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As the boat pulled away from the beach, the sea looked like those magazine covers. So turquoise maybe someone played with the color saturation in the photo.

Koh Phangan, Thailand By Sonja Bjelland

I was heading from my studies at the Agama Center, to the other side of Koh Phangan to a placed called The Sanctuary.

Engulfed in jungle, the wellness resort sits on a secluded beach and happy hour was well underway by the time I arrived.

I had called earlier in the day to make sure they had dorm rooms available. Sometimes yoga retreats have them booked so visitors can only reserve them hours before arrival. But for 200 or 300 Bhat a night ($6-$10 US) it seems like a bargain.

Far from the high-end bungalows they offer, but the mattress were thick and has a mosquito net and towel for the cold shower. However, the mosquito net may have been more useful in the shower than over my bed.

Spark Circus performance at The Sanctuary By Sonja Bjelland

The resort winds through the island jungle in a mass of leafy green. I had to be careful not to step on frogs the size of my pinky nail and carried a flashlight at night.

The restaurant/bar/gathering place was great for people watching. An abundance of lower back tattoos on men and women and they could have held a Jack Sparrow look-alike contest.

My first night there, a human fire circus performed as a fundraiser. The Spark Circus brings play and lessons to orphans and refugees who are in Thailand from Myanmar. That night they raised about 60,000 Bhat or $2,000 US. It’s enough to run a school with 150 students for a year.

But that was just the start of the party. Every Friday night, a huge party starts up at a bar in the jungle and rages well into Saturday afternoon.

The music was still thumping during my 11:30 a.m. yoga class. Ben had us doing almost all of my favorite poses and the small class size allowed for personal attention. But the party challenged my savasana bliss.

After class, I wound up in a longtail boat with someone being taken from the party to a doctor after doing too many drugs. More yoga bliss floating away.

The location made my life a bit challenging but I managed to attend all three yoga classes they have during season: 8 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. Just not all in one day. Each classes costs 300 Bhat or $10 US. They also have a Pilates class but I didn’t try it out. I also didn’t take advantage of the massages but one friend said it was the best he had ever had.

Yoga hall at The Sanctuary on Koh Phangan in Thailand By Sonja Bjelland

I stuck to the yoga and meditation and am still sore from the 8 a.m. flow class, and my hike afterward. But I enjoyed how the instructor, Peter, explained the stories behind some of the series of asanas. The movements were fluid, more like Tai Chi than sun salutations.

The 4:15 p.m. class with Dee brought in more of the inspirational side of yoga but not so much spiritual and a few Pilates moves. I needed the ab work though because Agama’s classes didn’t have any ab work.

At one point she recommended we pick a point in the jungle to focus for our balancing poses. I looked out at a red and yellow plant emerging from the green and found my spot. Amazing how long I can stand on one leg with my hands in the air here.

The serene but sometimes wet hall also held a free meditation class at 6 p.m. Teachers bring in different meditation techniques each night and those can include things such as dance.

The night I chose to go I got lucky. It was laughter meditation.

If you know me you know I like to laugh. Sometimes I can get to laughing pretty hard and forget to breath.

But no, I didn’t pass out.

We started the class practicing different kinds of laughter such as the belly laugh versus the nasal laugh. Then we did laughing exercises where we looked each other in the eye and had to laugh. It didn’t matter if the laugh was real or just an impersonation laugh. We just had to keep laughing.

In the end, supine on some cushions with our heads close together our “laughter facilitator” had us begin laughing.

I’d hear a laugh and just forced myself to laugh and pretty soon I was busting up. I had to bring my knees to my chest because my belly hurt. I’m laughing just thinking about it.

I’d hear the woman next to me laugh and that would start me laughing and my laugh got the woman next to me laughing. But it wasn’t all women. Plenty of guys enjoyed the laugh too.

Our teacher started telling us it was time to stop laughing and we lost it again. His serious tone just kept us rolling until after 20 minutes we started calming down.

That whole evening even a silly joke got a chuckle out of me.

One major yoga vacation lesson from today however, is to never do an intense class hours before needing to lug everything you have.

I’ve been in this isolated nook on Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Thailand known as Haad Thien. Magazine-cover beautiful, but difficult to reach. It even proved more difficult to leave. And not just because it’s such a relaxation-inducing place.

A longtail boat off Koh Phangan on a sunny day By Sonja Bjelland

Storms set in this week bringing rain and stirring the seas.

That meant a treacherous ride and fewer longtail boats taking the tourists out of Haad Thien and leaving me to haul my pack over the rocky finger separating the beach I was at to a beach with more hotels. Fortunately, one of my new friends carried my daypack – heavy itself. I thought to myself, it’s days like this that it’s a good thing ate all that food in Germany.

This started to ruin my yoga bliss from the 2-hour Vinyasa class I took at 8 a.m. But the rest of the journey may have proved that I needed yoga to start my day.

The workers on the boat hoisted my pack into the boat and I got so wet I was glad I had on my swimsuit. After one wave knocked the boat back the driver managed to beat the next swell and off we went.

Soaked by rain and seawater, the boat pulled into the rocky attempt of a dock and my biceps went to work again. Soon I had a ticket on a ferry heading to the mainland and a few more chances to work out my arms.

I still have about another day of traveling before I reach my destination. That’s one of those quirks about reaching an isolated destination. There’s usually a reason not so many people are there. But as you’ll read next, sometimes it’s worth the effort.

On most evenings, unfortunately during the beautiful sunset, the Agama center has a lecture for all the students.

Each focuses on a different topic in yogic philosophy or something more specific to this branch of what’s considered Kundalini

Sunset on Koh Phangan, Thailand By Sonja Bjelland

yoga in the States. The talks also mix in with whatever yoga poses we’re learning that day and after 4 hours of meditation and “asanas” or poses it helps. I also like these lectures because I’m a thinker and otherwise it could get boring for me just sitting by the beach all the time.

Tonight’s lecture focused on purification, but not just in a detox sort of way. Though the Ananda Wellness Resort here on Koh Phangan in Thailand does have that too.

She talked about cleaning out negativity. As I was discussing with some friends over Pad Thai afterward, it’s carving off the bad blocks in your life sculpture.

The teacher, Laura Carrotti, said life is about consciousness, existence and bliss (a word I’m kinda partial to).

Negativity is a choice, she said. Every person decides to produce negative thoughts or emotions such as anger, envy or hatred and can also make them go away.

Easier said then done, for sure.

But I know in my own life I’ve managed to do some of that. I made a list of negative crap in my life that I wanted out and I took the steps to cut those ties. Again, not easily done but so worth the effort.

And not to say there won’t be more negativity in my life. But I looked at my life recipe and saw what made it salty, and spicy and sweet. And I feel like I cut out the ingredients that didn’t serve the dish. If you don’t mind another metaphor to make my point.

Carrotti noted that when people get angry, for example, those physical reactions are associated with someone who’s sick: High blood pressure, sweating, etc. Being more content and happy provide the opposite effect.

This isn’t about holding in all that anger. It’s more about not getting upset or depressed in the first place. Admitting that fear, anxiety and negativity do not define a person and that it is a choice. She recalled the phrase “worrying is praying for what you don’t want.”

In those negative thoughts, she said to think of something positive, like rainbows or puppies.

One friend I’ve met here had just unfriended someone on Facebook because he kept causing drama but she still felt bad about it. We reminded her that he was someone who just brought negativity to her life. And that was an easy ingredient to remove.

Through this journey I keep finding more and more different ways of practicing yoga.

I’m studying at an Agama center on Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Thailand.

Sunset in Koh Phangan By Sonja Bjelland

It’s sort of an ashram set up but the yoga hall is on the campus of the Ananda Wellness Resort. The accommodations there, and nearby where I am now staying, are basic but cleaner and nicer than India. Others up the road are even nicer but for about $16 US I have a mattress that I know as a mattress and even hot water and pretty clean rooms. I even have a balcony view of the gulf.

Further changing it up from India, the classes don’t start until 8:30 a.m., a welcome difference from 6 a.m. But we are still in class or lecture about six hours every day .

Tan, muscular, shirtless men make up about half the class. The outdoor yoga hall is covered with screens allowing in some breeze and the sound of the chirping birds to enter. And the occasional cat.

I guess the best way to describe these classes is slow. Each pose is held for several minutes.

Wheel pose sculpture by Venetia Walkey at The Queen's Gallery in Thailand

We do tons of warm ups, head circles and some breathing exercises that are also new to me. Then we always do a forward bend for a really long time. With each pose taking so long, we only get through a few poses per class. But at least I’m not sweating as much in this tropical heat.

I’m just dropping in on the Level 1 Intensive Course for a few days because I didn’t have time for the full 18-day deal. Each day the class learns a new asana and an explanation about what it helps in your body as well as its affect on the different “chakras” or sacred energy centers in the body.

Swami Vivekananda Saraswati started Agama in the late 1990s after studying what was being taught about yoga around the world. He wanted to present a more pure form of yoga that can still be applicable to daily life. The teachings focus more on some of the mystical and spiritual side of yoga with a lot of focus on the chakras.

One of the inspirations for Agama was the original Swami Vivekananda, India’s first religious leader to make a major appearance in the West. I had a chance to visit the memorial to Vivekananda at the tip of India.

Vivekananda memorial Kanyakumari, India By Sonja Bjelland

In 1893, he called for peace among all religions in a speech at the World’s Parliament on Religions in Chicago. My fellow writer over at Breathe, Dream, Go posted a video about the speech on Jan. 12 to mark Vivekananda’s birth.

“Sectarianism, bigotry and it’s horrible descendent, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often with human blood destroyed civilizations and sent whole nations into despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now.”

After India, Bangkok is like a dream.

Reclining Buddha in Bangkok, Thailand By Sonja Bjelland

My hotel is clean and has hot water. And I didn’t even have to pay a ton. Heck, I even have air conditioning.

The roads are paved to the store fronts and not a cow in sight.

But I needed a yoga class to sooth my body after walking all day taking in the Grand Palace, temples and museums.

It reminds me of a mix of Hong Kong and Delhi actually. Tucked in among the glistening skyscrapers sit wooden houses and shacks on the pier. Makes sense because it’s Indochina I supposed.

I passed by a Dairy Queen and Boots drugstore trying to find the tourism information kiosk. I’m sure this is only the smallest fraction of Thai life. But one I was surprised to see.

So above the Sizzler, (yes, that Sizzler, with the steaks and salad bar) in a glassy, lit-up building in the Thong Lo district I found two yoga studios. Absolute Yoga and Iyengar Yoga Bangkok.

Mural at the Grand Palace of the Thai interpretation of Indian mythology

Absolute Yoga is a chain of yoga centers with several around Bangkok and a yoga resort on Koh Samui that was just mentioned in the New York Times as one of the 41 things to do in 2011.

However, most of the classes at the studio closest to my place were of the “hot” yoga variety. Being that I’m in Bangkok and the daily high tops 85 I figured I’ve sweat enough already and went with the Iyengar studio.

By the end of the Iyengar class I’d amassed a small pile of yoga blocks was happy to see them being used. I’m not the most flexible and fortunately for me the Iyengar type of yoga uses props such as blocks and straps to keep the body in correct alignment, no matter how little you can stretch. The owner even had special blocks cut just for shoulder stands.

While Iyengar is based in India, the idea of blocks and straps is somewhat controversial there so this type of yoga confined to the Pune region outside of Mumbai where it is taught. I brought my own strap to a few classes in India and was told not to use it.

In the confines of the studio, I could have been at a yoga class anywhere in the West. The fill-in instructor, Les, adjusted people as needed and it felt good to stretch all my tired muscles.

With “sivansansa,” relaxing at the end of class, I’m hoping to conquer this jetlag tonight before I land in Koh Samui on Saturday.

Night market chef grilling pork to go with peanut sauce By Sonja Bjelland

Traditional yoga includes the practice of seva – serving others.

A yogi friend I made in India has traveled the world doing just that and creating video stories for her YouTube channel, Traveling Yogi. You can see her videos from Haiti here: Traveling Yoga in Haiti

Jessica Kang and others work through yoga poses in Haiti

In 2010, before Jessica Kang journeyed to India, she spent two weeks in Haiti helping at an orphanage and with the power of yoga.

Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of the earthquake that left the island nation in crumbles with more than 220,000 dead, 300,000-plus injured and more than 1 million homeless.

Today, BlissPassport is carrying a guest post by Jessica Kang about her time in Haiti along with one of her videos.

By Jessica Kang of Traveling Yogi

You’re probably asking or wondering what does going to Haiti have to do with yoga. Well, quite a lot actually, but I’ll just give you an abbreviated version. There have been many, many different ways of describing yoga, other than just the physical practice. To me yoga is about connection – connecting, deeper than the connection of body and mind. It’s about connecting to our humanity, to our spirit our soul, to each other – our oneness.

Boys in Haiti by Jessica Kang

Haiti, a small country, sharing an island with the Dominican Republic, is a place I am ashamed to admit that I knew nothing about, much less knew where to find on a map. After having visited Haiti this past summer, nearly 6 months after the earthquake, I can definitely say it is a country that has left a permanent mark in my mind and my heart.

I am yoga practitioner as well as an instructor and someone who has learned more about people and cultures from traveling than from books or schools. Having traveled to nearly a dozen countries in the past 4 years, I have seen the best, more so than the worst, in humanity. Haiti proved it for me.

The experience I had is something that is not easily forgotten. As the 1-year anniversary approaches I am reminded of the people I met, especially the young children at Dr. Roberts’ Orphanage who have all been left orphaned because of the earthquake.

I had recorded them with my camera and I may not have understood Creole, but our translator told me some of the children were describing how they saw their brick homes collapse on their family. Others shared how they were walking the streets looking for their family after the destruction.

Another unforgettable person I met was Carlos, an artist as well as a fixer for news organizations who has been living in one of the tent cities across the street from the Presidential Palace ever since the earthquake. I wonder if he made it out of there with his family. If he was able to find a more sustaining job working with computers, something he studied in school.

I still have friends from different non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who practically live there or continuously go back and forth helping with the efforts break this never ending cycle of tragedy. I commend them and honor them for the selfless work they continue to do to help the people of Haiti. As small as it may be, my contribution is to share the stories of resilience of both the volunteers who continue to give hope, the souls who continue defy the odds and who continue to hope and believe for a better tomorrow.

Haiti's tent city By Jessica Kang

One does not have to be in the thick of the environment with the noise, the smell, the visual chaos, along with the calm to know that this world need people to give of ourselves. To connect with someone, to feel the vibration of energy with those who have done something life changing, however small or big, is a powerful gift. It’s the essence of humanity. It’s yoga. It’s how we exist.

Tips for VolunTourism:

• Pair up with a non-governmental organization (NGO)
• Research and question them to make sure you are comfortable with what they are doing. Some are criticized for getting people to pay to do work that locals would otherwise be paid to do.
• Have some prior experience traveling in a third-world country to get your feet wet.
• Get in touch with people who have traveled to the part of the world you are planning to visit.
• Don’t expect to change the world with your one visit, meaning don’t expect too much. A little goes a long way.

Donations to help Haiti

Below is a list of some of the organizations that I have worked with and know that the work they are doing is making a difference.  If you’d like to make a donation and be assured your money will be spent directly to help the people of Haiti, then please get in touch with one of these organizations to help.

• http://www.grassrootsunited.org
• http://www.provide4life.org
• http://www.helpemmahelphaiti.com/Home.html
• E-mail: drantoinerobert@yahoo.ca - this is the direct email for the orphanage caring for the children who lost their parents due to the earthquake.

Hundreds of yogis moving simultaneously, typically in some placid surroundings with pine or palm trees, and you’ve got yourself a yoga festival.

More and more such festivals seem to be cropping up. Tickets go on sale this month for the annual Wanderlust Festival in Northern California. The event, which bills itself “Yoga. Music. Nature.”, has added a second location in Bondville, Vt., to accommodate the throngs of yogis from across the world who attend.

Wanderlust isn’t the only festival that has decided to expand. The Bhakti Fest held the last few years in the sometimes

Joshua Tree at sunset By Sonja Bjelland

scorching September heat of the Southern California desert is starting a spring option. The new OmMERSION in April has a long list of Kirtan artists, yoga teachers and speakers on yoga philosophy.

But there are so many more. Yoga Journal now puts on four yoga conferences annually, one in each of the main U.S. time zones with the first one starting one week from today in San Francisco.

And that’s just what’s available in the U.S.

I’m planning to be in Bali for the BaliSpirit Festival in Ubud this March. The four-day extravaganza mixes yoga, music, dance and meditation in one tropical island destination. I’m looking forward to experiencing it myself.

I’ll already be in Bali or I could head back to the ashram I stayed at in Rishikesh, India, for it’s annual International Yoga Festival, also in March.

The list of speakers for that festival includes yoga teachers, musicians and holy people including swamis and American Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati who just has a way of telling stories and making people understand seemingly complex life questions.

And these are only the major festivals. Local festivals will bring yogis together in locations across the U.S. including Iowa City and Texas.

So be on the look out for ways to connect with yogis in your area. And let me know if you have a great experience at one of these festivals.

Mark your calendar. Here are links to some of the world’s larger yoga festivals:

• Wanderlust Festival
• Bhakti Fest and OmMersion
• Yoga Journal Conferences
• Bali Spirit Festival
• International Yoga Festival

After figuring out what you want to accomplish in 2011, it’s good to look at what experience might help with that.

Do you want more balance and creativity into your life? Maybe a summer yoga and writing retreat. Learning yoga at all and enjoying a different culture? Possibly a beginner yoga week at a spa in Thailand.

So far in my checking around for 2011 ideas, I’ve found a Summer Writing Retreat that includes poetry, breathwork, painting and yoga. All in Italy’s Umbria region. Who wouldn’t be inspired that scenery?

But similar sessions can be found in the U.S. in equally fascinating surroundings.

In the U.S., a few groups offer yoga and writing combos in Yosemite that I wrote about last year. It has become one of my most often viewed stories.

Thinking farther away, not closer to home.

This story in Australia’s Sidney Morning Herald extolls the value of a yoga village in Sri Lanka sans electricity but full of life-learning experiences.

This weeks, I’ve been checking out yoga spots in Thailand because I’ll be there oh so soon and found several promising locations. I might be able to fit in a short massage course and take a few yoga classes at Namo in Chiang Mai.

More and more, getaways have been developed to allow visitors t0 learn whatever it is they want to accomplish. I understand this is all in an effort to provide people with something more than the experience of going somewhere. I read an article in India about people not reading novels because those do not teach them how to improve themselves.

No matter how much I may want to be a “yoga slacker,” I won’t be able to do yoga on a tight rope in one vacation. (Or several vacations.)

But The Omega Institute will be holding retreats throughout winter and spring in Costa Rica with some more daunting but accomplishable goals from “Repacking your bags at midlife” to “How to write a memoir.”

Sometimes we want the classes, sometimes just experiencing a new place is the learning we need.

With all those classes, just don’t forget to pay attention to the lessons life brings naturally from experiencing nature and new places.

***

On a side note, I wanted to mention two stories I saw last week about yoga and India. Both look at expectations and our views on what something should or should not be. One on NPR was by an Indian man who lives in the U.S. about attending his first yoga class. The other in USA Today was by an American woman who attended a yoga class in Mumbai. What links the two is that neither found the classes to be “Indian.”