Month: October 2016

PANDAS

On By rrainefioreIn China, Travel, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Pandas pandas pandas!  This is one of the other things I was most looking forward to.  Today we went to Chengdu Panda Base.  80% of the pandas in the world live in China.  There are 20 to 30 at Panda Base.  They have been successful at breeding pandas.  They have been able to send some back into the wild as well.  They had trouble getting them to mate at first.  They even tried showing them panda porn to help.  You can go to a website called ipanda if you want to see what’s going on at Panda Base including live panda videos. It was like a zoo, a really lovely place.  It was delightful watching them.  After pandas, we went to a local park.  Chengdu doesn’t get much sun.  The park was packed because it was a sunny day.  Our guide told us that on sunny days a lot of people just don’t go to work.  They go to parks instead.  The park had a huge tea house, ladies playing mahjong, square dancing (more like easy Zumba), and a matchmaking area.  In the matchmaking area, parents whose children haven’t married take a flyer with their children’s info on it and the information of what they are looking for in a mate. They put the flyer on the ground and other parents can read it.  If they want to know more, they can call the parents and set up a meeting. There had to be thousands of flyers with parents standing around reading the flyers.  After that we went to Jinli Street.  It was similar to the ancient city shopping we did yesterday.  Lots of shops, bars and street food.  Then dinner.  There is so much food.  It’s great, they are trying to give us a good variety of local food, but I’m just tired of eating right now.  Plus, in this area, the food is spicy so it’s been an adventure.  We went to the opera after dinner.  I was hoping it would not be an opera the way we know it.  It wasn’t.  It was a great show of dancing, acrobatics and singing.  The two things they are famous for are fire spitting (fire breathing) and face changing.  The face changing was neat.  They would come out with a red mask on, wave a hand and then their face would be blue or some other color.  It changed so fast it was fascinating.  After we got back to the hotel I went hunting for ice cream.  It was not to be found.  I know I had seen it the night before, but couldn’t find it tonight.  I must be getting sick if my ice cream sensing abilities are not working.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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I got to pet a panda

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Tea House

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How to Walk a Bird

On By rrainefioreIn China, Travel, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yesterday was a travel day.  I decided not to walk the city wall.  I called mom and checked some emails instead.  We ate lunch and then flew to Chengdu and then dinner.  Spent some time walking around the city after dinner.  I found cheese flavored ice cream.  How does that happen?  Who thought that was a good idea?  Yes, I ate it.  It was sweet bland ice cream with a cheese after taste.  I cannot recommend it.

I didn’t see this, but some of the other people on the trip did so our guide explained it.  In Xian some people have birds for pets.  They take their birds for a walk in the morning.  They walk and swing the bird cage really high.  The bird then gets to fly in its cage (just trying to stay balanced).  This way, the bird gets exercise.  When the bird is ready to rest, they put them on the ground or hang the cage from a tree.  They cover the cages because they don’t want the birds to get scared or upset from seeing other birds or people.  Huh?  But if somehow two birds do see each other and they like each other, they will open the cage and let the birds visit and socialize with each other.  True story.

Fun fact: Chinese people cannot get social services outside of their home town without paying.  So children who live in rural areas cannot go to the city to attend school unless they pay extra.  Rural teachers don’t get paid enough so the teachers quit.  So, rural children don’t get good educations.  Sometimes the parents leave the home to work in the cities and the grandparents raise the children.  Ok, so that wasn’t really a fun fact, more like and interesting fact.

Today we went to see the Leshan Giant Buddha.  This involved a long drive to a boat dock.  We got on a boat and rode to a big Buddha carved into the rock.  It took 30 years to carve the head and shoulders, 30 years for the body and 30 for the legs. Then after lunch we went to a shopping area that was made to look like an ancient city, or it was an ancient city fixed up.  It was beautiful and fun shopping.  I bought something that looked like roti sai mai, (my favorite Thai dessert), but it was like fuzzy peanut butter.  There were people cleaning ears by sticking small brushes in your ear and then using metal tongs to vibrate the brushes.  I tried that.  Not sure my ears feel cleaner, but it was a unique experience.  The guy did a neck and shoulder massage after that was worth the price of admission.  For dinner we did hot pot. I think I’m not a fan of hot pot.  More walking around the city by night.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Squash stuffed with rice
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Tiny paper red hearts from a wedding

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Scorpion on a Stick

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Warriors

On By rrainefioreIn China, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today we went to see the terra cotta warriors.  This is one of the things I most wanted to see in China.  There are over 8000 terra cotta warriors. A lot of them are still underground because we don’t have the technology to preserve them yet.  Most of the ones they uncovered had bright paint on them.  Within a short period of time, all the color oxidized and was gone. They are 2008 years old. Each warrior has a different face, the faces of the actual soldiers. Before the warriors we went to a shop where they make replica warriors.  They also made lacquer furniture.  The first thing we did in the morning was go to a local park, Xingqing Park.  Like the other parks, there are a lot of retired people exercising and playing games.  Apparently no tourists go to this park except with this tour group.  The people love to see the tourists and invite them in to join.  We did some tai chi, hacky sac, a fan dance and acupressure massage.  It was a lot of fun.  The Chinese people were quick to grab you and have you join in.  They loved taking photos with us too.

We had a dinner show tonight.  It was wonderful, with great costumes and quite a variety of dancing.

We have tomorrow morning off to do what we want.  I’m torn between going to see the drum and bell towers up close, walking along the city wall, and sleeping in.  When we got back to the hotel, one person asked me if I was going to the towers tonight.  Duh.  I could do that tonight and then the wall tomorrow.  We took a taxi from the hotel.  You couldn’t get very close to the bell tower, but you could get pretty close to the drum tower.  It was real pretty, all lit up.  Getting back proved more difficult.  We stood where a lot of taxis were coming by.  One stopped and a Chinese couple appeared from nowhere and took it.  Then the next one stopped and some Chinese people just jumped in front of us and took it.  This went on for quite a while.  Most taxis didn’t even stop.  Most that stopped, drove up to Chinese people instead of us.  Two taxis did stop.  When I handed them the address of the hotel, they both said no.  I finally decided a 40-minute walk lead by Google maps sounded like a great idea.  The guy I was with didn’t like the new plan, but he didn’t have much choice because he wasn’t any more successful at getting a taxi than I was.  We came to a smaller street.  As you looked down it, all you could see is small colored flashy lighted business signs.  It looked like a spy or kung fu movie where the hero escapes into a crowded back alley.  I decided this was the better path back.  It was.  We zig zagged through small restaurants, businesses, street vendors and alleys.  I liked seeing this side of the city.  I like getting a glimpse of how people actually live.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Tai Chi in the park

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My fan dance buddy
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Group Picture with the Chinese

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Acupressure Exercise Class

 

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Drum and Bell

On By rrainefioreIn China, Travel, Uncategorized2 Comments

We got up early in the morning for our flight to Xi’an.  This is the oldest city in china (3000 years of written history).  When we landed it was raining.  But the plan for the day was a museum so that was the best day for it to rain.  Xi’an was the capital a long time ago so there are many treasures found around the city.  The museum had a lot of pottery and metal work from the different dynasties.  The people believe that they needed to be buried with their treasures for the afterlife, similar to the ancient Egyptians, but in China they buried them underground and built mountains on top.  Then I wondered, if we are digging up these treasures thousands of years later, are we ruining their afterlife?  Are they no longer rich and protected in the after life?

After the museum, we checked into the hotel.  My room was a suite.  I have separate living room from the bedroom.  I also had a king sized bed.  I just want to hang out in a robe in my room for a few days.  But, a girl has to eat.  Tonight we went out for a dumpling dinner.  The restaurant we went to is supposed to be famous for their dumplings.  It was near the center of town.  There are two towers there, the bell tower and the drum tower.  In ancient times, the walled city was gated and locked at night.  One toDwer housed bells (or drums, can’t remember which is which) that were rung in the morning to announce that the gates were opening so people that lived outside the city knew it was time to come in and do business.  At the end of the day, the drums were used to announce that the gates would be closing soon.  There were 18 different dumplings served at dinner.  They just kept coming.  Some of them were really delicious and some were not so much.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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The Forbidden City

On By rrainefioreIn China, Travel, Uncategorized1 Comment

In the morning we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  The Forbidden City is something I have always wanted to see so I was quite excited for today’s tour.  When we got to Tiananmen Square there were so many people.  We had to go through a bunch of guards.  People were getting turned away, but we just walked by.  There was no line, but more of a weird series of barricades that didn’t make sense.  We’d walk around some and then cross the street and then walk around others.  There were people on the other side of some of the barricades, but we couldn’t get over there and they couldn’t get to where we were.  Somehow we arrived at the Square.  There were more barricades in the square too.  If I had been travelling alone, I think I would still be standing on the street corner going “It should be around here somewhere.  Why can’t I get to it?”

The Forbidden City was wonderful.  It’s a walled city surrounded by another walled city surrounded by two more walled cities.  The size of it was ridiculous.  It took us most of the morning to walk from one side to the other.  We learned a lot about the different Emperors that lived there.  The amount of paranoia they had was amazing.  The walls were built so thick.  The pavement was thick so no one could ever tunnel in.  There were not many trees so no one could hide in them and shoot arrows at the emperor.  Stories of wives and concubines, sons and brothers, all vying for power.  Why anyone would want to be an emperor is beyond me.

After that was lunch and pearl shop.  After the pearl shop we went to the summer palace.  It was real beautiful, but it was very cold and windy.  We were supposed to take a dragon boat back, but it was too windy and our boat wasn’t running.  I think most or all of us were ok with that as getting on a boat to cross a cold windy lake didn’t sound fun.  Instead we had to go on a long walk over the mountain.  We went through an area where most Western tourists never go.  It was beautiful like walking through a park.  There was also a pretty temple and some old houses that use to be for the concubines.  There was a fake shopping center that one of the emperor’s wives had created so she could pretend to go shopping with the normal people.

That evening we were on our own for dinner.  We got back kind of late due to the boat not being available so I was tired.  I ate at the hotel and packed up my suitcase since we are leaving very early tomorrow morning.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Vent for “air conditioning”
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Hollow box they would set fires in to create floor heating

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Boat made out of marble

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cool lights in hotel

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The Great Wall

On By rrainefioreIn China, Travel, Uncategorized2 Comments

When I got to the airport in Bangkok to go to China I was told I would need to go through immigration, get my luggage and recheck it at the next airport.  Oh jeeze, I  have an hour between flights.  That’s going to be close.  Then I look at my seat and it’s row 33.  It will take forever to get off the plane.  Row 33 was actually the 6th row.  Who knew?  I got to China, had to take a shuttle, go through immigration, get my bag, recheck my bag, go through security again, another shuttle, a long walk, get some water, and go to the bathroom.  When I finally got to the new gate, they were loading the plane – perfect timing.  China magic.

When I got to Beijing I was supposed to have someone pick me up from the tour company, but there was no one there.  I got scared for a minute.  I realize the tiny bit of Thai that I speak makes me feel more comfortable in Thailand.  I know no Chinese.  Then I told myself to relax and I just waited.  The shuttle guy looked more flustered than me when he showed up.  He spoke no English, but got me to the car.  The car driver spoke no English.  I walked out of the airport and it was cold!  It felt so wonderful.  Beijing traffic is horrible so it took forever to get to the hotel.  The hotel is nice.  My room has an actual shower and bathtub.  Unfortunately, my room also had wet carpet in the entrance and an angry voice in the bathroom.  Also, the heat didn’t work.  The man staying next door to me was in his bathroom yelling on his phone for over an hour.  I did get the hotel to switch my room, but now I have a twin bed instead of a king.  It is warm and quiet though.

Day one of our tour was awesome.  It’s a tour group of 23 people and a guide.  The guide is great.  So, far the people on the tour are nice and interesting.  We went to the Temple of Heaven.  In the park portion a lot of retirees come to play card games, knit, exercise and just generally hang out together.  In a lot of families, the grandparents take the kids to school and then go to the park to hang out.  Then they pick up the kids in the afternoon since the parents have to work.  The park had exercise circuit similar to Thailand, but much more of it and people use it.  There was a massage circuit too.  The park was beautiful and in great condition.  The actual temple was beautiful.  Our tour guide gave us so much information, but a lot of it I don’t remember so I just can’t pass it on.  Our tour guide gave us whispers – he can talk on a mic and we can listen over earphones.  It makes walking around crowded loud places so much better.  He can tell us about the area we are seeing as we walk around it.  After the Temple of Heaven we went to a jade shop and then lunch.  Lunch was ridiculous.  They just kept bringing out food.  We had at least 12 different dishes at each table.  I tried some of everything, but the soup – there just wasn’t any room left when the soup came out.  Then we went to the Great Wall of China.  This is something I’ve always wanted to see.  It is an amazing feat of engineering and hard work.  It’s so beautiful where we went.  My knees felt great – Thanks PhuketFit.  After that we went to the Olympic complex to see the Bird’s Nest.  We didn’t go in, but just took pictures from outside.  Dinner was Peking Duck and then another 10 dishes or more.  It was like ridiculous lunch all over again.  All the food was excellent.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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No foxes in the cab

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Forgive

On By rrainefioreIn Awakening, Uncategorized1 Comment

Warning: Spiritual big concept stuff in this blog.  If you aren’t into that and you just want to see pretty pictures of China or hear funny tales of adventure, tune in later this week.

Yep, my sketchy flight from Phuket to Bangkok ended up being legit.  Go Thailand!  I got into my hotel in Bangkok and was hungry and sore so I headed out for dinner and a massage even though I needed to be going to bed to get up early for my flight to China.  There was a food market nearby.  I didn’t see anything I wanted so I had coconut ice cream for dinner.  After massage I had a crepe with mystery green goo (pandan?), sprinkles and jelly balls.  This did not make for a healthy dinner, but it was quite delicious.

During massage the word “forgive” kept coming to me.  Ok, got it, forgiveness.  I tried to figure out who or what I need to forgive.  During massage, it felt like the list is so long that it is comical.  It doesn’t feel like any big injustices, just a lifetime of tiny judgements and petty gripes.  This isn’t a 12 step process and I don’t think listing them all out makes sense or is useful.  The big one, the original one is the one that all the others are actually built on.  For any person or event that I haven’t forgiven, it’s not actually about that person or event, it’s still the original.  Years ago I discovered that I had a belief that life itself is unsafe and that I was angry with life/myself/god/the greater power/the universe or whatever you want to believe is the greater power or knowledge out there.  I was angry, scared and mistrusting.  As I’ve worked on this over the years, my allergies have been disappearing, my non working thyroid started working again as well many other healthy changes in my body.  As much as I have worked and as much as I have let go, I think there’s more.  I don’t think forgive at this level I’m working on is “I forgive you for being mean” or  “I understand you didn’t know better, so it’s ok”.  There’s ego in that.  There’s a sense of blaming “you were wrong” and a sense of ego “I am the bigger person and I forgive you”.   The forgive that is coming up is not that.  It doesn’t have to do with a person, a situation or an event.  It is a letting go and surrender, again not of a situation or event.  It is to let go of everything – every event, good or bad, every person, every interaction, every judgement, every belief, the world as I know it, everything I think I am, everything I ever wanted to be.  I have been working on this little bit by little bit for years.  Investigate this feeling, that belief, this relationship, looking into every nook and crany of my brain.  I have changed and made it quite far in this process.  But, it’s still me, my idealized self image, a series of thoughts in the brain that is making all this “progress”.  In an earlier post I talked about how I wanted to live abroad not to find myself, but to lose myself.  The forgive that is coming up is to let go to the point that I lose myself.

When I speak of myself, I don’t mean I won’t remember who my friends and family are or that I will simply cease to exist, or I’ll become a monk and sit on a mountain top meditating for the rest of my life.  I’m referring to the self image, who I think I am which is just a series of synapses in the brain routed and created from my experiences and interpretations of those experiences.  I am not the synapses and memories in my brain.  I am something else completely (so are you).

I got to the airport in the morning for my flight to China.  I found most everyone to be annoying.  I found myself to be very judgmental about the way one person acted or another was dressed.  People were in my personal space.  The airplane music threatened to send me in a downward spiral.  Why is airplane music so bad?  Why do we have to have music on the airplane anyway?  Is it really soothing anyone that is scared?  It’s just there to piss me off.  What’s wrong with no music?  Although most of the day went smoothly, I found everything to be either stressful or annoying.  Apparently, I was not letting go and forgiving yesterday.

Today was the first day of my China tour and it was wonderful.  I’ll cover the details of that in another blog.  But as I sit here tonight trying to put “forgive” into words that will make sense, I can feel it happening.  I feel a lightness in my body kind of like being light headed, but over the whole body.  It feels like the cells on the outside of my body are slowly breaking apart and floating away.  They are shiny and glass like, but have no weight.  It feels like disintegration.  So, now I’m heading off to sleep or disintegrate or both.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

 

 

Travel Day

On By rrainefioreIn Thailand, Travel, Uncategorized1 Comment

Yesterday was my last day at Phuket Fit.  I gained weight – fat, not muscle and I was dehydrated on my check out stats.  I think they had my food goals off a little, but my biggest goal was to try to get my body to want to exercise again.  After over a year with no exercise, I was tired and unmotivated.  So, I feel ready to go again.  I was hoping to process a lot of my experiences over the past eight months, but that didn’t seem to happen or is happening in a different way or is partially happening.  So more on that later as I figure it all out.  I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted of Phuket Fit, but a few are attached.

Today I had a lovely pancake breakfast with Lynne and James.  I might have gained some more weight just from breakfast.  I went to the airport early, because what was I going to do for two hours after hotel check out in the rain?

Besides, my airline reservations were sketchy and I figured if something was amiss, I’d have time to fix it.  I had a minor freakout when I booked the flight and the confirmation came from a company different from the airline.  My confirmation came through with the note that I could not check in on line because the airline wouldn’t have my info on line.  I could only check in at the airport in person.  It also had the copy of someone else’s credit card attached to the confirmation.  What?  Then I reminded myself that everything works out exactly like it should.  And if something seems unlikely in Thailand, it will work out exactly as billed no matter how unlikely it sounds.  There is some sort of “that can’t work” magic in Thailand that makes unlikely things work.  In any other country, I’d be buying another ticket today.  I sat in a restaurant for a couple hours until the check in desk opened.  I got in line to check in.  There were about 30 middle aged or older Thai women in line.  Is this the Thai middle aged woman airline?  One lady made me go ahead of her and her friends because there were 7 of them and they didn’t want me to have to wait for them.  So nice.  Then the husbands started arriving – oh, the women go and wait to check in while the men do what?  I checked in fine (duh – of course – magic) and now I’m waiting for my flight to board.

I might do some more blogs tonight when I get to Bangkok.  I fly to China tomorrow.  China blocks a lot of websites.  I bought a VPN, but I’m new to this concept so we’ll see how it goes.  But, if I don’t post for two weeks, I’m either having way too much fun or the VPN didn’t work.  I hope China has “that can’t work” magic like Thailand does.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

Coral Cut

On By rrainefioreIn Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I haven’t written in awhile mostly because I don’t know what to say.  A lot is going on spiritually, but I don’t know how to put any of it into words.  So, that will have to come later after it’s done processing through my system.

On a more superficial level, I’ve just been working out and eating.  There are a bunch of workout classes available every day, but I’ve been attending around three high intensity fitness classes a day.  I’ve been having trouble getting out of bed in the morning so I’ve been sleeping more too.

It’s been an interesting meeting the people here.  The staff is all nice and wonderful.  Some of the guests are kind of snobby which I didn’t expect.  Some of the guests are very nice though.  Most of the unfriendly guests have left so it’s more pleasant now.  Most of the guests are return guests and I can see why.  This place is well run and provides something people need.

One night there was a trip to a night market.  Since I love Thai markets, I went.  I didn’t love this market.  It was really for tourists.  But, I’m on one of the biggest tourist islands so it makes sense.  There was another night market trip the next night to a different market.  I decided to skip it.

Loi Krathong is the lantern festival that I’m coming back for in November.  It’s been canceled in Chiang Mai because of mourning for the king.  The festivities were canceled in Tak, but they are still going to do the actual floating of the candles in the river which is what I wanted to see.  So, I had to change all my hotel plans and pretty soon I need to figure out where I’m going to go after that.  I would have skipped it altogether, but I still have a suitcase of stuff at Noi’s house that I need to get and a plane ticket to Mae Sot which is not refundable.

When I was diving in Samui I touched some coral with my knee and it turned all red.  When I asked the divemaster what he thought it was he said “coral” as if it was no big deal.  It didn’t look like a cut.  It wasn’t until 4 or 5 days later that I noticed tiny scabs where the coral had cut me.  Then about a week later it puffed up and turned even redder.  Someone here suggested I go to the doctor right away because it was infected.  I looked it up on line and it said to seek medical attention right away.  Great.  So I rode my motorbike in the pouring rain to the nearest clinic.  The doctor gave me a cream.  I asked if I needed an antibiotic and she said pointed to the cream.  How is a cream going to get under the skin to the infection?  I went home later and did a little homegirl surgery.  I cut some of the skin away so that the cream could get in.  I also used some tea tree oil and neosporin just in case those might be helpful.  I’m pretty sure neosporin is the answer to most medical problems.  Then I broke my no searching things on the internet after 10pm rule and looked at the coral cuts info closer.  This rule was set in place for a reason and breaking it means no good sleep.  I read that there are all kinds of nasty things in salt water and coral cuts often get infected and then if you see a dark line on your arm or leg you need to go to the emergency room for iv antibiotics.  I woke up every few hours to  check my arms and legs for dark lines. I have antibiotics my doctor gave me before I left Colorado in case of an emergency.  I started taking those.  It’s been a few days now and no dark lines, just an upset stomach from the antibiotics.

Yesterday I rode the motorbike around and went to two overlooks and a beach.  We have been having a lot of stormy weather due to big storms in the Philippines.  The wind was so strong it was blowing salt mist way up past the beach.  The waves were huge.  It was unfriendly for swimming which was good, because I didn’t feel bad that I can’t swim because of my coral cut.  It was nice and relaxing to watch the waves crash and watch the sea move.  I feel like just watching it reset something and I was more relaxed after.  It was also nice to ride around and see some of Phuket.  It’s more mountainous than I expected.  I like it.

Today I took another field trip.  When I was looking for fun things to do near here, I found a rum distillery that gave tours.  I have drank a lot of rum over the years, but didn’t know how it is made.  It was a small distillery and the tour was interesting.  The rum was real good too.

I have two more days of fitness camp and then travel back to Bangkok and then off to China!

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Abandonded (except dog) building next to hotel
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Nearby beach isn’t much of a beach
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Self surgery

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Another view from my hotel
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Distillery Bar
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Distillery grounds

 

PhuketFit

On By rrainefioreIn Thailand, Travel, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I arrived in Phuket in the evening.  Whoa, it was a long drive from the airport to my hotel, the Blue Rabbit.  It looked like my hotel is the only thing around.  Across the street is an actual abandoned building, not one that looks abandoned.  There were two very nice ladies waiting for me.  One carried my very heavy suitcase up to the third floor.  I felt bad.  They both were very talkative and helpful.  The room is the nicest hotel room I’ve seen in a while.  Yay!

Yesterday I started at Phuketfit with an orientation of the facilities and a fitness evaluation.  About half the people there are trying to lose weight. They have a weight loss program, a detox program and a fitness program.  I joined two of the workout classes and did yoga after dinner.  So far the food has been good, but the portions are quite small since most people are counting calories to lose weight where I’m trying to pack in more calories and more protein to help rebuild muscle.  Overall, I’m very impressed with the place and glad to be doing this although it hurts physically and financially.

Today I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed.  They have exercise classes all day so I don’t need to do the first one in the morning anyway.  I did three exercise classes today and I’m so stiff and my shoulders and left knee don’t want to work right.  I cried during the last class.  I expect there will be more crying as the 10 days go on.  Or not.

The King of Thailand died yesterday.  The country will go into mourning for a very long time.  I want to write more about it, but I should not so you can watch the new or look for news on line if you want to know more.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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