holidaze

It's been just over a month here in Thailand and my trip is winding down. With 3 weeks or so left in Asia, I've started to do a little reflection on the trip as a whole and discussed my observations with fellow guests and travelers. People tell me they're constantly jealous of me and my trip and how nice and relaxing it must be, but I should do my best to refute this notion; the trip is not easy, nor is it in any way relaxing. On the contrary, this is the hardest I've worked in my entire life. University was a cake walk and even though I've only been blessed with very brief forays into the working world, this takes that cake as well.

There are many people here from construction and labor backgrounds, working well over 50 hours per week at home who are envious of their old works habits when compared to the amount of time and effort that goes into the training and conditioning we are experiencing on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret my decision for a second, nor do I not appreciate this opportunity, but I should be clear in saying that being on a tropical, exotic vacation destination makes this trip only that much harder for the hot weather and humidity. 90% of the time I'm stressing my body beyond its breaking point while holding out for that 10% when I can go to dinner, watch TV, or maybe even bungee jump.

I dread waking up, putting on my shorts, heading off to training, hitting the bag, sparring, timing my meals, my 10km runs, and just about everything else about training. People ask me, "are you having fun?" and I have learned to just say yes, because I don't want to sound ungrateful; I am in Thailand. Nonetheless, training is not fun, but staywouldn't trade it for anything and have gotten so much out of my stay thus far. To that end, I have progressed enough to humor the notion of a fight before I leave. Next Monday I'm going to have an intense session with head trainer Nazee at which point he'll let me know if I'll be ready to fight in 3 weeks. I believe he'll say yes as my personal trainer has the utmost confidence, so fingers crossed here! If he says no, I won't be discouraged; I've trained for just over a month of Muay Thai and it's an art that takes years. He is only saving me from an ass kicking.