Woke up this morning after the best night's sleep I've had in months to enjoy the sunrise, meditate on the beach, take photos, people watch, have a first swim of the day and then a nice cold shower. Lather, rinse and repeat for the next 11 days...however, Larry the lizard (a gecko) who has taken up residence needs to vacate my room, I nearly squished him last night!
My first four-day yoga retreat kicked off today, which is the "Relaxed" pace one. As I'm here for another ten days, I figured I should stock up on supplies and headed to Kuah town after breakfast for a few bits and bobs.
My first four-day yoga retreat kicked off today, which is the "Relaxed" pace one. As I'm here for another ten days, I figured I should stock up on supplies and headed to Kuah town after breakfast for a few bits and bobs.
Kuah is the main CBD of Langkawi, if you will. It has a couple of supermarkets, a couple of "malls" and lots of duty free chocolate. I had to withdraw some money to pay for the yoga retreats but couldn't pay the whole balance today as it exceeded my limit on my account in Australia - because of the ATM withdrawal fee. Mama mia!
I grabbed shampoo, deodorants (my favourite kind here is just $1.50 AUD per stick and it actually works), body wash and some iced tea and coffee mixes, NZ milk and a yogurt for breakfast tomorrow. The NZ milk was a nice surprise becuase the local stuff is all either full cream or made from powder and tastes revolting.
Anyway, after a quick lunch of noodles and chicken sausage with Roti Canai and curry sauce, followed by a short taxi ride back to the hotel while falling asleep to the sound of the living daylights being revved out of the van, I then had a quick swim and headed off to find the yoga shala.
Marc and Meng Foon run Yoga Now Malaysia in Langkawi. I chose them based on their fantastic trip advisor reviews and am glad I did. I had some lovely honey melon (honeydew in Aussie) and a juice before we got straight into a 5pm yoga class with Marc. Marc is Irish, Meng Foon is Malaysian Chinese and they met in an Ashram in India where they were both studying yoga. To cut a long story short (it is a really lovely story but you can read it elsewhere), they eventually got married a few years after meeting and moved from KL to Langkawi to teach together.
The shala is a traditional wooden Malay house in a Kampong (Malay village) in the paddy fields about a ten minute walk from Cenang beach. It is a beautiful building, with lovely crafted wrought iron bars on the windows and bug mesh, behind traditionl wooden shutters. The ceiling is pretty high and the floors are hard, there's lots of fruit trees outside and a few creature comforts inside.
Now, for the important part - the yoga!
Marc and Meng Foon teach Hatha, with lots of philosophy, pranayama, meditation and asana. It is a comprehensive and balanced approach with plenty of savansana time. Tonight I had a class with Marc, during which we did two hours of yoga including asana, savasana, breath work and philosophy, followed by a 30-minute meditation sitting. I was rather blessed out after all this and headed off into the dark back through the Kampong to find some dinner and maybe some interesting trinkets at the Pasar Malam in Temonyong.
After the wonderful traditional Malaysian massage last night (the knots in my traps and calves were insane), followed by dinner at Tomato Nasi Kandar ($4 AUD for naan, tandoori chicken and an iced lemon tea. I couldn't finish it all, so I was feeding a very cute and friendly stray cat with big puppy-dog eyes under the table!), I was looking forward to trying out the weird and wonderful delights at the local night market or Pasar Malam.
The Temonyong market is about 10-20 minutes walk from Cenang, depending on where you are staying. I walked over from the Kampong, so I followed Marc's instructions and meandered down a zig-zag road until I came out right next to the market. I did a lap before committing to a location, with an ais kelapa (iced coconut) drink in my hand, consumed of course from a plastic bag with a straw or if you are lucky, from a plastic cup with a lid and straw.
I had a few odd looking things on sticks, which were apparently satay, some odd cake and sweets and then was walking along minding my own business, when a giant flying beetle deduced that making my left shin his home for the night was a good plan.
I don't do beetles.
This creature was about the sixe of an Aussie 50 cent piece and about half the diameter of a golf ball. It was truly gross. I had to grab a twig and flick it off myself, then laughed hysterically when the locals started laughing at me. It would have been pretty funny to watch.
But I still don't do beetles.
I did a few more rounds of the Pasar Malam but the beetle population was increasing and I wasn't keen on being the newest runway in Langkawi, so I toddled off up the road and back to Cenang.
After the wonderful traditional Malaysian massage last night (the knots in my traps and calves were insane), followed by dinner at Tomato Nasi Kandar ($4 AUD for naan, tandoori chicken and an iced lemon tea. I couldn't finish it all, so I was feeding a very cute and friendly stray cat with big puppy-dog eyes under the table!), I was looking forward to trying out the weird and wonderful delights at the local night market or Pasar Malam.
The Temonyong market is about 10-20 minutes walk from Cenang, depending on where you are staying. I walked over from the Kampong, so I followed Marc's instructions and meandered down a zig-zag road until I came out right next to the market. I did a lap before committing to a location, with an ais kelapa (iced coconut) drink in my hand, consumed of course from a plastic bag with a straw or if you are lucky, from a plastic cup with a lid and straw.
I had a few odd looking things on sticks, which were apparently satay, some odd cake and sweets and then was walking along minding my own business, when a giant flying beetle deduced that making my left shin his home for the night was a good plan.
I don't do beetles.
This creature was about the sixe of an Aussie 50 cent piece and about half the diameter of a golf ball. It was truly gross. I had to grab a twig and flick it off myself, then laughed hysterically when the locals started laughing at me. It would have been pretty funny to watch.
But I still don't do beetles.
I did a few more rounds of the Pasar Malam but the beetle population was increasing and I wasn't keen on being the newest runway in Langkawi, so I toddled off up the road and back to Cenang.
I settled on LeMon (yep, lemon) chicken at Palm View Seafood Restaurant for dinner. I'd had my entree at Pasar Malam, now it was time for the main course - with a side of drunk Indonesian backpacker laughing like a hyena at the next table. No, I have no imagination, because I am eating white man food when in Asia, but when it comes to food, I can't be too choosy as I'm intolerant to just about everything.
I also had another one of those nice strawberry magnum ice creams (and why not, they're $1 AUD here and $4.50 in Melbourne!) before walking back to the "hotel".
And here I am, feeling like I've gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson after sitting down for far too long at dinner. I have promised myself another massage on my last night in Langkawi, so I'm looking forward to that immensely.
Must away, 0530hrs start tomorrow to be at the yoga shala for 0630, on Good Friday. The rest of the white man world will be scoffing chocolate while I'm upside down on my yoga mat.
Onya guys, have a hot cross bun for me, will ya?
Onya guys, have a hot cross bun for me, will ya?
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