Friday, December 28, 2012

Travelogue Phuket 2012 - The arrival

The thing about traveling is that before u begin it seems so intimidating, with all the planning, organizing that needs to be done and of course the fact that u are stepping out of your comfort zone, into a new place ( a new country), but once it starts it just begins, it turns into an exciting journey, an adventure u don't wish to get over.

The one trick that I have learnt to get the most out of travels is never to set up any expectations, just a rough idea what the travel will be about but no expectations, that ways I get more to enjoy and less disappointment. I used the same trick this time, the rough idea was to take a break and enjoy while doing a bit of sight seeing, exploring, trying out Thai cuisine, trying Muay Thai (it was my first time and Jacob's main focus of the trip), relax and make the most of the opportunity that I have.

The flight was uneventful, of course I had to make a dash to catch my connecting flight across Bangkok airport but that was fun and I reached Phuket, the moment I walked out I realized what was it that I'd forgotten while packing - Umbrella and of course it was raining when I reached.

Found the cab Jacob had pre-arranged for me, the cab driver was the owner of the service and he had been thoughtful and kind enough to bring his wife along, just so that I won't feel uncomfortable traveling with him alone at night from the airport to Chalong where we were staying ( a thing that made me fall in love with Thai people, they are so thoughtful and always ready to help, to the extent of going way out of their way to do so that too for complete strangers without hesitating once, it just leaves one feeling so warm inside). By the way if u wish to know Phuket better and it's always a good idea to do so before travel, going through wikitravel is a very good option, followed by whatever other sites u find.

Phew so I was in Phuket, the first night we stayed at The Signature, in Chalong, located near Tiger Muay Thai (the camp where we were training) it's like this long street of one resort after another with restaurants and bars here and there. Checked out the whole street, had dinner and dropped off to sleep 'cuz I had to wake up early to start training at 6!!!!! (Wham!! yep I'm one of those crazy people who crib about having to wake up early for work everyday and say that there was no way that they would get out of bed early if they had it their way, and then bloody end up waking up early everyday on a holiday)

Of course, I did manage to wake up in time next day (and everyday after that because I had relentless and unyielding alarm clock called Jacob with me, Sigh). Went for the training (I was panting, sweating and aching more than I was training, but considering that it was my first day, I survived 3 and a half hrs of yoga with kick boxing and warm ups pretty well!!).

When we started we used to have this one hour yoga session before our workout (we skipped it later 'cuz it was too much and left us low on energy for our training) but on the first day the Yoga instructor mentioned somewhere during the training 'hold what would u want to hold on to and let go what u want to let go' this got me pondering, I hardly ever know what to hold on to and what to let go, but both are equally important things in life to be aware of, otherwise we just add onto the mental, emotional and physical burden and end up wasting a good chunk of our energy and time which could have been used better to things which are pointless. And so I have been contemplating and working on who and what to hold on to and to let go.

The other thing that I realized while I was training was, that I wasn't pushing myself hard enough. I stopped when I thought my body had had enough, I wasn't trying to push against it's limits and I realized that, not just in for this training, I had been doing this to everything else in life. I don't know whether it's a good thing to do or not, but it did irk me and left me pondering.

Have I become too complacent? I am letting myself getting trapped within the limits of my comfort zone? I think yes, Is it good? Honestly, I haven't figured out yet, but I did resolve to push against my limits over the next few days and I did, slowly and realized that I could challenge my limits and I could push against them and that it was something I enjoyed. And I think I am going to apply this in other aspects of my everyday life.

1 comment:

Suz said...

Oh it is so hard to push past those comfort zones
....