Health Oasis, Koh Samui

March 12th, I come back to Health Oasis Resort, my familiar fasting/cleansing meditation facility. Manta welcomes me with her big smile. 'Okay, Manta, this time I don't have a lot of time. -I was supposed to start fasting 5 days ago- we'll do a speed fasting, for 5 days and I can start colonic right away, and the day I come out of fasting I want to do the cooking lesson.' very American, not recommended way for serious healthy thinkers.

The following day I fall from a motorbike and injure my back seriously. Why i needed a moto in the first place while fasting is also a questionable point, lot to do with my psychological and emotional state. Anyway I practice loads of newly-initiated reiki on myself and start regaining energy, or rather working the pain off by mental power. It is very challenging and mind-opening experience at the same time. one of those mornings when i come out of meditation and reiki on the beach, i look to my left and see a black dot coming aproach from afar. it's a guy jogging with a water buffalo. what a way to wake from meditation, total surrealistic Dali moment.

Here are some of the lovely staff members at Health Oasis Resort. Clockwise from top left; When I met Nai last year, I knew this smart and hardworking Burmese boy would be so important to the value which this place creates. Kiu runs the resort's organic kitchen, one place i don't really have business with while fasting in this resort. I only get to have a few things on her menu right before or after the fasting. And Mr. Colonic Tong with his big smile! His baby daughter has become 2 years old and being raised by his mother in Burma, while he wakes up fasting guests with Psyllium-Bentonite shake at 7am every morning, sets your colonic bench in your bathroom and wash them after use twice every day. And all the Thai massage therapists at lunch break. Some new faces this year, including Gai on far left in the bottom left picture above, who gives me gentle aloma oil + hot stone massage and slowly eases my back pain off.

[left]Jackie and Joey, with big Brooklyn accent (I would have been certain that they were those typical Italian American from Brooklyn, but they turned out to be Jewish, after all what do I know about this mystical world if I can't tell Italians and Jews from my own neighbourhood?) they too are annual return visitors of this paradise. Jackie, left, has met Bob Dylan and John Lennon. He just gets what he wants.
[right] Manta grew up in Northern Thailand, with twelve siblings and was always in the role of taking care of the others. Self-taught cooking, meditation and reiki. Now she just wants to make people happy. She wishes to branch out the same kind of healing center elsewhere (let's do it together in Cambodia! I said) as well as keep the business at Health Oasis Resort upgraded and more sophisticated. Hey I say this is the most sophisticated place i ever stayed in the last 2 and a half months. If you are seeking for your spiritual/mental/physical wellness(as you should be), visit www.healthoasisresort.org

[left]Sunday, March 18th, Boat from Nathon pier leaves Koh Samui behind once again. [right]and this is my sleeper car on the train from Suratthani back to Bangkok. Riding through gorgeous Thai country side, I'll return to that crazy capital by 5:30 tomorrow morning.