Our journey from Melbourne to Koh Samui was a long one. We flew from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur with Air Asia, a seven and a half hour flight with the most budget airline we have ever come across. We had a couple of hours layover in Kuala Lumpur before flying on to Bangkok, unfortunately with Air Asia again.
If you ever have the option to fly long haul with Air Asia, don’t take it! They have rude staff who don’t know anything about customer service (one of them laughed in our face when we complained that they had charged too much money on our card), minimum spend limits on card which means when you have no cash you can’t just buy a hot drink, outdated planes with no entertainment and very little leg room.
“With over four months of travelling it was inevitable that one of us was going to get ill at some point.”
Our day travelling was made all the more worse when Rich started to get a temperature and didn’t feel so well. The Air Asia staff were awful. Rich felt freezing cold and they wouldn’t give him a blanket to help warm him up unless we paid ten dollars for it.
He may have been ill but he wasn’t going to part with money for something that should have been common decency to provide for someone not feeling well on their flight. We did manage to get a small plastic bottle filled up with hot water to create a makeshift hot water bottle for him, that along with a panadol tablet kept his temperature in check for a while.
With over four months of travelling it was inevitable that one of us was going to get ill at some point. This was it. We had three nights booked in a hotel in Bangkok, flying in late at night meant that we had two days to see what the city had to offer.
This is the total sum of what we saw in Bangkok: the airport arrival terminal; Bangkok by night during our taxi journey to the hotel; our hotel; Bangkok by sunrise during our taxi journey to the airport and the airport departure terminal.
We spent two full days in our hotel room whilst Rich made it back to full health. We had breakfast included thankfully and so each morning we’d go downstairs where Rich ate what he could and I made some jam sandwiches for our lunch later in the day. We didn’t even leave the hotel for dinner, thank goodness in Asia McDonald’s deliver! I kid you not. To be honest it was exactly what we needed, simple, plain western food delivered straight to our hotel room.
So our experience of Bangkok wasn’t a great one. We didn’t see anything of the place and as such can have no opinion on what it is or is not like. All we can be grateful for is that we had a hotel room to rest up in while Rich got over being ill as we had the most physically challenging part of our travels coming next. A week long yoga and meditation retreat at Vikasa on the beautiful island of Koh Samui!
“We felt healthier just walking into our room and admiring the view.”
We flew from Bangkok to Koh Samui with Bangkok Airways, a delightful airline that were a breath of fresh air after the horrors we had experienced with Air Asia. With only an hour in the air we arrived on Koh Samui before we knew it.
If there was anything that was going to make us feel better after two days holed up in a hotel room it was a room with a view and boy did we luck out at Vikasa. After a welcome drink of coconut milk as we checked in, we were taken to our new home for the next seven nights.
Our ocean view room was more than we had dreamed of. With windows on three sides we had uninterrupted views of the rugged, unspoilt coastline in front of our bed. We felt healthier just walking into our room and admiring the view.
The following seven days held pretty much the same routine, an hour of morning meditation at eight o’clock followed by one and a half hours of yoga. After ascending the one hundred and twenty one steps to the restaurant (the joys of a cliff side resort) we then enjoyed a hearty breakfast.
We had the afternoon to do what we wanted, lie by the pool, go to the shops, explore the island or join in classes running at the resort.
Then we had another one and a half hours of yoga at six o’clock in the evening before ascending the one hundred and twenty one steps again for dinner.
Thinking about the basics of it, it doesn’t sound like much of an enjoyable holiday. Only two meals a day, walking up at least two hundred and forty-two steps a day, at least three hours of yoga a day and an hour of meditation. However it was one of the most enjoyable holidays we’ve ever experienced!
Waking up to an ocean view and listening to the waves crashing in to the rocks below made us feel like we were in a remote place far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Watching the sun rise across the ocean from the yoga sala every morning before we meditated gave us the chance to clear our minds and focus on ourselves. Travelling, much like life back home can consume your thoughts so that you end up, ‘on the treadmill’, thinking about and planning what you have to do next, instead of thinking about and being thankful for the here and now.
We had a whole week to put the world around us on hold and enjoy the peace and serenity of where we were. It was hard work but it was bliss.
“After only two classes Rich was able to touch his toes!”
Rich and I have done yoga a few times but we are by no means seasoned professionals. Instead of long clean lines and balancing in perfect stillness, imagine bent knees and wobbling poses as we tried our hardest to keep up with the yoga instructors.
The good thing about the retreat was that it catered for beginners through to advanced practitioners. We weren’t the only beginners thankfully and so persevered knowing that the short term pain would be worth the long term gains.
There were loads of different styles of yoga available to try at Vikasa. We did Hatha, Yin, Vinyasa, Vikasa, Power, and Iyengar!
After one class of Hatha yoga with Betti and Yin Yoga with Alicia we were hooked, already feeling the benefit of stretching the muscles in our bodies more than we have done for over a year. After only two classes Rich was able to touch his toes! This may not seem much to most people but for Rich who was unable to get his hands within six inches of the floor without bending his knees it was a minor miracle!
As the week progressed we pushed through the classes (despite the odd aches and pains) and felt the immediate benefits after them. Sitting straighter, walking taller, feeling less tense and for Rich squatting to fill our water bottles at the cooler without sore knees. It’s hard to describe the benefits because it was a feeling of all over well being.
The amount of physical exertion meant that we were toning up and shedding a few of the pounds we had put on whilst travelling and we felt really good for it.
The food at Vikasa was vegetarian but we were never short of delicious things to choose from at meal times. Every day there were new things at the buffet to try and we could re fill our plates as much as we wanted.
One afternoon Rich took to the gymnastic rings that were put up in the yoga sala and he showed me what Dave had been teaching him at the gym. I have to say, I was impressed!
There were a few of the yoga moves that Rich found much easier than me due to his upper body strength but I found that I had not forgotten all my moves from gymnastics as a kid as I managed to reacquaint myself with the headstand.
We loved staying at Vikasa, it was a really lovely resort, small, unpretentious and nestled into a cliff side that meant we could escape all noise and relax in beautiful surroundings.
The day came when we had to leave. We could have happily stayed there longer, although I don’t think our bodies could have kept up the level of daily exercise without a short break at least!
After a short taxi ride to the airport we treated ourselves to a well deserved ice cream and relaxed in the loveliest airport we had ever been to. Koh Samui airport is a delight, open air huts sit alongside the runway so you can watch the planes taking off and coming into land right in front of you.
Bangkok Airways had complementary refreshments for passengers and so we enjoyed a free lunch at the airport and I ate copious amounts of the free popcorn on offer too. We were filled with happiness from our week on Koh Samui and our yoga adventure and we were sure that we would do a similar holiday in the future as well.
As we waved farewell to Koh Samui we looked forward to our next destination in Thailand, Phuket.
Lambs on the loose 