Kho Phangan is amazing, beautiful, and I am loving it!!!

Since I came out of my meditation retreat I have spend one day in Chiaya, two days in Surat Thani and took a boat two days ago to this beautiful island.

I have enjoyed Surat Thani a lot because it is not very touristy, it has kept his “traditional” vibe, most people don’t speak English and it doesn’t have any tourist attraction per say. I loved it! Walked for hours visiting, got lost, totally lost north, ended up 30 minutes walk further then I thought I was and I had to take my dictionary out and play guess the word with a local girl to find my way back. When she figured out where I wanted to go she told me, you can’t walk there, too far! And it was just a 30-40 minute walk. It is something I have notice about both India and Thailand, people don’t walk long distance to much, whenever it is over half a kilometer they always suggest I can’t walk, need a taxi they say. I have also enjoyed the night market a lot, which is a popular thing in Thailand, around 4PM some of the streets starts to get filled with temporary shops, food stall and all sorts of things are for sale everywhere you look. People seams to enjoy the gathering, the shopping, the eating, etc… I love it, especially in a place where there are mostly local people. “Special price for you today, lucky, lucky, first customer, good price, lucky for you, lucky for me; tell me, tell me, how much you can pay?! Ok, ok, just for you, half price, you take it? How many you want?” So much fun!!!

5:45AM, I wake up in panic, I turned my alarm off and didn’t get up on time. My bag is not packed and I have to be gone in 15 minutes!!! I rush in and out of a cold shower, stuff my bag in an unorganized way, and walk as fast as I can to the bus station for 6:15, ouff, sweaty already but on time. 15 minutes later I am in a freezing AC bus, for a one hour ride to the boat, almost a 3 hour boat ride then brings me to Kha Phangan, beautiful island where I am still now. I rented a scooter at the boat jetty and left with a mini map to find myself a place to stay for a few days. After 3 hours of searching I finally found a nice little room, mini cottage on my own, as big as my room and bathroom, by the beach, with a hammock on the front balcony, no ocean view but hey, that’s all good!

Life here is slow and good, I drove all around the island yesterday, found mask and tuba for snorkeling in a second hand shop, for $7, so went snorkeling, and went for a good back and shoulder massage, and was lucky this guy was great! I don’t think I commented to much about thai massage in

Thailand

, but I have to say I was mostly disappointed with the ones offered everywhere to the tourists. Now I understand why some people say that after 2-3 three they don’t feel like going again, and also why they say it hurts! Most of these people, mostly girls, get one or two weeks training and they offer 5-10 massages a day to tourist, in a very routine way. Not paying attention to the body, not “feeling” which muscles need more love, not questioning about your needs, etc… So you end up have a very mechanic massage, often done at a rapid pace and a bit painful. So I stopped walking in these places and taking massage anytime. I started questioning for good spots and got recommendations when possible. But yesterday I didn’t know, but one place was called Cosmic Energy massage, which of course resonated with me. I walked in and explained that I was a massage practitioner and that I was very hard to satisfied, with a grin on my face, and then asked her if she had anyone good to help with the pain in my back and shoulders. She said yes with confidence and sent me to that little young guy, looking no more then 22 year old I would guess, and to my surprise he was quite good! After 10 days of sitting meditation and sleeping on a wooden bed, I needed a good massage.

This afternoon I am going to a acro-yoga class, where yoga meets Thai massage and acrobacy, not to sure what I’m getting myself into but it should be lots of fun. That will be followed by an herbal steam bath, and a nice noodle soup for a light diner. After a few more days here I will head more south where I will be able to take a train to Malaysia. I will be in Malaysia until the 11^th of April, on the 11^th I am taking a plan to China for three weeks there before coming back to

Canada

. I’m starting to feel the end of this journey get close but I am at peace with it. I have learned so much about myself, I have had such amazing moments of sharing with beautiful people met on my way, I feel blessed, like I mentioned a few times.

Again, thanks for reading, commenting, caring, etc… lots of love your way beautiful souls! Blessings, blessings, and Metta!!!

Charles

Here are a few online albums, some older pics, some more recent. I hope it will work well, first time I try it this way.

Enjoy!