Enough with the beaches. It was time for culture. Single again, I passed back though Bangkok and headed up north to Chiang Mai.
“I had a great day of hiking and biking with Chiang Mai Mountain Bike in the Doi Pui National Park. Up the mountain in the truck and then prepared to hike the jungle with Bird, Amber and Sinna. The jungle is incredibly lush and green with huge trees. Lots of things you could eat and a few you probably shouldn’t.
Next up were the insects. Which were not very shy about attaching themselves to us and others who were hoping to stay hidden. And of course there were ant, ants and even more ants everywhere you stepped.
A few steps further and we made it to the reptile department. A chameleon which was quite well hidden and finally the elusive snake, which once we found, we didn’t stop looking for the rest of the trip. At the top of the mountain there was a little village where we basically loaded up our bikes, said hello to the kids and pedaled back down the mountain.
Unfortunately, it had started to rain so we had quite a slippery, wet ride all the way back down the mountain. We did take time to stop off and see what there might be in the way of snacks. Here a few fresh lychee fruits. It gave us enough energy to last the trip back down the hillside where we finally made it to the bottom.”
Zurhkaneh (Pahlevani and zoorkhaneh) is a kind of traditional Iranian power work out. I was invited to a suburb of Tehran to see the club exercise. The drums are so powerful and push everyone to go a little bit more.
Zurkhaneh combines martial arts, aerobic and some yoga moves too.
In the club I visited there were males of all ages but the most beautiful part was how the club supported each other. They greeted each other, caught each other if they were spinning out of control, handed out dry towels.
Clearly Zurkhaneh is a communal activity, building on the social structure of the neighborhood, rather than the individualistic workout found in Western gyms.
OXLAEY