Thai Massage School

My body felt fatigued, my mind was swimming with all of the information I’d taken in, I’d already learned enough different positions and stretches to give an hour long massage – and it was only day three.

I have to admit, after the first few days of my two week beginners course at the Sunshine Massage School in Chiang Mai I felt overwhelmed.  Fortunately, by day 5 or 6 I was starting to get the hang of things.  Our highly knowledgeable teacher, Yan, taught my class of 10 students over 125 different stretches and positions, and provided a wealth of information about pressure points, energy lines, anatomy, working with injuries, alternative healing techniques, and relaxation exercises.  Given my background in yoga and reiki, I found all of the information completely fascinating – I just hope I can remember a fraction of it.

After 60 hours of instruction and practice, I can now confidently give a full 2 hour massage – and a longer one if I’m working with someone who is a bit more flexible.  I’ll be practicing on John pretty regularly over the next few months to be sure I maintain my skills until we get home.  He’s more than happy to oblige, as you can imagine.

This course was the main reason we came to Chiang Mai, and the only thing keeping us here after we decided that Thailand wasn’t resonating with us.  I’m so happy to report that I got so much out of this course – enough to make our month here in Chaing Mai well worth it (even if you don’t add in the cooking course and ziplining adventure we enjoyed here.)  As my brain processes all the information over the next few weeks I’ll probably only have more good things to say about my time spent studying at Sunshine.

Now that I’ve finished my course, however, it’s time to move on.  Yesterday I passed my final exam (giving a 2.5 hour massage to a classmate – the middle image above is of the epically long sequence I used), and today we’re hopping the overnight train down to Bangkok.  Onward we go!