Northern Thailand, take 2 - Pai

Where was I? Last I wrote, I'd booked a yoga class in Pai. On Tuesday morning, I donned some flowing and light clothes, followed the instructor's advice to keep breakfast to a minimum and bought a yogurt on my way to the 10am class.

Mama Yoga, as the instructor is called, put on some soothing eastern-style music and began our session. There were 6 non-beginners and 3 absolute beginners, including myself. We stretched and then slowly worked our way into some poses, with us beginners trying our hardest to contort our bodies into new positions, mimicking Mama Yoga. After half an hour, I was sweating and warm, despite our slow movements. By the time the two hours were up, I was ready to rest. All of us sat down together and ate the watermelon, bananas and cookies that were put down in front of us and we started to chat a bit.

We three newbies went back in the afternoon at 3 to meet with Mama Yoga again. We were given a handout with the poses, and then we slowly went through all of the poses again so that we could remember what we'd done that morning. Afterwards, the three of us sat down with Mama Yoga, ate some Phad Thai with rice noodles and talked with her. She's an amazing woman! 60 years old and incredibly fit - she looks like she's 40 or 45. She is from Thailand and is part of the Hindi minority, thus vegetarian. She went to India when she was in her twenties, and there she learned yoga, which nicely complemented her Hindi meditation and beliefs. Ever since, she's done yoga, and she's been happily living in Pai for since about 2000, and it's definitely a great retreat for her. Her husband passed away years ago, her children are grown, and she seems to love teaching and nurturing her yoga students. She's incredible.

The next morning, I squeezed in another yoga session before hopping on a bus headed back to Chiang Mai, arriving in time for my 6:30pm meeting for the trek I was to head off to the following day.

I really liked yoga! It feels great, and after a session, I walked down the street feeling wonderful! I'm going to try to search for other yoga sessions in other towns as I make my way through Asia. Hooray - a hobby that's not as expensive as scuba diving and travel!