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| Breakfasts in the pavilion at Seagarden |
The birds are tweeting and the yogis are chanting; I'm on my third day of a detox retreat at 'Hariharilaya', located 12km North of Siem Reap. The days typically start at 5.30am, the resonating sound of the gong entering into our rooms as our soothing wake-up call (a nice change from your typical iphone or blackberry alarm!) Everyone makes their way to the yoga hut for the morning set, stretching into your body glove with eyes half open and finishing fully energized. The yoga varies in type every morning, some days it's rigorous Hatha while others it's slow and steady vinyasa/flow. A half an hour chanting session follows, to focus everyone's mind as we read the sanskrit words in front of us, before the 20 minute meditation, the last item on the agenda before breakfast is spread. The rest of the day consists of various talks (on spirituality, Dharma, enneagrams etc), more meditation and optional workshops, acupuncture, blind massages, reiki, opportunities to cycle around the village, explore nearby temples, sun-tan naked in an enclosed bamboo hut, paint, draw, exercise, read from the library of books and so much more. Everyone's typically off to bed by 10ish, worn out from the full-on day of activities. The man responsible for all this is 'J', a 33 year old yogi, who from the age of
6 joined the philharmonic orchestra in the US, touring the world until he decided to go to university and study linguistics for 6 years. Continuing on his spiritual path he has since created a yoga centre for people to share their passion and knowledge.
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| Woop woop! |
It's amazing giving your body a break from any sort of toxins. The food is vegan here, and so creatively thought out. Incredible superfoods are available every day, one example is the amazing Kombucha tea: 'a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast' that's fermented using a fungus (manchurian mushroom) for months - it sounds odd, but tastes delicious after the natural flavourings are added to it like lemon, mint, passion fruit etc. it's quality is to detoxify the body and energize the mind, basically, it's amazing, and is gulped down minutes after being released. Bee pollen's available in sachets to sprinkle over breakfast and if you need a bit of sweetness, 'bliss balls' with dates, coconut, palm sugar and oats are available for a dollar! ;)
I've been cycling around the village at 5.30am every morning since I've been here - A nice way for your eyes to slowly open into the day. It was funny coming out of my dream world and seeing the locals totally awake as they hacked away at pig heads and trotters in the local market and stopped the cat- fish from wriggling around in the big metal bowls. Further on down the dusty lane a little 6 year old boy rode a bicycle, carrying his friend behind him. Another little boy, who looked about 10, was leading a herd of cows along the road. He stopped, I wished him good morning in Khmer as he returned it with a shy smile, and continued walking the skinny cows through the lush paddy fields. A naked little girl held her arms out, balancing as she put one foot in front of the other on the high wall that surrounds 'Bakong Temple' - part of the ancient ruins known as Angkor Wat. My direction sense is hopeless, so of course I made the one wrong turn you could make and ended up lost and surrounded by empty food stalls, stressing out about what time it was, with no watch or phone to assist me. A sweet Khmer lady offered me a coconut and lead me to the right path and luckily, I arrived back in time for the gong to reverberate through the room, signalling the beginning of morning yoga.
I've come here for a bit of self-reflection, while J works for a few more days in Otress. I can't quite believe my stint there's already over. Every day merged into the next, probably due to a few too many flower fumes and the lackadaisical attitude of the place. Each day started with a morning swim while the sea was metallic and still, followed by a meditation and an Ice coffee (that we've now mastered, as well as the odd cocktail recipes that we want to remember). There were down days in paradise, when M's puppy died unexpectedly and the mood fell low as we all felt his sadness. But having to work at a bar and socialize always forces a smile that's eventually taken on as something real. The chefs (that hated what they did, and took it out on us
constantly) had a nice streak one day, and prepared a group meal of fresh fish, lettuce, rice noodles and a delicious sauce to top it off - a great way to unify everyone for a few minutes before business took over again. I managed to finally cut my own king coconut, nearly chopping my leg off as I swung the machete in the wrong direction. But with time, lots of whining and too much sweat, I finally managed to do it without J's help, or A telling me that I needed 'more power!!' That night we had 9 of our mates sitting around the bar, dealing cards from our side, we managed a massive game of 'Yaneev', an Israeli card game that every traveller must know. It was a struggle playing, dealing the cards
and making drinks at the same time, but it kept the night moving. That evening the liquor was flowing, so I decided to go
craazy and have
2 shots! It was the end of the night, and my job was to wash the glasses. I gripped onto the bar stools trying to straighten my vision as I grabbed a chair, dragged it behind the bar, and proceeded to wash the blurry objects in front of me, sitting down with soap and water pouring everywhere - I was a mess. Soo since then alci's been off the wish list.
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| The Bizarre aeroplane club |
The next day before work J and I went to explore a few of the local beaches, coming across a bizarre Russian-owned club. The theme of the place was 'aeroplanes' and they took their theme seriously. They'd installed a massive aeroplane in the centre of the club, that you could climb into and mess around in. The DJ booth was the front of a truck and the sides of cars were hung up on the walls. It lead onto the beach, right next to a busy harbour. We jumped around, played pool and sped off to the next beach as the seconds ticked on before work was to begin. The other beaches were all beautiful and completely empty, similar to the expensive resorts, that were 5-star but lacked the main component - guests. One huge island that we could see from the beach, had recently had a huge, ugly, concrete bridge constructed from the mainland, allowing you to drive across. Only it wasn't for
you to drive across, it was for the Rich Russian owner of the island, that built it because he wanted the pleasure of driving to and from
his island in
his expensive car. What some people do with their money just makes me laugh..
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| A fraction of the Sunshine Family |
Topcat's been one of the best forms of entertainment, and although it's only $2 an hour, somehow every time a group of us went, each of us always ended up having to pay a bill of $20+.. We've since watched: 'Death at a funeral', 'One flew over the cuckoos nest', 'Senna', 'Lawless', 'The matrix', 'Exit through the Gift shop and various others that don't spring to mind. After watching 'Exit through the Gift shop , a documentary made by a family friend that shows you the true grit that street artists experience, you really feel a sense of respect for them (the good ones). It's funny how a piece of art can be illegal one minute and then valued at $14,000 over night. Just another example of the impermanent nature of humans and our interests..
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| Otress sunsets |
Our nights after Topcat or whatever excursion we'd been on, usually ended with a huge group of us sitting together on the big, comfy circle chairs on the beach, passing around doobs, playing shithead or yaneev and laughing about silly things. J's hungover mornings always made me laugh, especially when he had to dig out the drain for the dishwasher. Looking at his delirious, sweaty and unhappy face made me giggle - a glass of ice water was all I could offer. Every day went pretty well at work, we were usually on top form and had great chats and relationships with all the customers that came and went. However on one rare occasion, it didn't go so well. After only half a cookie that D&S had with us (if you're in Otress, $6 cookies at mushroom point ++!), things began slowing down and getting funnier. The orders were all confused, calculations for bills weren't happening and conversation started getting
really difficult. We had 'a talking to' the next day, and it never happened again..
After a very slow night, I woke up with itchy feet again, so J and I rented a kayak for half the day, and journeyed off to a mystery island. We were the only ones there apart from the few fishing boats that were anchored in the surrounding sea. We climbed over big rocks, looked into stagnant rock-pools of mosquito larvae and dead crabs (that looked like 'the pit of death' in 'The Life of Pi'), caught crabs, meditated in the shade and skinny dipped in the clear blue water, with no one around to tell us not to. We'd taken a plastic bag with us for the few things that we'd decided to bring, and noticing the condensation in our bag of flowers, J spread them out on a rock in the sun, family Robinson style. 5 minutes later, it crumbled to dust in our hands - it was that hot; and no matter how much sun cream I lathered on, my skin still managed to turn a light shade of red. Despite the burn, it was probably one of the most exciting experiences, discovering a new island, that yes, had probably been seen by a quite a few others, but it was so nice being able to enjoy a place for it's beauty without being hassled or charged. After a few hours on the island that we'd claimed our own, we kayaked back, tension rising as we battled against the current, the frustration causing us to argue over meaningless things, with no way of escaping each other. We'd stop now and then to re-direct our kayak that seemed to have a mind of it's own and
finally, we arrived back, everything resolved and nothing to complain about. It's funny how even if you're in paradise, you can catch yourself whining or complaining about nothing to just fill the time and find
some imperfection. Try and see if you can have a day of not complaining about anything, just catch yourself before you do, and see how you feel afterwards - it's one of my goals.
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| Our adventure day on our mystery island |
A new group of mates washed in and out with the tide, lovely E returned home to the Isle of White after a few blissful days. One of my favourite moments was on that perfectly moonlit night, a group of us all went swimming in the still shallows of that perfect Otress ocean, mouths hanging and eyes glistening as we watched the lightening storm miles away, flashes of light filling the sky every 5 - 10 seconds as I rocked with J's arms wrapped tightly around me. The girls were supposed to leave a day after E, but like everyone caught in the Otress spell (and a few financial mishaps), they thankfully prolonged their trip. W'W, a friend we'd made a few weeks before, surprisingly returned also, and now has a job on one of the nearby beautiful islands 'Koh Ta Kiev'; his excitement manifested itself in trying to convince all of us to move there and enjoy the benefits of his job with him 'free kayaking, return trips to the island, snorkelling, fishing, food and weed' we could recite the list a hundred times over, a few more days of hearing about it, and his ability to speak would've been severely impaired by one of us.
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| DC's BBQ |
We visited Koh Ta Kiev on 'DC Tours', run by a mate in Otress who takes you island hopping to laze around on beaches, munch down on a BBQ of fresh seafood and giant clams, followed by spear fishing, cliff jumping (off a natural rock that looks unbelievably identical to an elephant - hence the name elephant rock) and lots of snorkelling. The Seagarden crew was on-board and we shared many laughs, fumes and games of frisbee before jumping off the boat and beginning our evening shift. The next day the weather changed and the clouds blew over, whenever a storm blows in, it's always an interesting time. The animals react, the attitude changes and the restaurant gets emptier. We were sitting on the big comfy chairs talking about going into town before the thunder began to rumble; we jumped up, got onto our bike and zoomed off down the road to get there before the storm could catch us. We were running from the rain, along with the other bikes on the road, I looked up to see swallows struggling against the wind, 50 shades of grey were visible in the clouds above it. We made it inside just as it began to pour and pour and pour - cleansing the town of its stagnant humidity.
My tummy's rumbling and my brain's rewinding back to the few days that the tummy bugs took over. At our restaurant we had guests running to and from the bathroom, people in the guest house opposite us, to our left and down the road, were all suffering similar illnesses. One man was rushed off to the hospital with severe gastritis and another bused back to Phnom Pen with a similar illness. As everyone was in such close proximity, eating the same foods and sharing the same J's, we all got each others lurgies. The thing about being sick in the tropics, is half the time you don't know what it is or how you got it. It could've been the water, the puppies, the food, the air - you've just gotta let it ride and hope it's nothing serious.. being sick all the time gets tiring though and the Otress chapter was coming to a close.
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| W'W rescuing the J from between the floorboards |
We'd made a date to leave and J was going to head to Siem Reap for a week, but plans changed and Otress seemed a better option, the heat's always easier to deal with on the beach. We'd left our jobs at Seagarden and the deal had changed from 'free food & accom' to just 'free food' - not really worth it for a 7 hour shift. So sunshine became both our home and J's work - causing tension between both places as they were situated right next to each other. A sad way to end such a great streak, but hugs were shared all round on the last day, so at least the last note was somewhat sweet. The puppies ran to me as I said goodbye, they were so hard to leave, in just a few weeks they'd grown so big and developed such personalities - but every good thing comes to an end. Our last time at Topcat was lavish, chocolate, happy herb pizzas and lots of movies. We all sweat buckets sitting at 'We One Cafe', drinking ice coffees and zoning out as we attempted to put our attention into a card game. The girls had an amazing fresh pizza at Papa Pippos, our neighbouring restaurant, followed by a refreshing passion fruit sorbet. I Inhaled my last dinner -- a stodgy burger and chips, and W'W lifted the mood by performing the heroic act of the night, rescuing the J from between the floorboards with chopsticks - making the Chinese prouder than ever. I'd ticked everything off my bucket list, I could now drive the bike alone! My last drive back from town was a bit scary, helmetless and a bit lost I somehow made it home, J. breathing in a sigh of relief when I returned intact. We'd had our last 'Toga' party and I'd done my last walk down to Otress 2 to shell hunt with lovely L from mushroom point. On my last day the clouds were grey and I prayed that a storm would come, and so it did. It was so exciting sitting in the unusually rough ocean, feeling the force of the wind knocking you back while the waves pushed you forward, the big bang that needed to happen. I'd bought a $7 phone to call J when I got off the sleeper bus, of course an hour in, it ran out of battery. I lay there looking down at my beautiful crystal necklace, designed by a mate who replaced us at S.G, she was constantly weaving and sewing her beautiful pieces of shell, bone, wood and crystal depending on what the customers ordered. But my eyes began to droop as the val kicked in and luckily no one sat next to be so the double bed was used to its fullest as i stretched out and fell asleep for the entire 12 hour bus ride.
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| Coconut man |
Before I started travelling I envisioned myself getting through libraries of book (ok that's a slight exaggeration, but a fair few), yet unless you make your time available for it, it just gets eaten up by a million other things. I
have managed to finish 'Freakonomics', a fantastic read that I never thought I'd enjoy, given that I don't find economics a particularly fascinating subject; yet the way Steven D. Levitt writes, is so applicable to what's going on today (the chapter on 'why most drug dealers still live with their mums' is definitely the most interesting!) I've just started the 933pg autobiography 'Shantaram' by Gregory Roberts. A man who was a criminal and a junkie, yet he escaped from one of the top security prisons in Aus by 'jumping over the wall', flew to Mumbai, joined the mafia, and took part in lots of other mind boggling escapades - it's a long but fascinating read.
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| The end of a beautiful day |
So I've said goodbye to the crystal waters of Otress; the same waters that's current pulled the 3 girls out to sea when they attempted to swim to the island a few nights ago, arriving back hours later on a fishing boat, to a worried crowd. But more beautiful and mysterious seas are to come in Thailand. And for now, I'm embracing this break in the middle of the madness. The next post will be full of the teachings that will take place over the next few days, with our resident magician/ hypnotist, a chiropractor, a psychologist, a yogi, an actor, a director and so many others that are here to share what they know. The flower girl's tuning into her flower girl self and is soo excited!
Recipe of the day: Vegan pumpkin soup
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/soupsstewsandchili/r/pumpcoconutsoup.htm
