Spirit yourself away from wedding worries and head off to the paradise island of Phi Phi with your five best girlie mates. Get in shape for the big day with yoga sessions on the beach and get the blood flowing with some scuba diving. The perfect way to balance your Yin and Yang

Fretting over the wedding cake design and what colour to dress the bridesmaids in became a distant memory as soon as I stepped onto the idyllic island of Phi Phi.

A backpacker haven and famed for its diving, Phi Phi is a short boat ride from Phuket, one of the main resort areas in southern Thailand, and the chosen destination for my hen week. My five best girlie mates and I were more than ready to de-stress and chill out on a yoga retreat; for a week at least.

I was under strict instructions to banish all wedding worries while savouring my last girls-only holiday in style. So the six of us, sweating and red-faced under the fierce midday sun, flip-flopped our way to our gorgeous bungalow huts at Phitharom Resort, located on the west side of the island, just 10 minutes' walk from the pier.

Luxurious beach huts

Already, I could feel the stresses and strains of being a bride-to-be ebbing away. Phi Phi allows no motorised transport, so arriving in my rather upmarket beach hut - all varnished wooden floors and plush Thai silk bed linen - I could only hear the sound of waves lapping lazily at the shore and my fridge whirring to life in the corner. Ah, bliss.

But our Zen-like life of rest and relaxation, as we contorted ourselves into strange and startling shapes, was not to begin just yet.

Before our first morning class the following day at the very un-holiday-like hour of 7am (the retreat offered one morning and evening session) we had the tough task of beach bar investigation to undertake.

So after meeting our yoga instructor, an inevitably supple-looking Irish lady called Keira, we sauntered to the Reggae Bar, our first stop for the evening.

Bizarrely, as well as ludicrously strong cocktails, this seemingly innocuous place also offered ringside entertainment in the form of Muay Thai (kick) boxing.

Taking its toll

About four hours and far too many large rum and cokes later, we stumbled back to our huts, feeling drunkenly bonded but about as prepared for our morning yoga class as we were for a fight against pro boxing champs, even if they were ladyboys.

Sure enough, the next morning dawned and I woke to realise I'd slept straight through my alarm and missed the first class.

Embarrassment and nausea set in as I threw on my new Thai fisherman trousers and staggered to the lesson in a beautiful little room overlooking the sea, arriving just in time to miss the yoga and start the daily half-hour meditation exercise.

Meditation was about all I could manage. From that point, I decided to cut out alcohol for the rest of the week. There was no way I could derive anything worthwhile from yoga in a hungover mess. This turned out to be a wise decision, as kick-starting the day with 90 minutes of exercise, followed by meditation and a hearty breakfast, made us all feel wholesomely healthy and truly revitalised (if a little sore).

Yoga techniques

Keira teaches a mix of Ashtanga and Hatha yoga, which includes poses (asanas), breath control (pranayama) and meditation. The aim is to bring the body to a perfect state of health and stillness, thus achieving heightened awareness. It is believed that the regular practice of asanas will make the body strong, supple and healthy.

I was very sceptical I would actually be bendier by the end of the week but, as Keira promised, I did actually feel a distinct improvement in my flexibility by day six. In other words, for the first time in my life I could comfortably touch my toes.

When we signed up, our break was touted as more of a 'yoga holiday' than a retreat, which meant we weren't confined to hours of endless exercise and a diet of nothing but cayenne pepper and maple syrup.

We were left to our own devices during the day, and we took the odd break from sunbathing to take a boat trip to Maya Bay, where Leonardo DiCaprio cavorted in The Beach, and a three-hour crash course in Thai cuisine. I found this, and I'm sure my husband-to-be will agree, hugely useful.

Set up by Pum Restaurant & Cooking School, a chain which boasts another eaterie in Phuket and two in France, the course aims to teach the principles of Thai cooking. Once we'd worked up a ferocious appetite, we each chose three dishes to prepare - mine were rice soup, green curry and Penang curry - before spending a hot, sweaty few hours in the kitchen tossing ingredients into a wok and (the best bit) sampling our creations.

The results, it must be said, were delicious and we each took away a booklet with 13 'lazy' recipes for quick and easy dishes.

The restaurant is enjoying a new revival in the wake of the tsunami, which pounded Thailand's coastline on Boxing Day 2004, and destroyed a large percentage of Phi Phi. Almost three years on, the island has been brought back to life but rebuilding work continues and at Pum's restaurant, a book compiling children's memories of the tragic day is available to tourists, with proceeds going to The Children of Phi Phi Island.

Dive, dive, dive

Another popular way to pass the time on the island is to dive, something of a must on Phi Phi, a four-star diving area. I elected to do the Discover Scuba Diving two-dive course with Blue View Diving. The course consisted of two dives, both about an hour long, depending on the amount of air used.

Doing yoga really helped me relax and breathe slowly so I ended up using less air than the instructor, who swam behind me at all times and monitored my equipment.

I've always felt much safer on land than at sea, but I found both dives really quite special. I saw some amazing and weird sea-life. There are huge coral reefs off the shores of Phi Phi and I clapped eyes on sea snakes, eels, clown fish, parrot fish, reef sharks, barracudas and sea horses. I found the whole experience quite humbling and I know the girls all felt the same.

Perfect break

For me, a yoga week was a perfect way to spend quality time with the ladies as well as remind myself how to relax again. Unlike most of our beach holidays, we all came back refreshed and full of energy, and the classes breathed new life into us, doing much to calm my nerves, mangled from wedding jitters.

The highlights were definitely the more relaxed evening sessions on the beach. There is something very liberating about lying on a mat with your legs akimbo, as the sun sets the sky ablaze with every imaginable shade of red, pink and vivid orange. Lying on a mat with my legs thrust up to the sky and head tucked under, my sun-kissed skin soothed by the balmy evening air, I felt very Zen indeed...but I'll never let my future husband get his hands on the photos.

Yoga holiday organised through:
www.yogatraveller.com
email: info@yogatraveller.com
phone: +353(0) 868289178

Cookery course:
www.pumthaifoodchain.com
email: phiphi@pumthaifoodchain.com
phone: +66(0) 5218904

For more info on books to raise relief post-tsunami:
www.childrenofphiphi.com

Diving course:
www.blueviewdivers.com
email: info@blueviewdivers.com
phone: +66(0) 895919684