Settling in

The climate here can leave you pretty drain at times; both literally, because you're constantly pouring sweat, and figuratively, because the crazy humidity just saps your energy. Nonetheless, once you get used to the whole idea of drinking a gallon jug of water every day, downing electrolyte replacement salts like candy, and taking sweat stains as a given, you tend to forget the heat.

Well, that is when you have the luxury of AC, which I was denied all day yesterday because the entire municipality had power cut for construction and I found myself sweating bullets and looking to get the hell out of Chalong; I hopped into a taxi with some friends to the bulk food store/mall about 15 minutes away. Our taxi driver, Kwan, is a familar face around camp, catering to we observant few who refuse to rent a motor cycle in light of the danger of driving on Thai streets. Since I've been here, there have been at least 4 accidents within the camp alone and they aren't exactly instilling confidence in the safety of driving in Phuket.

Luckily for us, Kwan is a fan of the air conditioning and spares no expense blasting it then quickly whisking us away to the mall, which I might add is also air conditioned and just outside of the power outages. Last time we went I decided to break diet and was peer pressured into McDonalds, an international staple for us silly North Americans; however, the fast food joints here are remarkably different. Not only is the price half of what we pay back home, mirroring the lower cost of living across the board, but they are nutty about chicken wings. Just like in China and Japan, every restaurant sports their own take on fried chicken and they do it pretty damn well if you ask me; KFC was our destination this time and I ordered what looked like an interesting choice, eventually buying myself a chicken burger with, get this, broccoli on it. I can't say I agree with opting out on the lettuce for another green veg, but they definitely don't see eye-to-eye with us here in Thailand when it comes to cuisine.

Life is slow and enjoyable here though (at least once you get the AC blasting). Thus far I've spent 99% of my time either training, eating, or aimlessly surfing through 50 TV channels, about 8 of which, I've discovered are English. There is a pleasant abundance of rugby here on TV as, for some odd reason, we receive a hell of a lot of Australian and South African TV feeds and I'm pleased to report that I almost understand Cricket and Aussie rules football.

Today is going to be a slow-paced day as it is saturday and a week of hard training has left us all bruised and battered. Hopefully after a nice open mat session we'll all head off to one of the 100 unpronounceable beaches and sun for the afternoon.

Finally, I'm pleased to say that I met the new fitness and strength coach here at camp, Peter, or the Thai Hulk. He and I hit it off very quickly and he was not hard to track down as he does live up to his name (even wearing a green shirt to top it all off). After rapping with him for a while and getting in a work out, it turns out that not only do I have the same routine as the Mr. Thai competitor and professional body builder, but do actually lift the same amount of weight across the board.

Well that's enough ego inflation for the day. To anyone actually reading this, Thailand has an over abundance of little trinkets and cool souvenirs, so let me know if you want me to grab you some stuff from here. No Brendan, as much as I would want to, I think bringing you back a lady boy would lead to a lot of unpleasant red tape!

(Kater sucks!)