Ian Jarrett is a widely travelled and experienced writer specialising in hospitality and aviation. His work has appeared in a variety of consumer and travel trade titles, and online newswires. Recent travels have taken him to Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Seoul, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom and Bali, although he is just as happy walking with his dog on a local beach.
On two Sundays in October, across opposite sides of Australia, I had experiences that show some of the best things in life really are free.
In Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens, on a warm, spring afternoon, the place was full of people simply hanging out to relax among the greenery.
Some were reading the Sunday papers, others – young and old – picnicking, quite a few were dozing and daydreaming, while one or two summoned up the energy to kick a ball about.
My attention was drawn to a small family group, possibly Vietnamese or Cambodian. Three young children, under fives, sat cross-legged on the grass in earnest conversation. Dad had his mobile phone on the go, taking pictures of the gardens, while Mum seemed to be enjoying the special moment of a close-knit family gathering in a secure and calming environment.
Only Granddad seemed anxious – constantly looking around, unable to settle. Of all the people in the gardens that day, I wondered if his life story was perhaps the most compelling of them all.
I imagined he might be a war veteran whose memories of a former life were still haunting him, Maybe so, maybe not, but I’ll never know as the family gathered up their belongings and headed for home.
Two weeks later I found myself in a jarrah forest (an interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia) being introduced to shinrin-yoku. Maybe, like you, I had no idea what this was, but as Alexis, our guide, explained, shinrin-yoku is not an exotic cocktail, rather a term that means “taking in the forest atmosphere” or “forest bathing”.
It was developed in Japan during the 1980s and I’m told it has become a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. As with our group, the therapy encourages people to get out of the city and into nature.
And when you live in a big city in Asia – be it Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur - there is even more reason to seek out the forest trails and leave the hubbub behind.
In Singapore, the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) is currently certifying new guides to help people explore the city-state’s 300 parks and four nature reserves, the most accessible of these being the Botanic Gardens, Fort Canning Park and Gardens by the Bay.
Hong Kong, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur each have their not-so-secret green retreats where – as Alexis explained – you can “Go to a Forest. Walk slowly. Breathe. Open all your senses.”
Time to give it a go?