Yoga in Koh Samui

There has always been an interest in studying yoga in Thailand. Although yoga belongs to the Indian tradition, Thai massage has a strong medical aspect that also deals with blocked energies like yoga. The cultural connections between India and Thailand are clear in religion and language. Names of places such as Srithanu in Koh Phangan are references to Lord Shiva.

From a tourist point of view, many people seek to do something more than merely sit on a beach in Koh Samui during their holiday. The notion for many of doing nothing on holiday has been superseded by the desire to experience as much as possible, to even start a learning journey or to experiment with new ways of living. One popular way to do this is to practice yoga or even undertake a yoga teacher training course in Koh Samui.

Below are some of the options for doing yoga in Koh Samui.

Vikasa Yoga Retreat

Vikasa Yoga Retreat is located just south of Chaweng Beach. They have ocean front yoga salas. They offer drop in classes, yoga retreats and packages that include accommodation. They also run yoga teacher training courses that allow you to join the Yoga Alliance and become a registered and certified yoga teacher.

There is a restaurant and pool on the grounds of the resort. Naturally the restaurant serves healthy and vegetarian options.

www.vikasayoga.com

The Yogarden Samui

The Yogarden Samui is located in trendy Bophut / Fisherman's Village. They offer Iyengar, Pilates, Hatha and Ashtanga yoga. There is a pleasant covered yoga sala. It is a decent size and set in a quiet garden location.

They also do detox programs. They have a cafe full of yummy healthy food as well as a shop. They also offer Yin Yang Yoga teacher training.

www.theyogardensamui.com

Samahita Retreat

This yoga place is located on the quieter southern beach of Bang Kao Bay. It is a resort that offers a range of eco-friendly accommodation that is comfortable. They have good yoga facilities. They run fixed date yoga retreats, flexi date yoga programs and fixed date yoga training. They don't seem to have drop in classes as they want people to commit to at least a 3-day package.

Yoga styles include self-practice Mysore. They also incorporate cardio and specific strength training.

www.samahitaretreat.com

Kamalaya

Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary and Holistic Spa is a 5 star resort offering a range of wellness packages and spa packages. This is a very well equipped resort that focuses on wellness programs to detox, rejuvenate and to touch on the spiritual.

At present they don't offer drop in yoga classes. Instead they have one-to-one tuition  in a program called 'yoga synergy'. The package includes accommodation, Thai massage, soft drinks and access to daily holistic fitness activities. A 3 night package starts at around 61,000 Thai Baht.

Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary and Holistic is located on Laem Set beach on the southern coast of Koh Samui.

www.kamalaya.com

Absolute Sanctuary

Absolute Sanctuary describes itself as a Moroccan-inspired boutique wellness resort. I think the Moroccan part refers to the soft furnishings and the design of the resort rather than to any particular style of yoga.

The resort is located in Cheong Mon. The resort features 2 yoga studios. Their teachers use a variety of yoga styles: hot yoga, Vinyasa, Hatha, Ashtanga and hot flow. They also do breathing exercises and meditation.

Absolute Sanctuary offers drop in classes as well as bundles of lessons. A lesson starts at 750 Thai Baht. They also offer programs, wellness programs and detox programs. They don't do teacher training programs but they rent their yoga studios to those wanting to organise yoga retreats.

The onsite restaurant, the Love Kitchen, has plenty of vegetarian and healthy options on the menu.

The resort also has a communal pool.

http://www.absolutesanctuary.com/

New Online Booking for Koh Samui

For those enjoying just a few days holiday in Koh Samui planning is essential to make travelling as stress free as possible. The biggest change in travel in Thailand has been the internet. People have access to lots of information about travel routes. And now 12go.asia has opened up some routes for online booking; these include the bus and ferry route between Koh Samui and Bangkok.

It used to be that you had to take time out of your holiday to get down to a travel agent to book tickets in advance for your journey in Thailand. I invariably got stuck in Khao San for the night because the Lomprayah coach and ferry was always sold out by the time we cleared international customs and got to their office in Khao San. Those days of having to either arrive on the day and take pot luck on getting tickets or having to go out of your way to organise tickets in advance are slowly disappearing.

Naturally you can book airline tickets online. Thai Air tickets are easily purchased online through their website. For a while you could use the Thai Rail site to reserve sleeper tickets. That only lasted a few months before the IT collapsed.

Luckily a private company has stepped into the breach. 12go.asia offers online booking for various journeys in Thailand. It is a modern looking website that is easy to understand. It clearly shows the prices and the times of departure and arrival. You just type in the route you are interested in along with the date of travel and the site lists available tickets for sale. You can buy tickets by credit card or by PayPal.

It is still early days for 12go.asia. Many journeys are not available. In many cases the website lists transport options but do not offer online booking. You can book a train from Bangkok to Suratthani City or Suratthani Airport but not the reverse journey. The best coverage is from Bangkok to various places in Thailand.

One of the problems with offering universal travel booking in Thailand is that there are so many small service providers. For example the Haad Rin Queen is not going to join anytime soon or the Thong Nai Pan Express.

I guess if they can improve the coverage for train journeys in Thailand and internal flights then that would be a massive step in the right direction. It allows holiday makers to reserve seats in advance so that they don’t have to worry about missing their flight back home or having to spend half a day booking tickets in advance.

Here is a brief list of links for booking travel tickets:

Book Lomprayah and Bus Koh Samui to Bangkok
Book Lomprayah and Bus Bangkok to Koh Samui

Live Cheaply in Koh Samui

 

In the Past

There used to be lots of ex-pats living in Thailand, often on a very informal basis. Thailand is a country that has grown accustomed to over-charging tourists for everything from bottled water to Thai food to taxi journeys. Ex-pats have got around this problem by learning a few words of Thai and making local friends.

It used to be possible to get a series of tourist visas for Thailand by nipping over a border every 3 months. Foreigners worked in bars, dive shops and generally survived on a small budget in order to live next to a beach, in Bangkok or up in the north. Successive Thai governments have done a lot to clamp down on this. They have ordered their embassies in Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia to not renew tourist visas. They also made a few half-hearted efforts to raid dive shops.

Nowadays

Nowadays if you want to live in Thailand you have to marry a local, be sponsored by a company or get a pensioner visa. As a result many of the beaches in Koh Samui and Koh Phangan have lost many of their long term foreign residents.

Cheapest cost to live in Koh Samui

To live a basic life in Koh Samui you need a minimum of 15,000 Thai Baht. a month The cheapest rooms and bungalows have to be hunted out. They are normally privately owned places and can be had for between 3,000 and 5,000 Thai Baht a month.Most of these places are in the quieter south of the island. Don't expect to find them by searching on the internet!

As you can calculate, that leaves between 10,000 and 12,000 THB for living costs. The great thing about Koh Samui is that supermarkets such as Tesco Lotus make it possible to self-cater cheaply. The supermarkets charge everyone the same price.

If you have the funds to buy a moped (about $1,000) you can cut out most transport costs. Taxi drivers in Koh Samui never go on the meter. If you are on a budget they are out of the question.

On 15,000 THB a month it is still possible to go out occasionally to local bars and restaurants. Invaluable places for those on a tight budget are the numerous 7-11s on the island. They have cheap food, drinks and beer. They will also give you hot water if you want to eat a pot noodle.

Other than going to the beach most things in Chaweng and Lamai will be outside this budget.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that Nathon has the best markets on the island. They are good places to shop for household goods and fresh produce.