Random departures, yoga and other silliness

I’m fast approaching the end of my second month in Thailand. I feel surer of myself and this adventure than I did at the very beginning, always a nice feeling when it happens.

On a bittersweet note I will be saying so-long to Random sooner than anticipated. He will be flying back in just a few days at the end of January. The bitter part is that I will miss that strange silly fucking mutant. The sweet part is that I know he’s leaving in order to expedite arrangements for S. to be able to come to the States to be with him.

To quote Mr. Lewis, “the power of love is a curious thing.” I’m very happy for my friend. I have never seen him happier. I believe that what he has found with S. has not only surprised him, it has changed him for the better. I shall miss him certainly and having been in love a few times myself, I wish him godspeed.

He has already been tackling forms and other prerequisites, such as her medical records and such. It may appear to be “too easy” for people to slip in through the southern border of the States, to all the hammer heads demanding that a (Berlin-esque) wall be built. From the looks of things, getting in through the front door ain’t no joke. (sic)

From what they have learned so far, it may take at least six months from the time they submit the paperwork before a fiancé visa may be issued. Random showed me a few of the forms that they have to fill out prior to the actual visa application itself. I glanced at a few pages that he had downloaded from the official US Department of State website.
It does not inspire confidence when obvious misspellings leap out of the page at you. I pointed this out to Random. We agreed it would probably not help his cause to circle them with red ink or otherwise call into question the competency of the powers that be or their paper pushing minions.

And so it goes.

I have recently exchanged emails with a yoga instructor who teaches yoga and meditation including pranayamma yoga in Chang Mai. I am feeling like doing some more exploring in that direction. The Vipassana has been a great help to me, but based on some reading and research I think it would be useful to look into other techniques as well.

I found a website of a group who teaches Kriya yoga some where in Thailand. There is also an organization on one of the islands in the Gulf of Thailand that offers structured courses based on Indian and Tibetan Tantra Yoga using a system of Kundalini-based Hatha Yoga and Laya Yoga techniques.

Naturally, many people who hear the term “Tantra yoga” will immediately assume this is the Fool’s way of making people think he’s going to another meditation retreat when he’s really going to some swingers retreat.

Yes, they do offer courses concerning the sexual aspects of Tantra yoga but those are not the only courses they offer and it is a huge oversimplification of Tantra yoga to label it as being all or only about sex. The confusion is usually because all some people know about Tantra yoga is what they heard the musician Sting say in an interview about achieving 8 hour orgasms due to his Tantra yoga practice.

Surely, you can’t believe I would go off to some beautiful tropical island for a month to study yoga based on the word of a musician. Although, this may call for some investigative journalism and I know just the fool for such an assignment.

I will continue to look into other options as well as try and find some local meditation teachers or groups.

In February I will have to go down to the local immigration office and apply for a one month extension to my current tourist visa. At the end of March I will probably go back to Penang for a new two month tourist visa. Everything subject to change, naturally.

I’ve been adding and changing the ads on this blog in order to try and offer readers more reason to support my efforts toward financing the Chinese stem cell treatment. (What’s that about? Read this.)

With that shameless plug, I will bid you, “Rao ja phop kan eek nai reo reo nee.” This is (phonetic) Thai for “We will meet again soon.”