Our Remote Santuary on Koh Phangan (Part IV)

From our sailboat to a longtail boat to a city bus to a VIP bus to a non AC VIP bus to a ferry to a taxi (overpriced) to a private longtail taxi boat, we arrived all in 1 day to The Sanctuary, our week long meditation and yoga retreat center nestled in the jungle on a private beach on Koh Phangan (yes the island famous for the all night Full Moon Rave parties). Fortunately our beach was a 15 minute boat ride away from the chaos of the drunken party scammers and the full on tourist scene of the young backpackers out to party.

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The Sanctuary was just that. A self contained 'resort' where all the guest stayed in a customized bamboo cabin up on the hill in the jungle and had access to the meditation and yoga rooms, spa, wellness center for fasting and the main restaurant bar rest house that served some of the most amazing meals and fresh fruits. Unfortunately the jungleness of our cabin which happened to be the furthest hike from the beach was a little more nature than Pranvera was prepared for. Upon our early evening arrival having been exhausted from our long travel, we sat in the new room to be welcomed by the larges gecko (lizard) I had seen, a bat flying in and out of the open wall overlooking the jungle valley and several rats which politely scurried their way out of the room once we moved in. Of course I know we were in the jungle but didn't realize to this extent. Much to Pranvera's credit she was determined to overcome her uncomfortableness and raced into our mosquito net bed each night to stay protected from any unwelcome visitors. Regardless, our place was very nice with a kitchen and an eating deck which hung us 20 feet in the air looking all the way down the jungle valley towards the beach. We enjoyed the hammock inside and would have said it was the most remote, quietest place we stayed but once the insects got going with the birds, the wake-up call was louder than any garbage truck working outside my window. Who would have thought?

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Now the beach was something else. The most perfect swimming beach we came across the whole trip. Pranvera loves the sea was in and out at least a dozen time each day taking long swims all the way out to the middle of our bay just to enjoy the very warm water, beautiful scenery looking back on our island or sun bathing out on the floating dive platform. The invisible jellyfish (or sea lice) loved giving her a little sting mostly on the right wrist. Never failing even when she tried to outsmart them wearing a bandanna on it. It was here I finally got back into my yoga after almost 2 years of only teaching classes, not taking them. I was able to do an 8am class each morning with different teachers and then added an afternoon class on some days or went to another studio where a teacher I liked taught strict (and advanced level) Ashtanga classes. My body had no idea what I was getting it into but it loved it and I felt like I had found my center again, not to mention picking up many news tunes and tips I will share when I begin my final month of classes back in Kosovo.
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Of course we had to sample the spa so we both received the most heavenly full body scrub and wrap detox including smearing our body with a rough gingerbread type mix, baking in a plastic sheet with fresh oils and cucumber on our faces and then to be cooled down with a honey yogurt spread before washing and being lathered with a peppermint lotion. I think the hardest part was to avoid wanting to eat myself...I can only imagine the torture for anyone of the fasters we met to actually do this treatment...The massages were also wonderful and much classier than the standard cheap beach versions you could get everywhere.
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Each day seemed to blend into the next and we got to know some of the other guests and staff. It was a true honeymoon full of long swims, wonderful sunsets, amazing beachside meals and plenty of time to read and sunbath. We mixed things up after a couple days of doing nothing (but yoga) by attending a drumming circle, doing a killer difficult hike over the mountain on the island to go to a neighboring beach for shopping, dinner and the chance for Pranvera to get her Bow Derrick braids. What we were told to be a 1.5 hour trail walk was a 3+ hour hike up over sun drenched slippery dirt roads to went up at angles you can't build roads in the west. And they never ended. But determined to reach our iced coffees we carried on until reaching the other side where a fork in the road left us clueless as to how to complete the journey. Low and behold the only local we ran into the entire trek came along at that moment on a scooter to point us the right way. The last stretch required us to duck into the thick of the jungle on a thin trail which wound its way down the mountainside finally dropping us beach side. Gulping our drinks we had enough daylight to shop around, relax and then find a nice seafood place which was showing the first movie we caught on our honeymoon--the new Sex in the City. It was great fun to dine on fresh seafood and enjoy the big screen projection. The only trouble was that once the movie ended a tropical downpour was drenching the island. After waiting a half hour for it to lighten we had to make our way to the beach and hire a boat to take us back in the wind, rain and dark to our beach. Of course no problem but let's just say we didn't stay dry for long.
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Our little community even had its own weekly version of the full moon party that we heard from 11pm (when we left to attend) till 9 am the next morning (we were asleep well before that time). One of the mornings I hired a jet ski that was owned by locals down the beach so we could race around the shoreline for a half hour at some unbelievable speeds. It was so much fun we couldn't stop our screaming...and Pranvera even had a chance to try and toss me from the backside as she rocked us through the waves. On one of the last days we discovered an easy trail to the neighboring beach which was much larger and more developed but with some new fantastic places for us to eat. So high above the water on rock-top we sat with fruit juice and fresh coconuts to marvel at the ice blue waters and white sand beaches. We savored the dusk period as the sun slowly began to set and we felt blessed that I had remembered the flashlight to get us back over the hill in the dark.
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A perfect getaway to clean our mind, body and spirit which prepared us well to hit the fully commercialized island of Koh Tao to get our fill of underwater activity and nightly dinner and drinking sessions.