For the holidays Stas and I hadn’t planned anything specifically festive, being our first year on the road we were still getting used to moving around so much.
Our schedule after leaving Koh Tao was two sided: 1) While we loved the sun, beaches and diving, we wanted to break from the island partiers, the in your face travellers, and the sometimes toxic aspects of tourism. 2) We needed to recharge our batteries, escape back into nature after weeks of city living, and kick start some of work-life goals.
Stas found an amazing eco resort halfway from Koh Tao and the Malaysian boarder in the Paksong Jungle that focuses on returning to nature and permaculture farming. There we’d be able to do yoga twice and day and the best part, the organization operated as a not for profit that funded an on site school for children with disabilities.
Fast forward through an amazing few days you all hopefully saw in story and it was Christmas Day. After five years together but families apart, this is our first shared Christmas and it’s unlike either of us had done before. Stas and I wake up in our tent, just a few meters from the river blanketed in the jungle mist. The sounds of the jungle completely surrounds us.
After making our way to morning yoga, and up to the main house for breakfast the volunteers and I make our way over to the school to hand out presents and spend the afternoon with the kids.
Fast forward a few hours to the evening dinner and the great hall is decorated in tinsel, banners, and pastries. Ingrid the owner and host has gone all out for the community and we barely believe our eyes. Between handing out welcoming cocktails made from fresh fruit and filling our stomachs with delicious food and treats, the kids are passing around candies and little gifts and all the guests are sharing stories of their traditions.
We end the evening with the Krathong ceremony (traditionally done to celebrate the end of the rice harvest and to give thanks to water and the rivers). For us we adopted the ritual to give thanks to each other and our families, and to send our intent for the following year before sailing a dozen banana trunk, leaf decorated candle lit boats down the river.
At this point in the evening, it’s becoming morning back home in Canada and our family is waking up and it’s time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. For us it truly was and one I’ll never forget.
Forever grateful and many thanks to Ecologic and to all the other guests staying at the centre that became our family this year.
NOMAD SKETCHBOOK 