I would do yoga, but I don’t want hepatitis
After almost 3 weeks of great yoga sessions in Koh Phangan, I was ready to commit myself to a daily practice. That’s a lot easier said than done.
Take our stop Penang, Malaysia, for instance. Upon arriving, we spent at least an hour trying to find a particular hotel with no luck. We eventually got tired and ended up at a fairly dingy place. We’ve stayed in some substandard places before, so we didn’t think too much about it. What was not mentioned at check-in, though, was that bordering one of our rooms was a room occupied by a “lady of the night”. On the other side, was a man speaking loud Chinese into his phone while making some sort of puking sounds. If it wasn’t puking, then he was probably expelling a cat from his stomach. Not exactly a good yoga setting, but whatever.
Trying to be the true yoga practitioner, I looked around to see where the mat might go. When I looked around, however, I quickly noticed that it looked like the room probably hadn’t been cleaned since Reagan was president. Some dust and dirt is ok, but after hearing rodents scramble around in the roof above and knowing that rodents are usually not potty-trained, I quickly reliquished the idea of doing a good yoga practice. I was seriously afraid that if I did savasana and touched outside the mat, I might contract at least one form of hepatitis. (Not to mention the bad omen of doing the “death pose” in a place like that.)
I know the true yogi would be able to ignore these distractions and continue the practice. Unfortunately, I’m only 3 weeks into my practice, making me as much of a yogi as Flavor Flav.
Some day, I’ll learn to use yoga and my mind to block out my surroundings. Until then, I’ll opt for a hepatitis free body and a hope that the next town will be better.
- Kyle
Photo: Funky64
