Welp, a random man has moved into our dorm.
Let me explain. We are staying at a little boutique resort on the island of Koh Phangan. It's a lovely little jungle place to stay with varying levels of accommodations. There are different bungalow options (ranging from 500-1000 baht a night) and then there is a dorm like set up above the restaurant (around 200 baht per night.) *35 Baht = ~ $1 USD
Long story short - this place is super inexpensive, no matter which way you slice it.
Anyway, a part of All Yoga Thailand, the first 10 people who sign up for the program get a free stay in the dorm - which is awesome. It allows people to save money, makes the program more accessible to a wider range of people and is just a nice little perk for signing up early. As cheap as this place is, staying free in the dorm saves you around $400-$700. That is a huge amount of money if you are planning to keep traveling around or need a plane ticket home or maybe just want to spend a ridiculous of money on sweet Thai massages and fake Nike gear at the night markets :)
I was one of the people who got the free stay in the dorms. I was SO excited about this and thankful because I was feeling super guilty about taking this amazing journey by myself and spending all of this time and money on an amazing trip without Dave - who is at home, working, being responsible, taking care of our life and loving our sweet pup while I'm just out here ohming and downward dogging my way through Thailand.
I'm also more needy than most and wanted to be around my fellow yogis. If you know me, you know that I don't like to be alone... I generally fill my downtime with friends, family or at the very least hanging out in a park surrounded by people - even if we aren't talking, I just really like to be around others. I'm a weird extrovert... I know. Also, this is the first time I've ever traveled alone for real and wasn't sure I would feel safe or happy in a bungalow by myself.
The dorm has proven to be an awesome experience... It's clean, safe, there are a bunch of other All Yoga people in here and, until a few days ago, it was just us up here... until a German hippie named Claus moved in.
It all happened super under the radar. We came back from our morning yoga session to find one of the empty dorm beds not so empty anymore... there were clothes, random sarongs, flip flops, a little boom box and an odd assortment of nuts and shells on the floor next to a bed a few down from mine. Although it shouldn't have, it sort of took us all by surprise. Of course the resort would want to fill the extra beds not taken by the students, of course All Yoga Thailand didn't reserve all of the beds, but since we had been the only people up here for 2 weeks straight, I guess we didn't expect to find a half naked, rather large man as our new roommate.
Although he wears little more than a sarong and flip flops, Claus has turned out to be really very nice. He happily greets us each morning with a "hello yoga people" and a smile and then wanders off to do whatever it is that he does all day. Today we talked about how crazy American politics are and how German politics aren't much better... which is why he lives in Sumatra on the top of a mountain by a lake. He also told me that some sort of energy wave is coming and how we should all do lots of breathing exercises to avoid going insane... I literally had no idea what he was talking about, but thanked him for the advice anyway :)
As nice as Claus is, I think I'm going to move out of here tomorrow and into a bungalow with Nina, one of my friends here. To save money, she had been looking for someone to split her bungalow with her and I think I'm going to choose a lovely girl from Paris to be my roomie rather than the large man from Germany talking about cosmic energy waves. The cost will only be $100 for the whole time in Nina's bungalow for me and I've paid zero dollars thus far on my accommodations, soooo, I think I have to do it :)
Also, as I am typing this a random cat just wandered up and into the dorm. He just came right up the stairs and was walking around meowing at 11:15pm while everyone was sleeping. Lol. I really hope someone else heard/saw me chasing it around while trying not to disturb Claus from whatever psychedelic dream is gracing his subconscious tonight :)