FORMER Malaysian national aerobics champion Lai Meng Foong never thought she was cut out for relationships, dismissing the idea of a partner early on to pursue yoga in Southern India.

Little did the 40-year-old realise that fate had other plans for her.

In 2005, the Kuala Lumpur native met the love of her life, Irishman Marc de Faoite, while studying yoga at an ashram in India.

Just as Elizabeth Gilbert did on her soul searching journey in her memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, de Faoite and Lai met again a year later at the same place and the rest, as they say, is history.

De Faoite, 42, moved to Malaysia in 2007 to be with Lai. Now married, the couple's passion for yoga and each other led to the birth of Yoga Now, a thriving yoga studio in Langkawi.

"When we first met, there was no chemistry," Lai says frankly in an interview last week. "I could feel that his heart was unhappy. I didn't know what had happened to him, but I wanted to care for him.

"I didn't have e-mail so after I came back to Malaysia from the ashram, I wrote a letter to him about Buddhism, dhamma (teachings of Buddha that lead to enlightenment) and letting go."

De Faoite doesn't remember their first meeting in 2005 as there were more that 150 people from all over the world at the ashram, but he recalls how Lai caught his attention later. "I spotted her because she was probably the most flexible person there - the teacher called her the 'Malaysian Rubber Woman'!

"When we spoke, it was mainly me just listening to her. I had been practising yoga for some time but didn't know much about its philosophical background. I thought Meng Foong was very wise and cute, I but never told her."

De Faoite holds Lai's first piece of snail mail dear. He had stayed on at the ashram after Lai had left, working as the head swami's personal cook, when he was pleasantly surprised by Lai's missive.

"I hadn't received an actual hand-written letter from anyone in years and very few people actually knew where I was. I was very surprised to see a Malaysian stamp on the envelope.

"It wasn't exactly a love letter but it was much welcomed wise advice about how to let go of the past and move on with my life. I found the letter very inspiring and her words were exactly what I needed at that time."

De Faoite says that he re-read the letter often and took it back with him to the mountain hut in the French Pyrenees where he worked after leaving the ashram. He spent half a year in a hut for hikers at the foot of a glacier, at 2,600m, working seven days a week and trying to keep up his yoga practice.

"Internet access and even post were out of the question - the nearest village was a three-hour hike away, so we couldn't really stay in touch," he shares.

Neither were in a steady relationship at the time. De Faoite was nursing a broken heart and Lai, who had never had a boyfriend, just wasn't looking. When they met again at the ashram in 2006, though, things were different. Both were happy to see a familiar face. "It was like I had known him for a long time," says Lai.

They had to be discreet and respect the segregation of female and male students at the ashram, of course. Love always finds way, though: Lai was tasked with serving at meal times and de Faoite always asked for her. "Once, he called me over eight times - I didn't know whether he was really hungry or he just wanted to see me," Lai laughs.

De Faoite says he became aware of a "pull" that seemed to be drawing him to Lai, and decided to invite her to accompany him to the small town near their ashram for a meal of masala thosai - "I didn't know at the time that she could eat thosai any day of the week in Malaysia!" he says.

"We sat together on the bus and, somehow, we ended up holding hands. A few hours later, under a coconut palm on the beach, we shared our first kiss."

The couple tested their fledgling relationship by travelling together from South India all the way up to the Himalayas. It became a voyage of discovery into their true natures when they were both struck down with a bad case of Delhi Belly. So sick that they couldn't even hold down water much less food, de Faoite and Lai were on drips and too weak to walk for days. The couple saw each other at the lowest ebb as they nursed each other back to health.

De Faoite says the experience definitely brought them closer together: "It was all quite an intense purification process."

"The love came slowly. It seemed like our destinies had pushed us together, but neither of us were 100% sure that we were doing the right thing. Our shared passion for yoga was probably a stronger bond in the beginning.

"Love grew over time," he says poetically.

The Irishman went back to Europe from Delhi and Lai returned home to Malaysia and opened a yoga studio. Nine months later, de Faoite came to KL to be with her. Then, during their third visit to India, in 2008, in a little hotel room in Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges, de Faoite proposed.

And just as the start of their relationship differed from the norm, the proposal and marriage were unusual too: de Faoite's engagement ring was a piece of string he tied around Lai's finger; and when they returned to Malaysia, they simply registered their marriage without any fuss.

"I didn't need Marc to give me a gold or diamond ring to show his love and commitment. These things have no value or meaning to me," says Lai."We didn't have any traditional ceremony or big wedding dinner. To me, all of that is really not important."

Describing de Faoite as a "very good, caring, kind-hearted and the most generous and friendly person I have ever met", Lai has clearly found the man of her dreams. She speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay, English, Hindi and French and has found her match in her guy: He speaks English, French, Dutch and Spanish and is making steady progress in Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay and Tamil.

"He sings, plays music, cooks, writes and gardens - but these are not the qualities I fell in love with. I just love him as he is. Whether we are together or not in the future, all I want is for him to be happy," she says.

Of course, like any other couple, there have been challenges. For Lai, it was learning to share her life with another. The fiercely independent woman was so used to being free and never having to depend on anyone financially or emotionally.

"I was a very independent and self-motivated person since I was little. But yoga is about being selfless and compassionate through patience, acceptance, forgiveness, adjustment, accommodation and letting go. This is especially evident in a relationship," she says.

De Faoite says little differences in culture and perspectives can be challenging.

"I sometimes get tired of rice and noodles and Meng Foong is a bit mystified by my obsession with bread and cheese.

"And at times, speaking different languages can make it difficult to translate certain concepts. In India, Meng Foong had introduced herself as Lai and that's what my family knew her as. When I moved to Malaysia, she explained that Lai was just her family name but she used it in India because it was easier for people to pronounce and remember.

"My parents were very surprised when I started talking about Meng Foong and wanted to know what had happened to Lai. They were relieved when they found out that it was still the same woman!" he says, laughing.

Typically, the unusual couple will be doing what they are passionate about tomorrow: leading an intensive yoga retreat. That's not to say they don't appreciate the year's most romantic day; it's just that, for them, they don't have to do anything special on a particular day because "every day is special when there's love in the heart," Lai points out.

She loves that he cooks for her and massages her feet and he loves that she makes him tea. Gifts she cherishes are simple but meaningful things like the three bodhi tree leaves in Rishikesh de Faoite picked and secretly placed in her diary (she had told him that she'd never seen bodhi leaves before) and three stones from the Ganges that he collected for her. He loves how she came to pick him up in a row boat when he had become tired swimming across a lake in Pokhara in Nepal.

She cherishes how their love saved them from a snow storm and landslide while trekking in the Himalayas: They had been walking to the source of the Ganges in Gomukh when de Faoite started experiencing altitude sickness. He urged Lai to continue the trek with the rest of the group while he turned back alone but she refused and they walked back together - though Lai did lament the fact that she would miss seeing snow up close for the first time.

"As we made our way back down the mountain trail, it started to snow and I saw snow flakes flying down from the sky. It was so beautiful. And because we turned back, we escaped a snow storm and falling rocks further on in the journey," Lai recalls with a smile.

What can you say to that except: this is obviously a union that was meant to be.