Category: Yoga

Evolve Health Club

Posted on by Srithanu Blog

Evolve Health Club
Evolve Health Club is a professional gym in Koh Phangan. It is a large and professional outfit with a multi-discipline focus and a young dedicated team. The gym is well resourced and is offering casual drop-in sessions, personalised fitness regimes, training camps as well as regular drop-in classes.

The gym is located on the main beach road to Srithanu, between the Family Mart and Karma Kafe. See the map below for details:

The gym opened in 2016 and had a few good years of trading before the corona virus pandemic shook the world.
Evolve did have 5 trainers. It is hard to say how many will remain when the dust settles on the pandemic. The trainers encompass a range of skills from Muay Thai training, personal fitness instructor, yoga teacher and kettle bell instructor. The team are hugely experienced and motivated for all things fitness and health.

The gym itself has plenty of space for those who want to train by themselves as well as for those who wish to join a group lesson. It is all a short walk from the beach for those fitness fanatics who get antsy sitting on the beach all day with their partner. For those staying nearby in Srithanu it is worth enquiring at the reception about discounts either on rooms or health programs.

The Fitness Classes are run by a former athlete qualified in cross fit. Prices start at $49 for 15 to 30 sessions a month. The same person runs the yoga classes. There is a beginners’ class and a community class. The same prices apply as with the fitness classes. Finally, there are Olympic and power lifting regular sessions. They have plenty of weights and machines to build muscle, again prices start at $49 per month.

There is a small café in the reception area where they serve cold drinks and snacks.

The difference between Evolve Health Club and other gyms in Koh Phangan is that the focus is neither on Muay Thai or on yoga. Many of the gyms in Thongsala are primarily for people to learn how to fight, with a few just doing weights or cardio. Either that or the focus is on doing and teaching yoga. For those for whom Muay Thai and yoga are not the primary consideration should consider Evolve, especially if they are serious about getting into shape.
And as a final note, being ‘serious’ is very much the mood of the gym. The place has plenty of inspirational quotes on the walls, imploring participants not to cheat their fitness regimes, to push themselves. This is not a place to smoke a joint and sit on a cycle machine.

Contact Details

Address: 17-4 SeeThanu, Ko Pha-ngan District, Surat Thani 84280, Thailand
Telephone: +66 95 858 3810
Website: http://evolvegymkohphangan.com/

What’s It Like Doing Yoga Teacher Training

Posted on by Srithanu Blog

This is probably a question a lot of people interested in yoga ask themselves. Like people interested in diving might wonder if they have what it takes to become a diving instructor.

Jennifer Pierce has series of vblogs on YouTube going through the various days of her yoga teacher training. In the one above you see her sat at Taboon – a favourite spot for yogis as there is vegan and raw food on the menu. In this entry she talks about the difficulty of giving up sugar and doing 1 hour meditations.

Jennifer never breaks into insight or out of cliché but her videos do give you a first person perspective of such things as giving a yoga lesson, walking to the beach, visiting the market and all those chilled things that Srithanu and Thongsala has to offer those who choose to make Koh Phangan their home for a month or so.

These vblog entries will go somewhere to give you a feel for the life in Koh Phangan and what you can expect from a yoga teacher training course.

Jennifer now teaches yoga and has become a healthy diet and detox expert. Not sure where in the world she lives, but she seems to be taking to the world the Srithanu message.

Yoga Shops

Posted on by Srithanu Blog

Agama

The Agama Yoga Shop is mostly manned by friendly volunteers. It is within the Agama context of a campus atmosphere with a variety of students coming and going; off to classes; hanging out in the cafe; getting a massage.

Being as it is Agama, the website has a page devoted to the shop. It sells yoga mats, towels, bags and clothes. Those wanting souvenirs and other aids can also find books, tote bags, yantras, tongue scrapers, eye cups, neti pots and jewellery. And of course Ganesha incense sticks.

The Agama Shop in Srithanu is open on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10.30 to 12.30. Those are nice working hours!

Agama_Yogishop

Ananda Wellness Resort and Orion Healing

Ananda Wellness Resort in Hin Kong doesn’t have a yoga shop. This must be of some concern to new yoga students not properly attired and kitted up. The yoga instructors no doubt offer advice to new students looking for their own personal mat. The same goes for Orion

Sunny Yoga

Sunny Yoga (Haad Chao Phao) to the north of Laemson Lake in Srithanu has a good supply of yoga stuff. It is marketed for free using the name ‘Koh Phangan Yoga Gear’ Facebook page. These Canadians know how to do business. Among the usual yoga essentials there is a line of ‘funky’ yoga clothes ideal for those girls wanting freedom of movement to better help the process of spiritual betterment. She has leggings, crop tops and Ayurvedic herbal bath soap.

kohphanganyogasupplies

Kamala Healing Centre

The Kamala Healing Centre in Thongsala has a shop. However, it is an online shop for treatments. The would-be yogi must rise to the challenge of avoiding the sting of disappointment that only chains a person to the wheel of existence.

Gaia Yogashala

Gaia Yogashala in Srithanu doesn’t have a shop and goes further – it sets a Zen koan. They have yoga mats but they insist students bring their own. This begs questions and is tinged with paradox. If you read further down the FAQs they do offer the advice that yoga mats are expensive in Thailand.

Thongsala

I always head to Thongsala if I am looking to buy a specific item. It is amazing what a variety of items that are available in the big supermarkets. It is also amazing how shopkeepers in Koh Phangan are well-versed in the stock of their competitors. Ask for a yoga mat and they will probably give you a couple of good tips.

As they say in the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, ‘Don’t Panic’. You will find the right mat, yoga leggings or incense for you with a bit of perseverance.

For more about yoga schools in the area visit www.srithanu.info/therapyandyoga.html

Shiva Dance

Posted on by Srithanu Blog

Have a look at the video that goes along with this post. It is highly edited; it is alluring; it gives a gloss to female power. It is both empowering for women but also blatantly commercial. This is Nataraj Monica, an itinerant dance teacher who founded the Indian chapter of Agama and is on the staff at Srithanu a few weeks every year.

Monika gave herself the pseudonym of Nataraj to remind herself of something. It is the name of Shiva in his dance form – the dance of creation; the illusion and beauty of life. Not many women dub themselves with a male name. Monika has studied dance since she was 5. She studied belly dance in Turkey. She had a spell in India, of course. She has done the 42 week Agama teacher trainer program. Her website is full of credits. It also makes clear that she has turned her hand to everything to get by on the road – yoga, teaching, organising, diving. Any job to continue the ‘journey’. At present her affiliation to Agama means you can meet her in Srithanu.

One thing from Monika’s CV that did catch my eye was the mention of studying the sacred system of Gurdjieff Movements. Gurdjjeff and Madame Blavatsky. Theosophy was obscure when I studied religion in the 1990s. The mystique of this strange couple continues to echo through the ages it seems. The appeal of the exoteric; the possibility of cracking the code and discovering the answer. Jiddu Krishnamurti raised to be the new Messiah by the Theosophists realised the system of control below the surface of new forms of religiosity.

What to make of the video? It is so edited that any narrative is lost. Shakti Dance is the dance form of yoga. It also seems to be copyrighted to the hilt. I guess Shiva isn’t worried about that.

The idea seems to be that the dance heightens awareness. You lose yourself in the dance. Hence the circles and the hypnotism of fire watching. Compare this with the whirling dervishes and the Sufi tradition.

Being a man, I sadly see bra straps, flowing fabrics and female power. The teacher seems to be absent (or not highlighted). The setting feels contrived. Rather than an introduction to a new form of yoga, I feel I am watching an advert playing with me through subliminal messages.

monika

Sunny Yoga

Can You Get too Much of a Good Thing

Posted on by Srithanu Blog

Sunny Yoga

Yoga has several health benefits and is based in the ancient wisdom of India. It is an undoubted good in a life beset with illness, worry, grief and hardship. Yet a person visiting Srithanu might think that there are too many yoga centres, and perhaps the capital side of things is far too evident.

I can remember visiting streets in India and China where virtually every business offered the same product or service. I witnessed streets of shoe repairers, of notaries, of stalls selling plumbing parts, of stalls selling wrong-sized Tesco bags. The uniformity is both wondrous and exasperating. Can there be enough custom to make all the businesses successful? Is there a lack of imagination and vision at play here? Would not someone make a killing selling plumbing tools to go along with the plumbing parts?

Something similar is apparent in Srithanu and the surrounding area. There is Ananda Wellness Resort, Agama, Orion Healing, Chakra Natural Therapies, Kamala Healing Centre, Gaia Yogashala, Samma Karuna, Mannu Yoga and Sunny Yoga. It feels like the list will grow further. Has some type of spiritual clarion call be made sending for all the young Europeans and Americans who had previously spent several years studying yoga in India, Nepal and Tibet to suddenly make their way over land and sea to Thailand and in particular Koh Phangan?

This is perhaps unfair. Srithanu has become a centre for healing, learning yoga and for spiritual learning. As well as having a commercial value, these things have a human value. For many people a yoga or other course in Srithanu marks a turning point in their life. They become unburdened; they become detoxed; they learn something of mindfulness; they learn to exercise their body; and they might become better, more generous and kind people. What is wrong in that? The incremental positives are not to be sniffed at. Moreover, all those who become yoga teachers have the chance to become masters themselves and spread even more joy, peace and wisdom in their journey through life.

It is more than likely that several of the above mentioned yoga places will lose out in the commercial race and fall by the wayside. Others will over time be re-branded with new management and staff. Demand might rise or fall; the world economy might teeter or it might boom. However, it seems likely that Srithanu will continue for the foreseeable future and beyond to be regarded as a centre for yoga.