luck and honors the Goddess of Water. 

The ceremony takes place in the evening after dinner when it is completely dark. 

With no yoga in the morning, we decided to kick up our heels a bit.  I took it up a notch by actually washing my hair and putting on something other than a tank top and yoga shorts.  Major!  Here are some pics from our final evening in the jungle.  What a blast!         

This is Phet, Gao’s daughter.  She is lovely, just like her mother. 

Now it’s time for the krathong ceremony.  My pics didn’t really turn out but imagine 20 lanterns floating on the lake.  As the evening progressed we could see tiny flickers of light from the krathongs that were still illuminated.  It was gorgeous against the backdrop of a huge, star-filled sky. 

These are my neighbors, Jo and Tracey.  Jo was my next to me and Tracey was next to Jo.  We could easily communicate from our hammocks because of course we couldn’t possibly contemplate getting out of our hammocks. 

Here we are on our final morning.  It’s looks like it’s going to be another stunning day in the jungle. 

These cute little dogs live here on the huts. 

One final picture of our crew!  Bye everyone and thank you for making this such a meaningful and memorable experience.  I will never forget it or you!  Please, please keep in touch. 

Here is some of the wonderful staff!  

Bye jungle yoga!  I’ll miss you!!!

Jo and I arrived on the afternoon boat together so it worked out great that we were on the afternoon departure as well. 

Well as you can tell from my incessant gushing, I loved this experience.  I leave jungle yoga with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and joy in my heart. 

Next stop, Bangkok.  Amie and Todd are going to be in Bangkok for the evening so I’ll get to see them first thing.  Yahoo!  Then, two of my girls, Sandy and Lu, are coming from DC for some debauchery in Phuket.  Stay tuned for Freakfest 2010. 

Namaste.