From Sunset to Sunrise, the Temples of Angkor Wat

We entered Cambodia through the notorious land border Poi Pet, known for its shady scams and dodgy sales staff, Sam had prepped me to let him sort the visas and not freak out if his pointing finger ‘you’re lying’ face came on. All the guidebooks and internet reading tells you of the fake buildings and fake security staff in place, supposedly helping you with your visas and quick route into Cambodia, however what will happen is you will be over charged, money taken and still be waiting in the long line with all the other weary travelers and locals passing through. We managed to make it off the bus, our bus driver being so lovely and in his broken English pointing at the actual border control offices, as the scam men started to surround us demanding our time and notes, we pushed through no finger pointing but lots of no no no, NO THANKYOU.  We got to the border control and even there the guards tried their luck, stating they needed an extra few $’s to put our visas through, at this Sam informed them, no sorry, we don’t have it and with a few exchanged words our visas were processed and we were in the queue crossing to Thailand, phew. 

We caught the bus to Siem Reap to meet lovely Ash and Mike, the journey wasn’t too bad apart from the fact we found out just before getting on the bus our friends had gone into labour, meaning the whole bus journey was a panic of if they were okay and how the labour was going. We somehow managed to get 10 seconds of internet at a random service stop and a beautiful picture of baby Heidi came through, we were over whelmed with emotion and both were teary eyed at the happiness we felt our besties had a brood but sadness at feeling so far away when such a special moment was occurring. 

We arrived into Siem Reap in standard SE Asia fashion with the bus turning into a dark dodgy bus terminal and a 100 tuk tuks awaiting our arrival, we bartered a price and then got on our way to our hotel. When we arrived we were greeted by the lovely smiles of our Canadian friends and instantly felt at home in their embrace.  The evening was spent settling into Siem Reap and making plans for the next few days, M&A had already been in Siem Reap for a few days and had bought the 3 day tickets to Angkor Wat, we knew we only wanted to do the one day, as with the one day you also get the previous evening, meaning we would buy our tickets the following day at 5pm, have that evening and the whole of the next day. M&A informed us they had done the two outer routes of Angkor but had saved the big temples for us for our full day together.  So with plans made we enjoyed the rest of the evening on ‘pub street’ drinking lots of wine, local 30p beer and a lot of good chats with two very good friends, we missed the fact a river of rain had flooded the streets and when we emerged from the bar at 3am we fell into a puddle and stumbled into a tuk tuk. We awoke the next morning with fuzzy heads and happy thoughts, I woke up earlier than the rest so went for a nice swim and enjoyed the morning sunshine on my back, after my swim I went and enjoyed breakfast catching up on my diary and filling in my last few days of Thailand. Soon the others joined me and we arranged a lazy day in Siem Reap before Sam and I hired some bikes and went for our evening cycle to Angkor. 

We arrived at Angkor spot on 5pm, we got our faces snapped and our tickets purchased and set out without any real plan, not planning to go in any temples, more just enjoy the cycle of what was to come and find a spot to watch sunset. I had no idea what I expected of Angkor and after being at Bagan (Burma) I had a similar image in my mind of the temples being smaller and quite similar and had no understanding of the distance between them all, some are miles away in a taxi (the outer route).  It was great to get a feel of the place before our main day and we nestled on a bridge at the end of the day to enjoy sunset. We headed back that night, prepared for our voyage into the mystic temples the following day, we chose to have a quieter night then the previous, meeting with a friend from home who was in Siem Reap also, we enjoyed a feast of Khmer curry’s and a few beers, oh and some tasty tea, heading to bed with full tummy’s ready for a 5am sunrise jaunt. 

We woke super early and were greeted by Mr Thom (who soon become Uncle Thom) for our days adventure, we chose to take a tuk tuk for the day at Angkor as our plan was to do sunrise to sunset and knew on bikes we wouldn’t make it, plus the sun gets so blazing hot at midday we wanted the shade of the tuk tuk and not the blistering heat on our faces. Uncle Thom was a total sweetie, he told us our route for the day, thankfully what we had planned and how he would drop us at each temple and wait for us as we explored. We joined the procession of tuk tuks and tourists and were dropped at Angkor Wat, the main temple in Angkor, everyone heads here for sunrise so as we entered it was slight chaos, everyone heads to the lake to watch sunrise, as the reflection of Angkor in the lake is spectacular, however it becomes a ipad, iphone photograph hell and for this reason we headed right as everyone to the grassy garden. We had our lovely trusty Indian blanket so put that down and settled ourselves for the morning, at that point Ash said ‘wouldn’t it be great to have a coffee’ with that James Bond (yep that was his name) came over with a list of coffee and promised he would bring it to us for our morning view. With coffee and comfort we were ready for a beautiful morning, or so we thought, sunrise was spectacular but sadly we had a child learning there ABC and was playing a very strange song out of his parents iphone, it did stop after a while but did leave us all laughing at such a random situation at such a beautiful spot. The joy of iphones and music, my definite travelling pet hate! We didn’t let it spoil our time though and managed to smile through it and embrace the beauty of what we were experiencing in front of us. 

Angkor Wat temple completely blew my mind and I was completely in awe of the beauty before me, Mike and I both had our guides/temple books which I would recommend to anyone visiting the temples, the books tell of all the bas reliefs (carvings/stories) engraved into the walls, stories of life times ago, wars, dietys and religious beliefs, they tell the tales of suffering and change and you can see the new carvings from the old, you can see where there has been change when the Khmer people left the Angkor complex and the temples were changed from Hindu to Buddhist carvings. For me the most beautiful carvings were the Apsara depictions, beautiful images of women nymphs/pixies saturated the walls, there were a number of similar images but everywhere the images embraced and flowed in groups and singular elements of these incredible women. I hadn’t ever heard the term Apsara but Mike soon explained they were seen to men as goddess and were worshipped for their beauty, I chose to do some further reading when home and loved the description of female spirits of the clouds and water, and they are youthful, elegant and superb in the art of dancing. How could these women not be respected and worshipped these mythical goddess sounded heavenly. Some of my other favourite carvings were the Rishis, Hindu sages, the representations was of old wise men, crossed legged like Buddha, with a long beard, looking wise and calm in his posture and positioning. My favourite statues led to a lot of laughs (and slight sex education lessons), these statues were the lungi and yoni, now some back history on yonis. I recently completed a course around feminist studies and working with vulnerable women, in this course we talked about what we called our lady parts and everyone had their hilarious name we all learnt as children. We were asked how we felt saying the word out loud and every one of us felt uncomfortable with the word, mine being ‘fairy’ which has always left me feeling awkward as I become obsessed with flower fairy’s and the magical world of fairy’s throughout my younger years and early twenty’s, therefore using the word fairy to describe my vagina and my best friend just felt wrong. After this course I chose a new word and one I would teach my child, that being yoni, so to see this word used to describe the fertility statues in Angkor Wat led me to informing M&A and Sam about my story of a change up in words. I went off on a wander around one of the temples to find one of these statues and joined a Chinese tour group as it was explained to them what they were, now this was amusing, as the tour guide poured the water and said some proactive words that made the ladies giggle and the men groan. The belief with the statues is that at one time the Khmer people poured water over the top of the lungi, the water then flowed into the yoni and out through a drainage system that led outside the temple, the people living outside the temple could then collect the water, drink it and wish for good fertility. It just made my mind spin how everything has such meaning and beauty wherever you step and wander. 

After 4hrs we exited Angkor Wat, hungry for breakfast and amazed at the humble amble we had just experienced. Our next stop was Bayon, we were welcomed by the most beautiful elephant trudging along, sadly carrying tourists on its back but the beauty of an elephant  a few steps in front of us was stupefying and I couldn’t help but let out a small gasp of excitement seeing its beautiful face and outstanding stature.  Bayon is a world of difference from Angkor Wat but just as magnificent and jaw dropping. I believe Bayon was built 80yrs after Angkor Wat by a new Khmer King, from far away the temple looks a pile of rubble but as you come closer it becomes a mass of smiling faces that at first glance could represent the familiarity of Buddha but when reading I learnt the images were to represent the Kings face, spread across 47 towers the faces envelope the towers, supposedly representing the 47 provinces in Cambodia at that time, the king watching down on all, creepy right? For me Bayon was a beauty but did hold a gothic eeriness and when learning about the kings faces I soon felt I understood why. Like Angkor, Bayon did have bas reliefs also which we attempted to understand but parts of the temple walls had fell into disrepair which was part of the beauty of this ruined attraction. 

Bayon is situated in the Angkor Thom complex; therefore we wondered the rest of the complex, enjoying various smaller temples and the terrace of elephants. We took a rest with a group of local boys who were playing in one of the pools and I enjoyed being splashed as they ran and jumped in front of me, giggling with excitement and happiness. 

Angkor Thom means big city and it was where the Khmer people once lived when residing in the Angkor complex, for me what astounded me was that is no evidence of settlement due to the residents using wood as there means to nest and live, stone was only for the gods and that’s why the temples were stone and still stand. When reading up about the movement of the Khmer residents there is no actual understanding as to why everyone left and therefore no records of how many people lived there.  Exploring these temples and  once distressed lands felt enjoyable but uncomforting knowing people were maybe run out of the home, their city and moved on to places nobody knows. 

We headed back to meet Uncle Thom for lunch then headed to our next stop Ta Phrom, known to all as Tomb Raider temple. Ta Phrom was what I was most excited to see, I had seen so many pictures and knew when planning this trip it was one of my top things I wanted to explore and experience and it sure didn’t disappoint. Ta Phrom is very different from the other temples as it has been left in a similar state to how it was found, piles of rubble, trees dominating the temple walls, nature taking back what belongs to it, land. The tetrameles nudiflora trees is what makes this temple so spectacular, it has literally been brought to ruins because of some of the trees, the roots engulf the insides of the temple and are beautiful to look at and photograph. We found so many nooks to climb into and climbed high as sun was coming down embracing the vast maze of ruins in front of us. 

After a few hours we exited Ta Phrom, with Uncle Thom telling us we didn’t have long for sunset and he would show us one more temple, Banteay Kdei, before our chosen sunset spot, he gave us 15minutes to explore our next one, which was a quick walk through, more beautiful apsaras, doorways upon doorways to walk through, another beautiful maze in the temples of Angkor. 

Like our morning jaunt we decided we didn’t want crowds of people so chose to ignore the guidance of the sunset temple and head to the kings royal bathing pool, Sra Srang to watch sunset on us. We didn’t pick wrong either as we enjoyed our time with a group of local kids, watching them play a game Sam played at cubs (therefore we learnt the rules from him), smiling and laughing like children should. As sun come down we reflected on what was an amazing day and how blessed we were to spend it together but also be on this incredible journey in this incredible place, one of the incredible wonders of our astonishing world.
 

Angkor Wat

Rishi

Apsara and Sammy

Bayon

Fertility Statue

Ta Phrom

Ta Phrom exploring.

Sunset at the Royal Pool.

 

Volunteering through the powers of Yoga.

So volunteering abroad, visiting orphanages and all the ‘gap year’ student ‘doing good’ has been a major discussion for me throughout this trip, not only with myself but friends who have come out to travel and other friends we have met along the way. Overall I am against it, but once I was a 23yr old, paying a lot of money to go and work in an orphanage in South Africa, although the trip didn’t work out due to a family bereavement and not one penny was refunded it set me on a thinking a stream, thoughts of where does the money go and what was the need for me to spend so much to volunteer, it therefore has been a question always with me and a way of thinking that has stayed. 

As most of you know my passion is children and young people, it’s my day to day work, it’s what I crave doing and what I hope to be part of for the rest of my working career, so therefore I started wondering whilst away, how do I volunteer but not cause attachment problems, have to pay stupid amounts of money or just generally be involved with a problematic organisation. 

I started to do a bit of research before coming away, I knew I wanted to stay in my current way of working with young people and preferably young girls, my research didn’t come up with much apart from the standard google search, pay £’s to volunteer, with this I put the search on the back burner and decided to look whilst away. 

Whilst doing my yoga training a part of the course was karma yoga work, we were asked to carry out a project with a group of people offering some form of karma work, this really got my thoughts going again of how I can use yoga to do this, therefore it’s not a long term piece of work but more of a workshop to offer skills, experience and knowledge, it just fitted perfect with my already way of thinking but also how I could offer volunteering throughout the rest of time in Asia. 

With this I started researching again and found a blog that had information on about different organizations in South East Asia, one that came up was in Chiang Mai, called COSA, Children’s Organisation of South East Asia, the organization works with young girls who have been or are at risk of sex trafficking, I just felt the organisation was perfect for the Yin workshop I wanted to offer and the age was an age I was used to working with, except for the language barrier I was ready to put an email together and offer my skills. After a few correspondences, a skype meeting was booked, I was so nervous but excitedly the meeting went well and we organized a date for when I would be in Chiang Mai and the girls would be off school. 

I was SO NERVOUS, my stomach went poorly, my mouth filled with ulcers and I just couldn’t concentrate, it was so weird but I just felt a bag of butterflies were in my stomach. Sam helped me through my nerves and after a bit of YIN practice and my workshop written down I was ready for the Saturday to come. 

Sam drove me to COSA which was just outside Chiang Mai, then Lori (center manager) met us and drove me to the shelter, after a brief introduction I was introduced to some of the girls and given the yoga mats to start the session, the girls were a mix between 7-17yr olds and had all tried yoga before, my challenge was the language, luckily for me one of the girls spoke English and helped me translate the difference between yang yoga to yin yoga.
I had put together a 50min session, knowing that at any time the session could be cut short due to the girls attention, understanding and experience of the yoga as it is a more therapeutic style of yoga and therapy in Thailand isn’t  something that occurs as it does in western countries. 

I felt so lucky though as the girls went through 45mins of the sequence perfectly, they chatted and giggled but at times there was such serene bliss in their emotions and asana posture it was a beauty to watch. The time when silence fell was just beautiful and I could see the depth of the yoga the girls had entered and how their minds had entered the yin bliss. 

At the end of the session I gave each of the girls a small hand out of what we had done and attempted to talk briefly with them about the practice; however they informed me they were very relaxed and pointed at Shavasana as their favourite posture. 

Overall I felt the workshop went well, the girls engaged and there smiles showed their enjoyment, the questions in my head still lay there and I felt that I was stronger in my decision about volunteering due to the conversations had whilst there. I did however feel so privileged to have the experience and the chance to offer yoga to the girls, when focusing back to my karma yoga I wondered what my aim was with the girls and realised the smiles on their faces were what my aim was and however they took the experience they all seemed to enjoy it.

Three stops through Thailand

Our trip through Thailand was done in two different parts; our first part was coming into Thailand through the busy lights of Bangkok from Malaysia. We left our beautiful Petani beach behind, choosing to cross into Thailand through the land border, then onto the sleeper train to Bangkok. The train journey was possible one of the best train journeys of the trip, where we even got our beds made for us and our food delivered to our seats, we arrived into Bangkok at 2pm a bit later than expected, but due to the comfort of the journey the feeling on the train was good and not the usual stress fueled feeling. We had 3 nights in Bangkok and had booked a hotel in advance as didn’t want to be stuck with accommodation near Khoa San Road, we had however stayed one extra night in Petani but had emailed the hotel saying we would be arriving a day later, however when we arrived at our hotel we were informed the room was booked, lucky for us next door came up trumps with a nicer room, balcony and cheaper, score, welcome to Bangkok. 

Our first day was spent recuperating and relaxing, we went to find Sam’s favourite Thai curry stand, which nicely still stood up to its amazing tastes, we took a walk down Khoa San Road and I got the standard traveler hair braid and a few other treats, as much as it was tourist trap heaven it was still so much fun to see it, experience the mentalness and dine on some tasty mango sticky rice and coconut ice cream, with our tummies full we headed back for a much needed sleep and fun the next day with two very good friends.

The following day was all about Chatuchak Sunday market, we were meeting our friends Ash and Mike, Ash had just arrived back from Canada after heading home for a week and Mike had been travelling part of Malaysia and into Bangkok with us, so we were super stoked to be meeting up with them again for some Bangkok silliness. We met the guys and spent hours venturing into the depths of the market, laughing at the crazy sales, vast amounts of tie dye clothes (yes I wanted them all) and hoards and hoards of home ware (honestly any nearer home and I would have been on manic buy). After the market we chose to head out to where Ash and Mike were staying and enjoyed some tasty broth at a ‘make your own’ restaurant. After numerous beers, laughs and experimental broth recipes we noticed the time was getting late and we were miles from home so jumped in a taxi heading back through the metropolis of Bangkok. 

Next day was visa Burma day, we spent the day heading back and forth getting our visas for our flight out the next day to Mandalay. We met Ash and Mike that evening, taking them to Sam’s talked about Thai lady to enjoy some Thai curry then for a tower at a hilarious locals bar, plenty of power ballads and a lot of beer, what more could one want!

After two weeks in Burma (http://claire-yvonne.blogspot.com/2014/08/beautiful-but-bewildering-burma.html) we flew back into Bangkok but headed straight out on another flight to Railay for some southern beach action. Heading to the southern beaches had been a real debate between Sam and I as Sammy wasn’t sure he wanted to head back to the beaches in the south, my only bargaining tool was he hadn’t been to Railay and it wasn’t an island like the other beaches he had previously been too. So with an agreement made we had 3 days booked to see some limestone cliffs, enjoy the clear blue sea and get back into some beach time. We arrived by night in an incredible long boat, Thailand dreams coming true, Sam had booked us into accommodation off the beach and after a hefty walk we found our stay up in the trees, jungle esk, we couldn’t believe our luck at this incredible find, sea view, up away from everything, amazing room and all for £12, deal. Our first two days were incredible and Railay was everything I had hoped for, beautiful ocean, stunning scenery, limestone cliffs surrounding the beach bay we were on, massages on the beach, warm swims, yoga in the mornings on our balcony, it was just idyllic and I couldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else at that time, sadly though things took a turn for the worse when I come down with sun stroke and my third day was spent hauled up in bed feeling sorry for myself.  We headed out of Railay the next day and I had luckily managed to get back to an alright way, trying to take the positive attitude that at least I had two beautiful days and now fully understand the beauty of Thailand’s Southern beaches.

Our next stop was up to Chiang Mai and we had 7 days booked to explore the hills of Chiang Mai, we arrived to a hostel we had booked, but soon left when we were shown our room, after a trail around a few hotels I managed to come across a real sweet stay and got a room on the 5th floor looking over part of the city.

Our days were spent wondering and visiting the wats, heading far out of town, getting lost and searching for hot springs, we clocked up 800kms on the scooter but everyday was a new adventure and so exciting seeing the beauty that surrounds Chiang Mai.

Some of our main adventures was to a place my brother recommended called Ngat Dam, which is a beautiful dam in a national park, you get the boat to a floating hut and spend the day swimming in the dam, relaxing and the evening eating at your hut, enjoying the silence around you.  It was such a special experience and so nice to drive out into the unknown and a new national park then sleep in a floating hut. The following day we headed to some incredible hot springs, which were so warm but so incredible, after not having a bath for 6 months to fully submerge and relax in the pools was just so soothing and was a perfect way to end a dusty scooter ride.

Another day I carried out my volunteering which was incredible (see volunteer blog post for more details).

Sam also got us to the Chiang Mai horse racing which in itself was just hilarious, we actually stayed most of the day, somehow managed to get a few winners and have a real laugh seeing the different way horse racing is carried out in another country. Overall it was a pretty surreal experience but a very different one at that and a very fun way to spend a Saturday, kind of felt like being at home but humid and sweaty!
Interestingly after the horse racing we drove back past the infamous ‘tiger kingdom’, which brought my thoughts to animal tourism in Thailand, and my thoughts on this in comparison to horse racing, I do admit it is one I struggle with as I have been brought up with horse racing through my step dad and as you all know my husband he loves a little flutter on the horses, so therefore as much as I don’t agree with aspects of horse racing I do enjoy going to the racing on derby day, however I don’t fully agree with the grand national and was pleased to hear the jockey being fined in 2010 for over use of the whip.

In Thailand a lot of elephant ‘sanctuary’s’ are present and as mentioned above tiger kingdom, my thoughts had been that with enough research I would find a elephant conservation project where we could meet orphaned elephants and it wouldn’t be so ‘tourist’ like where options of riding and feeding are, more like an environment where they are rehabilitated back into their natural world. Sadly though I didn’t find this and was just given leaflet after leaflet of riding, feeding, petting information, which as you all know is not something I am interested in. Tiger Kingdom is on another level, it’s a petting zoo where tigers are drugged up so people can have their photos taken with them, lying next to them, cuddling and petting them, its vile, its animal cruelty at its highest and is so sad the people of Thailand think every westerner wants to partake in such vile animal tourism, sadly though it’s the uneducated of us who feel things like this are acceptable and a great experience, now don’t get me wrong I was the 18yr old at SeaWorld watching the killer whale show, it didn’t click straight away but sometime after I realised that a great beauty of a killer whale shouldn’t be in such a small tank and certainly shouldn’t be on show for again us westerners. At the time I went to watch the show as I wanted to see a killer whale, I wanted that picture and I wanted that experience, how many I’s did I write there? But that’s the answer isn’t it, it’s always I, that selfish part of us that wants that experience, it means we forget the animals experience, how it can’t be right for everyday 2/3 people wash and bathe an elephant, humans wouldn’t like it so why would animals? I was asked the question recently do us humans think were better than animals, places like this could only make me answer yes, as otherwise why would we constantly feel the need to have this specific experience of touching, feeling and riding, after answering these questions and having this realistion I went back to our experience in India at the national park and there was no better feeling then seeing those 18 elephants in the wild, seeing them in their natural habitat and experiencing them in the way they should be living, therefore what difference would it make if I went to a conservation centre, it would never be as natural and beautiful as experiencing animals in the wild.

Chiang Mai really give a lot and at first I was intrigued by this city I had heard so much about, my first impression wasn’t that of wonder but I soon fell in love with the city and could see why people end up getting comfortable and resting their packs. Our 7 days were perfect for us, such a perfect amount of time for a great deal of exploring but with Cambodia on our minds it was time to move on and come head to head with the Poipet border, Thailand/Cambodia’s notorious nightmare land border.  

Beautiful but Bewildering Burma

We chose to have two weeks in Myanmar (Burma), a few people had recommended shorter and some longer but with our time in certain countries in SE Asia being limited we wanted to make sure we fitted everything we wanted to do in but with a good amount of adventure, and for us two weeks suited nicely for the places we had chosen to visit and the attractions we wanted to see.

We flew into Burma, we had planned to go overland but needed to maximize time, we found a cheap flight with Air Asia and bit the bullet and booked a return ticket from Bangkok to Mandalay.  I wasn’t sure how I would find Mandalay, I had heard mixed reviews but felt it attracted us more than Yangon, Sam and I always have a two-three day rule in cities, we both love the coast and country so much more and always find after two days in a city were ready to move, we had 2 full days to adventure Mandalay so planned our time well with lots of walking, palace adventures and cycling. Our first day was literally just spent walking; we walked for miles and went to some extraordinary sites.  We visited a beautiful teak monk monastery which was hidden up the back streets of Mandalay, walking there we got to speak broken Burmese to a number of different locals and send a lot of smiles out there such happy humble faces. The monastery, is a really old monastery but had such a relaxed calmness surrounding it, we spent some time just sitting down under the shade of a tree, enjoying the silence and observing the day time rituals of the monks who lived around it.  From there we walked to the main pagoda in Mandalay, I should say that Mandalay is filled with stupas and pagodas all over the city, there dotted every few yards/miles and its incredible to see as you bumble around. The main pagoda we had read about held a huge Buddha inside that had been covered with so much gold leaf over the years it now was washed daily (this started at sunrise and could last until sundown). When we arrived we were both blown away by what we witnessed, the Buddha was inside a room which I believe couldn’t be accessed by civilians, and however there was a carpet which was filled with Buddhists worshipping, sitting and being present in his royalness statue. There were also video cameras on the Buddha which allowed you to see the men washing it; we read that this water is then kept by some as it’s seen as holy. We sat for some time in awe of what was happening around us and really took in the spritualness that could be felt in the space.  We then decided to head to Mandalay palace, due to Burma only just being opened up to tourism a lot of crazy rules still apply, one thing being that tourists are only allowed into Mandalay palace from one entrance, we chose to take the long walk to the entrance, sadly when we got there it was 5pm and tourists have to enter by 4.30pm, oucha, we turned our bums around and went and found somewhere to eat, sadly for me the restaurants don’t cater for vegetarians and everything has some sort of pork in it, meaning it was a plate of rice to end the day for me and a mutton curry meal for Sam.

The next day we decided to hire bikes and cycle out to a nearby village then onto the world’s longest teak bridge, we started cycling early but the heat of Burma got the better of us and we had to take shelter in a park, we ended up being there 2-3hrs before being able to finish our cycle, sadly the cycle didn’t end how we wanted and the teak was pretty disappointing. We commiserated our long day out over a chang and a coke and headed on the long road back, achy bums and tired heads we decided to go for pumpkin curry and a lassi to end what had been a tiresome long day.

Sadly the day had not ended and we took a night train to Bagan, the night train was possible my worst experience of train journeying in this whole trip and I won’t deny it but I was slightly broken by the end. The train was cheap, so what did we expect, we definitely paid for what we got and ended up slouched on smelly chairs, ducking (and probably swallowing) a mound of insects, being blinded by the strong bright strip lights (that remained on all through the night) and being face on to the stranger opposite you.  We arrived at 5am that morning and I have never been happier to get my bags and run off the train.

Our first day in Bagan was a total wipe out, we slept and recovered preparing ourselves for the wonders we wanted Bagan to bring. Bagan certainly didn’t disappoint and it is probably one of my top visits on this trip so far, it’s hard to explain the grand beauty of what Bagan holds and also is completely bonkers to think such a land exists and has only just started being fully explored by travelers. Bagan once held over 4000 Buddhist stupas and pagoda’s, a number of them are now in ruins but still standing is over 300, this small town comprising of old and new Bagan, is arid and dusty but a wealth of religious buildings spread across the town, they spread across a vast plain of land and can be accessed by foot, bike and some car. Most of the pagodas and temples left standing can be accessed by all and a lot have secret stairs in which you can climb up high and breath in the landscape all around you.

We chose two mornings and one evening to really get the full beauty of Bagan, during the day the weather was too hot to be out and about so you really had to start as early or in the late afternoon. We read a few blogs on which temples were recommended and looked in the LP at what the main temples were, we also enjoyed a few that we just came across as we cycled around. The splendor of Bagan is that every temple is magnificent to see and for me I wouldn’t have cared if I had got to see the top temples as some of the most beautiful ones we looked at where smaller ones. Sam had told me how each temple held a Buddha statue in it and in my mind I had a Russian doll sized Buddha, how wrong I was when every temple we visited had giant ones in, some being up to 30ft. The grandness of the statues blew me away and at times we just sat at the front of one in awe of this amazing creation in front of us.

The evening we chose to head out was one of pure magic, we visited some incredible stupas, climbing high and exploring these dilapidated buildings, Sam had picked a temple called North Guni to watch sunset, the temple was behind a main temple recommended and therefore we hoped wouldn’t be as touristy. We got there for around 6pm and managed 30mins alone at the top of this temple, in front of us was a mist covering the plains and peeping out the top was oodles of pointy pagodas and stunning stupas, I sat silent for some time just watching and smiling at the experience we were having and how blessed we were to be witnessing such a beautiful moment of stillness and serene peace. At that moment my heart felt so content at what we were doing and why we were on this discovery of new worlds, at that moment in front of me was this mystifying magic world that my brain couldn’t comprehend how these buildings got there and had survived so many years of destruction and change but were still giving and allowing people like us to enjoy and embrace such special experiences like watching a sunset over a plain of glory. That night we ate tea and were both filled with content, overwhelmed at the evening and what Bagan had given us. We could have stayed longer in Bagan but had a night bus to Inle Lake, we caught the bus and arrived in good time to our hotel, sadly the time was too good and we had to snooze out in the owner’s office until our room was ready the next morning at 8am.

We got our room and again snoozed off catching up on lost sleep, we had planned 2.5 days in Inle Lake so had that afternoon wandering and eating, planning the next day to take a trip onto the lake. The town you stay in is right next to Inle Lake, all the boats go from Nyaungshwe driving up the river onto the lake, you mostly have 5hrs out on the lake, doing touristy trail stuff, visiting certain points, factories, seeing certain village lake life’s, as much as I enjoy this I also find it quite cringe as I always feel it would be so weird if tourists paid to watch me at work. For me the beauty of Inle Lake was just being in the boat and observes life on the lake and the rolling hills surrounding the lake. Sam and I you could be in the lake district the scenery was so beautiful, the difference was is that Inle lake is used to survive, life grows in the lake from the fish being caught to the hoards of tomatoes growing in the middle to the orchids growing for the fabric factory it’s a way of living for these people and not just a tourist hub like other lakes. We did visit one amazing factory, an umbrella factory and I was taught how to make homemade paper with pressed flowers, something I will definitely be crafting when home. The whole day was so fun and the surroundings was spectacular to see, the colors of the lake and the green of the hills just left such a palette of shades in my mind and it felt great to see life and beauty in the surrounding of Burma.

The next day we took a day train as Sam wanted to explore the countryside some more, the train was a 8hr train and the first 6hrs were so glorious, like Inle Lake the colours were beautiful and for 6hrs it was just constant landscape and colours to fill the mind, I was so pleased to be on the train and experiencing the iridescent countryside as just never imagined such a thing in Burma. Sadly the train was delayed and without going into it too much it became the journey from hell with drunk train workers, urine stench, toilet flow into the train, wet backpacks and the standard overcrowding, we got into our destination 4hrs late and exhausted, ready for bed, we tried to remember the train for what it had been and not how it ended as it had been utter glory to start.

Our last few days we headed back to Mandalay, we still wanted to explore the palace and climb Mandalay hill and I was dying for more of the pumpkin curry I had relished in when first there. Mandalay didn’t disappoint and we ended our Burma trip with a lovely day exploring, climbing and eating. It was great to see the palace as I was reading the glass palace (a book about Burma and Mandalay palace is a main part of it), I could see the books descriptions in the palace grounds and enjoyed seeing the photos of the king and queen and felt a real understanding to the events in my book now I was at the place it talked of. The pumpkin curry didn’t disappoint and we enjoyed a long evening in the restaurant soaking up our two weeks, writing in our diaries and talking out the highs and lows. 

Both times in Mandalay there was a curfew on meaning we had to be in by 9pm, this didnt affect us as much the first time but did open up a number of conversations about the limits and boundaries and the effect we felt at not being allowed out after a certain time. It also led us to discuss the reason for the curfew which was a religion war between Buddhist extremists and Muslim extremists, it was crazy to think that there was such danger that caused the army to man the street corners and although we never felt unsafe the presence was felt. Our 2nd visit to Mandalay really hit home when on the afternoon coming back from the palace we witnessed a number of people crowding round the moat which surrounds the palace, we couldn't work out what was going on and being intrigued took a look, only to find a floating body, our belief was this was a just one example of the behavior taking place late at night.

Burma has been a country I am so pleased to have come too, explored and experienced, I am not sure it’s one I would come back too but would be one I definitely recommended to others. It holds places of such joy, delight and wonder but for me it was hard and strenuous at times and really unenjoyable.  However the beauty and feelings Bagan gave me can never be taken away and without Burma I wouldn’t have experienced that uplifting high and pure joy as sun started to set over the vast plains of an enchanted land. 

Temples of Bagan

Inle Lake

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Marvelling in Malaysia

We flew straight into Malaysia from Bali, heading to Kuala Lumpur for 2 days, we both wanted to visit KL as I have never been and we decided it would be nice to have a 2 day city adventure before we headed to the Perinthians, we managed to find an okay city guesthouse that was clean (standard no window) but the room was clean and so was the bathroom, it was really central so allowed us to have a good two days of adventure.

We spent our first day out at Batu caves, which is a Hindu shrine in a series of huge cave, they’re based just out of main KL city, the caves are filled with deity’s and it’s a really interesting site. Obviously studying deity’s on my course it made the even a whole lot more interesting than it once would have and we spent ages walking round talking of each deity and singing the gyatri mantra outside the tacky shop selling clocks with the tune coming out, all my learning was flooding back from inside a cave, just beautiful.

We strolled the streets searching for local laksa, very different to the Kuching Laksa (in Malaysian Borneo), the KL (Asam) one having more of a curry taste to it and fish is used instead of prawns, however it was still a tasty eat and with a coconut to accompany it I was in my element.

We visited the Petronas towers both in the evening and in the morning to compare the differences in how they looked, it was incredible to see such huge vast buildings in the middle of a city centre but also how they were such a tourist hub, right next to the shopping centre but also busy at all times of day and night. The evening we went we spent some time just looking up, taking photos and generally being overwhelmed at the colossal size of them.

KL was perfect as it give us two days back in the city to do a few errands we needed to do, take a tour of this busy metropolis but also enjoy two days back in normality in a fast moving city. We took a night bus on our 2nd day to the Perinthians ready for a week of reading and relaxing.

We arrived at 7am into the bus station next to the Perinthian islands and felt excited and ready to explore this island we knew very little about. It was Ms Stonestreet who had recommended the Perinthians, Ben and Claire both stating it was one of their top spots of travelling and somewhere they both highly recommended, with this we added it straight into our list of places to go, we read a small bit in the lp but apart from that hadn’t really done much more then send a few emails to secure accommodation. Sam informed me he had found the perfect desert island spot for us, he just hoped they had received our email stating we would be arriving today. When we arrived on taxi boat, Kerry came out to meet us and informed us sadly both the rooms were booked but we could have the tent for the night and move into one of the rooms the following day when it become available. With that we agreed, it had been a while since we had camped so felt no better place than a beach to get back into it. 

Our first day was just beautiful, I have never felt so remote and like I was living on a desert island. Petani beach only has one guesthouse on it (the one we were staying at Mari Mari), it has quite an interesting story as previously Hash (owner), had worked next door at another guesthouse for 10yrs, the owner of Petani beach guesthouse decided to take management back but sadly his attempts failed and the business ended up closing for good in April. Hash however was given the land next door and has since started to build Mari Mari resort on this land, the build is still ongoing, hence why all the rooms weren’t ready (the 3rd room was in the progress of being built) whilst we were staying, the plan is for a tree house and a longhouse, meaning in total there would be eight rooms.

We moved into our room on our 2nd night and our lovely friend Mike turned up with his friend on our 4th meaning we ended up staying on Petani beach at Mari Mari for 6 nights it was just blissful, our days consisted of eating, snoozing, reading, sun baking, snorkeling, drinking beer, playing poker and more eating. It was so laid back staying there and it was like being part of a family with group eating at meal times, painting our shack with Ganesh and being involved in the life of the Mari Mari family.

Kecil Island is made up of loads of different bays, one of them being romantic bay which is only accessible by taxi boat or canoe; obviously we chose the latter and took to the 40min canoe around the island. We took to the open water full of energy and managed the canoe out easily, it was a sheer delight canoeing through such clear blue waters, seeing the marine life below and excitedly watching like on a tv screen as they fish went by with their daily living. I spotted romantic bay as soon as we came around to it as the beach was just white sand and there stood a tree in the middle with heaps of coral hanging from it, there wasn’t many people on the beach either and we felt excited about our day there. We brought the canoe into the bay and jumped out finding a spot of the smooth white sand, the day was just heavenly, we snorkeled and saw sharks, we saw rainbow fish (parrot fish), clown fish and so much more, the snorkel was great and with my new life jacket whilst snorkeling I was able to stay out longer and really enjoy the fish and coral below (yes I wear a life jacket whilst snorkeling, with my poor swimming its perfect for staying out longer, I threw my ego out and got my life jacket on). I don’t think I have ever been to a beach so pristine and idyllic; it’s the beach I imagine in my Hawaii dream. We stayed until about 4pm then chose to head back before dark, sadly the tide wasn’t on our side on the way back and although we made it, poor Sam was worn out as the paddling was just ongoing, however it felt good to make it back and we both had our hearts full from a day at this little bit of paradise.

Back at Petani, snorkeling was part of a daily routine, we would take a morning and evening snorkel, hoping to catch the clown fish that would swim up at our masks or catch the sting rays sweeping slowly across the sea bed, we were even visited by a reef shark and her baby one morning, she passed in the blink of an eye but wow what a split second sight to see. Sammy was lucky enough one morning to go out early and see them feeding which he was pretty chuffed about.

We also chose on our last night at Petani to swim out to the pontoon, which was quite a swim out to see the phosphorescent which is incredible at this part of the beach, however the tide was low and the coral was a pain to get through, however we made it out in the pitch black and got to the pontoon (me in my life jacket again), it was stupefying to see all the plankton, it felt like I was in a snow dome as every time someone jumped in with the goggles on the wows of astonishment were just brilliant, the sea was lighting up around us and we were all taken aback with the beauty and intenseness of the light shining below us. I jumped in with the goggles on and kicked my legs about and the darkness went and only light sparkled, it was like something from human planet the vast amount surrounding us.
After 30mins or so we chose to head in which sadly turned out to be a nightmare, a storm started approaching, it was so dark and the tide was low, which resulted in two of us being spiked by sea urchins, scrapes of the huge coral bed and a lot of panic. We made it in just in time, then the storm hit, bad, if we had been 10mins later I am fearful what the outcome would have been.

We shared a cup of tea after listening to the storm and smiling at our luck of making it back in time, all agreeing though that the phosphorescent was totally worth it.

Sam, Mike and I left on the 7th day to head across the border to Thailand, with a 20hr train ahead we readied ourselves to leave the beach behind and head back to the city, Bangkok, next stop. 

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One Song Yoga; Wahe Guru

So I did it, I qualified, yeah! Wow what a whirlwind month it has been but what an amazing one at that, I still feel slightly in shock that I did it and finally committed to it but also feel overwhelmed how quickly it went and without any hiccups, it was a blissful, inspiring and mind opening month and I am so thankful to Denise and Bex for the experience I had, I wanted to commit myself to writing a full post in relation to my training experience as feel it’s so important to spread the message of the importance of yoga, without it being a stereotypical hipster thing to do, I remember I told one friend I was thinking of training whilst travelling and his reply was ‘you and every other fucker’ ouch!  I could totally see his point though and even more so when away, the ongoing conversations had through India of people studying here and there, the schedules sounded hardcore though and not the yoga I wanted to be able to share with others, I couldn’t find the right training I wanted to commit a month too, nothing inspired me and I kind of decided that maybe it just wasn’t the right time to train, which was fine, I kind of stopped looking by the end of India, I chose to enjoy my yoga practice for what it was and the right course would come up one day.
We when we arrived in Ubud we chose to stay a week and relax, I had read about the Yogabarn when researching yoga studios before coming away, so decided to go and attend a few classes there. I signed up for a few amazing workshops, and saw a Yin Yoga class that I fancied, I have only done one Yin class on my 30th birthday last year, I remember the teacher in Vietnam gave me the choice for the class that morning and I chose a Yin practice, it stayed with me as it was so relaxing and really made me feel a therapeutic sense of ease that was just truly beautiful, however when returning to the London I hadn’t found any classes nearby so therefore had just enjoyed that one experience, how lucky I thought trying it again in Ubud.
I can literally say going to Denise’s class changed my life, I can’t fully explain how or why, maybe it was the tennis balls (I will get to that), the information shared on the practice we were doing, the way she taught or the Yin practice whatever element it was I left that class so moved and energized for change that I knew I had to train with her and share the knowledge she had with others, luckily for me she was running a course two weeks later, after a discussion with Sam,  I was signed up to her course by the next day and ready to start training on the 18th June.
Denise’s training, One Song Yoga, is put forward as not your average training course, stepping beyond the physical and commercialization of the spiritual and offering the key to transformation of your own mind and body, it covers 4 different styles of yoga Power, Vinyasa, Hatha and Yin. When reading the leaflet and talking with Denise I just felt this course differed from any other I have read about or heard about and I felt it really sat with my principles of yoga practice in current society and would marry well with my previous counselling training.
My reasons for wanting to train in yoga is to bring this into my counseling/therapy work as I feel it can be a real benefit to clients I work with, I also feel Yin Yoga holds such important principles in allowing people to relax in their yoga practice and encourages people to take time out to actually slow down and be with themselves for 90mins, it works with the connective tissue and moves stuck energy that for some people can be causing such trauma in their lives, for me to bring this into therapy work will make great changes for the client, allowing them to start to understand their body more on both a physical and emotional level. 
Denise first class I took worked with both Myo Fascial and Yin, the Myo Fascial Release  is a soft tissue therapy for the treatment of the skeletal muscle. The Yin Yoga being more a therapeutic meditative style of yoga that works with the connective tissues, the poses used in Yin Yoga work by moving energy through the body to improve organ health and emotional well being, with both of these practices combined together in one class you can maybe see why I had a life changing moment in Denise’s class.

The training started on June 18th and I was delighted to find it was a small class of only 10 people, we talked about what we wanted from the course and a small bit about ourselves, it was so interesting hearing peoples reasons for doing the course and although some were to be able to teach a lot were about their own yoga journey and practice. It was explained to us how the course would run and how we were able to choose which classes we wanted to par take in, both our teachers teach at the Yogabarn therefore we had a number of different classes in power yoga, vinyasa yoga, yin yoga, acro yoga and restorative yoga, I was so pleased to hear the diverse range we could chose to work with and although I planned to try all I knew my preferred choice would be the more yin, restorative, therapeutic style classes, however I did par take in a few vinyasa classes as this was the style I practiced at home.

That morning we took our first two classes of power and yin and after 3hrs of yoga I was so excited to be lucky enough to do this for the next 28 days.

The course definitely opened another range of emotions I had carefully tucked away, it was challenging in ways that is hard to understand unless you’re in that physical and emotional journey of yoga, I remember one vinyasa class with Bex, I went into Hanumasana and just broke down crying, I really understood the term ‘crying your way through hip openers’. When learning about this reaction and why this happens I started to understand our chakras more and how hip openers open our second chakra, Svadhisthana who’s identity is emotion and can develop between 6 months and 2 years, wow, my mind blew learning this and related so much to my own life changes around that age.  From working with Erickson’s stages of developmental I was now working with a whole new psychology system which related to our bodies and yoga, I was drawn to learn more and was recommended a book called eastern body, western mind which has now become my travel companion for learning more about this sacred chakra system (Denise informed me to wait till the course has finished before delving into this book as it will be a life informing read).
We carried out a whole day related to the chakras, no one knew how the day would go but we were told to wear bright colours and bring a friend/partner/husband. How the day worked was we went through different yoga asanas and set activities to open up each chakra and allow the energy to move through (obviously if energy is stuck they won’t necessarily just move, it’s can take time) but this was a way of looking at certain asanas and things we can do to start that process and engage in what it is like. We worked from our 1st chakra to our 7th chakra and went through a whole range of emotions dancing and grounding ourselves, flowing through sun salutations, playing on slack lines and silks, backbends, placing our hands on others hearts, sharing innermost secrets to mantras and chanting, the energy felt in the room was beautiful and it was a day I will never forget, it was a day that made me understand more about each chakra and its importance but also a day at where I looked into myself and saw were my energy could be stuck and the benefits of using chakras as a tool in looking at how people are impacted, but also using yoga as a tool for moving through this, the two marry together in such a complete way and I can’t wait to take this new information home and use it in my therapeutic work.
The course covered so many different areas of yoga practice that every day I was yearning for more, Bex took us through the history of yoga and took us back before Pantanjali and his Raja Yoga about 5000 years ago, we talked about what Yoga was and how mantra is the oldest form of yoga practice, Bex talked of the practices of the shamanistic and their out of body experiences, the ascetics who went out into nature and on their own having no attachments to basic living and the vedics who believed in fire rituals, mantras, dharmas and breath work. We moved through the years of pre classical yoga and how the Bhagavad Gita become such an important text, this then led us to the knowing of Pantanjali and the yoga most of us now know and love. This was all such information for me and my mind was so eager to take it all in, from this we started to move towards our yoga philosophy and Pantanjalis 8 limbs of yoga Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, for me seeing asana and pranayama as 3 and 4 was mind boggling as although I knew it, in our current world of yoga, we jump straight to the asanas before anything else and don’t even know about the other areas of yoga, this information and new knowledge just stood strong in my belief how yoga is more than just moving our bodies in certain ways and yoga can be found in many forms not just the poses.

From one amazing thought blowing information gaining subject to another we moved into yoga therapy and talked of the types of yoga that can be used as a therapeutic tool but also the benefits of yoga to an individual and ourselves, the list we came up with was endless and secured my knowledge again of why I was here learning this worthy and precious skill. We learnt about thai massage (and its origins) and the art of touch and Bex explained how we can bring this into our yoga sessions and the benefit this can have to students by having a ‘safe touch’ experience. The yoga therapy session resonated so much with me and I was already starting to know the type of yoga teacher I hope to be.

We were taught human anatomy by a leading French Ostepath, my mind was opened again to the biology of the body and the way we work, taking me back to school but with a deeper insight into the importance of learning and wanting to know the information to be able to put into practice when working with human bodies. I loved the way Francoise taught us, teaching us how Ostepaths look at the whole body, not just isolated areas, sharing her wealth of knowledge and experience allowed us to understand certain elements of the body in relation to yoga practice and how we can help others who may attend classes with aliments but also avoid aliments and understand them in our own practice. We discussed the importance of fascia again and how it’s a subject rarely covered but is as important as muscles, Francoise sharing how Myo Fascial release work being so important to the human body.

We took work home and learnt then presented information about different Hindu deityies like Saraswati, Ganesh, Shiva, Vishnu, Rama, Kali, Brahma, Sita and Hanuman and how they came to be the gods and goddess worshipped by many.  We took time to look at certain deities in relation to yoga and how certain asanas found their names in relation to the deity’s tales. It made me want to head back to India and make more of an understanding about the gods and goddesses worshipped there.

Our work led us to our yoga for the hands, mudras, linking these again to our chakras and how certain mudras can help release certain energies. We learnt the sacred chant of the Gayatri Mantra, one of the most oldest and powerful of Sanskrit mantras, the power of Om, the resonant sound of the universe.

We covered the different types of yoga in our modern day world and looked at the history of Yin yoga and due to it being new to the yoga world, only being founded by Paul Grilley in the 1990’s.

As the weeks passed by our teaching started to focus more on us as teachers and we learnt adjustments in certain asanas, attended real classes our teachers were teaching to assist and then started putting our adjustment practice into reality when adjusting people in classes giving them a deeper experience of the asana. We started to learn our own ways of sequencing and put these into practice by demonstrating in class with the eventual move to teaching in real class ourselves.

I was so scared to teach a real class and was so pleased I could teach a yin class as this being the area I wanted to teach back in the UK. I had put together a 30minute sequence for the class ending with shavasana, Denise took the start of the class and I took over with 30mins left, I counted 46 people in the studio and we were in the main studio upstairs, the whole experience was incredible, I was moved by the experience shared and by the energy felt in the room, it gave me the strength and sense of real security about how passionate I was about yin yoga. I looked over to my teacher, her smile overwhelmed me and gave the courage to carry on and even bring students out of shavasana, ending the class with a collected om.
My feedback was great, and I felt a great achievement that all my learning was going in and I was able to teach a class of 46 people and teach it well enough to be given praise.

We had a number of sessions in our learning group where we did 20min sequences and 1hr sequences and were given feedback in the form of Haiku’s (Japanese form of giving feedback). We looked at how we work with students in our classes and talked of double loop learning, using strengths to encourage our students and not put them off, it was all becoming so real and soon I was going to be leaving this training qualified to empower and share this art form with others.

With the course coming to an end and our learning shared with others both in a public and class forum I was feeling more confident with what I would be taking away and more confident in sharing the practice with others without feeling I have to be able to carry out every yoga asana to be a ‘good teacher’. My focus was now about what I could share and not what I can do, as Denise shared in one of her thoughts for the day ‘we can’t give away what we don’t have’, my confidence in my own ability was strengthening and my sense of self identity as a yogi was holding true to my own beliefs and values, my own niyamas.

The course came to an end with the beauty of a butterfly mandala, made out of an array of vibrant and stunning flowers and we discussed our writing assignments as a collected group, we shared our highs and lows and self discipline to carry on but overall our bond as a group and our collected sense of sharing as teachers.

I couldn’t have asked for a better training experience, I feel equipped to teach, I feel ready to learn more, as like life, yoga is a forever learning experience.

The vast knowledge of two empowering teachers has allowed me to develop and grow into the yoga teacher I have always dreamed of becoming and I am forever thankful for that experience, my time in Ubud will never be forgotten and I will ensure my practice gained will be shared worldwide.

Wahe Guru

(A few favourite snaps)

Indonesia

So I normally leave my blog posting until after I have left the country I am blogging about, however with leaving Indonesia straight after my yoga course finishes, and deciding I would write a separate blog for my teacher training I decided it would be nice to get a few things down of our visits so far into the depths of Indonesia. 

Our Indonesian part of the trip didn’t go as planned, which I guess is part of the beauty of travelling in terms of route change, everything happens for a reason and I totally believe this with our next few weeks we had planned. When we left Derawan (Indonesian Borneo) we had planned to dive into the thick of Indonesia, exploring the rainforest of Kalimantan and driving hours overland to glimpse that unknown village and beautiful primate, what we hadn’t realised was the lack of transport due to bad roads and therefore the distance overland journeys would take. We sat down and realistically looked at how much time we wanted to spend in this part of Indonesia, realizing we only had a week planned for this part of the journey we realistically didn’t believe we had the time and didn’t think it would be worthwhile stressing ourselves with the journeys for a few days here and there, for me that wouldn’t be an experience and would just be a headache, so with that in mind we headed to the nearest airport and jumped on a plane to Java and prepared ourselves for a journey to Bromo Volcano. 

We flew into Surabaya and chose to stay there for one evening, arriving at night left us slightly disorientated but I felt a real city feeling when driving through the bright lights and fast pace of the hustle and bustle. We only had one night planned so after a long days travel from Derawan we settled for a sound sleep, excited to be heading to Bromo earlier than planned.  We woke early the next morning and knew it would take around a day to get across to East Java where Bromo is situated, we had done quite a lot of research around Bromo as wanted to climb without a guide, the internet is amazing for its wealth of personal information and we found one women’s blog which was just an incredible guide for the climb. After a few buses from Surabaya we arrived at Problingo and shared a taxi with another English couple and Swiss couple, the journey was a short one too Cemoro Lawang, which is the small village next to Bromo, where you stay before the climb. 

It was early evening so we decided to climb to the crater rim, it was such an incredible sight, I was really taken aback, this being my first experience of being so close to a volcano, the vast beauty and landscape surrounding were just dazzling to the eye and the dusk time walk just felt the perfect way to head to Mt Bromo. We took the path down the hill from Cemoro Lawang, missing out walking through the main Bromo office, we started our walk across the volcanic sands, it was incredible in the middle of the sands was the most beautiful Hindu Temple, sat lonesome but with such stature and magnificence, it was a treat to witness but also wonder who visited as it felt far from any main town or village. After about an hrs walk we arrived at the steps to make our ascent up to the crater rim and with determination, I managed to make it to the top, huffing and puffing. It was amazing up there, with the smoke billowing out and the sun setting, it felt a really beautiful time to see the crater and experience this natural wonder, we took some time out up the top and watched the sun come down over the sands and turn the sky beautiful colours of orange.  As night started to approach we realised we had a long walk back and only a small torch, we managed to get about half way across the sands before it turned pitch black, with a little bit of confusion we managed to join the back of some other trekkers and followed their lead back to Cemoro Lawang. After eating another plate of Mie Goreng we took to our beds, ready to wake at 2am to climb to the viewing point to watch sunrise over Bromo. 

We woke without problem and started the climb in the dark, we had mapped out our route and grouped with the others staying in our home stay, we decided to take the climb at our pace due to my knee, this worked fine for the first bit and after about an hour and a bit of walking we arrived at the first viewing point. We could see the option of higher viewing points but sadly the path had become over run and wasn’t as clear as we hoped, after about 30mins of rustling around and taking a number of dead ends we managed to find the trail again and we then really started to climb, as you can imagine at 4am this wasn’t the easiest thing and with a number of trips, skips and a huge face plant I finally broke, the tears came and my knee felt like it was about to explode. At this point I will admit I did feel like giving up and telling Sam to go on, but after 5mins of sorting my thinking out and believing in myself I managed to hobble on, making it to the viewing point just as sun was rising. When we arrived here I suddenly realised why I had needed to carry on, the view was astounding and like something I have never seen before, it really was truly beautiful and Mt Bromo just looked spectacular, the dreamy mist that surrounded the volcano, the smoke circling out, the clouds in front of us, it was a dream like scene and I felt proud of my own ability but it felt magical to be sharing it with such a wonderful group of people. We sat snuggled, eating our morning treats and silenced ourselves at the views spanning out in front of us. After sun rose we took the time to wander around, drink some coffee with some locals and then attempt the descent back down, amazed at how we had just climbed it in the dark. 

We snoozed the rest of the morning away then the 6 of us took the taxi back down to Probilingo, going our separate ways, not without some great hugs, facebook befriending and well wishes for the end of our travels. We decided to make the long journey across to Bali, we were going to head to Ijen but with my knee in a bad way we decided to take on the trek on the way back (however this has now changed again and Sam will be doing this whilst I am training). Without going into it we had a bit of a nightmare journey, Indonesia seems to be good for this and had to stay in a random hotel in a random town for the night, starting again the next morning and marvelously making it to Bali and our very nice accommodation in Ubud. 

We had decided to take some time out in Ubud and stay for 5/7 days to really recuperate and get back to us after all the disjointed travel, unwanted stress and smelly hotel rooms. I had always wanted to visit Ubud as heard a lot of good things about it, Sam wasn’t too fussed but decided it would be nice to just relax for a bit instead of being on the move. Ubud really did live up to its vision I had, although touristy it has such a beautiful feeling about it and with Bali meaning offering you could feel the sense of community in the air. Our accommodation was back from the main street which was amazing for us as gave us the feeling of not being in the main tourist hub and also allowed us to feel it was okay just to do nothing for a few days. Before coming to Ubud I had looked into the Yogabarn which is highly recommended for its variations of classes it holds, I picked out  YIN Yoga class and took to the 1.5hr session ready and willing for some rejuvenation, the class was incredible and really got me going, the teaching was so great and I just knew at that moment I had to engage in this further, after speaking with the class teacher, Denise she informed me she was running a teacher training course on the 18th June, at that instant I knew I had to book a place on the course and before I knew it I was signed up to start the month long training, with this decided Sam and I chose to head to an Island off Bali for a week before the course started.

(I am going to blog about my course when finished so will leave the details above at that).

We headed off to Nusa Lembongan and it really felt a holiday from a holiday, ridiculous right, we took a small bag, leaving our main ones at our accommodation in Ubud and took the boat across to Nusa. Nusa is a small island off the Southeast coast of Bali and is a really popular surfing and diving spot, it has different parts to the island for different activities but is really beautiful place to just relax. We managed to find a beautiful quiet nook of one the beaches away from the surfing zone, we spent most days enjoying our time reading and swimming, and just getting back into our bodies preparing me for the hard work ahead over the next month. 

We also took one day out to snorkel, but as we called it extreme snorkeling as the sea was so choppy and at points I couldn’t even enter the water as the current was so strong, I did however enjoy a few moments and dared the water at times. Sam had a great day however and really got in there, enjoying all five different spots we snorkeled at. 

With our week coming to an end we spent our last night with new friends celebrating their engagement and enjoying the sounds of the open mic night. We fell asleep that night ready to head back to Ubud in the morning fully satisfied with our week away on Nusa Island.

My course started that week and I was a bag of nerves and excitement at the prospect of committing myself to a month’s training, I went and purchased myself a notebook and prepared myself like the first day of school, knowing we would be in Ubud 1 month we did some shopping and fell into Ubud life pretty quickly, Sam finding his local haunt to watch the world cup and me working out the best shortcut to get to class each day. I have blogged separately about my training so won’t start writing a full blog here but will include my time in Ubud as we joined in a number of things outside of the course and both become firm friends with two heartwarming Canadians, Ash and Mike, eating many a weekly meal with them and enjoying their company greatly. 

Ubud is an interesting place, I througherly enjoyed every minute there and miss it so much, it has definitely been a highlight of my trip and maybe that’s because we become nested there it felt like home from home (with a lot more sun). There is talk of an ‘Ubud community’ and being at the yoga barn you totally see and feel this as you become part of the everyday rituals and routines for some. There is a lot of expacts living in Bali and even attending a few nights about love and togetherness you could feel people had found something important to them and a sense of belonging in a spiritual community. For me I could go with this, I could understand it and sit back and enjoy watching it, for Sam at times I think he found it a bit much, obviously being Sam and unspiritual as they come, however what was beautiful to see was even Sam letting go, sharing things he would never share at chakra day and even letting go of a lantern with a meaningful message on instead of asking for Fulham to win the league (or something football related). 

I have went through my thoughts on the yogabarn constantly, how it is a ‘yoga business’ how it doesn’t bring in the type of communities I wish to work with now qualified, how it is a money making enterprise but something draws me back to the love of it and how it is a community, when writing an email to a friend the other day I explained it as a community of yoga, it’s a place where there are so many different types of people attending but one thing is that there all there for yoga and isn’t that in itself just beautiful? 

Ubud has so many great eateries, cafes, and local restaurants, organic supermarkets and everything you could need for being based there for a month, we ate the most sumptuous food every night and even relaxed in some nights, using the kitchen at our guesthouse and catching up on some tv series or other. We also spent our 2nd year anniversary in Ubud and went to an amazing resturant called Kebun, it was recommended by my yoga teacher and we ate like royalty, with the gift from our families we had a nice amount of money to spend and ordered the most delicious lamb shanks (for Sam) and salmon for me, a carafe of the most tasty red wine turned up (a present from my yoga teacher, amazing right?) and we even had millie feuille slices, it was such a nice evening and even though the rain poured we couldnt have been anywhere more special at that time. Sam even bought me some flowers, now that's saying something!

Sam took a couple of days away with Mike, (my friend Ashley’s husband) and they went and climbed Kawah Ijen, on his return he stated it was one of the best experiences he has had travelling as talking with the sulpher miners and being in a working volcano was just a mind blowing experience. 

For both of us though one of our main highlights was spending 1hr 30mins sweating and dancing at ecstatic dance, there’s one rule, no talking just dancing, it’s a place to totally let yourself go and do what your body tells you, the upstairs room at the yogabarn is full to the brim of smiling sweaty humans just having the most beautiful uplifting time, we both agreed we have never felt so free and so at one just letting ourselves and our bodies just go where the music wanted, we dance so much at festivals, gigs and clubs but in this space at Sunday at 11am there really was no one else watching allowing our souls to be in the time and space and be whoever we wanted to be. 

We left Ubud with our hearts contented, Ubud and Ijen will forever be special to us both, were so thankful of our time there  and we both had the most wonderful life changing experiences there, I have never felt so lucky to be having this experience and opportunity to travel as we are, blessed.