cult
noun
- a religious group, often living together, whose beliefs are considered extreme or strange by many people.
Okay, so yeah. This week I definitely joined a cult.
Chanting in unison in forgotten languages, group circles and spoken words before every meal, synchronised movements and praising to the outer universe...yep. I was defo in a cult.
But you know what- it wasn't half bad!
I'd heard many things about this yoga and meditation retreat just outside of Siem Reap (the city I now call home). Many things mostly being very positive anecdotes from past visitors and taking some time out to go to a retreat had always been something that interested me. With COVID 19 still raging on they had slashed the prices 75% so now it was in my price range so I booked into a dorm at just $100 for a six-day escape.
I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was planning on going, knowing that he's into yoga (definitely much more than I am these days now I find other things to do to occupy my time, like cycling and drinking beer) and he agreed that his chakras weren't aligned or something like that and decided to come along for the adventure too.
Last Monday (12th) we hopped on our bicycles and made the journey 20km out of town.
We are both YOGA AND MEDITATION RETREAT virgins, so we weren't too sure what to expect...apart from the joint confirmation we knew it'd be full of stinkin' hippies (myself included). We joked on the way, wondering how culty it would be. We wondered if the hippies would want to hug us. Will we come back brainwashed? Will I ever wear shoes AGAIN? (Although, given my island gal lifestyle I am still not a fan on those constricting foot cages anyway...).
We've been getting some quite heavy rain in Siem Reap the last couple weeks, making up for an otherwise very dry wet season. When we got an email on Sunday night saying the road was flooded we took it with a pinch of salt. Maybe we should've taken it with a splash as that's what we got as we attempted to cycle the last 4km of the road to the retreat.
With the Tonle Sap* just ahead of us a few more kilometres down the road the river that ran adjacent to our cycle had burst its banks the previous day and as we cycled water came above our peddles and even up to our knees at times...
It. Was. Amazing!
*the massive section of water that's in the middle of Cambodia
The local kids instead of playing marbles and on their bikes, they were swimming and splashing and still attempting to ride their bikes in thigh-high water (for them at least). Residents stood outside their stilted homes and laughed as the "barangs chi gkong!" foreigners ride their bikes. I said as soon as I checked into the retreat and had a bit of free time I'd pop out to spend a bit more time with the people in the road.
And that I did! I was invited for beers, which in my week of vegan-sobriety I turned down but accepted their request for me to join them dancing. There's never a dull moment in the Kingdom, and every day I'm here I find more reasons to call it home.
So, as for checking in! We found the retreat by spotting the only other barangs we had seen all day.
Being hidden behind unmarked, secretive gates, located down a dirt path I don't know if we would've spotted it without. Funnily enough, before I'd even stepped foot into the building I'd been welcomed and hugged three times. Luckily for me, it was by people who I happened to know already and were still at the retreat, months after I thought they'd left their week-long stays....You don't need to know the whole ins-and-outs of the week. But it was actually hella fun.
The food was awesome. 2019 I decided to quite successfully follow a vegan diet and upon my return to Asia in October the same year I decided that I had to compromise as even avoiding meat can be tough here.
Below is a triangle I created to save me some words on this post.
So basically you can pick two. But you can very rarely have all three. For example, I can order fried noodles. Will they be vegan? Possibly. Are they cheap? Definitely. Are they healthy? Mmmm no.
Superfood salad on the other hand! Is it vegan? 100%. Is it healthy? Of course. Is it cheap? Well, $1 Noodles vs a $5 Salad.... I'll let you judge that. You get the idea.
Yeah. The food was awesome. Completely vegan from the first meal to the last, full of colour and vegetables and healthy stuff and gluten-free and...Cambodian! Not a pizza, burger or lasagne insight. All vegan variations of local Cambodian food that I would otherwise have to turn down due to their love of fermented fish prohok, general love of meat or overuse of fish sauce. Without getting too graphic, my bowels have got some GREAT movement this week. The best part? It's buffet style so you can help yourself to as much as you want.
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| gross and happy after my cupping.... you cant see the marks too much cause i aint to toxic |
Well, there's a rock climbing gym, art studio, swimming pool, library, trampoline, I had some traditional cupping* and an oil massage, and there's the local village to explore...maybe that's why this cult retreat is so easy to get sucked into and why my friends have long overstayed their original timeframe...
*Cupping is basically where they use suction cups and squeeze them onto your back and they take out all the toxins. I didn't have too many as I didn't end up with any full/half moon outlined hickies on my other side.
So yeah! Basically just a really quick, not too entertaining post about the last week. Procrastination my imminent return to "the real world" and letting my parents and grandparents (the only people who'd notice my absence) know I haven't fully committed to the stonecutters just yet...
I hid my phone in case someone decided to break into my apartment this week... it'd be a good start to remember where I hid it...
evaluating the splash damage
evaluating the splash damage
Just like a beach party....kinda
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