Relax - The one with a bit on resort etiquette

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JOANNE'S JOURNEYS: day 4
Straits Times Online Editor Joanne Lee shares about her 'grueling' one-week detox holiday in Koh Samui in this exclusive blog feature.

SO IT'S Day Four and I wake up seriously grumpy. I'm been skimping on my insomnia medication in an effort to detox full-out, but the melatonin didn't work and I think I'm going to have to be a bit more realistic about going cold turkey off the pharmaceutical industry.

Dragged awake by an equally grumpy sister, supremely annoyed by my nocturnal reading last night, I start Wednesday in sore need of my dark glasses.

At breakfast, however, while Janice scarfs back some pancakes, I discover what I'd missed out on the previous two mornings: Ginger and lime tea.

Ginger and lime hot water, really.
[Photo: Joanne Lee]

It's really just some ginger slices left to steep in hot water, infused with a generous squeeze of Thai lime, and it tastes really great. Or maybe it just tastes great because this is the third day of my detox. Either way, I'm surprised that something this simple can taste so good while de-bloating and cleansing one's insides at the same time.

Definitely a lesson to take home with me.

Stick with the programme, Joanne.
[Photo: Janice Lee Fang]

Meanwhile, Janice has mustered up her energy and has decided to finally put on her running shoes and go for a run around the hotel compound while I get my morning ablutions over and done with.

Just a quick note on how colonic irrigation is going. Although the second session was easier than the first, today's was a little, er, hard-going. At first I feel guilty, blaming it on the nori rolls I ate for dinner last night, but apparently people on "living foods" and normal detox menus also do the procedure regularly without much problem. So I guess I'm just still not used to it all. Oh well.

Some people need to be taught some resort etiquette.
[Photo: Janice Lee Fang]

In the afternoon, we decide to catch more rays and end up grumpier than ever.

There's a bunch of German ladies currently residing in the resort for a special private event for a pole-dancing fitness course. We were initially quite curious at the thought of trying out this latest new way of getting toned - it would have been a hilarious experience, we thought - but after two days of the group's behaviour in the resort, there is simply no way we are going anywhere near that lot.

There's something to be said for respecting other people's privacy - even when on holiday. Especially when on holiday. These women, I suspect having paid good money for their group vacation, decided that they owned the resort and spoke at volumes that made for extremely testy poolside relations.

They'd hog the entire set of deck chairs by draping their belongings everywhere and yell at each other across the pool. They'd also rip their bikini tops off to sunbathe topless and walk about as if the resort was a nudist beach. I'm sure down at the public Koh Samui beaches, the more exhibitionist types would do exactly the same thing, but when you're at an expensive resort with other hotel guests using the same facilities, you'd imagine they would've shown some discretion.

And let it not be said that Janice and I are a pair of prudes. There were a sprinkling of other guests in the hotel as well who could not get a spot at the poolside, and probably couldn't concentrate on their relaxation and reading too, given what Janice termed "the papayas" on show.

Thoroughly discomforted, and not a little disgusted, Janice booked herself in for a sports massage to relieve some tension in her lower back. Meanwhile, I decided to jumpstart this heart of mine and get back into the studio.

Beating a cowardly retreat and
letting the ugly tourists take over the pool.
[Photo: Janice Lee Fang]

Having grown up as a ballet dancer, and later competing as a ballroom dancer in my university days, I practically gave up all forms of exercise once I started work. My well-toned body stayed pretty resilient to all the abuse I'd thrown its way through my 20s. But now, quite a few years on, my body is feeling the effects of not being able to shake weight and bloat off as easily as it used to do.

The only daily exercise regime Absolute Sanctuary (http://www.absolutesanctuary.com) has is one of the best in Thailand - where the Crown Princess comes to do her yoga when she visits Koh Samui. But I'm not really a yoga lover. It's Pilates for me.

I've recently begun to seriously rework my body through some private Pilates sessions (http://www.pilates.com.sg/) back in Singapore, so I thought I should be prepared to do some beginner-level mat work.

Warming up with a few ronde-de-jambes.
[Photo: Janice Lee Fang]

The instructor, Khun Mon, was well-versed in the classic Pilates breathing techniques and exercises despite essentially being a yoga teacher. Given the strict one-hour-some schedule, she ran us through most of the exercises and really worked us out hard. By the end of the session, she came over to say hi and that it was obviously not my first time doing Pilates.

Part of me felt happy: I obviously still had the posture of a dancer - the essential spinal alignment in Pilates work. But at the same time, I wanted to hide my face in a child's pose for all those times I couldn't lift my butt higher off the floor due to my weak arms (and heavy butt) and opted to cop-out to protect my back (which has already weathered two slipped disc episodes) - and I'd known she'd noticed.

Still, given the speed of the class, I pushed myself to the max and almost fell down the stairs from wobbly legs when I met up with my sister after class.

Her masseuse had released some serious pain in her lower back and she was happy again. I'd sweated it out in the studio - the Crown Princess' studio, no less - and also felt happy. Take that, ugly, loud fellow resort-stayers.

Grumpy no more.
[Photo: Janice Lee Fang]

Down to The Love Kitchen for a quick bite of dinner - another well-deserved plate of nori rolls for me - and we went to bed early and much more cheery than when we woke.

A huge part of the cheer had to do with the fact that Claire had arranged a trip out to a private island for us on the morrow. Janice will get her adventure fix and I will just be happy sightseeing.

Can't wait!

- Missed the earlier blog entries, read them here:
Day 1 - The one about the last hurrah
Day 2 - The one about "absolut" of a very different kind
Day 3 - The one with the Ménage à Trois

- Stay tuned for day 5's blog entry when Joanne's sister Janice gets her adrenalin fix by climbing to the top of the "turtle head".

The one with a bit on resort etiquette

By Joanne Lee, AsiaOne | Wed, Aug 26 2009

Hogging deck chairs, yelling loudly and sunbathing topless - behaviour that's just disrespectful of the privacy of other guests.