Getting Down With The Dog

As many of you know, I have tried several different Yoga classes. As many of you also know, I've left several yoga classes more stressed then when I first stepped foot in the door. During a recent trip to Thailand, D convinced me to try a couples yoga class one night before dinner. I said to myself, "Yoga in Thailand couldn't be any worse than Yoga anywhere else."

I put on my Yoga attire, grabbed my mat, and made my way down to the spa. When I got there, I saw that this was the spot where the class was going to take place...

Now most people would say, "This is such a beautiful and peaceful place to practice Yoga". I, however, said to D, "We are doing Yoga outside during dusk? Do they want us all to get Dengue Fever?" For those of you who don't know what Dengue Fever is, it's an infectious tropical disease spread by mosquitoes. The disease is prevalent in many South Asian countries. The mosquitoes that carry Dengue Fever bite during the day..especially right after sunrise and right before sunset. It's bad enough getting those annoying mosquito bites that keep you up scratching all night long. Did I want to get Dengue Fever, a disease with no cure, that has the potential to kill you? Heck no!

I got up off my mat and marched straight back to the room. I covered myself from head to toe in insect repellent. I went back down to the beach where I had D spray his entire body as well.


While we were busy drowning ourselves in bug spray, everyone else was in a pretty relaxed state.

The instructor was interesting. D and I could hardly follow what he was saying, not because we couldn't do the exercises (although we had a rough time) we couldn't understand what he was saying. He kept saying "Dog, now up and down to the dog" I couldn't help but laugh during most of the session.

When I wasn't laughing, taking pictures of the other couples, or reapplying bug spray, I was busy writing the word YOGA in the sand with a stone (see first picture).

I walked out of the Yoga class with the same amount of stress (not much) and lack of flexibility with which I walked into it. I did, however, walk away without a single mosquito bite. I guess you could say the class was a success after all!