It's funny how time passes when you're away floating around. It seems as if all the friends and family that are in other countries live their lives in fast forward, whilst I am still moving at a normal pace. I can now understand why grandparents may still treat us as if we are much younger than we feel ourselves.
I am into the 3rd week of my Thai massage course and I can't say that it is what I expected considering I made the decision to attend so quickly that I didn't really have the chance to expect anything. But I'm enjoying it. It's a different kind of massage than I am used to. We are currently discussing the 10 energy lines and a lot of the massage follows these lines to unblock energy blocks and relieve people of different kinds of ailments. All very interesting stuff.
This morning we did a special Thai ceremony to honour our teachers and the teachers that came before them. We each brought a flower to school and an alter was set up and we did our prayers all together setting our flowers on the alter and bowing to the buddah. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Each morning we all do our prayers in smaller groups, but it was a nice sound to hear everyone as one voice together, much more powerful and beautiful.
Massage is exhausting to say the least. We spend the entire day either massaging or being massage and it sounds wonderful, but really it's very hard to enjoy. While I am being massaged I am usually focusing on the technique of my partner and going through the sequences in my mind as they do them to my body, making sure I have the number of each sequence correct in my head.
A few of us girls go to yoga each week and there are lots of get togethers outside of school with the other massures. Movies nights, girly-boy shows, dinners, elephant treks. I don't know how everyone does it, by the weekend I'm usually so wiped I end up spending a lot of my time reading in bed. But considering that the weekend after next is my birthday, the big 24, I'm going to try and make an exception and organize a little dinner gathering in celebration.
There are plenty of other interesting people at the school, including yogis, massueurs of different varietys, travellers, and all ages as well. I've had many a interesting conversation and am going to try out a digestive system cleanse that was recommended to me by the yogi specifically tomorrow. Wish me luck. It doesn't sound as gross as the cleanse another friend is doing that involves grapefruit juice and olive oil... We all are into weird things to say the least :)
I'm enjoying being amongst a bunch of weirdos, I fit in nicely and am constantly entertained. There is much laughter at all times.
Looking forward to heading home, just 2 1/2 weeks to go!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
The Mystery of the Market
I was invited to go the market in the wee hours of the morning this morning by a woman orginating in Japan, living in Amsterdam, and owning a cafe in Thailand that teaches microbiotic cooking and theroy. Say that 3 times fast! A very interesting woman to say the least and speaks a variety of languages, one of them handily Thai which is a great asset when going to a market where you are the ONLY white person. Not that I minded, and no one really paid me much attention. It was very fun.
They have quite the variety of different foods. The market is held next to the mosque so there was quiet a variety of middle eastern halal foods, people come down from the mountains and over from Myanmar. Lots of avocados, vegetables, chilli concotions, soybean products, whole dead chickens of the white or black type, a variety of smells certain to please anyone. We had doughnuts dipped in molasses, I tasted many things that I can't pronounce, some more familiar falafels and samosas, and we had a soybean soup which was quite gelantenous, but also very delicious!
The market is quite a popular concept here in Thailand, and is gaining popularity more and more around the world. You can find a market just about any day here in Chiang Mai. There is a particular Sunday market that I've been frequenting each week. It's visited by tourists and locals alike and is live with music and food and various wares for sale. Some of the most interesting things I've seen is a food stall selling only deep fried insects, some of them quite large in size! You can even smell the oil as you pass by. Some of the more tasty foods that I've seen are bananas and grapes dipped in chocolate, smoothies and fruit juices everywhere, banana leaves piled with little fried quail eggs or noodles, phad thai (which has continued to disappoint me in Thailand), there are many different foods to be had.
The market is so big that I still haven't see all of it and it gets so busy as the evening wares away to night that you often find yourself slowly inching your way between stalls surrounded by other people, which I find a bit clautrophobic and exhausting after my limit of 2ish hours. There are so many colourful things to look at, paintings, and dresses, and baggy pants in all shapes, colours and sizes. And bargaining is always welcome. The typical thai pants are not so typical after all, I've only really seen tourist wear this baggy monstrous things, all the Thai people seem to be wearing normal tshirts and tank tops just like the western world. I have to admit to owning quite a few pairs myself :O
Markets are fun. Great place to just people watch if you're not in the mood to buy anything. Find a curb, plop yourself down with some watermelon juice, and you'll see all kinds of different people speaking ALL kinds of different languages. No end to entertainment.
They have quite the variety of different foods. The market is held next to the mosque so there was quiet a variety of middle eastern halal foods, people come down from the mountains and over from Myanmar. Lots of avocados, vegetables, chilli concotions, soybean products, whole dead chickens of the white or black type, a variety of smells certain to please anyone. We had doughnuts dipped in molasses, I tasted many things that I can't pronounce, some more familiar falafels and samosas, and we had a soybean soup which was quite gelantenous, but also very delicious!
The market is quite a popular concept here in Thailand, and is gaining popularity more and more around the world. You can find a market just about any day here in Chiang Mai. There is a particular Sunday market that I've been frequenting each week. It's visited by tourists and locals alike and is live with music and food and various wares for sale. Some of the most interesting things I've seen is a food stall selling only deep fried insects, some of them quite large in size! You can even smell the oil as you pass by. Some of the more tasty foods that I've seen are bananas and grapes dipped in chocolate, smoothies and fruit juices everywhere, banana leaves piled with little fried quail eggs or noodles, phad thai (which has continued to disappoint me in Thailand), there are many different foods to be had.
The market is so big that I still haven't see all of it and it gets so busy as the evening wares away to night that you often find yourself slowly inching your way between stalls surrounded by other people, which I find a bit clautrophobic and exhausting after my limit of 2ish hours. There are so many colourful things to look at, paintings, and dresses, and baggy pants in all shapes, colours and sizes. And bargaining is always welcome. The typical thai pants are not so typical after all, I've only really seen tourist wear this baggy monstrous things, all the Thai people seem to be wearing normal tshirts and tank tops just like the western world. I have to admit to owning quite a few pairs myself :O
Markets are fun. Great place to just people watch if you're not in the mood to buy anything. Find a curb, plop yourself down with some watermelon juice, and you'll see all kinds of different people speaking ALL kinds of different languages. No end to entertainment.
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