Fire and Fortunes

Oh so much to write about! Where to start? Yesterday was a really fantastic day. It was hot as hell but I spent well. In the early afternoon my guest housemate named Vickty and I set out to walk around the old city, stopping to visit a bookstore and for a much needed iced coffee break in the lovely air conditioned Wowee Coffee. We then headed to a shopping district that is more frequented by locals than by tourists named the Warorot Market. There I purchased the most wonderful cloth hip belt with emboidered patterns, a patchwork of colorful  fabric scraps, and some sparkly gold thread ribbons worked in. Just over all a perfect super colorful hip belt and exactly what I was looking for. The day's damage also included a mini portable speaker set (pink, of course, and only about $5), which is something I have really been wanting as well.

When we got back to the guest house I recieved a text from my circus cronies saying that it was Amy's b-day and we should all go out! Lovely! We agreed to try to round up some fuel for fire dancing, so after a good long lounge infront of a fan and a long cold shower, I got dolled up and headed out to the mall in search of parafin. I had no luck but Matt texted me, whlie I was interviewing some nice salespeople on places to find fuel,  and he found some! Again, just wonderful. So we were set. We met up and got some delicious food and tasty cocktails at a nice, beautifully decorated Thai restaurant named Hot Chili (all told, with an appetizer, main course, and a cocktail to boot, we each paid around $10 for our food). It's certainly a tourist trap sort of place but it is hard to argue when they do such a good job creating such a unique and visually appealing ambiance and then serve you some of the best Pad Thai and spicy Thai veggie salad you have ever tasted. After dinner and drinks we moved on down the lane to a Reggae Bar where I knew we could spin. This was the same bar I had visted the previous week and I knew the bar man was a nice guy who would let us. Sure enough when we arrived and asked they pointed out a good place and gave us full permission. Soon we set up, dipped our tools and let the fire burn! The Parfin turned out to be mixed with petrol but it still burned well and wasn't too unbearably smoky. Ohh it felt so good to burn again! Nothing like that adrenalin rush when you play with fire. I miss it every time. I even got to try out putting wicks on my mini hoop and it worked quite well! I was still able to do many of my tricks and certainly the under arm close body work still was very managable. Super satisfying success story for me. I can't wait to burn again!!

It was so much fun to watch Amy and Matt burn their tools too. Amy picked up my hoop and had a go and Matt burned his virgin double staff wicks! Matt had just pulled his back in a funny way and given himself one royal back spasm so he was a bit hesitant and restrained but still pulled off some fantastic iso illusions and tech work. Amy rocked it with my hoop. It is so nice to watch other hoopers because I always learn something. In this case I saw how she continues to spin the hoop on just one shoulder, head out of the hoop and ducked under. I do this move but can only get the hoop to circle my shoulder once and havn't figured out how to continue to press into the hoop to keep it going. Watching her, I saw how she lifts her upper arm at just the right moment to push into the hoop and keep the spin up so it stays circling on her shoulder. Mmm love it.

I ended up staying at the bar long after my fiery friends left, hanging out with the bar man and my Thai friend I met last week. There was also this young New Zealand woman hanging out and getting drunk with us but something about her bothered me. She was fine to be around, very sweet and nice woman but I could tell she wasn't all there. She couldn't really listen and she couldn't really make eye contact either. She eneded up getting a bit too drunk and when we sat for a toke session later she really went off the wall. We were huddled in a back alley behind the hostel and were using a candle for light. The resulting effect was flickering shadows towered over us in a tight confined, cold, hard space. After her first hit, spins hit her hard and she had couldn't quite stay sitting upright. When it came time to get up, I started to pull her up but her legs wouldn't support her and she sank back to the floor, backing into the corner. Her wide eyes searched around her to create meaning out of the circumstances in which she found herself but she had forgotten where she was and began slipping into a panic attack. It is easy to see why with those towering fast flickering shadows and the tight space. I decided to try to pull the panic out of her through my hands so I told her I was a healer and could pull this energy out of her. I asked for her permission to place my hands on her body. She nodded and I slowly placed my hands on her back, her legs, her feet, working what energy lines I could reach. Her breathing slowed, her head bowed down and her body went limp. The panic attack had subsided but she stll couldn't walk. So my Thai friend just reached down and pucked her up, carried her all the way back around the building to the couch where he plopped her down. I pulled her shawl over her and placed some water besider her. I gently laid my hand on her head and told her she was safe, she could relax and go to sleep. And this is where I left her. Boy and I bounced out right quick after that and he walked me back to my bike. I told him there is only one English word for that experience we just had: INTENSE.

I got back to my guest house at 5 or so and slept for only about 3 or 4 hours before bolting out of bed and packing my things like a mad woman. So silly to go out drinking the night before I leave my room. Just silly. Once packed, I spent a lovely lazy hazy morning with my guest house friend Gary. We comiserated together, both wallowing in our hangovers, ate a slow breakfast of fruit and toast and then grabbed a coffee at a near by Wowee Coffee house. The coffee finally managed to pull me up out of my hangover and we sat and chatted about all manner of interesting probing subjects. Real talk. The talk I like to find. Gary saw me off as I left in a Sun Tao taxi to the Sunshine Networkd meetup  point. This was to go to the hill tribe village where I would be studying more Thai Massage. Only, when I got to the meet up point, I discovered I was one day late! Nowhere on the website's meetup point page does it say that we are supposed to come to the meetup point the day before the posted start date for the course. I assumed that the course would start on Monday the 4th but it instead started today and they left yesterday. Damn. So instead of going up to the jungly hill tribe and getting a break from the city, I will instead finish my last week at TMC, and go to the Sunshine Network school in 1 and a 1/2 weeks. I am still going to change guest houses and hopefully will meet more young traveling folk at the Chaba House.  Funny how fate twists and turns. My belly told me to go up to the hill tribe this week but fate turned me another way. Such is life. This order of events actually works out better for me in any case so it seems I now am on the right path. Until the next unexpected bend. . .