Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand December 2014 / January 2015 | Page 27

HEALTH & well-being
by. Graceful folk practicing
Tai Chi under the trees. Wiry
practiced runners, grinding
out the miles. Huge, muscly guys
pumping iron on the free public
equipment. Legs outstretched
on benches, tendons unwinding.
And then there was the entirely
inexplicable madness.
Old men in vests walking
backwards, swinging their
arms wildly in circles.  A very
short and voluptuous woman,
aggressively hula-hooping
her way around a picnic area.
An extremely determined middleaged man, running repeatedly into
a tree. Why?
Rounding a corner, the raucous
din of Thai pop rave shoved
its way past my headphones
and into my brain.  All of a sudden,
I was confronted with what could
only be described as an enormous
Thai flash mob, dancing gleefully
together in perfect unison! 
And such was my introduction
to the park's daily public aerobics
class.  I picked my way past
the shopping bags cast aside
by spontaneous, grinning dancers
who had jumped in on their

way home. Scenes of such
unselfconscious gay abandon
are entirely alien to a cynical Brit
like me, and despite the tiny little
part of me that wanted to join
them, I could really only admire
such behavior from afar.
I finished off my circuit
just as the post-exercise
endorphins were really kicking
in. "I'll definitely do that again!"

I told my husband excitedly,
reappearing at the apartment
looking like a warmed-up drowned
rat.  Perhaps it was the endorphins
talking, but after my first sweaty
and insane run at Lumpini, I vowed
that next time I might even
sacrifice a bit of my hard defended
dignity and throw some shapes
with the flash mob.

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