Welcome to the jungle

A ten day yoga retreat in Thailand with on-site chef and masseur? Leonie Taylor says, 'Yes, please!'

After a long-haul flight, a two and a half hour bus ride, one hour on a boat, a half-hour trek through the jungle, then a ten minute raft ride, you need a yoga holiday to unwind! But even just half an hour at Rai 500 Lake Floating Raft House erases the fatigue or stress of the journey - yes, within 30 minutes I had had enough time to sip on a fresh coconut, suck up a fresh paw-paw, change into a bikini and dive into the bath-temperature lake. Bliss, and I had ten more days to come.

Perched on a serene lake, circled by jungle and limestone mountains stretching from China to Burma, Rai 500 Lake Floating Raft House is a floating village paradise.

With no electricity or satellite, this retreat steals the phrase 'getting away from it all,' - the jungle provides all you need. The 24-hour ambient music, courtesy of the animal orchestra, also stages daily performances perfect for photo opportunities (the wildlife haven't experienced enough tourists to be fearful or pest-like). There's also the jaw-droppingly beautiful limestone caves to explore, along with endless swimming, kayaking and boating adventures. Not forgetting plenty of yoga, of course.

At the equivalent of £7 for an hour of Thai massage, most of us indulged at least every other day. Keaw, a tiny but powerful masseuse, is a Tsunami survivor with a life story more heart-rending than most fiction. He will tirelessly manipulate your body into blissful, back-cracking surrender. The cooks don't speak any English but wordlessly (along with some hilarious mime work) intuit your needs and provide four regal feasts a day to sustain you between the yoga, swims and kayaking efforts. Our heavenly meals included exquisitely fresh local fruit, fresh lake-caught fish cooked with ginger, palm heart coconut curry and morning glory cooked in soy, garlic and chilli.

Our insightful yoga teacher Jim Tarran (each retreat is hosted by a different teacher, representing different schools and styles of yoga) led morning and afternoon sessions. And he did so with such a mix of energy, inspirational knowledge and humanity that even the least confident beginners were able to deepen their understanding of yoga.

As for the 12-strong group, there were couples and singles (one-person and double huts available); experienced yoga practitioners and complete novices; worldy travellers and city slickers. There was plenty of space and time for socialising as a group - evening meals were taken outside by lamplight and often had a Bacchanalian, feast-like feel. But there was also time for solitude, if that was what you wanted - you could just grab a kayak and paddle to a secluded tributary to sunbathe or for a monkey-spotting excursion.

As a hardworking, fashion-obsessed, die-hard urbanite, this retreat provided the most perfect of escapes. I felt utterly nourished and refreshed, body and soul, and loved the freedom of turning slightly feral. Bung the luxury consumer spa breaks, I'll take bamboo yoga, meditation and a moonlit baths in the lake with a jungle backdrop any day.

Priceless moments...
5.30am kayak to listen to the jungle wake-up Getting close enough to a monkey family to see them play and make their next set of babies Butterflies the size of birds drinking from a wet sarong in the kayak Diving straight out of bed into the lake - a bath at home will never seem the same again Opening my eyes from deep meditation to a view of the lake impeded only by a wild hanging orchid

When to go
The yoga season at 500 Rai Lake runs from November to April. We went from November 8-18, perfect as it's just after the end of monsoon when the weather is fabulously warm and interspersed with brief rainforest showers.

Getting there:
Fly to Phuket then transfer (included in price) via minibus to Kao Sok National Park, where you boat across the first lake, jungle trek, then raft an epic journey. It is entirely justified once you get there.

Onward travel:
Because you're so far removed from consumer society (although there is a successful yoga shop), it's less of a culture shock if you have at least a day to reintegrate Thai style before having to deal with airports and large groups of people! We stopped over at the Niang Beach Hotel in Phuket for a chilled out decompression day on the beach, while others in our group stayed longer to take in the world-famous diving at nearby Phi Phi and Krabi.

For more information on: Jim Tarran and Vajrasati Yoga, visit www.vajrasatiyoga.co.uk. For Dick and Beth's Jungle Yoga, visit www.jungleyoga.com. For 2007 prices and bookings, contact Free Spirit Travel www.freespirituk.co.uk

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