CHIANG MAI

Chiang Mai is definitely a jewel of a city, up here in the North of Thailand.  It’s an old city square, with a mote around it, and gates at each side.  Makes it relatively easy to get around once you get the lay of the land.  There are several ‘main’ roads, then they call the little roads off of them “Soy 1”, “Soy 2”, etc.  Though when we first arrived we were staying outside of town and taking tuk-tuks or taxis everywhere so felt quite lost.  We arrived on Sunday so were told to check out the Sunday market.  That was an experience unto itself.  The city was basically closed off and filled with TONS of vendors.  Of course Marissa and I found delight in the food stands and tried all kinds of interesting things.  I’ll do a separate post just on the street food of Chiang Mai as it deserves its own day in the sun.

Tha Phae Gate (east Wall)

We decided that amongst the many many recommendations we had for Thai massage teachers, that we would start the week off with Pichest.  He was known to be less about technique, and more about the spirituality side of the practice, and how to feel and sense versus just work through a sequence.  This sounded perfect to me as I’ve studied at a couple of different schools and learned a series of “moves”, but I feel that my massage technique definitely lacks more of that intuitive sense.  The only challenge with going to Pichest’s is that the directions are extremely vague on his website, and we couldn’t locate it via any maps.  So we took a 300 bhat taxi, only to find out later that the local bus goes there for only 15.  Oh well, trap of being a tourist.  His studio is in his home near Hang Dong, about 20 min south of the city.  On Mondays when you arrive for the week you bring an offering for the temple, which is basically where we are studying.  The morning starts with prayers to Buddha, and Mama and Papa, and teachers, and any other gods or such that we may personally recognize, and finally Shivago, the original founder of Thai massage who was said to be the Buddha’s physician.  Then Pichest lectures for a bit, mostly about Buddhist philosophy, in very broken English, and he has such a generous heart and big smile, and he cracks himself up all the time so you can’t help but go along with it and find yourself smiling and laughing even though you’re not sure if you even get it.  He’ll usually grab one of the students and have them lie down, then says, “Here.  Block here” as he points to the spot on the person where the energy is blocked.  He’ll demonstrate how to open that area, then it’s basically a free-for-all the rest of the day.  Pairs break off to practice what they saw, and he’ll go around and correct you, teaching you how to feel, not think.  Then lunch at a local ‘warung’ for no more than 35 bhat a day (about $1).  Late afternoon for more practicing on each other.  It was a bit overwhelming the first couple of days because there is no syllabus or schedule, so you’re just wondering what you’re supposed to be doing.  But the days go by, and everyone gets a bit more comfortable, and the students who have been studying with him for a while help to orient the new ones, and then we just try to turn our brains off, and forget about technique, and try to listen to the body that’s in front of us.  Very hard for a western mind to do.  But I’m learning more about scanning a body before working on it, and how to heat the muscles before diving in, and about how to create comfort and relaxation so the person does not tense or try to protect certain areas.

Some of my favorite teachings from Pichest, and my personal interpretation:

“Know yourself.  Then Do.” (In that we all have a divine true nature in our hearts, and we should follow that vs what the outside world tells us to do)

“I think.  I like.  I want.  Sad or no sad?  Ego or no ego?  Attachment or no attachment?”  (Basically that the more we want things, and attach to things, and look to outside things to make us happy, the farther away from happiness we are.  We weren’t born with the shirts on our back, only with the love from our parents, and our own pure hearts.)

“No religion?  Doesn’t matter.  From here only [fist to his heart].”

“Protection.  Emotion.” (All the blocks in the body caused by emotion we are storing, or energy that is blocked, and we keep protecting that area, so it’s important when working on someone to ease into that space so you can help them release it)

“Listening the body, not the technique.”  (The body will tell us what needs to be healed and how)

“Honey, honey, honey. . .thai chili!” (Start soft, soft, soft, then deep)

“Technique headache” (Only following technique leads to headache, no help for client or practitioner)

“Poke poke.” (Uses his cane to poke-poke when we do something bad/stupid)

“Zero” (pronounces “see-row”)

“Don’t push, no pushing.  Only feel.”  (Especially with thumbing work, place the thumb, sink in/block, that’s it.  Easy.  No pushing)

“No mind.  No problem.”

“The head no feel.  The body feel.”

So we found Pichest.  We found a wonderful teacher and a classroom full of wonderful students.  It’s been a fun week being at school all day, playing Acro and slackline after class, then maybe a foot massage, or night market stop for dinner.  Giving alms to monks in the morning, riding the “songtheao” (public bus taxi) to school, red bean bouzi and fresh smoothies for after school snacks, papaya salad so spicy my nose sweats—that’s a typical day in the life. And we found a cute little guest house in the center of the city for only $20USD/night.  We're getting settled into the life of Chiang Mai.

Special bouzi for Chinese New Years

Fish pedicure

Songtheao (local bus/taxi)