A few weekends ago, a couple of gal pals and I headed off to Langkawi, Malaysia for a yoga retreat that was meant to be soul nourishing, mind refreshing, and liver cleansing. This getaway was on the heels of a few other weekend trips and long workdays during which my gym routine had been neglected and my healthy diet had taken a back seat to other more tempting Asian specialties. So, this yoga retreat was definitely going to be just the jump start to my healthy routine that I needed….or so I thought.
It all started swimmingly. After arriving in Langkawi on Friday afternoon, we enjoyed a light lunch at a local and somewhat divey restaurant before we embarked on our first of four yoga sessions. Here we are looking the part of hard-core yogis:
Let me pause to introduce you to my two travel mates. Kristen, featured below in a simply stunning lotus pose, is my dear friend from high school who has been my guiding light in Singapore. She has really shown me the Singaporean ropes as she is basically a local in my mind given that she is turning the corner on her third year here. I’d be lost without her here. Turns out she makes an awesome travel buddy as well!
Colleen, demonstrating the crow pose with spot-on form below, is also a relatively new addition to Singapore from Chicago! She and Kristen both went to Notre Dame and met at a Notre Dame alumni event here in Singapore. (Those Fighting Irish really do stick together like corned beef and cabbage.) Even upon our first meeting, Colleen and I hit it off smashingly and we wonder with so many commonalities how our paths never crossed in Chicago.
Moments after we wrapped up our first ‘final shivasana’ we hit the showers and were shuttled off to a lovely vegetarian (remember this weekend is all good things all the time) Indian dinner with our two fellow yoga retreaters, Chris and Deep. Deep – based in London – and Chris – based in Singapore – were the most lovely long-distance relationship couple. They didn’t seem to mind one bit that the three of us were crashing their romantic weekend together. If I were Deep, I would have been like, “Buzz off you b*!%es. I want my man all to mah-self!” (In my mind, I’m saying this with my index finger raised and I’m waving it back and forth rapidly to really show us who is boss.)
After dinner, we decided to find ourselves a local watering hole where we could drink a cold beer with our feet in the sand. In Langkawi, this type of establishment is not hard to find. After a few Coronas that were sipped to the sounds of amazing Asian covers like Stairway to Heaven, we bumbled into an Irish pub. In Langkawi, this type of establishment is not easy to find. But when you are traveling with two Fighting Irish lasses, I feel like your chances of ending up in an Irish pub regardless of locale are pretty strong. We entered the pub around 11:00. I thought to myself, “Awesome. The free hotel shuttle will come pick us up until 12:00. Plenty of time for a pint or two.” And then….this happened:
Fast forward to 4:00 a.m. and you have three Americans and six Brits shamelessly belting out ‘Mr. Brightside’ at full gas with a roomful of sober locals watching on in complete awe.
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