Tag: PhuketFit

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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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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