I arrived at Chiang Mai late at night. Wow, it was soooo hot. Khun Son met me at the arrival gate and took my luggage out to the car park. It was hotter than I thought. On the way to the hotel I tried to talk about things but it felt too difficult and I felt too tired. I just wanted to sleep. Khun Son looked after me, sorted out the checking in and made sure I was okay.
As everybody says the hotel is lovely, well, it’s more than that actually. I think its the staff who are just so nice and welcoming and kind. With my head full of stuff, and problems and so much difficulty, having people be so kind to me and smiling at me all the time and gentle and kind made me feel quite emotional, and these were people that I didn’t even know.
Chrissy is lovely. I was worried about what exactly a counselling retreat would be. I’ve never done anything like this ever, and the only counselling I’ve ever had made me feel worse really. It just kept making me think of difficult things from the past that I know I can’t change in my life. But now I just had to sort my head out and make sure that I didn’t sleep walk through the rest of my life.
Elephant Bath Time
The counselling sessions are so easy. I kept thinking why hadn’t I done this sooner. Just sorted myself out and got some proper help and made some decisions and stuck to them. Thats the difference here. You can sort it all out at once, it doesn’t feel like stop starting, its just getting through the whole lot at once knowing you can go home and put your plan into action and get on with my life.
Chrissy is kind and sensible, she knows what she’s doing and like other people have said it feels like I have known her for ever. You get to know her really quickly. She’s one of those lovely people, but she doesn’t miss anything.
The elephant sanctuary is amazing. You learn how to look after elephants, and are with them the whole day. I cant tell you what an incredible feeling it is just standing next to your elephant and feeding it and being next to it all day. Bath time for the elephants in the river is one of the most amazing things I have ever done. You forget that they are not humans, by the end of the day you feel like you know them, and they know you.
An incredible day.
Khun Son also took me to local markets and showed me amazing food. He bought me mango and sticky rice and we ate it there in the market. And even though I was just another tourist people smiled at me all the time. It’s a really amazing country and I will be back. The Night Bazaar is incredible as well.
I just did in one week what I wanted to and more. I sorted myself out. The counselling retreat thing is just a name for whatever it is you need to do when you are at that crossroads again and need somebody to help work out what way to go.
There are things that I have talked about and now put away and can move on with things.
I know Chrissy is just an email away, and I really dont know how she does it but she does and thank you for everything.
Cant wait to get back to Thailand and drop into see you…and go to the elephant sanctuary again. Thank you.
Dona.
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