Thailand - 40 days summary :P

Good morning world! :) Well, it’s really long ago, I wrote something in this blog and finally I feel having enough to tell to drop some lines. when we arrived in Khao San Road in Bangkok, it was clean and quiet compared to what we’ve experienced the last month in India. Still.. Khao San road is the touristiest spot in Bangkok (or even Thailand). We didn’t have anything to do except getting tattooed and this is what we have been doing the couple days we were there. First finding a tattoo studio that we like and then getting a good artist and then suffering the many, many hours of pain that you go through when getting a tattoo. Somehow you or your body forgets the pain over time.. so after five years, I didn’t know how fucking painful this is gonna be!! :P it took 11 hours with design and all and at least 6 hours of pure inking and the last hour was sooooo painful that I was cursing and needed more frequent breaks. I took my session in the middle day.. Sky did one side the day before and the other side the day after. While I couldn’t manage my pain in the studio, I was fine just after that (suffering but controlling my emotions) while Sky could bare the pain more in the studio, I had to suffer then the emotional impact it had on her. OMG.. please no more tattoos in our relationship!! It was extremely stressful the whole healing process. Up to we were getting sick and some lines scarred in her tattoo what made me think it got infected. Argh.. I’m happy this one is over and all that’s left are beautiful tattoos on our backs. When I got in the studio, I didn’t know so much what I wanted to do.. to fix my tribal dragon and extend it in a meaningful way and what I got is so perfect, it couldn’t be better! So for those who didn’t know my tattoo before: it’s a tribal dragon, shaping a Yin-Yang and holding a ball. The dragon as symbol for Wisdom and Eternety, the Yin-Yang as male and female, day and night as the opposites flowing into each other. The ball as symbol for the Power, the Universe and of course for my so much beloved and ever ongoing contact juggling. Now it got some colors.. it now holds water (my sign is Pisces) and fire (ascendant is Leo) and as the counterpart of the dragon it got a Phoenix (raising out of the ashes, recreating itself every moment, as ever particle in this universe does constantly). It even did so while healing ;) (scab gets off and it arises anew). so from Bangkok to Koh Tao for some 4-day-psy-trance-party and to Koh Phangan (just next side) to continue with partying! :) we were in Koh Phangan for a quite long time.. doing a lot of parties and recovering afterwards from them. Its nothing that I could do for too long and after three weeks I was pretty done with that vibe. Somehow I managed to stay for another week, but felt loss of energy and not being deeply and totally happy, as I used to feel. Anyway, it was a great time and we danced a lot, met a lot of awesome people (that all left before us). We had time for Yoga, Acroyoga, went to the sauna and eat good food! Most of the parts of the island reminded still undiscovered though, because we didn’t go for long rides with our prehistoric scooter ;) this also slimmed the chances getting bruised up in an accident, what also happens to quite some people on the island. Well.. it was good fun! But also more holiday than travelling and I feel I need some input in life to stimulate my brain :) So after 30 days we finally made it and left the island to ship over to Koh Tao. Koh Tao is much smaller and it’s just about diving, what we were doing here the last days. Sky made her OpenWater (SCUBA diving basic course) within two days in a one-to-one class with an instructor here. It’s a lot to learn and a lot to do and after the two dives yesterday and finishing the final exam in the afternoon, she was totally exhausted. Understandable, because normally the course takes three days but if the instructor doesn’t have four students, he like to go through quicker. Anyway.. I think she knows what she had to learn and everything else is a question of practice. I had two dives yesterday and went on the same boat. For the visibility was really bad 5-10m, I should have done at least the second dive with Sky instead with the certified divers. I was looking for a shark or whaleshark, but with this visibility it was a Zero chance. Anyway.. there will be more dives along the trip and Sky will do her Advanced-Certificate then we can go deeper (to 40m) together instead just 18m. PADI Advanced is a must for diving, but just not right now.. one thing at a time. Well.. it will take until the Philippines I guess until we get more chances to dive (good dive spots are scarce around the world). And I think as a matter of money, we won’t take any more dives here (except visibility would change to much better). so for today we will start the Apnae diving, where you go down to 20m with just a single breath!! This is gonna be INTENSE!! :D I studied all the material in the last two days and this afternoon we’re getting our theory lessons by a Spanish professional teacher (in English ;) then the next two days are in the water, doing breath-hold exercises and going down a line to see how far we can compress our lungs :) there’s a certain physical limit whit what you can do with your body, but if you’re mentally prepared you can push it pretty far. So the trick is being in good physical shape (glad I’m doing Yoga with Sky) then you should do Thorax stretching (glad I’m doing Yoga with Sky) and breathing technique called Parayanama (glad I’m doing Yoga with Sky). So I should be well prepared and she should simply be a master free diver ;) we’ll see how deep we can go and for how long we can hold our breaths, but I’m looking forward to do the course well conducted and in a safe environment. Then our next plans are going to Bangkok, eventually doing something about our tattoos (that really turned out great! :), going to the north of Thailand to Chiang Mai. There we want to buy clothes and a couple of things to send home. We both will do a 2 week Thai-Massage-Course and going to some hippie village called Pai to relax for a few days. Sometime in between we will go for a 2-3 days trek through the jungle and stopping on our way to Laos in Chiang Rai, where there is also some nice landscape to hike around. And yes.. a Visa-Run to Burma to extend our Visa for another 30 days. So all in all looking exciting, fun and full of thrilling experiences. As our time in Thailand would just have begun!! :D