Palm reading in Thailand

Palm Reading Thailand

Palm reading, otherwise known as palmistry or chiromancy, is practised all over the world, but you have to be lucky to find a skilled hand reader. I was lucky to find one while visiting Chiang Mai on a holiday. His name is Dennis and he has been doing it for 15 years and originally learned about it in Mexico (although he is American).

Hand reading has its roots in Indian astrology and Roma fortune-telling. The objective is to evaluate a person’s character or future by studying the palm of their hand. Dennis, however, does not reveal bad things about the future, because he rightfully believes it gives negative visualisation. What he does, is to give you very personal information about your character, which can help you in your personal and professional development.

Without going into details about what he told me, I was positively surprised about the indepth knowledge he had of my personality and past life – things no-one could have told him. This is why I give him my finest recommendation (being a sceptic myself). Dennis himself thinks is it a kind of magic to be able to read people’s hands because it seems unreal, but is possible. He says that he also uses a lot of intuition and it just comes to him. To me he is a psychic hand reader. He is very dedicated and gets very excited and caught up in the “visions” he has of you and you have to listen carefully to remember everything he tells you (it’s a lot).

I loved his animated character and he made me laugh – something I cherish a lot in a person. Whether you are a sceptic or a believer, I definitely think it is worth your while to try a session with Dennis.

His website is: https://www.facebook.com/DennisHandsReader?fref=ts

San Pedro and the longing for empty spaces

San Pedro, Guatemala, Lake Atitlan

Arriving in San Pedro was by no means a surprise because I had no expectations for neither San Pedro nor Guatemala.

San Pedro de Laguna is a relatively small village (although not as small as I could wish for) on the shores of Lake Atitlan. It has 13.000 inhabitants spread out on the hillside.

Obviously San Pedro is very different from Asia where I have spent a long time. It’s much less developed than Thailand, but it is also much more traditional which has its own charm. The people here are very friendly and despite a growing tourism not jaded and unfriendly.

But don’t let this fool you San Pedro have been discovered many years ago and is not your "undiscovered paradise". It’s a growing village living from tourist, coffee and maize. It has everything from beautiful scenery, kayak trips, horse riding, restaurants, market, and internet shops to bars and drug problems.

We arrived at the end of the rainy season and thus the landscape was very damp, cloudy and misty. My feelings for the country are mixed. The people seem very nice despite the horrors of the past, the landscape is also beautiful, but the country suffers from the same problems as other developing (and developed) countries pollution. They still cook with firewood so three times a day the village of San Pedro is smoky wherever you go and it makes me long for empty spaces with neither people nor buildings just nature.

I admit though that I have had this longing for a very long time now Chiang Mai was too big and polluted for me, Copenhagen also contains too much cement for me too many people, too many cars, too much development. The older I have gotten the less of a city person I am I long for peace and quiet and stopping smoking (nearly 2 years ago) has not made me more tolerant to pollution, smoke, dust, fumes and all the other things that big cities "offer" on the contrary.

I suppose ideally I would live in a very deserted place surrounded by nature, sea, animals and with very few inhabitants I know it sounds like Alaska .however, I couldn’t live in such a cold place. I hate darkness and cold so more like the south pole than the north pole 30 degrees all year round is great J Any suggestions?

Podcast: CELTA course in Chiang Mai

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In February and March this year, Tina and I decided to do CELTA courses with ECC in Chiang Mai. During our courses (we did the CELTA separately on two consecutive months) Tina and I kept an audio diary of our experiences. You can listen to this below.

CELTA course in Chiang Mai, Thailand

CELTA stands for Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults, and it’s a highly intensive four week course resulting in an internationally recognised English teaching qualification. CELTA is one type of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) qualification.

For information about the CELTA course we did, along with its costs, please see my previous post from March.

Podcast: Oil massage course in Chiang Mai

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In Tina’s last week in Chiang Mai, we went to Sabai De Ka Thai Massage to do a one day oil massage course with a lovely Thai lady called Kloy. We had a really memorable day and wouldn’t hesitate recommending it to others. You can listen to the podcast we made during the day by clicking the play button below. And yes, I’m shamelessly pimping my oily girlfriend in the picture below :-).

Erotic Oil Massage course in Chiang Mai, Thailand

The details

Sabai De Ka Massage is located at 93/3 Moonmuang Road (just North of Tapae gate – the East gate of the old city) in Chiang Mai (see map below). You can contact Kloy by emailing her at sabai_de_ka@hotmail.com, or by telephone on 081-8813697 or 053-326529. A one day oil massage course cost 1100THB per person.


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Podcast: Meditation retreat with Wat Suan Dok

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Tina and I have just returned from the meditation retreat organised by the Wat Suan Dok Monk Chat program in Chiang Mai. The retreat groups depart from Wat Suan Dok at about 2pm every Tuesday.

You can listen to the ‘Meditation Podcast’ Tina and I made on the retreat by clicking the play button above.

Meditation retreat - Wat Suan Dok, Chiang Mai

This meditation retreat is intended purely as an introduction to various Buddhist meditation techniques, as well as an overview of Thai Buddhism and culture – and it’s facilitated by the Chiang Mai Campus of the MCU Buddhist University.

Having just returned from our retreat, we’d both thoroughly recommend you do the course during your time in Chiang Mai. Although we have spent several years in Thailand, we still found that we learned a lot from the informative presentations and discussions we had with the monks. Plus we’re feeling pretty chilled out and mindful which is always a bonus.

Further information

Normally the meditation retreat lasts approximately 24 hours – from Tuesday lunch time until Wednesday lunch time, although during the last week of every month the course lasts from Tuesday lunch time until Thursday lunch time.

Full details of the Meditation retreat workshop program are available from the Monk Chat Meditation Retreat website.

The Meditation Retreat program is funded purely through donations, and as a guideline we suggest you leave a donation of somewhere between 200THB and 1000THB per day that you attend the program – depending of course on how wealthy/generous you are.

Map to Wat Suan Dok


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Honda Phantom for Sale – Chiang Mai

We don’t usually use our blog as a sales channel, but as this motorbike has featured in several of the website posts and podcasts, we made an exception 🙂

My Honda Phantom is in excellent condition and about 2.5 years old. It’s been a perfect way to explore northern Thailand. I bought it for 66,000THB a year ago and spent an additional 3,000THB on the side bags and protector bars. It has now done almost exactly 20,000KM. It has been exceptionally well looked after – I had it serviced about 6 times – at about an average of every 1,500KM.

Honda Phantom for Sale

Sound file: Rain storm in Chiang Mai

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It is coming to the end of the dry season, and Chiang Mai has just been subjected to several weeks of intense heat, hardly relieved at all this year by Songkran (the water festival). It has been so hot that I have started to find it quite difficult living here. A good night’s sleep has become a thing of the past, and you find yourself sweating around the clock – you wake up damp, and go to bed damp. Not very pleasant at all!

Last night the weather finally broke, and the sounds you hear in this audio file are the sounds of the first storm following this build up. I’m happy to say it’s now gray with temperatures probably back around 30 degrees again! Bring on the rains!