We landed in Auckland, New Zealand, with no plans and a slow first week getting our land legs, finding our bearings and making plans for the next few weeks. I had quite a bit of yarn left, and obviously lots of time. So I thought, why not get into another project? Perhaps for my 4 year-old niece, Luna. I had a big skein of off-white yarn, and small green, pink and purple skeins. Based on what I used on the ship, I surely had enough left to make a bigger blanket. Flipping through my Crochet World magazine, I found the Confetti Stars design by Martha Brooks Stein which looked simple enough.

The pattern was pretty straight forward: “ch 3, join in first ch to form a ring, ch 5, dc in ring, ch 2, [dc in ring, ch 2] 5 times, join in 3rd ch of beg ch-5…” Translation: make an eight spoke wheel of color, and crochet a white square around it, leaving an 8 inch thread to stitch the squares together. Once all the squares are stitched together and all threads are tucked, crochet 4 border rows.

From wheel to square to stitched.

Color-wise, I chose the horizontal order purple->green->pink, staggering them each row. All was good… until I stitched about 3 or 4 rows together. The blanket looked pretty narrow. What happened? Oh! I was using light yarn instead of medium yarn which made my squares smaller (barely 2″ instead of 2″3/4). Oopsie! I also realized that I needed to adjust the pattern size from 52″x76″ to 50″x84″ to fit a French twin bed. After some calculations (thank you Justin!), we came to the conclusion I needed to make more squares. 293 additional squares to be exact. For real? Yes, for real. Ok, no problem.

Crochet… crochet… crochet.

In Queenstown, it was pretty cold and rainy so we decided to find a room for two nights instead of camping in our Spaceship. The next morning we woke up with a few, really itchy bites. Ack! What if it were bedbugs!? We decided to leave the hotel, after drying all of our clothes, backpacks…. and crochet material (heat kills the bugs and their microscopic eggs). I put the yarn, crocheted squares and the stitched piece into a bag to avoid major tangling with other stuff in the dryer. We took things out relieved, as nothing was damaged… but the bag of yarn came out majorly tangled! It was a solid ball of yarn mess! I seriously considered just chucking the whole thing.

Then, I thought of my niece. Nothing obliged me to keep going, but wouldn’t she like a little blankie made by her Tata Steph? Ok. I proceeded to untangle the mess, one string at a time. It took me several days.

Back on track and bug-free I continued to make the little squares wherever we were. Justin helped tucking threads on a train (thank you Justin!) and I even took the yarn on our 6-day Abel Tasman trek, much to the surprise of other trekkers.

Not even remotely halfway through, I ran out of white yarn. Great. I looked online to see if I could order a new skein, but the websites wouldn’t ship outside of the US. Inevitably, I turned to Justin’s sweet Mom, who went to the store and bought the Ecru Bernat Baby Sport skein to ship to our next WWOOFing gig at a Marlborough winery. (Thank you Kathy!) In the meantime I made a bunch of colored wheels.

I received the new white skein and cranked the production to the max everyday after returning from working in the vines. It was November. I thought to myself… I can get this done by Christmas.

Crochet… crochet… tuck… tuck… stitch… stitch.

Stitched squares.

We left New Zealand and flew to Bali mid-December. In Bali, it was the rainy season, which in theory meant we’d be in indoors quite a bit, enabling me to make progress. Well, it was hot and extremely humid… I did not need any extra heat on my lap. Also, swimming in pools and walking around rice fields was very distracting. What do you know? I blinked and Christmas was here.

I was a few rows from being done with the first half when we flew to the Philippines. Since I had slowed down the pace in Bali, I thought to myself… I’ll definitely be done by the time we leave the Philippines. Yeah right. Our stay there was so action packed (and wonderful!) that I made little progress. Once in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), we slowed down considerably which enabled me to savor watching music videos while tucking threads. Looking at my progress though, I was never going to be able to finish anytime soon. Since the stitched part was getting pretty bulky, I needed to ship what was done to Mom in France. That way, I could lighten my load and do the assembly when we got there.

The post office being closed when I tried to ship it in Saigon, I took advantage of our boat ride up the Mekong Delta on our way to Phnom Penh to make/stitch a few more squares. The 1st half was complete, it was time to ship it to Mom. Yeah but… how would I make sure the 2 halves would match? Make a color pattern, of course! So I put together a spreadsheet. Geeky, but oh so helpful!

The color pattern, with the half mark, row and column numbers.

The blanket then followed me to Siem Reap, where I worked on it in between temple visits. Then I took a break in Hoi An (Vietnam) because we were too busy getting clothes tailor made (blame me again…). I resumed in the train up the Vietnamese coast to Hanoi. I paused during our 3-day Halong Bay cruise (too busy being in awe, eating and thinking about familiarity). I resumed back in Hanoi, to forget about the gloomy weather. I continued in Luang Prabang (Laos), followed by Chiang Mai (Thailand). I also took the blanket with me at the Yoga Retreat on Koh Phangan, which made for a nice evening occupation… when I had electricity. In Bangkok, Justin and I hadn’t seen each-other in 2 weeks, so the blanket was pushed aside for a bit.

By then I was sure I’d be done with it, but oh no, I still had much stitching and tucking ahead. That meant I had to take it to India, which was not my preference. In the end, I was glad I did. It enabled me to do something familiar, in the great, constant unfamiliar. Most of my squares being done, I stitched on trains, buses, in our hotel rooms, always making sure to lay the blanket on something clean. It made for the entertainment of a lot of people on these rides.

In Mumbai, soon before our departure to Nairobi, I had most of the 2nd half done, with just a few more squares to make, about 2 rows to stitch and threads to tuck when… I ran out of white yarn. Again! Since I didn’t want to bring the blanket with me in Africa (we’d be camping the whole time and I didn’t know how dirty we might get), I ordered a skein online and had it shipped to Justin’s Mom who then shipped it to my Mom (thanks again, Kathy!). I also shipped the 2nd half to France, so I could resume “production” there early June and surely could finish it in time for Luna’s birthday on the 13th. Plus, I could use a crochet break.

The beautifully stitched box containing the 2nd half of the blanket (and other things) sent from India to France.

As soon as we arrived in France, I hit the crochet hook right away, with the end in sight. I made good progress and started crocheting the border rows. But oh was there so much thread tucking to do! So many little buggers to thread on a needle, slip into the pattern and cut the tip. Hundreds! Mom started to help me (thank you Mom!) but clearly I wasn’t going to finish it for Luna’s Birthday. Grrr.

Typical scene in Mom’s garden: me crocheting, Justin on the laptop.

I did as much as I could before we left for our road trip through a chunk of France (via Dad’s house in the Rhone valley) and northern Italy. While we were driving our little hearts away, Mom was tucking threads at home (thanks again, Mom!). When we returned, we had 2 weeks left before taking a train to Le Havre to catch our ship across the Atlantic. I simply had to finish the blanket! I only had one last border round to do.

Crochet… crochet… final tuck. Phew! It was done. At last!

Et voilà! It went really well with Mom’s garden.

Detail of a corner and border.

Luna had seen me work on it a little bit, so she wasn’t surprised at all when I gave it to her. She said: “But you showed this to me before!” I laughed and replied that I wasn’t done with it the 1st time, but this time it’s all finished and it was hers. I asked: “Do you like it?” She responded: “Yes, it’s beeeeeautiful!”

This blanket has seen the world and has been seen by the world. It was one of the biggest projects I have ever gotten into. It has also proven that I am apparently ETA*-impaired. But I am very proud of it and it is now living a happy life on Luna’s bed… where it fits just about right.

Luna, the bed and the blankie from Tata Steph.

PS: For the geeks… here are some figures about the blanket.

Started: Oct 2010
Completed: Aug 2012
Length of white yarn: ~ 3000 yards / **** meters
Length of colored yarn: ~ 1200 yards / 1 097 meters
Crochet hook size: H and I
Number of squares: 19 x 36 = 684
Number of border rows: 4
Number of threads to tuck (3 per square): 2052
Time per square (color + white): 10 – 15 minutes
Time per border: 90 – 120 minutes
Time to stitch 1 row: 60 – 90 minutes
Time to tuck one thread: 30 seconds (0.5 minutes)
Estimated number of hours of work:
Minimum: (684*10)+(4*90)+(2052*0.5)+(60*36) = 10386 minutes = 173.1 hours
Maximum: (684*15)+(4*120)+(2052*0.5)+(90*36) = 15006 minutes = 250.1 hours
Average: 12696 minutes = 211.6 hours. That’s 8.81 days of non-stop work without sleeping, eating or peeing.
Countries visited while crocheting: New Zealand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, India, France.

* Estimated Time of Arrival

Answer: point and shoot camera + binoculars (ok and a little photo-editing).

I have a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS with a 3x optical zoom which does an ok job and a 12x digital zoom that’s never satisfying to me. As I was looking at the stunning Maasai Mara wildlife through my compact and affordable Olympus Roamer 8 x 21 DPC 1 binoculars, I had an idea: what if I could use the binoculars as my zoom lens? It turns out that the PowerShot lens fits perfectly into one of the Olympus Roamer eye-cups – voilà!

If you take shots without using the camera’s zoom into the binoculars, you’ll create a bold vignetting effect, at 8x magnification, which makes for a pretty cool artistic touch. The following shots all have been taken using this method.

Gazelle

Spotted hyena

Giraffe

Buffaloes

The king

The queen

The queen cleaning herself

Acacia tree with impalas

A mama cheetah and her two cubs

You actually can use your camera zoom in addition to the binocular magnification. The result will look more like a regular zoomed photo, without the vignetting effect.

The results don’t have the same quality as an actual telephoto lens on a DSLR, but for a fraction of cost, I find the point & shoot + binoculars combo to be fairly effective, with an artistic twist.

Tips:
- Try to align the lens to match the desired vignetting effect: either fuzzy and off-centered or well-defined and centered
- Focus the binoculars first and then get the camera to focus on the subject. If the binoculars are not in focus to begin with, you’ll get a blurry or at the very least, fuzzy picture.
- Your picture may look a bit washed out, but that’s something easily fixed with a bit of added contrast and saturation using a photo-editing program.

The other thing I discovered is that anyone who’s been to India has strong opinions about it. I heard all sorts of things before going there like:

“It’s awesome!”
“I hated it.”
“You’ll get sick.”
“It’s intense!”
“It’s chaos!”
“You’re constantly hassled.”
“You’ll get sick for sure.”
“The best and worst moments I spent traveling were in India and happened on the same day.”
“You can’t be in a hurry.”
“It’s too hot in X, don’t go there.”
“You have to go to Varanasi, you must go to Rishikesh, Hampi is so nice, Mumbai is great, Goa, Shimla, Amritsar, Jaisalmer, Agra, Dharamshala, Pondicherry, Jaipur, Mount Abu, Kerala, oh and Mysore for yoga galore.” (If you look at a map, these places are scattered all over India.)
“The food is great but you’ll definitely get sick.”
“It’s very dirty.”
“Don’t look at men in the eye.”
“You’re a walking ATM.”
“It’s an assault to all senses.”
“Trains are awesome.”
“Trains are awful.”
“Buses are the way to go.”
“Buses are horrible.”
“Planes are so convenient.”
“Traveling on land is the only way to do it.”

Out of what everyone told me, the only thing that turned out to be 100% true was that India was a sensory overload. That was in fact the most rewarding aspect of visiting India, way beyond any Taj Mahal, forts or palaces one might see. Your eyeballs are constantly fed with incredible sights, your ears are overloaded with honking and loogie hacking, your skin feels the dust and the heat, your nose smells the spices, the flowers and also the manure and piss, finally your taste buds are treated with all the complex and rich flavors of Indian cuisine. I’d also add that your 6th sense takes a hit: being constantly alert, making split-second decisions, dodging things all the time, exercising patience with the surroundings, all while trying to maintain a sense of composure.

What I found the most challenging was the noise. The incessant honking. It’s the honking that got to me in Hanoi, it’s the honking that got to me in India. Since I knew I would have to deal with it for several weeks, I trained myself to wear earplugs whenever I needed them, which was pretty much anytime we were outside our hotel room. It might sound a bit excessive but I would even walk in the streets with earplugs and it worked! I could have titled this post: “The secret to surviving India: earplugs”.

Even if I’m painting this a little dark, our time in India was extremely freeing for me. I had an enormous buildup of anxiety about the place, more than any other country we’ve visited. But our journey offered up one fear at a time and let me conquer each in turn. Oh look, we haven’t made any reservations whatsoever. I’m ok. Oh look, we’re in a busy train station. I’m ok. Oh look, we’re on a sleeper train. I’m ok. Oh look, it’s over 40°C out. I’m ok. Oh look, we’re eating Indian food at every meal. I’m ok. Oh look, our taxi dropped us off at the wrong spot in the middle of Kolkata at night. I’M O.K.!

On the upper bunk of an AC2 sleeper train (Kolkata to Varanasi)

Turns out I have overcome all of my fears, including a 6hr non-AC, non-assigned hard seat train ride, being the only white peeps, shaking a million hands, talking broken English the whole time, enduring temperatures of 45°C (113°F) and breathing in the desert dust. I didn’t love it, but I survived it (unlike poor Justin). Oh and what about the (again, non-AC) bus ride down Mount Abu where people were hanging their heads out the window to puke their guts out the whole way? That was a fun one too. I had my window tightly sealed, despite the blazing heat, to avoid any windblown remnants of Indian breakfasts. Could I do it again if I needed to? Hmm, I suppose, perhaps, maybe, sure. Would I do it again if I had a choice? Uh nope. But at least I got through these things patiently without panicking.

That said, we also had fantastic experiences.

The food was delicious.

Vegetarian Thali (Varanasi)

I got an insanely beautiful henna tattoo on both my lower legs and feet (makes me wonder about making that a real one…)

The sweet artist and I, showing off the still-wet henna. It later turned brown. Gorgeous! (Udaipur)

We felt fully immersed in the culture of India and witnessed the full spectrum of human activity.

A street filled with kids getting out of school (Udaipur)

Daily laundry at the ghat (Udaipur)

A pedicab driver’s nap (Agra)

Sharing the street with holy cows (Udaipur)

I learned how to paint a miniature elephant Rajasthani style (more on that later).

The final result of 4-5 hours of painting with a master (Udaipur)

We stayed in a stunning hotel room overlooking a beautiful lake.

The view at sunset from out bedroom (Udaipur)

We saw a wild sloth bear up close (no photo, it was night time).

We learned how to make naan and chapati bread.

Cooking a naan on a skillet (Udaipur)

We interacted with local people.

Getting my picture taken with an Indian family (Mount Abu)

After 4.5 weeks, we’d had our fill and were ready to move on. However, India definitely holds a spot among the highly indelible places we’ve visited and perhaps would like to go back to. Who knows, our visas are good for 5 years.

Weather: Stormy
Yoga: Skip morning class to make phone calls. I need to get off this island.
Other activity:
- I try and call boat companies… I either can’t even get to them because the phones aren’t working or I get the “we don’t know yet, call back in 2 hours” answer.
- I decide to pack up and go to the piers to see what’s really going on.
- After borrowing Dee’s scooter to find and ask my 4×4 dude to pick me up and take me to the Thong Sala piers, I get there at about 10am.

The pier waiting area is full of people. All the boat company booths are closed, except for 2 makeshift tables. I elbow myself through the crowds and ask if there are any boats to Koh Samui today. I get handed a pen to write my name on a list. I ask if they know what time the boat would leave but they couldn’t answer me. “We will call your name when boat ready”. I don’t have the best feeling about this. That person didn’t seem to belong to any specific boat companies and there were loads of people waiting around.

I get a call from Justin: “I hear that if you want to take the Navy ship” *oh wow, it wasn’t just a rumor!* “you should get on the waiting list at the Phanganchai Hotel across from the piers”. I go to the hotel. The crowd was even thicker than at the piers (my favorite), I find the list, put my name down and wait. I try to find information, *any* information about what’s going on, but no-one seems to be able to tell me anything solid other than the Navy ship is supposed to come pick us up.

About an hour later, a loud speaker-phone from a car in front of the hotel announced that we needed to make destination groups. Some for Bangkok, some for Koh Samui and some for Surrathani (nearest mainland port). People with their huge backpacks move around like frantic ants. I get in my Koh Samui group and get instructed to wait while the Bangkok group gets called to leave.

I wait.

Meanwhile I hear things like “they are evacuating Koh Samui too, it’s worse there” or “53 Bangkok Air flights have been canceled from the Koh Samui airport” or “the Navy ship is anchored in the bay” or “the Navy ship has trouble getting anchored in the bay” or “on the mainland, no bus or train can go up to Bangkok because of major landslides. The road is obliterated 56 places.” I’m wondering if I should’ve gone in the Bangkok group.

Two hours later (4pm), they announce that no boat will leave the island today. We should return to guesthouses and check again tomorrow. Hmm… I decide to go check out what’s going on at the pier. I see a huge line of what looks like people waiting for something. At that point, I was ready to go *anywhere*. I get in line and try to find out what it’s for. It was for the navy ship… the sick/children/elderly priority group only. I decide to stick around just in case they have extra room since everybody else went back to their rooms. Of course this entire time, it’s raining like crazy.

Trying to keep the spirits high, waiting for a boat in Thong Sala.

Announcement: “The boat is broken. No boat tonight.” The boat is broken? Which boat? The Navy ship? Another boat? Nobody can answer. Ugh, so frustrating! (The Navy ship had to anchor a few miles away because of the bad seas. I later understood that it was the boat that would take us to the Navy ship that was “broken” or just plain couldn’t sail because the seas were too moody. )

I realized I need to spend the night on the island. I didn’t want to go back to the retreat, it was too far, so I need to find a room here, near the piers. I go back to the Phanganchai hotel… they are booked. Ok, I heard a British couple talking about how nice and cheap Phangan Bungalows resort was, so I grab a taxi and head over there. Of course the power was out, so the small, dark and humid bamboo bungalows really didn’t seem like the place to stay. I pass. I ask the taxi driver to bring me to guesthouses closer to the pier. We hit 5 or 6 places: all fully booked. Yikes! I then request to just go back to the Phanganchai hotel for plan B, which I would come up with on the way.

Plan B was to call my 4×4 dude and go back to the retreat. However, in front of the Phanganchai hotel, I decide to check with them one last time.
- “Are you sure you’re full?”
- “Actually Ma’am, we have one last room, 1000 bht.”
- “Really?”.
The very next second, a couple comes up to the front desk and says:
- “Ok, we’ll take both rooms unless someone else needs it”.
- Front desk guy: “This lady right here is taking it”.
- The couple to me: “Wow your timing is impeccable! We were going to take two rooms, but we don’t really need them both.”
- Me: “Are you sure? Thank you so much!”
I had a room.

Spirits/comments:
- Exhausted, but feeling like I did everything I could. Hopeful for the next day.

Day 11 – Thursday

Weather: Not raining!!

Having stayed on Koh Phangan Wednesday night meant that I would miss my early Thursday morning flight to Bangkok from Koh Samui, which meant I would miss our connection in Bangkok to Kolkata which meant that we would most likely miss our flight to Varanasi the next day. Since we didn’t know when I would actually be able to get off this island, Justin canceled the Varanasi flight and rescheduled our flight to Kolkata for 4 days later. We’d meet in Bangkok.

Thursday morning, I go to the hotel lobby by 7:30 am to see what’s going on. The lobby was quasi empty. What did I miss? No one could tell me… I’m used to that by now. I put myself on the Navy ship list again and head to the pier. Hallelujah, one counter is open and seems to be giving out tickets. I get in line and miraculously get a ticket for Koh Samui leaving at 11am. I felt so happy. Moving forward! Back at the hotel, the spaghetti bolognaise breakfast (which was proof of food shortages on the island) was delicious.

The boat was a bit late, but we did indeed leave and arrive safely on the other side without too much swell. In the meantime, I was able to reschedule my flight for 5:35pm the same day… hoping that flights were indeed departing Koh Samui.

Walking towards the taxi line, I saw this:

This was my indication that everything will be just fine.

Indeed, I got to the airport, had lunch, treated myself to a much-deserved Thai massage, lounged in the very cute gate and boarded the on-time flight. Sheer relief.

I arrived in Bangkok in time for a fantastic street-stall dinner with my love, waiting for me eagerly.

Weather: Very stormy: crazy winds with buckets of rain. Forecast says it’ll stop on Tuesday (can you see a trend?).
Yoga: Taking the day off.
Other activity:
- Deal with my room getting flooded by the excessive rain.
- The power went out, so during a brief break in the storm, I tried to find electricity (I was told some resorts run on generators) and possibly internet…
- I find electricity at a restaurant, but my computer doesn’t want to turn on… hmm.
- I see the restaurant has a computer, but internet doesn’t work (it was working 10 minutes ago for that little boy to Skype his Dad!…)
- Ok, I ask about getting a massage, but they are “too busy”
- I could tell my non-rain window was pretty slim, so I try to go see a waterfall, but the road was a complete muddy mess with branches all over and giant water-filled potholes. I give up.
- Back at the retreat, the power is still out and I still can’t get a hold of Justin.
Spirits/comments:
- Everything that day was meant to not happen. I took it without too much frustration and let it be.

Day 8 – Monday

Weather: Storm hell. Insane gusts of winds, torrential downpour. Forecast says it’ll stop on Wednesday (I don’t believe the forecasts anymore!!)
Yoga: Small classes… people are stranded in their bungalows because of flooded roads. Distracted by storm, but good classes. I feel stronger.
Other activity:None, too stormy.
Spirits/comments:
- No power most of the day and evening
- Room super flooded (only have a dry pathway around my bed and to my bathroom)
- My room was right below the yoga platform which had big plastic shades weighed down with metal rodes to protect from the rain. These shades would fly and bang into the outside walls such that I would continuously think they would pierce through my bedroom wall and knock me dead.
Good luck relaxing in a room with such a racket, no electricity (thank goodness for my headlamp!) and potential giant spiders creeping up anytime (I only had to deal with a teenage giant spider once).
- We heard that no boats left the island today.
- I finally talk to Justin who was back in Chiang Mai, in signal range, yay! That made me very happy except I explain to him the weather situation down here and that I would try and get on a boat Tuesday instead of Wednesday to make sure I’d make it in time for my flight early Thursday morning on Koh Samui.

Day 9 – Tuesday

Weather: Still stormy, slightly less than Monday. Forecast says there’s no hope. All roads to beaches (and commodities) are flooded, some mid-thigh high. I felt lucky we were up on a hill at least.
Yoga: Morning class felt ok. Distracted by weather. Evening class was the best I have ever performed. I did everything and it felt great. Yay!
Other activity:
- Return the scooter… Or scoot down in the storm to the nearest non-flooded beach because not even land-lines are working, find the only 4×4 taxi (or dude who owns a 4×4) to bring me to the scooter rental place to give the keys back (but not the scooter because roads are so freakin’ flooded) and recoup my passport.
- Call all possible boat companies to see if any are leaving today. When ever the phone would actually work, all answers were “no boats today”. Even from the big car ferry that always runs no matter what the weather: no boats today.
- We overhear at dinner someone saying that a Navy ship was sent to pick up stranded tourists on the islands. I thought it was just a rumor… what kind of drastic measure would that be?
Spirits/comments:
- Now I’m wondering if I’ll be able to make it off the island at all.
- This is supposed to be the dry season… talk about witnessing climate change!

To be continued…

Weather: Gorgeous.
Yoga: 1st class – very hard. Shaky legs, brain thinking “Really? I’m going to have to do this twice a day? What the heck? How can I drop out?”
Pranayama (breathing) and the lecture were good.
2nd class – better for my mind but harder for my body. Couldn’t do everything, I’m so out of shape.
Other activity:
- Before the 1st class I told the very nice manager “Wim” about the broken sink. Funny thing is, when we enter the room… my curtain was on the ground! What the heck? Am I some sort of destruction machine? He thought that the curtain was the issue and said “No problem, easy, easy, easy.” I kindly explained that it actually was not the problem and led him to the bathroom. He screamed and covered is mouth with his hands, looking at me with “how the heck did that happen?” in his eyes. I explain what happened and he was very nice about it. “Easy, very easy. No problem” he said about 15 times. He made me change rooms to a similar one next door refusing for me to pay anything for the sink.
- After the 2nd class’ sweat-fest, with Dee (a fellow student), we put on our swim suits and headed to the beach. After a good dip, we had dinner with our feet in the sand. Pretty freakin’ great.
- I try to call Justin, but I have no signal.
Spirits/comments:
- I’m wondering if I’ll be able to handle the yoga classes.
- I’m loving the island and scooting around.

Day 2 – Tuesday

Weather: Gorgeous + brief rain at dinner time.
Yoga: 1st class – I cry more than half the class. Uncontrollably. I still did everything, but with a wet face and wiping snot every two seconds. I figured I’d let myself because clearly something was coming out.
2nd class – slightly easier than the 1st day, but my body is pretty sore.
Other activity:
- Had lunch and a diph in the sea with Dee.
- Got another sim card to be able to call Justin… it works except it looks like he doesn’t have signal at the Elephant Park. Grrr.
Spirits/comments:
- emotionally pretty drained.
- frustrated about not being able to get in touch with Justin
- feeling lucky to be in such a gorgeous place

Day 3 – Wednesday

Weather: Rain
Yoga: both classes feel ok, but my body is very sore. Ouch.
Other activity: nothing… I stay at the retreat all day
Spirits/comments:
- I try to rest my body as much as possible.
- I wish I could call Justin.

Day 4 – Thursday

Weather: Rain, rain. Forecast says it’s a 5 day storm, should stop on Sunday.
Yoga: 3 classes! Hatha, Acro yoga (partnering/acrobatics) and Ashtanga. All were very hard but very fun.
Other activity: Nothing, no time… yoga, yoga, yoga!
Spirits/comments:
- Thank goodness I have yoga to do during this stupid rain.
- I am finally at peace with the fact that I won’t be able to speak with Justin while he’s volunteering.

Day 5 – Friday

Weather: Rain again. Forecast says it should stop on Monday.
Yoga: Very hard. My body is very sore and very tired.
Other activity:
- found internet
- had a great Indian buffet dinner at the retreat with good conversations
Spirits/comments:
- Feel like I need more alone time
- Rain is a bummer because it limits my exploring abilities
- Feeling emotional at the end of 2nd yoga class.

Day 6 – Saturday

Weather: Rain, no rain, rain. Forecast confirms it should stop on Monday.
Yoga: Morning class ok, Acro yoga, skip evening class. Need rest.
Other activity:
- Reiki session, which made me feel incredibly grounded. It’s exactly what I needed.
- Scooting around with no aim during a break in the rain. I even had time to sit on the beach and do some Pranayamas.
Spirits/comments:
- Moral is up
- Feeling calmer, more in tune with myself.

Trying to look at peace in this Acro Yoga asana.

To be continued…

To get there, I flew from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui (the nearest island with an airport), stayed overnight in an awesome resort and took a fast boat to Koh Phangan the next day.

Day 0 – Sunday

Weather: Gorgeous
Yoga: Met the yoga teacher, Olivier (yay, I can speak French!). Got a briefing about the schedule:
- 9-11am Hatha Yoga + Pranayama (breathing techniques)
- 11:30am-noon Lecture
- 4-6pm Ashtanga Yoga
Other activity:
- Rent scooter for the 10 days stay… take it for a spin to the beach, get oriented.
- Call Justin with my feet in the warm sea water.

Haad Salad was the nearest beach to the retreat. So lovely!

- FUNNY story: I broke my room’s sink! Yep, the sink. Let me explain. I brush my teeth in the bathroom and it turns out it’s one of those sinks that just evacuates water onto the bathroom floor to then be directed to the main drain. So lots of water was just stagnating around my toilet with a bunch of toothpaste foam. Yuk. So I thought I’d clean it up by using the shower nozzle to push the water into the drain. I put a hand on the sink and reach for the nozzle when I hear BABAAAAMMMM! This is what I see:

Oopsie! I look down and double check I have all 10 toes. They’re all there, phew! Everyone went to bed already so once I could get my heartbeat to calm down, I decided to let it be and deal with it the next morning.

Spirits/comments:
- Pre breaking the sink, all I could think of was: SWEET!
- Post breaking the sink, all I could think of was: “Hello, my name is Stephanie. We just met… you won’t believe me but I broke your sink!” Great way to make a first impression. Ok, now go to sleep!

To be continued…

From Justin’s description:

The park, founded in the early 1990s by Sangduen “Lek” Chailert, is a sanctuary for domestic Asian elephants that have been rescued from logging and trekking operations, street begging, and performing. Many of the elephants have serious physical and mental handicaps, due to mistreatment, malnourishment, and/or the hardship of the labor they endured.

We got to feed the elephants (here I’m giving her a piece of watermelon). These things can eat! 200-300kg of food per day – yikes!

Trunks are such great tools… I want one.

Their skin is said to be an inch thick!

Tail and butt skin: thick but pliable.

Stomp… stomp…

The funnest part of the day was to bathe the elephants. It consisted of going in the river with buckets and splashing them with water.

When a whole group did it together, it made for an awesome elephant shower!

It was a deeply moving and humbling day. I realized how much we have no idea how badly animals are treated to generate money off of tourists (elephant rides). If you are visiting Thailand or any other country offering elephant-rides, show-casing elephants as circus animals, painters, etc… please verify that the company’s training techniques aren’t harmful. In doubt, don’t partake.

*Very gunky* Elephant kiss. Mmmwwwaaahhh!

You can read Justin’s week-long experience and how the park founder, Lek, sang an elephant to sleep here and more pictures here.

This was my workstation: the loom.

It was a little overwhelming at first, but I got the hang of it after a while.

This was my view: the first few rows, the million strings everywhere, the shuttle, my feet on the bamboo pedals.

Making the first motif was really challenging. The logic was not evident at first. Thank goodness the whole time my teacher was watching with attentive eyes.

Then came the very long stretch… 80 cm of purple.

Finally, the last motif. By then I was a little more confident.

Here is the action for 2 motif rows (of course I’m at snail speed compared to the pros and don’t know the lingo):

1: Take motif string up (white vertical strings), separate the white strings well, to make the specific row we need
2: Insert the wooden separator in between the black strings by lifting the front white strings on both sides
3: Flip the separator vertical
4: Pass the shuttle with the red silk through, align well
5: Flip separator horizontal and tap in sharply
6: Press the right pedal down
7: Pass the shuttle with the purple silk through, align
8: Release pedal and tap in sharply
9: Repeat 3 – 8 the opposite way

My teacher and I with the final product: a 120cm raw silk scarf with a traditional Lao motif. This is probably the best class I’ve ever taken.

First, we picked the Annatto off the tree, which was going to make the “monk-orange” color. We had to open the pod and collect the little balls into a mortar.

Donatta and I worked hard at extracting those little suckers.

After crushing them with a pestle, the bright red powder was ready.

The powder was then added to boiling water and bubbled for a few minutes. You could see the color of the foam turn orange.

Once boiled enough, we dipped some white silk into the hot dyeing pot and left it there for half an hour or so.

After being dried in the sun, this is what they looked like finished: Annatto made Orange, the heart wood of the sappan tree mixed with metal made Purple and mixed with a limestone paste made Red.