20 Dec 2011 - One Last Look

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.  Sleep is good.  Sleeping my my own bed, complete with memory foam mattress and soft, fluffy pillows is bliss.  Our village is a quiet place and I was a little worried that I would miss the racket of Bangkok, but can report that I slept like a stone, and just might go back to bed in a little while to do some more stone imitating.

It's cold here.  I'm cold.  Oh man, am I cold.  Three months at 28° C is inadequate preparation for 2° C plus wind and rain.

During the drive home I was very impressed by how excellently all the drivers stayed in their own lanes and how fast we were able to go.  Not one single person honked, and many people used their indicators before changing lanes.  I'm pretty sure people used their mirrors before maneuvering as well.  It was amazing.

I've pretty much got everything put away now, and have gone through the mail (my blood pressure went up and down like a roller coaster - it seems like everyone waited until I was gone to send some really annoying and unnecessary letters).  I need to go to the grocery store, the bank, and the post office.  I have no choice but to dive back into my life, full speed ahead.  We have a business plan to re-write, and a timeline to follow.  After some anxious searching I managed to locate my car keys (more evidence I am back to my normal routine), and the next step is to get my insurance and road tax sorted out so I can get on with it.

It's funny how it seems as if I haven't really gone away at all!  Putting one's life on hold for 3 months seems like a casual thing now, but while I was in the middle of it all I went through some pretty intense emotional stresses.  I can tell you for sure it's been a hell of a ride, and I am glad I took the time to write this blog, if only to remind me of what's gone down since the end of Sept.

If there is anyone out there that is interested in doing a course of study in Thai Massage at Wat Po in Thailand and has questions, I can be contacted at boston.mmt.ltd@gmail.com.  If I can help at all I will.  If you are interested in receiving a Thai or Sports Massage and you are either willing to travel to me or live within a reasonable distance, drop me a line and we can discuss it.

This is my last entry in this blog, and the reason for that is my life in England is pretty darn boring and no one in their right mind would continue to read it!  So this is me, saying thanks for reading this here little ol' blog and for your emails of encouragement and support.  You've helped me pull something off that I wasn't sure I could actually do, and that counts.

Peace out!

Thai Professional Massage - 200 Hr ***FINISHED***

Dec 17, 2011...took the final exam and passed.  My scores were pretty good, considering my level of exhaustion.  After the exam we had lunch - I chose my favorite, which is stirfried kale with mushrooms and chillies, with a little rice.  After lunch we got our certificates and had pictures...

From left to right:  Kittiphat Yokaeo, Yimlack Visetsuwan, Martino, Serat Tan, Malee Saisamboon, me, Lynn Noimany, Olja Peternek, Somphong Visetsuwan.

Kittiphat, Yimlack and Somphong are our beloved teachers, Serat Tan is the managing director of the Chetawan Health School and Spa.  Missing from this picture is Teacher Malinee, who couldn't be here due to family obligations :-(

I took some pictures of the school at Salaya...

This was our first classroom and is also the room everyone comes to in the mornings for prayer.

The wading path, as seen from the hallway upstairs in front of our classroom.  There are different types of stones in the path, and the point is to walk around in the water and let the different surfaces massage your feet.  Fantastic!

The pool!  To the right are the changing rooms, to the left is the bar and exercise area.  At the top of the pool is the hotel for the spa customers.

This is the courtyard which separates the spa from the school.  This shot was taken from the school side, so beyond the courtyard is the entrance to the spa.  Thai decoration often includes symmetric patterns and is both soothing to the eye and very beautiful.

Lynn, Jazz and Me.  Jazz works in the office at Salaya.  She is 28, stands maybe 4'5" tall, and weighs 20-25 kg.  She is the cutest admin person in the entire world, without a doubt.

Once we'd photographed ourselves silly, it was time to jump in the pool!  The water was too cold for me, so after a few minutes I climbed out and lay beside the pool to bake dry in the sun.  We have spent many happy hours swimming in that pool, wading in the water path and sitting at the (nonalcoholic) pool bar, drinking coffee and talking.  I missed Lisa a lot today, since she was a critical component of all those activities.

We didn't really bond with the school at Wat Po in Bangkok.  While Bangkok has its attractions and advantages (monks, cheaper rooms than Salaya, a million restaurants etc) Salaya is our spiritual home and we were very happy to return to celebrate the completion of this very arduous course!

The Level II course is not for the fainthearted.  It's a lot of work, and if you don't know at least the basics of anatomy you are pretty much out of your depth.  You must have discipline as well - I know Thailand is a place a lot of people (mostly dickheads) think is a cheap place to come party and you can sure do a lot of that in Bangkok, but you can't study and party at the same time in the same space.  Your head has to be right, and you have to spend evenings studying and practicing.

Knowing the rudiments of Thai, while not strictly necessary, would have eased my passage through life considerably.  I suffered a lot of frustration due to being unable to communicate properly.  I also made some mistakes with people and saw others make mistakes due to cultural ignorance, and that is something I will never do again.  Research the people and their ways before leaving your country! 

Western people tend to think that if someone doesn't speak their language so good it means that person, or group of people, are stupid.  The Thai people are easy-going (to a point), and live simple lives, and this might contribute to the Western opinion of stupidity.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Thai people, collectively and individually, are switched on and are paying much more attention than you think they are, and definitely more attention than YOU are.  They live simple lives by choice, not because of circumstance.  The Thai society has been around much longer than the Western one, and everything you think you've done, they did a thousand years ago.  Underestimate these people at your peril.

Not only is every move a farang makes in this country is watched, but judged as well.  I don't think this is exclusive to Thailand, I am sure it's the case throughout Asia.  The standards of behavior are much, much higher, and because so many people come over here to drink and act like assholes all foreigners are tarred with essentially the same brush. Thai people are naturally welcoming and friendly, but I think this has been somewhat abused by poor guests.  It therefore takes time to earn the trust of the people that live here.  I walked the same route to school for five weeks.  The first few days I clocked people along the way, mostly food and drinks vendors, who were just beginning their day.  They clocked me as well.  After a week or so, they started nodding to me in the morning, and I would nod back and smile.  After two weeks they were smiling and calling out greetings.  Somehow they all figured out where I went each day and some of them would smile and say "Wat Po".  For me, it made a good start to the day.  I never knew anybody's names, and they never knew mine, but it didn't seem to matter.  We reached across the language and culture barriers and connected.

One of my morning friends.  He lives in this spot - the umbrellas are the walls of his house at night. 

The whole "Land of Smiles" thing?  Thai people smile because they are tough, and proud.  The flooding in Thailand cost some people dearly - all they had left at the end of it was their smiles, and they used them!  Even in the most adverse conditions, Thai people will find a way to smile - but if they get to know and trust you a little and actually open up and talk you'll find out sometimes behind that smile is a lot of pain.  Some of the people I have met here have tolerated situations for months or even years, that I wouldn't for a day.

Have I changed?  Indeed I have.  Have I learned some new things about me?  Yes - some bad stuff, but more good stuff than bad.  I have been introduced to "Thailand Time", which isn't so dissimilar to "Indian Time" and "Cebu Time".  I have lost weight.  My taste in clothes is still pretty naff.  I have found Buddha, and look forward to walking his path a bit further.  I have calmed down some.

Would I do this again?  Yes - but not without bringing my hubby with me.  I spent an awful lot of time missing him and that distracted me from my mission a little.  It was hard to stay the course; much harder to be separated from him than I thought it would be.  Eighty-two days away from home is a very long time.

I am coming back to Thailand, tentatively scheduled for January, 2013.  There are four more weeks of courses I would like to take, I'd like Pete to take the Level 1 course, and Lisa wants to be there to take the Level 2 course.  When we finish we'll buzz off to Cebu to hang with my family, and then we'll see what happens after that.  The Thai Massage Level 3 course is still being discussed, and as far as I know will be happening in approximately two years or so.  I'm going to need these two years to get good at the Level 2 skills!

I've pretty much finished packing, and I have to check out at 12:00.  I can store my suitcase and box in the hotel office, and will walk up to Malee and Olja's hotel to say good-bye.  My flight to Mumbai leaves at 8:55 pm, and I should be home by 7:30 am, Monday morning.

Tuesday, 13 Dec 2011

Day 2 of practicing on real live people, and I think it's all starting to gel.  I'm not so nervous and I'm starting to enjoy myself a little more.  I'm still studying my books every night and spending a lot of time visualising - it helps me to memorise the extra techniques and treatment points for each type of symptom.

Today I treated a lady that has chronic knee problems and also strained her shoulder lifting something too heavy.  I surprised myself completely by knowing exactly what to do and when to do it, and at the end of the treatment she felt much better.  Result! 

My thumbs hurt, and so does my knee, and I'm not the only one that's aching - Lynn, Malee and Olja all have assorted aches and pains as well.  It makes me feel a little better knowing that even though I'm the oldest of us girls I'm not the only one suffering :-)

This morning I met the monk.  No, I still don't know his name.  Last night I went down Khao San Road to the Kodak shop to get a picture of me printed.  I don't do that for just anybody you know, but he had asked for one in exchange for the photo I took of him yesterday.  I gave him my photo this morning and he invited me back to his wat for coffee, which he made for me himself.  He lives at Wat Mahathat on Thanon Maha Rat, which is next to the Silpakorn University.  We sat in the courtyard of his soi and talked while I drank my coffee and he ate his breakfast. 

I told him about Wat Pho and studying massage.  He asked about my family and I showed him a picture of my husband Pete, and told him about Krystal.  He was sad that I only had one child, and said that he wished I had two boys and two girls.

Other monks happened past, going about their normal business, but didn't seem too surprised to see me. I think he might have said something about me to some of them.  I recognised a couple of them from the morning alms.  I don't think it's too common for farang girls to hang out with 75 year old monks, drinking coffee, but it was fine with us, and I enjoyed my time with him very much.  He has a cracking sense of humor, a gentle manner and way of speech, and the sense of peace I get from spending time with him lasts all day.  All the weird, bad crap that constantly floats around in my head suddenly seems...unnecessary, and easy to dismiss.  I missed Ruesi Dutton this morning, but it was worth it.

He wants to meet me again tomorrow morning, to give me a letter with his address on so I can write to him.

I've been telling Teacher Somphong about him as Somphong was a monk for a year, when he was young.  He just smiles and says I am lucky.  An unexpected benefit of visiting Thailand has been the relationships I have formed, several of which I believe will last my lifetime.  I am very lucky!

A Monk, Revealed.

Thai Traditional Medicine - Theory

Today we had day one of two in the theory behind Thai Traditional Medicine. 

There are four elements of life, and those are Earth, Water, Wind and Fire.  Each element controls certain functions in the body, and all work together in harmony.  Illness occurs when an element becomes unbalanced.

Each element responds to different herbs, which are categorised by their taste.  It's the learning of the herbs, their taste, and what they are used to treat that's the tricky part.  We won't get too far into this, we only have two days training.  It takes 3-5 years education to learn Thai Traditional Medicine, and I think I've left it a bit late in my career to consider.  It is a fascinating topic of study, though.

The really interesting part of the day happened in the afternoon.  There are two oils that we have all learned to use - yellow oil and green oil.  Yellow oil is good for muscle pain.  It is made of cassumanar root, which is a relative of ginger.  I like using it, it works a lot better than icy hot et al, and it smells a lot better.  Green oil is used for insect bites and stings, and is also nice to dab just under one's nose - it's a fantastic decongestant.  Green oil is also used to massage around the abdomen to relieve a bad stomach, and a drop can be drank in warm water to help with bad stomach as well.

We learned how to make yellow oil, white oil and green oil, then learned how to make yellow, white and green Tiger Balm.  I can't believe how easy it is to do, for something so effective, and I really can't wait to get home and start experimenting with this!

Right, I need to sleep fast, get up early and do some serious revising.  I have eleven days left to become amazing at Thai massage.

Tiger Balm, first production run by the November 2011 Professional Thai Massage Level II Crew:

Monks and Drunks

It's funny, the connections one forms in life.  A chance meeting causes ripple effects through the cosmos, and thus I am trapped.

I did mention a while ago about having a favorite monk.  Well, he went AWOL from our regular walking route about 10 days ago, and I've been worried about him and very depressed ever since.  I've searched for him, scanning the faces of every saffron-robed figure I see (he doesn't wear the bright orange kind), with no joy.  The longer this goes on, the grumpier I get.  Do you have any idea how many monks there are in Bangkok?  Lots!  Wat Po is right next to a college for monks! 

He's just 5 feet tall, and weighs perhaps 70-75 pounds.  (That's 5.5 st to you Brits).  A strong wind would blow him away.  He's 70, or maybe a little older.  He has a cataract in his left eye.  He's adorable. 

Today, I saw him again, and it was as if someone switched a light on in my brain.  We were on a busy street, at the edge of a market really, but he was the only person I could see.  He blessed me, then we talked.  He told me that he had been worried about me because he hadn't seen me, and I told him that I had been worried about him too.  He was very happy to see me, as I was to see him.  He asked me for my address, because he wants to write to me when I go home.  I gave it to him.  I'm not allowed to touch a monk, being a girl, but I'd hug him (carefully) if I only could.  I don't know what it is, but I feel like he's related to me somehow, that we are family.

I know that all monks are the same, and all should be treated the same way.  When you give a gift to a monk, you are giving to all of them, and it's not wrong to gift the first monk you see.  To me, though, there is something special about this particular monk.

The oddest part about all this is what happened earlier this morning.  I left the hotel early, thinking I would stop for some food along the way and skip Ruesi Dutton, due to having a serious nose drippage problem.  Just as I turned down Phra Athit Road I was stopped by a couple of boys in their early 20's, who asked me for directions to Khao San Road.  I could tell the tall one was pretty drunk and the short one (the one that asked for help) was slightly more sober but was not processing the directions I was giving him, so I turned around and marched them to Khao San Road myself, deftly avoiding the tall one who was trying to cop a feel as we walked along.  I even helped them across Chakkraphong Road, rather than pointing them in the right direction and leaving them to cross that bad boy themselves.  When I got them to KSR I told them to go get some sleep and to please stop wandering around Bangkok off their faces drunk, then I ditched them.  They were younger than my daughter, and by far stupider.

I can't shake the strong feeling that had I not shown this random act of kindness to this pair of twats I would not have seen the monk.  I'm not just talking about being at the right place and time to put eyes on him, even though that is certainly a factor.  I just don't think I would have seen him, no matter where he was in relation to me.  I know this sounds a little surreal, and I'm not usually susceptible to such notions, but it feels...right.

All I can tell you for sure is that my blues are gone, and even though I have a nasty, dribbly cold I'm content.

Fourteen Class Days Left...

We have about one hour of lecture in massage left, then will spend six of the next eight class days practicing what we've learned.  The other two days we have lecture in Thai herbs, and will be learning to make Tiger Balm (oh yeah man!) from scratch.  We are very excited about the Tiger Balm.  If you've ever used it, you'll understand why.  In the UK it's expensive!

Our class is special, because Olja is the first Serbian and Malee is the first Thai to take the Professional Level II course.  We are happy for them, and really proud of them both. 

Olja has struggled a lot with the language barrier - she's had to interpret what our Thai teachers are trying to say in their limited English, then roll it around in her head until she understands what they mean.  She knows Anatomy and Physiology, but not the English names of muscles etc.  She would have never made it this far had she not been incredibly clever and gifted with an honest to god eidetic memory.  We help her when she asks, and give her plenty of hugs and encouragement.

Malee is also extremely clever, but hasn't the educational background in biology or any of the human sciences.  She's basically had to start from scratch - we were lucky to find a Thai anatomy book that also has the English names of things in the diagrams.  She's wading through it but I know it's not easy for her.  What we really need is the Encyclopedia of Allied Health for Nursing in Thai and English (oh, like that's on Amazon, fer sure!).

Both Olja and Malee's English has improved by hanging around with us, way more than our Thai and Slav has!

This coming Monday Wat Po's first Professional Thai Massage Level I course in Thai, for Thai people begins.  Up till now the only courses available for Thai people were the short courses.  The long, expensive ones were reserved for the Western students.  My understanding is that Wat Po will develop a Level II course in Thai in 2-3 years' time, depending on the demand.  I guess we wait and see, kind of like what we're doing with Professional Thai Massage Level III.

The Level II course has taught me a lot.  We are now in the realms of being able to really damage people - either through incompetence or by being physically unable to do the work.  Understanding this has made me so careful.  While my commitment to keeping myself physically fit has never been in doubt, I am even more aware of the need to remain strong and healthy by looking after myself: doing strength training, cardio work, practicing Ruesi Dutton, getting enough sleep and eating properly.  You can't do this job if you are a slacker in your personal maintenance.

I am listening to Teacher Sampong and taking lots of notes, as well as asking many questions and trying my very best to be perfect when practicing.  We all get a chance to massage Teacher, so we get instant feedback when we are incorrect.  He knows how important it is for me to be accurate, so he picks me up on every little thing and this is helping me be a better MT.  To all my existing/future clients:  I'm doing this for YOU!  I'm definitely looking forward to our six days of practice because I need to know my skills are embedded in my little pea brain.

After practicing, the next five days will be spent massaging real live customers with real live bad backs, knees, shoulders and necks.  Yikes!  Well, this is what I came here for...