The End and Beginning
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2007
1
24
33
Trip End
Dec 02, 2007
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Friday, November 23, 2007
Today was a fun day though as we were making herbal balls which they use in therapeutic massage. This involved chopping and pestalling lots of different herbs and then wrapping them in muslin. In the afternoon we got to use them :-)
They are heated up in a steamer (or microwave) and are really hot. The smell and juice they exude though is fab and the feeling is great. Really good on tight muscles. Those of you in Bristol might be in for a treat when I get back :-)
We made our Kratongs over lunchtime which was fun. I nearly lost my flowers though and they thought they were the school so gave them all out! I did get enough though to make my kratong nice and pretty. I'm putting it on the river tonight so will upload pics (if they come out).
Then it was time for graduation. This was quite beautiful as several people made lovely speaches and some even sang. We got our certificates and everything and then had cake.
It was really quite sad leaving there as the teachers are so lovely, several came up and said nice things and I will miss being there. I'm sure I will back though.
The evening didn't quite go as planned. Everyone was to meet at a coffee place at 6.30 so we could decide what to do. However by 7pm there were only 3 of us there. A few turned up but said they had things to do but would meet us later by the river (easier said than done). So we were left with 3 from our class, a girl from a different class who we hadn't met before and 2 friends of Nola's from Canada. We had a walk to the river and put our Kratongs in the water, which was nice. Then we went for some food and had a really nice indian near the night bazaar.
Afterwards we decided to head for the rasta bar area to have a drink and stuff. I think they were all a bit tired because we only had one drink before they headed off home. I stayed on with Kim for a bit longer and we then had a walk back to our guesthouses. We said our goodbyes as she was off to Laos the next day.
It was a nice evening but not the party I had expected and I didn't get to say goodbye to many of the people from my course which was a real shame.
I found out later from Dana that they had all met up somewhere and had a great time, doing fire dancing and letting of balloons. Felt a bit miffed really but that's just the way it goes I guess..
A proud moment
