The challenges of a tropical paradise

Ahh... Legian. Thats the area we are staying in for most of our trip. No doubt I'll be writing about the area a bit more, on another day.

Generally, I love staying here - although the last couple of days have been marked by alot of noisy children and their bogan parents. Bogan? Gee, isn't that a bit harsh? Well, let's analyze the data... Do they sit around all day smoking? Check. Drinking? Check. Supervising their kids in the pool? Hell no, that might interfere with the smoking, drinking, ice- retrieval activities... Their kids are actually throwing rocks at each other in the pool...

Anyway all the screaming and splashing was putting a dampener on my plans for relaxation, so yesterday I headed off to a yoga class to try and focus on something calming. I've only ever done a couple of yoga classes, which I really enjoyed, but I'm no expert. So I did my research and went along to the yoga place beforehand, and asked which was the best class for a total beginner. The receptionist suggested this particular class - "good for beginners", she said. Not for this beginner. As it turns out, there is a big difference between a yoga class taught in a breezy outdoor pavilion in a gorgeous health resort in Queensland and yoga class crammed with 25 people in a hot, closed room in Bali.

The Balinese instructor kept saying after describing each move, "feel your body, feel your body, feel your body" (the words repeated three times, without fail), but the opposite was happening to me. First, I started to lose the feeling in my knees, then I started to notice my hearing was oddly fading, then the familiar feeling of gravity keeping me upright abandoned me and finally, I started feeling like I might lose my lunch. I bolted. None too subtly either. Massive fail. I lasted 20 minutes of a 90 minute class and stumbled out, dizzy, breathless and in search of water. Perhaps an activity where the majority of time is spent with your head hanging upside down is not for me... Next time I need to de-stress from a pool load of screaming kids, I think I'll go for a shiatsu.


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