The Terrific3 travel blog

As many of you know, I’m in the middle of a sabbatical, and one of my goals has been spiritual exploration and trying to incorporate other healing modalities into my practice with patients. To that end, I recently certified as a yin yoga teacher and as a Reiki master. Because both these modalities focus on the chakras, I’ve been dreaming of incorporating them into one healing practice for patients/clients. So when I came upon this Reiki infused yoga “experience” on Airbnb, I was super excited. She opened up a day for us, and the boys were welcome, so we were on our way.

Paolina was the instructor, and we arrived at her lovely house, which was beautiful and welcoming and mostly outdoors, Thai style. We chatted for a while and learned she is 1/2 Thai and 1/2 Italian and born in Thailand, moved to Italy as an infant, and grew up there, visiting grandparents in Thailand every summer. She moved here several years ago and met her Italian husband here and now has a toddler girl. She was very accepting of my rambunctious boys’ energy. The boys were a bit “excited” from the beginning as there were these tiny flies that were swarming around their heads, ears and eyes. We’ve seen them everywhere but on this particular day and location, they were persistent and my boys were annoyed. Take that, and the fact that getting any 7 and 9 year old to do a yoga practice can be challenging, and we had our moments. For me, it was still amazing to be doing yoga, which I never do frequently enough. Since becoming a multi sport athlete, between running, swimming and biking and strength training and some occasional yin yoga, I just don’t have time to incorporate vinyasa even though I love it. But my body remembered and loved it. Z bowed out early and went to go lie in a hammock while he cursed the flies, and S stuck with it longer, but eventually they were given a soccer ball while I lay in sivasana and received some Reiki, which was incredibly relaxing even though I could hear sonu in the distance screaming about a fire ant bite. Yes, it would’ve been way more relaxing if I had just had the boys bring their kindles, and that is what I will do in Bali, as I want to do yoga there. I thought this was a fun and unique experience, and would definitely recommend it. Here’s her link if anyone is interested. http://www.thewarriorshouse.com/

We then wanted to go to lunch and Paolina recommended Ginger Farm, a farm to table restaurant that wasn’t too far, had good food, and animals to pet and a play area.

We enjoyed the food, though there are often communication mishaps in food in Thailand. We often don’t get what we thought we ordered. I orders spaghetti with red sauce and cheese for the kids and they brought us a tiny portion of kids’ spaghetti and meatballs with a big melted slice of cheese and some fruit. I had to explain to them that we were vegetarian and that my kids need double the portion minus the meat…. My pad Thai was amazing, and the dessert was also really good.

We enjoyed the food, though there are often communication mishaps in food in Thailand. We often don’t get what we thought we ordered. I orders spaghetti with red sauce and cheese for the kids and they brought us a tiny portion of kids’ spaghetti and meatballs with a big melted slice of cheese and some fruit. I had to explain to them that we were vegetarian and that my kids need double the portion minus the meat…. My pad Thai was amazing, and the dessert was also really good.

We got to explore the farm a bit, and it was very family friendly.

And the highlight was getting some fresh veggies to feed the bunnies, Guinea pigs and goats.

It is now almost 5pm and the kids are chilling in the pool. This is my view right now.

We will be in Bali in 3 days, and I’m very excited about our first hotel. They sent me an email a few days ago asking about the kids names, birthdays, favorite colors, hobbies, etc, our dietary preferences, whether I wanted to prebook a spa treatment and receive a free 30 minute foot massage (ummmm, yes!). I believe they have a legit kids’ club, and we are booked into a family adventure suite, in which the boys have a shared room with 2 beds, their own bathroom, PlayStation and TV. They are not the best at sharing rooms, so I’ve been talking it up for them. I’m really hoping Z will go to the kids’ club too, as he really needs some social interaction with other kids. I’ve also contacted a nanny agency in Bali and am looking to maybe book a nanny. They are $5/hour, and require minimum 5 hours a day plus $8 transportation costs, so very affordable. They want me to commit to every day for a duration of time, and I’m finding that to be complicated as we don’t have everything planned yet. Mostly it would just be another person who would be along with us, I think, as S really doesn’t do well within me leaving him with sitters he doesn’t know on vacation. I’m still thinking about what would work best given our itinerary and the tours we have already booked, but I figure I can commit to the days and afford to even skip a couple bit still pay, if needed. Let me know if you have thoughts!