Getting Zumba Certified in Bangkok!

Little Katak, Gigi, Oat, Ali, Julie, Rosemary, Sarah, Kate, Ata, Fred

Marsha, Art, Madalene Aponte, Sharon, Johanna

We are ZIN! Certified Zumba Instructors! I flew to Bangkok, Thailand JUST so I could become a certified Zumba instructor. It was two days of training with ZES, Madalene Aponte, from Puerto Rico residing in Hawaii. It was a really great training with a fabulous group of people from all over the world! Malaysia, Guam, England, Russia, Germany, Philippines, France, Maldives, USA (me) and Thailand. What an incredibly international group! Most of them are living in Bangkok. A couple came from Malaysia, a couple from Cambodia and I came from China. 

I love fitness, working out and pretty much all forms of exercise. It's just something I do everyday, six times a week, because I absolutely love it. It makes me feel good, healthy, strong and happy.  I typically do Insanity work outs a couple times a week, the elliptical sometimes, and go running. But I had a small running injury where my arch was hurting. Plantar Faciatus. I had to chill out on running so I got a little creative. I even started biking and swimming. I still did the elliptical and Insanity workouts. But I think it made me a little more open to doing something else like Zumba. 

I didn't have a lot of experience with Zumba classes or anything. But combining fitness with dance is pretty awesome. It's so fun! And people love it. Dancing is a huge part of the Chinese and Indian culture and those people are a big part of my community. They can't wait for me to start teaching classes! Zumba is like exercise in disguise. It's international music and has a Latin, Indian and African influence. I've been busy learning choreo! Each class is about 15 songs. I have 9 down so far. I'm having a lot of fun learning them. It's really pushing me and I'm doing something I've just never done before. It was on a whim and I just went for it. Registered for the training and bought a flight! 

Thailand is a very Buddhist country. They buy some of these things to make offerings. It's vibrant and fresh!

Street food right outside my boutique hotel. Phad Tai! It was SOOOO good. Loved it so much I had it three nights in a row. 

I flew in on a Wednesday and got there in the afternoon. It was SOOOO much fun being in Bangkok. I was wondering why we don't have an LDS temple in Bangkok but do in places like the Philippines and Taiwan when the church has been in Thailand I think as long as it has been in Taiwan. Not certain. But I was so excited to hear that Bangkok will be getting a temple! An LDS one. Woowoo! 

China time is one hour later than Thailand so I was outside running on Thursday morning by 5:15am. And this is how happening the city is at that early hour! Unbelievable. (You can see the busy street behind me!) And it was a fun run. I went down a ways to a park where people do laps around it. I found it the day before exploring Sukumvit Soi.

From what I've learned in the past, monks go out in the mornings and collect food to put in their container. People donate food to the monks and that is pretty much the only thing they eat for the day. I was surprised to see these guys barefoot. Some wear sandals. Sometimes poor family's will give one of their children to the monastery to become a monk. It's kind of like they are offering their child to God and they feel it will bring their family blessings. Some young single adults will become a temporary monk and do it for several weeks or months. It's kind of like tithing or how some of our LDS single adults go on missions.

Sacha's Hotel! $50/night and a great location! 

I went alone and it really was a vacation. I was able to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to. I found a used book store and could take as long as I wanted finding books! And I of course could take as long as I wanted strolling the main street and shopping, working out, studying... You get the idea. 

I ate some really good Indian food, Thail food and amazing fresh fruit. It's sold every where along the street. Guava, Green mango, mango, water melon, papaya, pineapple. Fried bananas and deep-fried bananas. Fresh fruit juices and more fruit. I love Thai food and I love Indian food. This place is a little piece of heaven! I even found Frozen Yogurt. I also love the Indian tailors for men's suits. 

The street right outside my hotel. Sukumvit Soi 19! The taxi driver taught me how to say it. It was weird not being able to speak the native language.

Platinum Market, Bangkok.

You can take the girl out of China... And she will find a whole sale market!!! Of course I just want to know where the whole sale markets are. And I found a great one. I found skirts, parachute pants (for Zumba!), jewelry, ties!, shirts and some cute clothes for the kids. 

I love Bangkok! I will be back! (Family in tow...)