Pop My Cherry

Photos: My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

ziggy_starr — Tue, 8 Nov 2011 08:52:00 GMT

SPONGE! This is the best way to describe me. I want to learn as much as I can, improve my technique and hopefully infuse you with some of the passion and inspiration I get from South Africa! I believe there needs always to be a trade off in any relationship even between mentor and student. I am a kiwi who currently lives in South Africa. My three main passions are photography, travel and conservation (social and environmental) and I am lucky enough to be able to two of these currently but if I can combine all three….JACKPOT! I work for a non-profit organisation creating partnerships and developing volunteer projects in Southern Africa. I love this part of the world and even though I have seen most of the country I will never get tired of it! My background is in fine art photography and film and I have to admit I am not totally up to play with digital even though I use it as a medium now. Pinhole is my favourite medium. This series of work was shot in a monkey sanctuary in Ecuador. The monkeys/animals housed here were kept as pets and then became too much for their owners and many had suffered deformities due to living conditions. I think it is so much more powerful to anthropomorphise the animals in order to create a connection between the viewer and the picture as to draw the viewer into the story and therefore the plight of the animals involved. This particular sanctuary I was impressed with, there were no fences (with the exception for animals in breeding season) and the monkeys lived very well. Any animals that could be rehabilitated into the wild were. This is a subject very close to my heart. TEACH ME!

Beautiful Ladakh

ziggy_starr — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 13:39:00 GMT

OK, when I left off last time I had jumped on a plane and was flying to the little Indian Himalayan town of Leh. This beautiful little town is nestled in the rocky deserts of the mountainous Himalaya's at an altitude of approximately 3,500m. Flying there was an experience in itself, having left so early in the morning, the sun was rising over the mountains as we flew into Leh, which was breath-taking in itself, but with Bob Marley in synthasiser samba as the soundtrack, who could ask for more =P, me....I also managed to pop off a few illegal photos of the mountains from the plane window. As I found out later, there is increased security up there being so close to the border with China and Pakistan that someone taking photos could be a spy looking for military information (I could picture myself as the Mata Hari of India). We arrive at the airport in Leh and already Im feeling much more relaxed, jump in a taxi with a couple of Austrians and head off in search of the perfect guest house, and bada boom bada bang, the first one we look at is perfect, welcome to us at Siman GH. The reason we knew this guest house was perfect was because we spent a day searching the town for better and couldnt find it, it didnt help that on that particular day the Dalai Lama was in town teaching and the whole town had shut up shop. Well, we nestled in and after a cocky first day where I felt great and went for a walk, I spent the next day lying in bed in complete agony, waiting for my head to explode, this is all thanks to that darling little thing called altitude sickness. Luckily, thats all that happened and the next day I was back on track. Well, I suppose I should describe the area. It was like being back in Alexandra, the area was dry, rocky desert mountains with little green oasis' where the town was, with lots of poplar trees and willows, with the odd snow capped mountain in the distance....beautiful. They have so many gardens here and grow their own veges and fruit with apricots and apples (funnily enough) being their main crop. They also have wheat fields surrounding the town. CJ and I found the markets and enjoyed the 'fruits' of our labour in a primal nut frenzy back at the guest house in the form of a bag of walnuts and us trying to get into them. It was like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey or the computer scene in Zoolander depending on what era you come from. Oh, and did I mention the bakeries here, so much bread, and good bread too, so much for losing weight and sticking to my diet! Well, the people here are a relief too, there is a mix of races here with the main ones being Tibetan and Ladakhi, and they are really nice and not in your face. And the Monks! Well, they are so different to what I expected. I always thought of Tibetan Monks as being these peaced out, blissed out staunch in their culture types. I couldn't be further from the truth. They were all walking around in their traditional robes with the added twist of skate shoes, addidas tops over their robes and sunnies on, they looked soooo cool. And normally being woken up at 5 am would be kinda annoying but the chanting to prayers over the loud speaker in the morning and evening was actually kinda relaxing and nice, I almost felt completely blissed out myself. And they are so friendly too, willing to stop and chat. My next big adventure in Leh was to seek out a great massage after being so spoilt in Thailand, so CJ found this little place on the main drag that we went to with these Indian women there practicing Aryvedic Massage. We head downstairs which resembled a dungeon, and taken into a little room each with our own 'massage therapist' and my lady told me to undress and just stood there looking at me, so, being the prudish westerner that I am, I waited for her to leave. She looked at me funny and I asked if she wanted me to strip right now, she said 'yes', so I asked if there was a towel I needed to wrap up in. She just giggled at me 'you western woman' was all she said, so I took it to mean 'get my gears off', so I did. There I was standing there in all my naked glory while she looked me up and down, paying particular attention to my boobs, she seemed very facinated much to my discomfort. So, I hopped up on the table and lay there prone while she covered my from head to foot in oil

Fireworks and Festivals - Bangkok to Delhi

ziggy_starr — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:53:00 GMT

Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my next installment of Shona's misadventures. When I last left you I had returned to Bangkok after my adventures in the islands. Well, we decided to spend 5 days in Bangkok to wind down and get ready for our India extravaganza. So, we spent a bit of time hunting out the perfect accommodation. And low and behold we found our little haven amongst the chaos of Banglumpu. We found this little out of the way guest house down a dusty alleyway near the river nestled in amongst the locals, away from all the noisy drunk obnoxious tourist areas....ahh, heavenly! The people who run it are lovely and our little room opens up to the courtyard outside. So, having settled into our little abode we decided to head down and get a feed, and me feeling like a ravenous carnivore went straight to the barbeque chicken stand to hunt down a chicken leg. Heading to the little temple grounds that I mentioned in my previous story we settled down to gnaw on our hoard. Mmm, tasty, but whats that? A dog comes wandering up looking very sad and sorry for itself and plonks itself right in front of me with its huge puppy dog eyes, not fazed by this at all (me being mean like that and all) carried on eating, C.J. however didnt like this canine companion much and suggested that I throw a piece of my chicken away from us to get rid of him, so I did, and he trotted over picking up the piece of chicken and troddled on back to eat it in front of us, bugger! But worse was yet to come, suddenly the whole yard turned into a sea of dogs appearing from every nook and cranny and they all headed towards me, arghh, a fews growly dogs later we were feeling very uncomfortable in this situation and decided to bail, so I threw what was left of my chicken leg to the dogs and turned to leave, this is when a destitute local came up to me asking for food (he couldnt speak english) of which I had none, I walked away confused by the situation, and it completely threw into light how much we take for granted back home. To Thai people dogs are lower beings than humans and to throw food away like that to animals and not give it to a person was uncomprehensible. That was an eye opening moment. And to top things off, as we walked out the little gate onto the street a massive (and loud) dog fight started that attracted lots of attention, oops! Well, after that we decided to hide back in our little room for some more R & R while the monsoon rains fell. As they eased off we decided to check out this great little vegetarian Thai restaurant recommended by some travellers and it turned out to be absolutely delicious so we signed up to do a cooking class with them at May Kaidee's Restaurant and Cooking School. This was taught by May herself and her band of merry and some what quirky employees. Time for a short history of May, she is from Northern Thailand where she grew up eating anything and everything that was available and she became a self confessed podge, she then moved to Bangkok where she learnt to cook in her uncles vegetarian restaurant and learnt the error of her ways and became svelte in the process. She now owns two restaurants in Bangkok and is opening one in Chang Mai and she also teaches how to cook vegetarian Thai food all over the world, and is somewhat famous in Russia (of all places). She also praises the value of brown rice and organic food, who could ask for more? (Me...pass me the meat please, hehe). Well, we made and interesting and delicious array of food with 16 of us in the class (thats alot by the way). These dishes include, Pad Thai, Thai Red/Green Curry, Tom Yam/Kar, Masaman Curry (my fav), Unfried Spring Rolls, Peanut Sauce, Green Papaya Salad and a variation of Pumpkin Hommus (very tasty, minus the corriander) and the grand finale, Black Sticky Rice with Mango. Needless to say my tummy was very happy and extremely full. An interesting point they made to us at the start was that we could make our food as spicey as we liked, so C.J. not being much of a spice fiend made our first dish (Tom Yum) nice and un-spicey (which incidentally made it pale) and one of the helpers came up and kindly asked what was up with our dish and proceeded to add chilli paste, sugar and lime to it while muttering that it wont be that spicey, much to C.J's distate as she quite liked the way it was at the start. And after several hours of cooking, eating and general merriment that involved an impromptu Thai dance lesson, we carried our weary heavy bellies back to our hide away, which was thankfully only a short distance away. Once again we settled into some well earned (well, in my opinion anyway) R & R. The next few days involved eating some bugs from a bug kart (grasshoppers, crickets, grubs, locusts and chrysallis'), which I was initially aprehensive about, but C.J. lead the way with casual determination, and proved they were actually quite tasty, it was the chrysallis that tasted bad; a 25 minute ordeal in which C.J. was spelling our names to an Indian woman so we could get our tickets to Leh; I got my eye lashes curled (which feels quite odd initially); we hid in our room to escape the monsoon rains and went a little mad (Pigs with guns, Cows with Bazookas and Sheep with Machetes - the ramblings of a travellers mind); and I recieved the perfect foot massage. This leads us up to the final days in Bangkok, where when I decided I was going to post some stuff back home I find out its National Holiday time, with Queens Birthday and Mothers Day. This was a very festive time in Thailand and we went down to the local park and stood to attention while they played the National Anthem, watched some Thai dancing and the fire works display that was going off over the Palace. We then wandered off to our abode where C.J. developed a case of what I like to call 'Pre-Delhi Belly'. Why wait eh! This has hence-forth turned out to be giardia. Well, we packed up our bags, which was no small feat for C.J. who had lost the entire contents of her internals, and headed to the airport for our next adventure in India. Flying the highly reputable (sarcasm injected here) airline, Biman Bangladesh. This flight was to involve a long stop over at Dhaka Airport in Bangladesh, and a hotel stay. But, funnily enough it ended up being delayed by six hours, C.J. and her Pre-Delhi Belly and I nestled in a best we could at the airport and waited and waited. Finally at four in the morning we boarded onto a plane that had stuffing falling out of the seats, smelled like a leaky toilet (which it was) and full of smelly, sweaty Indian men who wouldnt stop staring at us. The staff were uncompromisingly unfriendly and I was bemused. We flew for about 2 hours and ended up in Dhaka Airport, which in itself is an adventure, and the transit counter was full of yelling, bustling, just downright rude indian men vying for the attention of the guy behind the counter, wow, what a sight. So, lil ol' me thought, ha! Ive been in mosh pits at Pantera etc, I can take these Indian's on, so I squeezed and hustled my way to the counter and waved my ticket around just like a local, much to the confusion and annoyance of the men around me and got my ticket checked, fantastic! Little did I know, there was absolutely no need for the craziness and I could have just waited for the crowd to disappear cos it wasnt like we were going anywhere for a while. But, then again, what kind of adventure would it be if you didnt just thrust yourself in with the locals now and again? Well, looking out the window of the plane, Bangladesh looked like one big river with houses precariously perched on the edge of the water. We spent 7 hours in the airport, which was one hour short of getting a hotel room, and spent that time getting to know some of the forgeiners on the plane (there was only a few of us). There was Victoria who was Swedish and travelling on to Kathmandu, and Miriam (Spanish) and her partner Christoff (French) who had been living in India at Varansi for the last 16 years. They were incredibly helpful and gave us many helpful hints and tips for Delhi, they paid for a taxi for us and showed us to a guest house and where to eat etc. What a god send! Because after seeing the streets of Delhi and the poverty, Thailand is a dream to travel in. So, we arrive in Delhi and over the loud speaker they say that it is 15 degrees outside and C.J. and I were excited about the prospect, but skeptical at the same time, and with good cause as it was stinking hot (arghh). Dusty and with cows and shit and flys everywhere and the dodgy supposedly helpful locals and the arguementative vendors, it was all a bit much, especially for me, who dosent like standing out too much in a crowd being a white woman does nothing for my need to be inconspicuous. Funnily enough we left Bangkok on the tail end of the Queens Birthday celebrations and flew into India right on India Independence Day, so eating dinner at a rooftop restaurant we watched a sea of paper kites flying above the Delhi rooftops and numerous fireworks going off (we seem to time the festival thing well). Unfortunately I had no idea and left my camera behind in my room. Much to all your amusement Im sure, I happen to have the perfect figure, hair colour, looks and temperament to attract Indian men, I have been hit on many times already including a very determined young man at the domestic airport. Not exactly what I had in mind. And to top it off, when C.J. and I took a auto-rickshaw to get our tickets to Bangkok re-confirmed the driver on our return stretch told me I should be in Indian movies, ha! Maybe I should pack my bags and move to India and become the next big Bollywood star. So, putting the craziness of Delhi behind me and getting ready to fly to the mountains (woohoo!) I packed my bag and settled onto my bed to snooze away until 3am when we would catch our taxi to the airport. I lay down and felt something crawling over me, so I squished it, but that was followed by another one, and another, and another, so I jumped up and turned the light on to discover that the walls were crawling with these little mayfly like bugs, they were every where! It was plague proportions of bugs crawling in through the edge of the door, so I did the most un-buddhist thing I could imagine and grabbed the menu off the side table switched off the lights in the room and C.J. hit the lights in the bathroom and they flew in and drowned on the wet walls, and any that didnt succomb to that ended their little lives at the end of my swat. Mwahahahahaha! Thats what happens when something tries to plague Shona kind. So, 3am rocks around and we gather ourselves to our taxi and what a sight to behold, the streets are deserted of people with the exception of a few sleeping in the street and a whole herd of cows has gathered to snooze right in our path, the driver managed to convince a couple of key cows to move so we could be on our way. We arrived at the airport, check in and I get hit on by a very determined young Indian man, who didnt even flinch when I tried to explain that I had a boyfriend, it didnt wash, he just said I must be very lonely (hint hint) travelling without him. By joves, I have never had this much attention (curse those curly eye lashes) and its hideous! Much to my relief, the plane came and we flew to Leh in northern India, and its beautiful, but thats another story, so stay tuned.

Torture in the name of Health

ziggy_starr — Tue, 7 Aug 2007 15:36:00 GMT

Well, here we go again, after losing about 6 pages of my journal, I have proceeded to drown my sorrows in sticky mango rice and the worlds best orange juice (I kid you not). So, here I am now, about to try again to repeat the torrid tale that I have already spewed out once before. This is my first trip overseas and after telling people that for my first experience I have decided to explore South East Asia and India over four months the general response is a “wow, that’s an interesting place to go for your first experience”. I say there is nothing like jumping in the deep end. And that’s how it felt when I first arrived, but I digress, to the story of my journey so far. I left New Zealand at Christchurch Airport on Wednesday 17^th July, 2007 for Bangkok, Thailand. Our flight was supposed to take a measly 13 hours and thanks to a delay at the start of our trip it ended up becoming a 21 hour ordeal. We started off flying Qantas and ended up switching to Thai Air in Sydney, where we had our first stop over that originally was supposed to be 1 hour and turned into 3 hours, then on to Brisbane for another stop over and finally on to Bangkok 21 hours later. Well, totally exhausted my buddy (Clodagh) and I arrived at the airport and then it happened, the thing so many people told me about, that first step into the atmosphere of Thailand. I moved through the spinning doors and stepped out into what can only be described as the muggyness of your local indoor swimming pool x 10 coupled with the lung clogging eau de diesel of the hourds of traffic. After negotiating the many levels of the airport we finally discovered the public taxi stand and started the one hour drive into central Bangkok to our final destination. As we drove along I stared in animated detachment at the run down dirty environment that is everyday life here. We finally arrive at our destination, a little soi (alley) called Rambuttri near Th Khao San. We hunt down a nice little room over looking a temple and then throw our exhausted bodies onto our beds and sleep the day away. Feeling a little more Thai Savvy, thanks to an impromtu Thai lesson from a super friendly woman in a local chemist 2 days later after navigating the food and shopping potential and of course Khao San Road, not to mention a moment or two lying in bed staring up at the ceiling fan thinking “WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING HERE!” we decide to head out of town and down to the tropical island paradise of Koh Phangan. We book the ticket from a local travel agent for a ‘V.I.P.’ bus, so bags packed we head off to meet the bus and depart about 5pm in the evening. I end up sitting next to an Australian I have affectionately called ‘Poppa’ relating to a story he told me on our journey (I never got his real name). We travelled in the bus watching movies (Apocalypto) and sleeping (or attempting to), until our arses were numbed beyond recognition, we arrived in Suri Thani at 5 am where we had to wait for another 3 hours, so 2 Canadian, a pom and us 2 kiwis sat and played cards and swapped travel stories until we were picked up in, wait for it, a ‘pick up’ truck. We crammed ourselves into this truck for a short 10 min drive to the ferry terminal. Clodagh and I were sardined in the front seat with the driver listening to some weird mantra style Thai song at full blast. Upon arriving at the ferry terminal we were jumped on by a guy selling rooms at this guest house on the island, we asked many times over if it was near where we wanted to go and he assured us it was so we (foolishly) forked over the first nights costs and carried on our merry way. Jumping on the ferry I realised that I was surrounded by over tanned party hard youngens and I spent the entire journey to Koh Phangan doing a mixture of sleeping, frying and praying that the beach we were going to was a long way away from these people. We arrive at Koh Phangan and I already have a nice red glow on, we disembark the ferry and jump on board a truck and head to our pre payed accomodation and realise on the journey that we are heading in the exact opposite direction to the one we intended to go, so after a heated discussion with the owner we decided to cut our losses and convinced them to take us back into Thong Sala (where the ferry landed). We chalked that one up to experience and it adds to the experience I guess. We catch a taxi to Haad Rin (made famous by the full moon parties – not my cup of tea love) we find ourselves a long tail boat to take us to our hiatus for the next couple of weeks, Haad Tien Beach. Arriving it is a lot smaller than I expected, but we were greeted by the sign I had been longing to see – welcoming us to The Sanctuary. We throw our exhausted bodies off the boat and onto the beach and stare in wonder before heading off to find our lodgings for our time here. The first place we come across seemed nice enough so we asked to see a room, they took us to a bungalow that looked alright, but it was dirty and the sheets were dirty so we sent them away to get a broom and sweep and clean sheets, while they were away doing that Clodagh decided to go to the bathroom, so I made myself comfortable lying in the hammock on the front porch. I had a view of the bathroom wall and it was open air so we could converse. Well, the tap in the bathroom didn’t work so C.J. couldn’t flush so she decided to fill the water from the shower, but when she turned the tap on the shower head went flying (lucky it didn’t hit anyone) a squeal and a shaft of water came pouring out much to my amusement and C.Js discontent (going to the toilet and ended up with a shower), we can laugh about it now. So, obviously we decided that this perhaps wasn’t the kind of lodgings we were looking for and headed off further down the track and this is where we found our beacon on hope in the form of Beam Bungalows, greeted by Beam and his ‘beaming’ smile we settled into our nice little home, a simple room with a king size bed and an outdoor bathroom (300 bht). We threw our bags on the floor and headed down to the ‘Santuary Wellness Centre’ where we were greeted with and unfriendly “you want something” from the manager, we informed him that we wanted to do a 7 day fast (am I crazy?!?!) and he asked how many days we had done the pre fast for and we replyed with one day and he told us to go and eat fruit and non-starch vege for the next day and come in again and do ‘The Test’ (litmus test for acidity). So, off we go to the restaurant and order ourselves a salad, feeling good about all the healthy food we had been eating we thought we were a shoe in for the test, so we took our wary bodies off to our little bungalow in the trees and chilled out. The next day like good little puppies off we went to eat our healthy fruit and vege, which was starting to wear thin already (perhaps the toxins were coming out already) we strolled confidently over to the Wellness Centre and feeling the nervous anxiety one normally associates with exams in high school we spat onto a little piece of paper only to be told that we had failed, FAILED! Once again that annoying little voice in my head was going “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE!”, pushing it to the side, feeling a little dejected and hanging my head in shame I headed back to the bungalow, and to another meal of fruit and vege. But during this down time a small beacon of hope shone through in the form of Mama, a local massage wonder woman who had a little shed down by the beach, she and her crew gave amazing massages. So, subjecting myself to the merciless hands of Mama I lay down for a foot massage that threw me into the realms of pain that I gritted my teeth through, to be rewarded with the sensation of walking on clouds, and she threw in a neck and shoulder massage to boot. What wonders, I was in heaven. Well, another day down and feeling a slight animosity towards anything of the salad kind we headed over to the Wellness Centre feeling a little more humble we once again spat on our little pieces of paper and instantly Moon’s (the manager) face lit up and he said “now that’s more like it”. We had passed! Woohoo! (I think – hmm) At that moment the idea of lounging in a hammock in sweet bliss was shattered when I realised I was starving myself for 7 days, yes, I would be swinging blissfully in a hammock, but with the sweet smell of delictable delicacies would be floating by from the restaurant next door. Once again that little voice pops up, buts its quickly quashed with other fasters telling me how good they feel and how good it is for you, and they were glowing. So, convinced that I was doing the right thing for myself I headed off to the restaurant for my ‘final feast’. The next day I wake up to the first of the fasting rituals, a delicious (full sarcasm is to be experienced with that word) clay shake, this consists of a mix of water with bentonite clay (volcanic ash) mixed with psyllium husks, mmm mmm I hear you say. Grinning and bearing it I swill it back faster than a beer bellied brute in a drinking competition, you’d be impressed. Half an hour later it was herb pill time and then head down to the Wellness Centre to my first Colonic – Yes folks you heard it right, part of the fasting experience is two Colonic Irrigations per day (they call them colema boards). All in the name of health! After an animated demonstration by Moon on how to use the system it was time to go it alone. I wont go into too much detail, but basically it involves filling yourself up with water and then pushing it out in order to clean out all that nasty Mucoid Plaque that has built up over the years inside and also flushing out all those nasty toxins in the system – and lets face it, Ive had a few years of building those up. So, my first colema ended up a fruitful one with lotsa stuff coming out, each one proved different, but I will fill you in later. I cleaned up, showered off and proceeded up to the lounging area, plucked a good book out of the cupboard of literature they have and nestled myself into the nearest hammock (my new home away from home). I felt fine on the first day and actually felt better not eating than when I was eating fruit and vege only. So, with re-newed hope that I had made a good choice I lay back and read a little, conversed a little and slept a little, perfect bliss. C.J. was feeling a little more energetic and spent her time swimming in the ridiculously warm water and taking herbal steams. Day One down – fantastic! Day Two, I woke up feeling a little weaker today, thought it was the not eating thing, didn’t feel hungry at all, hard to when you are filling yourself up with four clay shakes a day and pills and juices. Colemas werent as fruitful today as the day before, but stuff is still coming out. Nestled into my home away from home again to have my peace shattered by that oh so familiar accent, more Kiwis!!!! 3 guys hailing from the North Island joined in the fasting group bringing the grand total of Nzers at the fast to 6! Home away from home, this isnt quite what I expected. Day Two wasn’t too eventful, and was made slightly easier by the eye candy of one of the staff who will remain nameless, my friends were right, Thai guys are quite good looking. Every evening was filled with great conversation around the dinner table, when all the fasters gathered for the evening ‘meal’, which consisted of a bowl of vege broth which was reasonably tasteless, but we could add as much chilli and lime as we wished. As the fast progressed we would imagine different things that our broth could be, such as cream of brocolli soup or minestrone or that it contained lumps of some type of meat, hmm, the cravings of a starved mind. Day Two down – lovely! Day Three – The day from hell, I call this day “Torture In The Name of Health”. I awaken feeling weak and nauseas, down my clay shake and stumble down to the Wellness Centre, do my colema, wash and climb the steps and curl up in my hammock (fortunately others saw it as my hammock too, might have something to do with me being surgically attached to it when they arrive in the mornings). Lying there in agony I try to tell others of my sob story but the thought of attempting talk results in the overwhelming sensation of wanting to vomit, so I pack up my rotting carcass and trundle off to bury myself in the bungalow. The day passed by with a series of mindless stumblings between my bungalow and the Wellness Centre where I glare at the staff as if they had poisoned me and forced me to do the fast at gun point. Today my little voice wins through and I spend the day going over in my head, “Really! Really! What the Fuck Am I Doing This For!) Im told that I will feel better and its just the toxins coming out and its perfectly normal, damn those cursed toxins I say. Health my arse, I feel like shit. Trundling off to bed Day Three is through – thank fuckin’ christ! Day Four arrives and I wake up feel weak but good, so I trundle off the Centre where I see Lay’s friendly face asking me how I am, I say that Im much better and I proceed into the day, much as the other days, chatting, lying around (like I planned, none of this exercise shit =P), perving at the nameless good looking Thai boy. And at dinner we decide to watch a movie so on goes Blades of Glory, hilarious. It instantly picks up my mood and I wander off to bed feeling like a happy little camper. Day Four down – sweet! Day Five – Im alive, feeling a little more energetic I bounce off to the Wellness Centre for the daily routine, the day goes on much as before with the exception of this insane hunger I have, so most of the day is spent fantasising about food, my diary is now brimming with fantastical recipes of food that I will be subjecting to my clients on the upcoming tour season back home. Day Five down – mmm mmm! Day Six, Oh my God! I feel fantastic, Im now glowing like all those other crazy cats that I saw on my first arrival. So much energy, I join C.J. for some yoga in the morning and go for a walk over to Haad Yuan, plus a swim in the ridiculously warm water. What a great day. Watched some trainees learning Thai boxing. C.Js not feeling so good today, her energy is going down, maybe because of all the exercise she was doing at the start of the fast, seems like when Im up shes down and vice versa. Day Six down – Yeah! Day Seven, it’s the last day of the fast and a buddhist like calm has fallen over me today, I feel like Im floating and for the first time I feel like I don’t want to start eating again, but my curiosity about the whole eating again thing is too much. For the last two days I have had successful colemas getting lots of nasty plaque out. Tonight I head to bed feeling like a child on the night before Christmas, tomorrow I get to eat, how exciting!!! Day Seven down – bloody marvelous! Day Eight, Im so excited, I head down for my last colema and then off to the restaurant for my first meal, a bowl of apple, sounds not so exciting but boy was it good, it was so hard to actually chew it down and not choke myself as I just wanted to swallow as soon as it hit my mouth. I feel great and I am now 3 kg lighter than when I started. Thanks to all the staff at the Sanctuary Wellness Centre (Moon, Lay, Bow, Goy, Toe and Nu) who came good in the end and tirelessly put up with all our whining and feeling sorry for ourselves, where they work all through their fasts. C.J. and I decided to spend the next four days on the island still lounging and eating, oh my god, eating. I have never had so much appreciation for food before, but now, well, its amazing stuff. We went for a kayak around the coast checking out another couple of beaches which was nice and went into Haad Rin to book our ticket back to Bangkok. That was an experience, after spending two weeks on a reasonably remote beach I felt like Leo DiCaprio’s character in the beach when they went back to the city to get supplies, it just seemed so hideous and dirty, but was a good warm up to coming back to Bangkok. We found a reasonably priced Katamaran ferry to Chumporn and then bus back to Bangkok, during the day, much nicer than busing most of the way at night. A few note worthy things that happened whilst on the island worth mentioning is our friend Gex the giant lizard that kept us company, keeping the bugs away. All the little gecko’s that hung out in our bungalow. The big fanged spider who I had to chase away with a broom because it foolishly decided to make its web above the door of an arachnaphobiac (C.J.). The ants and mosquitos who turned my body into a very popular drive through, much to my annoyance. The quotable quotes that we spoke before thinking: Shona – “I don’t get this tropical paradise bullshit, show me the mountains” C.J. – “Thank God the suns gone away”. I must say that I have never encountered so many people talking shit (quite literally) in one place at one time. So here ends this chapter of the story, in six days we are off to India and another chapter. So, stay tuned, and in the meanwhile, we will hang out in our little out of the way guest house down by the river, eat food and see the sites of Bangkok.

Ka Kite and Kia Kaha.