Dancing with fire
Everywhere you go in Thailand there are fire shows which are amazing and I have even seen 8 year old children doing it. I suppose its actually fire dancing; you either have a long stick with fire at both ends or you can have poi, which are basically two bits of chain with fire at both ends and you hold one in each hand. There are loads of different moves and each person has their own unique style. As they dance and swing their poi in all different directions the fire creates fantastic patterns which look stunning in the dark.
I was so wow-ed by fire dancing that I managed to find a place that makes poi and also gives you lessons, obviously whilst learning you don’t set the poi alight, however its still a very painful experience – that’s something I wasn’t aware of beforehand!
In my group there were about five of us and the other people seemed to have no problem in learning the moves but I was hopeless! The poi kept getting tangled together and the balls at the end bashed me in the face and legs repeatedly so I was covered in bruises and thought I was going to get a black eye, luckily I didn’t. Its definitely very frustrating and I had to hold myself back from throwing my poi down and launching myself at the teacher for all the pain he was causing, but then I managed to do one of the moves and I got really excited again (lucky for him!)
So I persevered and managed to get a few other moves under control. After a few lessons I was much better and I practiced loads but still there is no way I am ever lighting those poi on fire because no matter how much I practice I still go wrong and I know that I will just set myself on fire! So I have come to the conclusion that its better to sit back an watch others fire dancing, much safer too!
Leave a Reply