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Published: June 15th 2009
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Big Budda
First stop on my tuk tuk tour So, while Matt is busy hosting a crazy stag party in Jersey for his brother who gets married next month, I decided to take a quick detour to Thailand to a bit of a detox on Koh Samui before embarking on our huge adventure.
I'm now on day 7 and wow, what an experience. I've never done anything like this before but was inspired by a friend of mine (thanks Jolie!) who did it some years back and really raved about it. In fact it wasn't long after that that we met and I thought at the time, if that's what it takes to look that hot then sign me up! Mind you she did admit to being lured by the pull of the Golden Arches during her stint....
After a quick whistle stop tour of Bangkok on the back of a tuk tuk, I flew straight to Koh Samui and came to the Ar An resort or New Body and Mind retreat. I was given a gentle intro on the first night when I was presented with a beautiful fresh Thai salad. I savoured every mouthful as I knew it was to be my last solid food until
the following week. Basically, the detox consists of a fast, supplements (like Psillium husks and sprirulina and fibre and other such lovlies) and ....colonics. If anyone squeemish about these sorts of things, probably stop reading now for the next paragraph or so. Now, I had already had an introduction to colonic irrigation about a year and a half ago when I was in Australia. I went to a rather lovely woman in the Blue Mountains who refers to herself as the Poo Fairy and she inducted me on what was to be a very interesting if not quite shocking cleanse. All I can say is that after going through it, I'm amazed i didn't do it sooner - Can't believe i was carrying around all that extra ...well..crap. Here, you do it yourself and it does take a little bit of getting used to and I won't lie - it's never really that comfortable. However, after 2 litres of coffee and 5 litres of water, you feel pretty light and it's kind of grossly facinating.
other than that, we get a carot juice in the morning, an apple and cucumber juice in the afternoon, a beautiful Thai clear vegetable
Green - my tuk tuk tour guide
only 20 Bhat for almost 2 hours ....bargain....except for i got taken to every tourist trap in bangkok! ah well, it was a fun way to spend my morning in the big city broth in the evening and as much herbal tea and of course water as you can drink.
The rest of the day, you're kept pretty distracted with activities. the day starts at 6.15am with the morning bell and then there's an hour walk either along the beach or around a nearby lake. later on there's meditation, an hour and a half of yoga, an hour Thai massage (wow, amazing ...I'm in love with Song the massage lady), another hour of stretching or chi gong or pilates and then some sort of a workshop in the evening. A few nights ago I made lovely Thai flower centrepieces with the very beautiful Kai. i've spent several hours with the Macro-food guru and all round very interesting Italian gentleman Allesandro. Our session the other evening went from a very dry discussion on blood type diets to the merits of making your own pasta, the ineptitude of the current Italian government (and the fact that they're trying to pass a bill to limit right to information) and quantam physics and the effects on the state of the body as discussed through "What the Bleep"....intriguing.
Yesterday was sunday, so a rest day for most
of the staff. I did a little tour of the island and saw the big budda and Chelweng for shopping (had no concentration to be able to buy anything though...there's only so much you can do on an empty stomach)
I broke the fast today and I'm absolutely loving testing out my taste buds again. The morning started with a plate of Papaya and I don't think fruit this sweet tasting has ever passed my lips before. later on I had soup and then this evening I had a Thai cookery class and got to eat a beautiful Green Papaya salad.
I'm feeling pretty amazing. It's been such an interesting week. I did have some low energy moments towards the beginning and about half way through was incredibly emotional for the whole day. other than that though, i've never felt so alive and so vibrant. It has really felt like a complete break away from everything - a physical, emotional and mental cleanse. Not least because I was the only guest here! I think normally there's a maximum of 10 but at the moment the whole island is quiet - about 60% down they reckon. From a purely
selfish point of view, I have really enjoyed the peacefullness of having the place to myself (there's not even any guests in the nearby fancy resorts further up the beach). I've been able to read, lie around in the hammock, swing on the swing hanging from a coconut tree and watch the sun go down (I did this two nights ago whilst singing Frank sinatra at the top of my lungs as there wasn't a soul around to hear me, even the staff had gone home to eat their dinners).
Yesterday although there was no activities planned, i got myself up and walked for an hour and then did my own yoga and meditation and felt like a million dollars.
I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon and I think I will be back again ...it's been exactly what i needed. Thanks so much to Allessandro, Kai, Simon and everyone at Ar An, I hope things pick up soon because it's a little gem here. If anyone's interested the website is www.newbodyandmind.com
I can't get any of my photos on just yet so they'll have to come later...if you want to look...check out my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/chimelleinoz/sets/72157619551919129/
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Vickky A
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question
I have only seen two reviews for this retreat and one mentioned the noise from the nearby ferries. Could you comment on this? Also the other one was disparaging about the owner, Nino and how they try to constantly market all the extras to you to the point of unpleasantness?