My first three weeks abroad was a whirlwind of introductions to Chiang Mai as a bodyworker’s training ground, settling into my new temporary home and meeting new friends almost all of which have already left.
I definitely feel a part of me dies when a friend or epic character in Chiang Mai leaves. Soon enough it will be me who bids farewell.
“I’m sad now. I’ll never see you again,” I said to my Fabio-esque Portuguese friend Andre.
“Noooo,” Andre said with ruffled brow and wide smile. “Until next year!”
I guess that’s what people do. They come back.
Without all the socializing to distract me, I get to slow down and focus on recharging and school.
Bodywork is energetically draining in the best way possible. At the end of each day: seven hours of massaging and being massaged by novices, I am exhausted. In exchange, I feel more present and in my body than ever before. I am more aware of myself and others. I feel closer to source. I don’t feel like drinking, and if so, just a simple glass of beer or cocktail is enough. I feel independent, do what I want and spend time with whom I choose.
And guess what else? Everybody’s doing it.
I’m not alone in my decision to uproot my life, quit my job and pursue my passions in body work and movement arts. 90% of the people I’ve met here are doing the same exact thing or a version there of.
Vinnie, my friend who owns a yoga studio in Chicago sold all his belongings and came to Thailand to learn Thai Massage. Catarina from Germany has done the same. Andre and Eric, both bodyworkers from Portugal come to Chiang Mai each year to deepen their knowledge of Thai Massage and learn complimentary modalities.
Livia and Monica, a young Brazilian couple who met in London came to Chiang Mai specifically to learn Thai Massage, but took a side-trip to someplace called The Circus, a bodyworker commune in Laos with no internet and no phone communication; A place where people learn yoga, mediation, Acro Yoga and Thai Massage for one month and only let forty people in at a time.
And where there are bodyworkers, there are also treatments! The master bodyworkers are mostly circulated by word of mouth.
There is a woman named Om who does deep abdominal work and also massages men’s prostrate and women’s nerve endings through the anus. There is a Shaolin monk who practices in town and is reveared as a deep healer. You won’t find him on the internet, but I have his card. Tok Sen is an ancient Thai Massage that uses a wooden mallet and wedge, and there’s a guy at the temple past the police station that does it for just 150 Baht.
Pichet is the name of a well-respected but eccentric Thai Massage Master. He does not give his students lesson plans or books to learn from, nor is there a specified amount of time one should go to his school. No one has been able to describe exactly how he teaches, but everyone agrees, “You have to go to understand.”
Want to write a blog about your travels? Everyone’s doing it. Taking a few months off from life as long as you can afford to? Everyone is doing tbat. Want to learn movement and bodywork from Asia to take back with you to the West? You’re not original. Everybody’s doing it. Traveling the SE Asian backpacker circuit:Thailand, Burma Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam? Oh yeah, everyone’s doing that, too. Having trouble deciding which country to make your Visa Run to? So is everyone else.
Five weeks are not enough time in Chiang Mai. One could stay for 6 months simply taking classes and workshops one after the other. Abdominal massage, Advanced Side-Position, Osteo-Thai, Advanced Thai, Assesment and Treatment, Anatomy, Reflexology, Yoga, Meditation, Buddhism, Nutrition, Cooking School….It is never-ending.
the grass over here 