Six days earlier the thought of dragging my painfully sore self to another yoga class instead of staying sipping cocktails on the beach seemed ludicrous.

If you had asked me at the start of my yoga retreat in Langkawi, Malaysia, if I’d trudge myself to class after a night of drinking I would have said, “Hell no!”

Do handstands on another person and aerial backbends? Crazy!

Yet there I was, the drunkest person the night before — our final night on our six night retreat — surprisingly enjoying myself.

I never believed people when they told me yoga had saved them. Now I’m converted - it certainly saved me from a hangover.

I’d never even done a handstand before, let alone one on someone else.

My new friends didn’t even complain about my likely alcohol breath or the fact I lumbered down to our class on the jetty overlooking the water at sunrise rather late.

Now before you go wondering, what kind of yoga retreat is this? Hungover handstands certainly aren’t very zen.

Enjoying sunset drinks on a cruise around the islands the evening before? A sweaty yoga session the next morning to make you feel better about the buffet dinner? Where do you sign up, right?

Well, it wasn’t all like that, of course. And I was probably one of the only ones who was knocking back beers at the pool bar before class every day.

But I will say there’s nothing more amazingly zen than lying down beneath a rainforest canopy as a family of monkeys clamber through the branches right above you.

Note so zen: The pack of a different species of monkeys that aggressively chased me down the road after class walking back to my cabin.

Our classes involved sunrise over the water and an evening session in the rainforest.

There were emotions, tears and bonding over the yoga mat each day.

I was anxious going on a retreat with complete strangers not knowing how seriously they would take this yoga business and what we would talk about at dinner each night.

Despite the fact the group of us were all different ages, from various walks of life and with a range of personalities, we all hit it off.

In fact, we’ve all since had what I called a “yoga reunion” to see one of our teachers, Arian Levanael, perform at his regular aerial burlesque show at the Bird Cage in Sydney.

Yes, a hot tattooed yoga teacher who does the most impressive performances you’ll see on aerial silks — in his undies. This was no ordinary yoga retreat.

With Ari doing the morning classes, we had Jo Gates doing our evening class and boy, can that woman work your core. I felt like I had grown abs in six days.

We also had the local knowledge of our organiser Azra Mustafa, who runs Ksatria Shakti Retreats, who took us into town with her mum to go shopping and see the sights.

Sure, it was hard to see those abs after six days of buffet breakfasts and dinners but it was better than living on kombucha and vegan-only sugarfree treats (which is how I imagined yoga retreats to be).

As cliche as it might sound, we all walked away more flexible, refreshed and with the weight of the load we’d been carrying around on our shoulders a little lighter.

The bonus was I also walked away with a new cure for a hungover.

— Ksatria Shakti Retreats is hosting another retreat with Ari and Jo in April.