Thailand Part 2: Recovery & Relaxation

Link to Photos on Facebook

My sprained foot put my Thai kickboxing plans on ice. Speaking of ice, I needed a few days of recovery time before I was going anywhere. After a sad goodbye with Nicky, I parked myself in Ao Nang for a few days. I got into a rhythm of hobbling to the beach, swimming, reading and eating at the local restaurant, Family. There I dined on good cheap food and drank smoothies while listening to lounge covers of popular songs, included Smells Like Teen Spirit. Let the healing begin. I also took a Thai cooking course. It was a fun half day whirlwind introduction to Thai cooking. I got accused of being a lady boy by the teacher as I started to leave the course with my apron still on.

After a few days my foot improved, so I was able to change locations. I moved on to neighboring Railey beach, an ideal place to watch the sunset. While walking around the island looking for accommodation a girl in front of me was approached by a monkey and his gang. The monkey walked up to her and started climbing up her dress. She screamed as I started to come over to help. The monkey tore through her plastic bag holding fresh pizza. I had come over and started yelling at the monkey to scare it, but I am not scary to a monkey. He ran away with the pizza. Beware of monkeys when carrying pizza. After finding a nice bungalow, I caught a really beautiful sunset.

The next day I explored the area and ended up at the Phra Nang Cave beach which was ruggedly beautiful. It is cave surrounded by stalagmite covered cliffs.

There were climbers scaling the walls. Longtail boats come around lunch time and cook anything from traditional Thai food to sandwiches. Later that day during low tide I walked on the rocks along the beach to the adjacent Ton Sai beach. This is where the hardcore climbers and backpackers stay. It’s one of those places people come and stay for weeks. It’s still quiet and undeveloped thanks to a rocky beach front and lack of luxury accommodation.

It was Thanksgiving, so of course I had to have the traditional Thanksgiving pizza. I spent some time Skyping with my family. It was bizarre sitting outside with waves crashing behind me sporting a tank top. I have soooo much to be thankful for this year. I am thankful my family is healthy and happy, I’ve got a wonderful beautiful girlfriend and amazing friends. I am also so grateful for this opportunity to see and experience the world. I am lucky and glad I took the plunge. To be honest, I was a little thankful I didn’t have to do the hardcore training I was planning with the Thai kickboxing 🙂

I decided on a Thai massage class in lieu of kickboxing. I also decided to go to Chiang Mai in the north as I had heard wonderful things about it. Phuket was sounding sleazier and sleazier the more people I talked to as well.  I enrolled in a week long Introduction to Thai Massage at the Thai Massage School of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is wonderful charming city. It has a population around 1 million, but still feels like a small city. Part of the city is demarcated by the old moat, walls and gates originally built in the 13th Century. It exudes history, charm and friendliness. I spent the first day walking around town checking out different Wats (temples). First was Wat Pra Sang, an impressive temple and a buddhist monk school. While there I was captivated by Buddhist pearls of wisdom posted on trees in the garden.

Walking through the garden I met Mr. Chai. We started talking and he showed me around the temple and then recommended and accompanied me to restaurant for lunch. His friendliness was a nice introduction to Chiang Mai. After lunch I headed to another temple, Wat Srisuphan which is home to the silver temple and a silver works school. That evening, I walked through the Sunday night market. It’s a huge weekly market featuring every type of Thai craft and street food you can imagine. It runs through the center of the old town. I had a lot of fun taking pictures, especially of these guys.

It was time to start massage class. I was a bit nervous but soon relaxed once class started. 🙂 Each morning we were picked up via a Songtaew (red pick up with two benches in the back) and picked up the other students (almost all foreigners). We would start the day with tea and chatting, getting our temperatures read to make sure we weren’t sick and then slipping into our massage clothes.

Then we did some light exercises, a prayer to buddha and were given our lessons. The teacher would demonstrate techniques for certain part of the body and then we were off practicing on our partners. Class was a lot of fun, although I am not a huge fan of foot massages. I mean getting them is ok…but giving them? Not for this guy. The teachers didn’t speech great English, but still managed to teach us very well.

There was a market nearby where we would go for lunch. My regular became a soup stop which served chicken soup with noodles and vegetables. Yum. Dessert was a steamed chocolate bun the likes of which I had never seen. It was like a pork bun, but chocolate. I was in heaven. Lunch was long enough to allow for a brief nap on the massage class matts before the afternoon session. Ok, now I really am in heaven. Then we were off watching demonstrations and practicing. My two best friends in the class were Melissa (USA) and Sheryl (UK). We all stayed in the same guesthouse and ended up exploring the city together in the evenings.

I was sad to say goodbye to class, new friends and practicing massage all day. I did get a lot out of the five days and am ready to practice,but I was ready for adventure too. The next three days were packed with an introduction to Reiki, an action packed trek day and a day with the elephants. Sheryl signed up for an introduction to Reiki class during the middle of the week and my curiosity was peaked…what was this energy healing all about? Rod at the Chiang Mai Body and Mind Center gave us no nonsense introduction which I enjoyed. He explained that each one of us contains the power to heal with our hands, and we do it instinctively but the practice of Reiki puts you more in touch with that innate skill and allows you to amplify it. After some relaxation techniques, chanting and our first self Reiki session for twenty minutes I definitely felt very at peace and relaxed.

The next day was all about action. I signed up for tour which included an elephant ride, hike to a waterfall, whitewater rafting and a bamboo raft ride. The elephant ride was fun, but didn’t compare to my experience the next day at Patara Elephant Farm. It was amazing being on top of such a huge beast. The waterfall was a fun hike, an hour there and hour back. The whitewater rafting was the highlight, and there were a couple rapids that were big enough to get the adrenaline going. I was up front and had a front row seat to watch my seat mate across from me falling out of the boat into the river when we hit the rapids sideways. He made it out alive and was ok. The bamboo raft ride is better in theory than it practice. Sitting on the bamboo we were half submerged in water, and it was anticlimactic after the whitewater.

My last full day was spent at the Patara Elephant Farm and it was such an amazing way to end my Chiang Mai visit. The day program is billed as own an elephant for the day. After arriving, the owner, Pat gave us an introduction to the farm, told us why it was unique from the other elephant camps and what we would be doing. Patara is focused on breeding elephants as their numbers have diminished drastically in the last 50 years. They take healthy elephants, provide them with a lot of land to roam on, even secluded honeymoon trips when the women are in heat. Our responsibilities were to take care of the elephants including: daily inspection, brushing, washing and feeding. Then we had some fun riding and swimming with them.

Fun facts about elephants…their poop doesn’t smell, unless they’re sick. You want to see six pellets of poo at least. It’s about three hours from eating to pooping. They sleep four hours a day. If they sleep standing up it means they’re sick as they know they wouldn’t be able to get back up. You can tell if they slept on the ground by inspecting the dirt marks on their skin. Happy and healthy elephants ears and tails wag and they sweat (only above their toenails).

Each person got their own elephant to take care of for the day. Mine was Boon Jien, a big teenage male. I was worried he was going to be a bit unruly given his age, gender and the warnings from the trainers. First we started with feeding the elephants which is how you bond with them. I literally was sticking bananas in his mouth while it closed on my hand and huge tongue slurped me as I pulled my hand away.

Then we got to wash and brush them in the river. Proper skin care is important for elephant health to avoid infection. After the river they demonstrated how to get on the elephant. He lifts his leg of off the ground and creates a little ladder for you by bending his lower and upper leg.

Then you climb up his shoulder and swing your leg around. Boy is it HIGH up there. No safety harness, just your knees tucked snuggly up at the top of the elephants ears and faith.

After a ride and lunch we got to swim with them. There was a nine month old baby elephant who was cute, mischievous and loved playing. I had fun with him in the water as we were trying to push each other over. I was instructed to get him from the side from the trainers. I learned quickly I had no chance facing him head on. The day was a special one. It was nice to see the elephants so well taken care of.

I was sad to leave Chiang Mai. It is a special place; the friendliness of the people, the inexpensive food and lodging, perfect weather, the history, the markets, the massages all make for it a city you can feel comfortable, welcome and relaxed in. I was about to embark on city that was a little less welcoming, less relaxing and whose recent history has been marked with genocide.