Thai Massage Course :)
My thai massage course adventure started in Chiang Mai. We were asked to arrive for 12pm to register and we would travel from there to our Thai hill village together as a group. The drive to the village started with us all sat in the back of a truck feeling the wind in our hair lol! Not quite as much fun as my sitting on the roof of a bus experience in Nepal... I perhaps should have known then how it would work out, I didn't have the best feeling from the beginning but did try to remain optimistic. India taught me that first impressions are not always right, and look how much I adored that crazy little town called Rishikesh ;) Ah happy Rishikesh memories :)
I smile to myself when I look back at how excited I was to start my thai massage course.
After a two hour journey we arrived to the village of Lahu, located 80km outside of Chiang Mai in the Chiang Rai region. The program was founded by the late Asokananda more than 20 years ago, and we were lucky enough to have his son, Chatchoi, teaching us thai massage during our time here. A very special man, who I will tell you more about later. The course was intended to be a 12 day introduction to thai massage for beginners like me. The intention being that as a group we share the Lahu hospitality as accommodation is provided by Lahu families in simple bamboo or wooden style huts.
I was lucky enough to make good friends with a lovely Australian girl Kirstie. I wondered from the start how we were drawn to each other, we got on so readily and so easily, it really was a match made in heaven.
When we arrived at Lahu village, we were shown around the village. The highlights, which made me smile, were the 7/11, the coffee shop, and the pancake man. The 7/11 consisted of two different stores which were big spaces with not so much produce inside, in fact very little! But they had the basics and on occasion the small one even had beers ;) Not that I indulged during my time on the course, only when I had decided to leave... The coffee shop was the most adorable man in the world, a man who totally made my stay in Lahu manageable simply by his amazing coffee and his adorable warm and genuine smile. Many an hour I would spend in his coffee shop, talking to him about his day working in the fields or his thoughts on life. A very safe place. His family also made us the most amazing banana pancakes on a day when Kirstie and I were desperately in need of something a little more than just coffee. We I was never did find the pancake man though...the one we were told about, but honestly I think our loyalty very quickly became attached to our coffee man instead :)
We were shown around the available bungalows from which to choose. I was completely set on choosing a concrete room as I learnt from a friend who had attended the course earlier that you got bitten less in these ones. However Kirstie convinced me to share a double bungalow with her instead, or at least to give it a try. They were far more authentic and half of the experience in these adventures is the authenticity after all. Actually what completely swung the decision for me was when our teacher Che said to me "you are trying to make the decision with your head which is telling you be careful because of bugs, but if you listen to your heart you would hear it saying but I want to try the bamboo bungalow". Or something like this anyway, and it stuck in my head. We should always listen to our hearts, even if it is just to give something a try. Better to say you tried... So I soon found myself creating a cosy space for myself within a double bungalow with the lovely Kirstie. I swear that is the single reason why I lasted in the village as long as I did. She was my sanity check, my rock, my friend and my encouragement on a daily basis. I like to think that I was the same for her also.
Within 3 days of the course I knew I was finding it extremely tough. I honestly didn't know, even back then, whether I was going to be able to handle the remaining 9 days. It was potentially the toughest part of my whole adventure so far. The living conditions were so, so basic. It wasn't even about the basic side of it really, as when I was trekking the Annapurna Circuit we had much more basic conditions at times and I survived. But to put it bluntly so you stand a chance of understanding just how this experience was for me here goes... I lived amongst wild pigs, piglets, cars and kittens, dogs and puppies, chicks and cockerels every single day. Every second of every single day. Some of these animals lived directly underneath our bungalow so they were my family, my annoying little sisters and brothers lol! The toilet was effectively a hole in the floor and was a long slippery walk from the bungalow. Some of the local woman actually just squat and pee on the pavement (well dirt track) that we all walk on to get to class. I ate 3 meals of rice a day. No joke - breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is eating rice because you are in asia, and there is eating rice because there is nothing else that tastes of anything nice to eat with your rice.
That particular morning I had been woken up by a piglet which was caught by a young boy maybe 5 meters from my bungalow (I know this because I could see through the major gaps in my bungalow walls). It was then slaughtered by my bungalow and I must have cried for 30 minutes after as that is just the most horrific noise I have ever heard and it broke my heart. I realize that this is perfectly natural and normal but in that moment, it was just horrible and such a deciding factor for me when it came to decisions around staying or going.
I had the most adorable dog called Bobby follow me everywhere for the whole time that I was in Lahu. Just amazing! Apparently he is well known for picking one or two people each course and following them. He slept outside our bungalow, if we woke for the bathroom in the night he was torn as to whether to follow the person leaving or guard the person left behind. When we took walks to the outskirts of the village, which became more and more frequent as the days went on as a means of exercise and space and sanity checks, Bobby would join us and make sure that we were following behind safely all the time. Adorable!
There was a gang of kids (we called them the nasty devil children) who tried to aim their man made spears at us as we took a walk further up into the village, and then threw stones at us at different times. We were in class once and a cute little girl walked past the massage platform (which incidentally is a very special space) so we all waved at her. The response and hand gesture we received back was not a friendly cute little girls response! We have since heard that a few different groups of westerners staying in the village have experienced interesting things with some of the local children which suggests that perhaps they aren't as welcome as one would like to believe. However that said there were some equally adorable children and women who greeted you with the warmest smiles...:)
Meditation each day started at 6am, and then yoga at 6.30am. I was pleased about the early start, and enjoyed sitting quietly for meditation as it is not a part of my daily practice currently and I was excited to try it. The yoga was a little too basic for me unfortunately, and not aligned to the practice I had created for myself since leaving Rishikesh. I decided as it was optional to continue my own practice in my bungalow each morning which I did manage to keep going and it made me feel so calm and relaxed which was just perfect. There were some interesting personalities on the course, namely hippies, and I also discovered just how physically and emotionally hard thai massage is! I had an experience after practicing on Che that left me feeling exhausted, like someone had slipped me a sleeping tablet. I felt dizzy, sick and just horrible for quite some time. I hadn't 'protected' myself as we had been taught to so I must have received some of the energy she was releasing through the massage. Weird hey? I had that experience in my Reiki course in India also. We were being taught really well, and I loved learning from Chatchoi and his personality really shown through in his teaching.
Despite the coffee man, and enjoying the course itself I found myself waking up dreaming of the ocean, the sunshine, deliciously tasty, healthy and nutritious food and a sofa to lounge on. I was really struggling with the food, and having no protein whatsoever.
In an attempt to stay positive and grateful for the opportunity I decided to create a routine at the end of each day of sharing with Kirstie 5 things that had made me smile that day! So here are a small selection of the things that made me smile over the following days:
Day 4)
1) Gorgeous little girl who was terrified of us until I smiles and said Daveo (hello in Lahu) and then she gave me the worlds most beautiful smile and gave me faith that not all children her height in the village are devil children. I took a photo of her and she loved it!
2) I did a fabulously straight handstand on the second attempt with a beautiful backdrop;
3) Bobby the dogs loyalty - he sleeps by us to guard us, he fights the pigs and dogs around us to depend us when someone walks near our balcony during the night he whines to let us know he is there, and today walked us to the shops and back;
4) Stephanie (an angel) made me a big oval tine and a huge smile after having my minor meltdown over having no edible dinner;
5) We saw fruit on the tree by our massage platform and said wow as our mouths watered for fresh juicy fruit. Our teacher borrowed someones bamboo scaffolding and used it to pick us fruit :
6) An extra one for good luck - homemade ice cream by Che - banana and coconut flavor;
Day 6)
1) Chatchoi brought a fresh pineapple to massage class and stopped us practicing to cut it up and share it amongst us. It was like absolute heaven after struggling with bad food for 6 days.
2) I have been asked to teach a yin yoga class tomorrow evening;
3) Met a lady who is starting a retreat in Thailand and said we should keep in touch and I could be a guest yoga teacher;
4) A beautifully sunny day which allowed for a beautiful view from our massage platform, and a walk through the farms at lunchtime;
5) fresh veggies at lunchtime and the discovery of a bag of oats we can eat at breakfast instead of rice, and the fact they sell soy milk in the 7/11.
Day 7
1) Amazing coffee and omelette breakfast at the coffee plantation tour today;
2) The coffee plantation tour itself and seeing my first coffee tree and berries ever!;
3) Bobby and his friends joining us for the entire tour and fighting local dogs to protect us;
4) Ice cream and 3 baht spring rolls on the way to the waterfall;
5) Finding nuts and dried mango for sale in the town we stopped at on the way back to Lahu Village after the BBQ;
6) a cute little boy falling asleep on me in the truck on the way home.
#**#@@ - Handstands and scaffolding alert!!! - #@@*#@
a) Don't ever try to combine the two.
b) Don't ever try to do a handstand on an unstable surface, or near the edge of a platform with a 5 meter drop - it could, and very nearly did in my case, end badly....
c) LOL!!!
I thought I was being clever getting a nice backdrop picture when I did my handstand on our massage platform. Little did I realize just how unstable it was, and as soon as I straightened my legs I fell backwards and nearly over the edge of the platform. I managed to wrap my thighs around the scaffolding and hold on for dear life. It took a little while for anyone in class to notice, and then when they did everyone casually came to drag me up. I had scratches and cuts all up my body, not cool! That was the first and last time I will ever do a handstand so near to the edge of something lol ;)
Despite some beautiful experiences, I still couldn't be myself and relax. After the waterfalls day out, we got back to our bungalow and couldn't actually sit in the room because it was so entirely filled with intense smoke throughout the whole space. I was so worried that the beautiful dress that I had made for MP's wedding would be ruined forever. The next morning we were woken up at 5am by the loudest music ever, full blown conversations between people right outside our bungalow, and then the pigs munching on food under the bungalow, cockerels shouting at each other...and that was after the dog fight that happened next to us at 1am. Oh and more smoke in the room first thing in the morning yet again as the locals killed yet another animal. It hurt our eyes and you literally couldn't see the walls for smoke. My belongings just stank, every single thing inside my backpack. I honestly woke up doubting how much this benefits my mental health. It was starting to become a total roller coaster ride of feeling so exhausted mentally and physically combined with Kirstie and I taking turns to talk each other out of quitting on the spot at least once every single day. There were tears from one of us every single day, and huge amounts of guilt about staying or going, or even thinking about quitting. Awful. I look back and am proud at our fighting talk to each other every day.
All I could think about each day, each moment of each day, was all the amazing things that I could be doing if I wasn't spending my days in this village. The experiences I could gain that would give me pleasure elsewhere and help to grow me in different ways. So it wasn't exactly helping me to be mindful and stay present, no matter how hard I tried.
A very good yogi friend from India told me the following and it stuck with me throughout that final day:
"One of the toughest decisions to make in travel is when to stay tough and stick it out/third world mentality or choose another option for the betterment of the soul/body/mind". On the note of "whatever is good for the soul" I decided on day 8 for health reasons (mind, body and soul) to follow my initial instinct and leave Lahu Village. After spending the last night unable to sit in my room due to smoke, and having to take my asthma inhalor to cope with sleeping, waking up coughing and taking asthma inhalor again, wiping ash off my belongings, having every item of clothing I own, including my backpack and contents, stinking of bonfire smells, I realised that I could take no more. Even my skin smelt of smoke. This was not what the course was about for me. The funny thing was that in earlier days I had felt immense amounts of guilt about leaving early, and that day I felt strangely calm and ready to say goodbye.
I spoke to my course teachers and explained how I felt and they all told me this:
"Sometimes being strong is to respect and listen to your body as to when enough is enough". So here I was respecting my mind and body. Che encouraged me to come back one day to Chiang Mai and finish the course there. She warned me that my mind had started to work on processing some important things while in Lahu and not to be surprised if that continued to work for a few days after leaving, and to expect a whirlwind of emotions and tears and to just embrace it. I didn't know what she meant exactly but I knew to be mindful of it and hold that close to my mind.
I finished the course that day on a total high by giving and receiving a kick ass back massage. I had said right from the beginning that I had wanted to stay until I had been taught how to give a back massage. Thank you universe ;)
I take with me huge life lessons and insights into thai massage. I felt so good about my decision, and so happy that Kirstie and I had supported each other as much as we had and had come to the conclusion together that we had reached the end of our personal line. The lack of sleep and living conditions were really taking their toll quite severely by this point. My coach in Bermuda had been bombarded with so many messages about when is it acceptable to quit something that makes you desperately unhappy! His advice as ever was spectacular :)
That afternoon our teacher, Chatchoi, drove us personally to the bus station and we said our goodbyes. What a wonderful man he is. So special. He is one of those people who has the ability to reach deep within your soul without you even realizing that he sees everything, you don't need to speak a word. When we told him we were leaving he said "I know, it is ok. I understand". And I truly believe he did. I cried, because that is what I had become programmed to do in Lahu lol. But seriously I cried as I told him that it was because of him that we had such guilt about leaving previously, that he personally had kept us there this long. And what a wonderful, special, and insightful teacher he is. I really do hope that at some point our paths cross again. However if they don't then I feel lucky to have met him and have learnt from him for these last 8 days. I took a lot of him away with me when I left.
Kirstie and I travelled to Chiang Rai by bus that afternoon with the intention of spending a couple of days exploring temples and relaxing, before going our separate ways - me to Chiang Mai and coffee culture days, and her to Cambodia :)
Experience is everything people, embrace it all - the good, the bad and the ugly. It is experience that shapes our lives, and makes us become who we are destined to be in life :)
Smiles :) xox
I smile to myself when I look back at how excited I was to start my thai massage course.
After a two hour journey we arrived to the village of Lahu, located 80km outside of Chiang Mai in the Chiang Rai region. The program was founded by the late Asokananda more than 20 years ago, and we were lucky enough to have his son, Chatchoi, teaching us thai massage during our time here. A very special man, who I will tell you more about later. The course was intended to be a 12 day introduction to thai massage for beginners like me. The intention being that as a group we share the Lahu hospitality as accommodation is provided by Lahu families in simple bamboo or wooden style huts.
When we arrived at Lahu village, we were shown around the village. The highlights, which made me smile, were the 7/11, the coffee shop, and the pancake man. The 7/11 consisted of two different stores which were big spaces with not so much produce inside, in fact very little! But they had the basics and on occasion the small one even had beers ;) Not that I indulged during my time on the course, only when I had decided to leave... The coffee shop was the most adorable man in the world, a man who totally made my stay in Lahu manageable simply by his amazing coffee and his adorable warm and genuine smile. Many an hour I would spend in his coffee shop, talking to him about his day working in the fields or his thoughts on life. A very safe place. His family also made us the most amazing banana pancakes on a day when Kirstie and I were desperately in need of something a little more than just coffee. We I was never did find the pancake man though...the one we were told about, but honestly I think our loyalty very quickly became attached to our coffee man instead :)
We were shown around the available bungalows from which to choose. I was completely set on choosing a concrete room as I learnt from a friend who had attended the course earlier that you got bitten less in these ones. However Kirstie convinced me to share a double bungalow with her instead, or at least to give it a try. They were far more authentic and half of the experience in these adventures is the authenticity after all. Actually what completely swung the decision for me was when our teacher Che said to me "you are trying to make the decision with your head which is telling you be careful because of bugs, but if you listen to your heart you would hear it saying but I want to try the bamboo bungalow". Or something like this anyway, and it stuck in my head. We should always listen to our hearts, even if it is just to give something a try. Better to say you tried... So I soon found myself creating a cosy space for myself within a double bungalow with the lovely Kirstie. I swear that is the single reason why I lasted in the village as long as I did. She was my sanity check, my rock, my friend and my encouragement on a daily basis. I like to think that I was the same for her also.
Within 3 days of the course I knew I was finding it extremely tough. I honestly didn't know, even back then, whether I was going to be able to handle the remaining 9 days. It was potentially the toughest part of my whole adventure so far. The living conditions were so, so basic. It wasn't even about the basic side of it really, as when I was trekking the Annapurna Circuit we had much more basic conditions at times and I survived. But to put it bluntly so you stand a chance of understanding just how this experience was for me here goes... I lived amongst wild pigs, piglets, cars and kittens, dogs and puppies, chicks and cockerels every single day. Every second of every single day. Some of these animals lived directly underneath our bungalow so they were my family, my annoying little sisters and brothers lol! The toilet was effectively a hole in the floor and was a long slippery walk from the bungalow. Some of the local woman actually just squat and pee on the pavement (well dirt track) that we all walk on to get to class. I ate 3 meals of rice a day. No joke - breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is eating rice because you are in asia, and there is eating rice because there is nothing else that tastes of anything nice to eat with your rice.
That particular morning I had been woken up by a piglet which was caught by a young boy maybe 5 meters from my bungalow (I know this because I could see through the major gaps in my bungalow walls). It was then slaughtered by my bungalow and I must have cried for 30 minutes after as that is just the most horrific noise I have ever heard and it broke my heart. I realize that this is perfectly natural and normal but in that moment, it was just horrible and such a deciding factor for me when it came to decisions around staying or going.
I had the most adorable dog called Bobby follow me everywhere for the whole time that I was in Lahu. Just amazing! Apparently he is well known for picking one or two people each course and following them. He slept outside our bungalow, if we woke for the bathroom in the night he was torn as to whether to follow the person leaving or guard the person left behind. When we took walks to the outskirts of the village, which became more and more frequent as the days went on as a means of exercise and space and sanity checks, Bobby would join us and make sure that we were following behind safely all the time. Adorable!
There was a gang of kids (we called them the nasty devil children) who tried to aim their man made spears at us as we took a walk further up into the village, and then threw stones at us at different times. We were in class once and a cute little girl walked past the massage platform (which incidentally is a very special space) so we all waved at her. The response and hand gesture we received back was not a friendly cute little girls response! We have since heard that a few different groups of westerners staying in the village have experienced interesting things with some of the local children which suggests that perhaps they aren't as welcome as one would like to believe. However that said there were some equally adorable children and women who greeted you with the warmest smiles...:)
Meditation each day started at 6am, and then yoga at 6.30am. I was pleased about the early start, and enjoyed sitting quietly for meditation as it is not a part of my daily practice currently and I was excited to try it. The yoga was a little too basic for me unfortunately, and not aligned to the practice I had created for myself since leaving Rishikesh. I decided as it was optional to continue my own practice in my bungalow each morning which I did manage to keep going and it made me feel so calm and relaxed which was just perfect. There were some interesting personalities on the course, namely hippies, and I also discovered just how physically and emotionally hard thai massage is! I had an experience after practicing on Che that left me feeling exhausted, like someone had slipped me a sleeping tablet. I felt dizzy, sick and just horrible for quite some time. I hadn't 'protected' myself as we had been taught to so I must have received some of the energy she was releasing through the massage. Weird hey? I had that experience in my Reiki course in India also. We were being taught really well, and I loved learning from Chatchoi and his personality really shown through in his teaching.
Despite the coffee man, and enjoying the course itself I found myself waking up dreaming of the ocean, the sunshine, deliciously tasty, healthy and nutritious food and a sofa to lounge on. I was really struggling with the food, and having no protein whatsoever.
In an attempt to stay positive and grateful for the opportunity I decided to create a routine at the end of each day of sharing with Kirstie 5 things that had made me smile that day! So here are a small selection of the things that made me smile over the following days:
Day 4)
1) Gorgeous little girl who was terrified of us until I smiles and said Daveo (hello in Lahu) and then she gave me the worlds most beautiful smile and gave me faith that not all children her height in the village are devil children. I took a photo of her and she loved it!
2) I did a fabulously straight handstand on the second attempt with a beautiful backdrop;
3) Bobby the dogs loyalty - he sleeps by us to guard us, he fights the pigs and dogs around us to depend us when someone walks near our balcony during the night he whines to let us know he is there, and today walked us to the shops and back;
4) Stephanie (an angel) made me a big oval tine and a huge smile after having my minor meltdown over having no edible dinner;
5) We saw fruit on the tree by our massage platform and said wow as our mouths watered for fresh juicy fruit. Our teacher borrowed someones bamboo scaffolding and used it to pick us fruit :
6) An extra one for good luck - homemade ice cream by Che - banana and coconut flavor;
Day 6)
1) Chatchoi brought a fresh pineapple to massage class and stopped us practicing to cut it up and share it amongst us. It was like absolute heaven after struggling with bad food for 6 days.
2) I have been asked to teach a yin yoga class tomorrow evening;
3) Met a lady who is starting a retreat in Thailand and said we should keep in touch and I could be a guest yoga teacher;
4) A beautifully sunny day which allowed for a beautiful view from our massage platform, and a walk through the farms at lunchtime;
5) fresh veggies at lunchtime and the discovery of a bag of oats we can eat at breakfast instead of rice, and the fact they sell soy milk in the 7/11.
Day 7
1) Amazing coffee and omelette breakfast at the coffee plantation tour today;
2) The coffee plantation tour itself and seeing my first coffee tree and berries ever!;
3) Bobby and his friends joining us for the entire tour and fighting local dogs to protect us;
4) Ice cream and 3 baht spring rolls on the way to the waterfall;
5) Finding nuts and dried mango for sale in the town we stopped at on the way back to Lahu Village after the BBQ;
6) a cute little boy falling asleep on me in the truck on the way home.
#**#@@ - Handstands and scaffolding alert!!! - #@@*#@
b) Don't ever try to do a handstand on an unstable surface, or near the edge of a platform with a 5 meter drop - it could, and very nearly did in my case, end badly....
c) LOL!!!
I thought I was being clever getting a nice backdrop picture when I did my handstand on our massage platform. Little did I realize just how unstable it was, and as soon as I straightened my legs I fell backwards and nearly over the edge of the platform. I managed to wrap my thighs around the scaffolding and hold on for dear life. It took a little while for anyone in class to notice, and then when they did everyone casually came to drag me up. I had scratches and cuts all up my body, not cool! That was the first and last time I will ever do a handstand so near to the edge of something lol ;)
Despite some beautiful experiences, I still couldn't be myself and relax. After the waterfalls day out, we got back to our bungalow and couldn't actually sit in the room because it was so entirely filled with intense smoke throughout the whole space. I was so worried that the beautiful dress that I had made for MP's wedding would be ruined forever. The next morning we were woken up at 5am by the loudest music ever, full blown conversations between people right outside our bungalow, and then the pigs munching on food under the bungalow, cockerels shouting at each other...and that was after the dog fight that happened next to us at 1am. Oh and more smoke in the room first thing in the morning yet again as the locals killed yet another animal. It hurt our eyes and you literally couldn't see the walls for smoke. My belongings just stank, every single thing inside my backpack. I honestly woke up doubting how much this benefits my mental health. It was starting to become a total roller coaster ride of feeling so exhausted mentally and physically combined with Kirstie and I taking turns to talk each other out of quitting on the spot at least once every single day. There were tears from one of us every single day, and huge amounts of guilt about staying or going, or even thinking about quitting. Awful. I look back and am proud at our fighting talk to each other every day.
All I could think about each day, each moment of each day, was all the amazing things that I could be doing if I wasn't spending my days in this village. The experiences I could gain that would give me pleasure elsewhere and help to grow me in different ways. So it wasn't exactly helping me to be mindful and stay present, no matter how hard I tried.
A very good yogi friend from India told me the following and it stuck with me throughout that final day:
"One of the toughest decisions to make in travel is when to stay tough and stick it out/third world mentality or choose another option for the betterment of the soul/body/mind". On the note of "whatever is good for the soul" I decided on day 8 for health reasons (mind, body and soul) to follow my initial instinct and leave Lahu Village. After spending the last night unable to sit in my room due to smoke, and having to take my asthma inhalor to cope with sleeping, waking up coughing and taking asthma inhalor again, wiping ash off my belongings, having every item of clothing I own, including my backpack and contents, stinking of bonfire smells, I realised that I could take no more. Even my skin smelt of smoke. This was not what the course was about for me. The funny thing was that in earlier days I had felt immense amounts of guilt about leaving early, and that day I felt strangely calm and ready to say goodbye.
I spoke to my course teachers and explained how I felt and they all told me this:
"Sometimes being strong is to respect and listen to your body as to when enough is enough". So here I was respecting my mind and body. Che encouraged me to come back one day to Chiang Mai and finish the course there. She warned me that my mind had started to work on processing some important things while in Lahu and not to be surprised if that continued to work for a few days after leaving, and to expect a whirlwind of emotions and tears and to just embrace it. I didn't know what she meant exactly but I knew to be mindful of it and hold that close to my mind.
I finished the course that day on a total high by giving and receiving a kick ass back massage. I had said right from the beginning that I had wanted to stay until I had been taught how to give a back massage. Thank you universe ;)
I take with me huge life lessons and insights into thai massage. I felt so good about my decision, and so happy that Kirstie and I had supported each other as much as we had and had come to the conclusion together that we had reached the end of our personal line. The lack of sleep and living conditions were really taking their toll quite severely by this point. My coach in Bermuda had been bombarded with so many messages about when is it acceptable to quit something that makes you desperately unhappy! His advice as ever was spectacular :)
That afternoon our teacher, Chatchoi, drove us personally to the bus station and we said our goodbyes. What a wonderful man he is. So special. He is one of those people who has the ability to reach deep within your soul without you even realizing that he sees everything, you don't need to speak a word. When we told him we were leaving he said "I know, it is ok. I understand". And I truly believe he did. I cried, because that is what I had become programmed to do in Lahu lol. But seriously I cried as I told him that it was because of him that we had such guilt about leaving previously, that he personally had kept us there this long. And what a wonderful, special, and insightful teacher he is. I really do hope that at some point our paths cross again. However if they don't then I feel lucky to have met him and have learnt from him for these last 8 days. I took a lot of him away with me when I left.
Kirstie and I travelled to Chiang Rai by bus that afternoon with the intention of spending a couple of days exploring temples and relaxing, before going our separate ways - me to Chiang Mai and coffee culture days, and her to Cambodia :)
Experience is everything people, embrace it all - the good, the bad and the ugly. It is experience that shapes our lives, and makes us become who we are destined to be in life :)
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