Nong Khai, Thailand

Monday morning I packed my bags again and headed to Don Muang International Airport for my flight out of Bangkok. After an hour long flight, I arrived in Udon Thani and took a van for an hour long drive to Nong Khai. Nong Khai is a town in the Northeast of Thailand right on the Mekong River.

Our first stop was the Friendship Bridge, which is the border crossing to Laos. With the exception of the driver, another girl and myself - everyone got out at this stop. The girl, Rachel, and I introduced ourselves to each other and proceeded to find out we were both staying at the same place, doing the same yoga course. Rachel and I finally arrived at the Mut Mee Guesthouse, a lovely place at the end of a lane consisting of some thatch roof bungalows, some little houses and some patio areas overlooking the Mekong River and Laos in the near distance.

It was an intense week. Four of us, Jesse & Mical from Canada, Rachel from Ireland and I, signed up for a 7 day intensive yoga course. I ended up doing this course at Pantrix based on the recommendation from my friend Teba. Our days were long, yoga practice twice a day, theory, meditation and more. At times it was difficult both physically and mentally but I am so happy I did the course. Pancho and Beatrix, who run the course, are incredibly special people and I am blessed that I could spend some time learning with them.

So along with lots of yogaing, it was a fairly quiet week. Breakfasts and dinners overlooking the Mekong, strolls along the river and through the markets, and a few nights hanging out at Gaia, the floating bar and lounge.

We celebrated Loi Krathong Festival. The festival is to venerate the river goddess and for good luck. It is also to venerate Buddha and symbolic of letting go of one's grudges and anger so one can start life again fresh and new. Very interesting. Rachel and I made our own Krathongs. Krathongs are little shrines out of pieces of banana trees that are decorated in banana leaves, flowers, incense and candles. The Krathong is lit, a wish or prayer is made and then the Krathong is launched into the river. It was a full moon and a magical night with all these shrines and candles floating down the river and the smell of incense permeating the air.


We finished our course on Monday and on Tuesday it was another day of sad goodbyes. For me it was time to go down to Bangkok again and off I went.

Ubud, Bali - Part 1

After some sad goodbyes on Sunday; Karen, Sheila and I ventured up to Ubud for what else, but of course more spa treatment! When I read about Ubud I knew I wanted to come up here, it is the heart of the artistic community in Bali. Karen found us a boutique hotel and spa called Taman Rahasia. The resort was small and intimate, sort of like a jungle paradise. We booked a crazy six hour package. Karen booked hers over a two day period since she was going back to Hong Kong on Monday but Sheila and I decided to take the six hour session in one shot. It was called "A Day of Sheer Indulgence", one would think that I have had enough indulgence but hell, why not go for a little more? The package included a body scrub, a massage, a soak in a flower petal filled tub, lunch, a facial, a manicure and a pedicure. All for under $75US! Who could resist that?

After our blissful spa experience Karen went back to Hong Kong and Sheila and I went to go look for a place to stay. As lovely as Taman Rahasia was, $90US per night was a little out of our budget for an extended stay. After a couple of attempts at various places we came to Sania's Homestay, where we got a lovely room for $25US per night. Sania's was a small hotel within a family compound, we essentially walked through their outdoor living room and past the family dog and bird every time we walked in or out of the hotel. This hotel felt like we were in a temple with ornate doors and terraces all over. We stayed at Sania's until Thursday doing a lot of hanging out around Ubud.


Sheila believes I have perfected the art of just hanging out. Essentially sitting around in cafes or on terraces chatting about this and that for hours at a time. We took in a couple of yoga classes, one of which was in Japanese! Stephanie you should have been with us! Sheila and I also found a great foot reflexology spot where we luxuriated in having our feet massaged. Heaven. We had some interesting moments at a particular internet cafe, we did some shopping down Jalan Hanoman where lots of men constantly offered transport. I don't know if most of the tourists take taxis in Ubud but we were happy to navigate the broken sidewalks and walk.

In addition to the constant assault of transport drivers, one regularly receives offers to see traditional dance shows. One night Sheila and I went to one of the temples to watch the Kecak performance. Kecak features a large choir of men wearing sarongs and flowers behind their ears (which is not viewed in any way as effeminate in Bali). The men chant "chak-a-chak" and it is remarkable how they layer their voices. In addition to the men chanting, beautiful and graceful Legong dancers also perform. The performance closed with a fire dance, where a mound of old coconuts is drenched in gasoline, lit on fire and a barefoot man in a horse costume kicks the burning coconuts around, much to the annoyance of his keepers. Imagine a child jumping into autumn leaves after his parents finished raking them into a huge pile. Take note that in all of this we were less than 20 feet from the action. Quite amazing we were not subjected to signing waivers and there were no announcements warning us not to try this at home!

Surf Goddess Retreat - Part 1

A funny thing about Bali. I once, many many years ago developed a fascination for Balinese art and decided I wanted to visit Indonesia. Time went on, years flew past and Bali went out of my head. So one day this summer in New York, I was busy researching my traveling to Asia. I was looking for some sort of yoga retreat and I come across this link for Surf Goddess Retreat in Bali. The retreat consisted of daily yoga and surfing instruction for small groups of women. It sounded luxurious, invigorating and restorative. What a great way to start off traveling in Asia, I thought. So I booked it.

Sunday I checked out of Le Meridien and made my way to Seminyak for the retreat. My God, it was more than I could ever have dreamed. I struggle to put into words what I experienced in the last week and you better believe it is going to take more than one post.

First off I arrived at this gated door and when it opened I saw nothing but an aquamarine pool and a lovely lush garden. From the pool, pipes up a voice and says "Hi! I'm Kim!!". Funny enough, Kim lives in New York too and ended up being my roommate for the week.
Aside from trying to cut off my leg with a miniature saw in the middle of the night, she is a totally fantastic person with a gift for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Kim also has sunglasses bigger than Bono's. See photo


Moving right along and jokes aside, Kim and I met Chelsea, who did the phenomenal job of organizing the this week for us, and chattered away until the other girls arrived. We met Karen, Sheila, Stephanie and Anne - all wonderful women who we would share the next week with. We also met Melinda, who works with Chelsea, and would become our surfing big sister over the next week.

We shared the first of many wonderful home cooked meals together and after dinner, Karen says she is going for a massage and anyone is welcome to come along. Now I'm not one to skip out on a spa treatment, so off we went. A word about Karen, she is a fantastic, vibrant Australian woman whose goal in life is to attempt to overdose on spa treatments! I had secretly decided I wanted to try to get a treatment a day or at least several times a week, I mean at under $20 per massage in Bali, why not? And now I met Karen, my spa guru - could things work out any better??

The next morning we were up for yoga class by the pool with the lovely Susan, who is full of humor and gracious humanity, qualities sometimes lacking in yoga teachers ( I have to be honest and say that my current teachers are just that, so it was nice to feel at home).

After a great yoga class and a fabulous breakfast we were off to Rip Curl Surf School in Blue Ocean Beach, where we began the first of many lessons filled with great instruction and tons of fun. Somehow I personally find it easy to burst out laughing if I catch a wave or I get dumped and fall off, which still happens quite a bit. Suppose its got to do with being with tremendous people and being i a beautiful place.

As the days went on we pushed our sore muscles through yoga classes and surfing lessons and invariably ended our days with either a massage or reflexology. Not a bad life huh?

Charleston, SC to Savannah, GA

I arrived at the Phoebe Pember House in Charleston, a B&B I booked for the night, where I was greeted by the lovely Tanya who was an absolute star. After showing me my room, Tanya invited me to join her for a glass of wine. We ended up sitting in a lovely sitting room in the house and chatted about life, my trip, children and all sorts of things. What great welcome to a great place. Tanya told me that Phoebe Pember was a maverick and a woman who really marched to her own drum. I found this B&B by accident and really could not get over the fact that it was so the right place for me. I mean they even had yoga classes on site! I also met the inspiring Carolyn Rivers, who founded the Sophia Institute, which is onsite and a very noble and special place. Check out the Phoebe Pember House and the Sophia Institute at their respective websites, www.phoebepemberhouse.com and www.thesophiainstitute.org.

After my chat with Tanya I went to Fleet Landing for dinner and had my first ever fried green tomatoes. Quite good actually.

The following morning I was treated to coffee on the veranda and then took a Kundalini yoga class with the wonderful Sheri Cohen at the Sophia Institute. It was a different style of yoga than what I normally practice but a great experience.
I had a lovely breakfast in the garden and set out to see a bit of Charleston. After walking around for a while and taking pictures of some lovely things I decided to make my way to Savannah.

I got on the infamous I17 once again and worked my way down to Savannah. I kept on driving past these little country roads and the curiosity really started to get the better of me, so at SC Highway 15, decided to hang a left and drove about 20 miles to the end of the road to Bennetts Point. I drove through Lowcountry, it was absolutely hauntingly beautiful. I passed two plantations, various trailers, a number of churches and finally I made it to the end of the road. At the end was a fishing shop, a boat ramp, a fishing boat, a dog and not much else. I went into the shop to buy something to drink and had a nice chat with the lady working there, who said to me, as long as I don't act like a yankee I am welcome! Apparently yankees are bossy and always in a rush, that does kind of sound like the average New Yorker to me! It's been an interesting lesson in slowing down so far....

So after this I turned around, drove back to I17 and made the rest of my way to Savannah.