Thailand's 10-count

I had my fight, if you can call it that. Unfortunately for me, it was more of a beating. I was beat, in both the sense that I lost the match and that I was battered up and bruised by the 'same-same' Mohamed, who turned out to be more than anyone bargained for. The gentleman that I traded blows with was, by many estimates, 4-6 inches taller than me and at least 10 kilos heavier. The promoter informed me of his 1 month of muay thai experience in Thailand; this was no lie. Nonetheless, neglected to inform me of his years of muay thai training outside of Thailand and according to Tiger Muay Thai owned Will, he looked like he had much boxing experience on top of his muay thai.




I arrived at the stadium late with a lot of anxiety and was greeted by a team of trainers from Tiger, ready to prep me for the fight as soon as the first few fights had finished. I was too nervous to even watch, so I bumped my iPod and tried to channel my Chi, or whatever it is those heroic Asian fighters do in the movies. Once it was time, the trainers dressed me in the Tiger trunks, massaged, cracked, and vasaline/hot oiled my entire body, head-to-toe. We looked around for quite a while for the elusive Mohamed, hailing from France, but could only find a large middle-eastern giant who clearly was fighting in the heavier 180 lbs fight of the night. It turns out, however, that his scales must have been tipped in his favor and he was fighting me at 165lbs. To be honest, they had understated my weight and was closer to 170, but Mohamed was most likely nearer to 190 or 200.





We had discussed turning down the fight in the event that he turned out to be much larger/more experienced, as the match-ups are sometimes quite underhanded in Thailand. Nonetheless, I came to Thailand for a solitary experience, above all others, and that was to fight; I wasn't about to turn down a fight, and especially not to a Frenchman. I fought; I took on a challenge; I did my best under the circumstances; I wasn't successful. I put up a good fight, having an even first round, while we felt each other out and delivered some choice shots to his legs and body. However, despite a good first-round effort, the second wasn't so forgiving and after landing a thundering right, he pummeled me into a stupor. I had several knock-downs, even receiving a 10-count from the referee after the 3rd, but insisted on continuing the fight. I was, however, out on my feet and ended up doubling over and then having the ref call the fight.

Regardless, the trainers have had me hold my head high and have told me that the fight was 'impossible' and 'unwinnable'. I'm taking a bit of solace in the fact that 'Magical' Ray Elbe, the MMA instructor from our school, is set to face the very same fighter who defeated me next week. Good luck to Ray and I hope he kicks some ass. The fact that a vet of more than 30 MMA fights and such an experienced and skilled fighter should be pitted against the fighter I fought is a testament to the mismatch that I experience.



No Regrets. Only one more day to go in Phuket... [more photos and the fight video to come!]

Fight or flight

When originally planning my trip out here, the foray into the fight world of Thailand, I had two options: a short or a long trip. I ended up choosing the latter and coincidentally, today, the 18th would have the been my departure date for the first trip. It appears that everything works out in the end, that is if I come out on top as I, and the trainers, have so cleverly planned.

Tonight around midnight (depending on the tempo of the fights, ie: if people get they're blocks knocked off quickly) I'll be stepping into the ring with an unknown. His name is Mohamed, he is French, and according to the promoter, he is "same-same all, very fat like me." With that blow to the self-confidence, the trainers breathed a sigh of relief as a first fight for a Farang, or foreigner, is often quite sloppy and they believe I can benefit by fighting one. The other option would be to fight a Thai with 50+ fights and a respectable training background, something of which I have very little.

I'm excited for this thing; today I'm more confident and less nervous than any day previous and I feel that win or lose, stepping into the ring to fight Muay Thai in its motherland is a victory in itself and will be a great experience. I don't plan on making this my last fight, no matter the outcome, and want to make my trainers proud. So I'll just take it slow, let the man throw his fervent punches as all Farang do, wait for his gas tank to expire, and let my training kick in (no pun intended).

Sawatdee

Faux Pas and South paws

So it's finally confirmed; I have a fight on August 18th. Kroo Phet, the mastermind behind the matchups had me assume my most fearsome fighting stance for the poster snapshot -- yes there will be a poster plastered across the Island of Phuket with my ugly mug on it -- that probably was less intimidating than I would have hoped. After see-sawing back and forth as to whether I was going to fight and giving them the ultimatum of a fight or leaving to join my friend Boone at his very own gym, Bor Phetpintusopon, in Bangkok, they finally caved.

In most fighting sports, weight is key in determining matchups. This is obvious; how could you match up a little man with a big guy and expect a fair fight. Muay Thai is similar, but as speed and technique are so crucial to success, it's basically eyeballed. Apparently even though I am 78 kilos, I 'look' 73, which is what I'm going to be fighting at. Go figure.

Last weekend I went to Phi Phi island, the backdrop of the movie 'The Beach' with everyone's favourite actor Leo DiCaprio. I had promised to go on the trip prior to finding out my fight date was less than 10 days away long ago, so I had to follow through and was met with a fantastic time. Everyone is a foreigner, which is a welcomed change from every next girl coming up and accosting you in Patong and being either a) a hooker or b) a transvestite. Not that I don't love the attention, it merely gets a little old. Phi Phi is well known for its parties, a great feature of which is the Raggae bar situated in the middle of the small island. This bar sports a full sized Muay Thai boxing ring which holds pro fights on a nightly basis and between each match is a so-called 'volunteer' match between two drunken fools willing to duke it out (also known as 'Drongos' according to my jovial friend Clint from New Zealand).

Probably the best example of 'if you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough' was witness by a packed bar and myself in the corner of the ring on Saturday night. An overzealous guest who will remain anonymous had been chomping at the bit, and about 20 Xanex and Valium, to fight anyone willing to take on his skill. He unfortunately only has been at camp for 3 weeks, most of which has been spent in Patong beach with working women or passed out from a night on the town. He proceeded to take on a Russian giant with 6 years of boxing experience who was not only over 60 lbs heavier than him with barely an ounce of muscle, but was literally twitching freakishly as he challenge my foolish friend. Needless to say, he got the tar beat out of him in less than 30 seconds and I should hope to post the video ASAP!

Finally to end the post, I've been hitting the gym hard this week in preparation for the fight. The trainers have quite a bit of confidence and a lot of the other guests believe that I'm underestimating my skill. When I was told the match would be cancelled briefly, I was almost excited, but was then again overjoyed when it was reconfirmed. I'm in Thailand, learning the national sport in less than 2 months and I'm stepping into a ring to have a professional fight against a career athlete. It's nearly as silly as my aforementioned collegue, but I think I'm a little less dumb and a tad more tough, so we will see very soon.

PS: I nearly got deported today for making fun of this strange looking actress in a movie trailer... she turned out to be the queen's daughter and today happened to be the queen's birthday. Do not speak ill of the Thai royal family when in Thailand (Tip #253 on how not to get shanked in Thailand).

Get your grind on

How to Drive like a Thai (a step-by-step method):

1. At no times should you or your passenger wear a helmet
2. Blinkers are to be used only when not turning, keeping them on for show
3. The shoulder is to be used as a lane
4. The speed limit is observed only as a suggestion
5. When riding alone, you must exceed the speed limit by 30 km minimum
6. When not riding alone, you must have, at minimum, 3 passengers on 1 scooter and exceed the speed limit by 30km
7. Red lights are meaningless
8. It is permissible to drive at full speed, opposite to the flow of traffic if in the shoulder
9. Children as young as 4 can drive, so long as they do not wear a helmet
10. Side-view mirrors serve only as aids in make-up application

Driving here is nutty, but I love it. Here I am, a falang (or foreigner) without any form of license, never having driven before in my life, making 30 minute commutes to the beach on the freeway, without a care in the world. There is no danger of being stopped at any time by the police, so long as you wear a helmet; cops only look for white people without helmets so they can slap them with a fine a pocket a couple bucks (literally). Having no license, if I were to be stopped, I'd simply fork over my McGill university ID as no police officer speaks english and could just as easily mistake the thing for the genuine article.

Driving around is one of the few things you do to keep your mind off training in the little free time one has in between sessions. It's like as soon as you've finished one session the count-down timer begins for the next. Around 3:00 pm you're getting ready to get ready for training and before every single session you think, "maybe I should take this one off;" however no matter how many times this thought has occured and followed through, going to training, it still occurs every single day.

It's really coming to a severe grind here; training has lost any semblence of novelty that it may have once had and I can't seem to recall how I ever decided to make my trip 10 days longer, rather than opting to have a little more time at home, relaxing. I'm doing my best to not adopt the 'woe-is-me' attitude, as I still am in Thailand and this is a vacation, for what it's worth. This weekend I'll do some of the first actual vacationing I've done since I've gotten here, heading to the famous Phi Phi Island (of the movie 'The Beach'). They have a massive bar with 2 muay thai rings that takes on volunteer fights. I think I might just step in the ring and record some video, spice up this blog a little.

The Gear

Training days are getting to be harder and harder as the trip progresses. 6 weeks in, I'm starting to feel the brunt of the overtraining; the fact that even I am hard pressed to go to the gym is a little disturbing. Nonetheless, I believe a lot of this would have been avoided if I had the foresight to have brought my supplements along with me to Thailand rather than attempt to purchase them here.

Everything in Thailand is cheap and many of the guests here are of a similar mindset to mine; if you're going to try it or buy it, do it in Thailand. When people ask how expensive a certain activity is, say my bungee jump, I just say "less". Everything is cheaper than it is 'back home' as we fondly refer to everywhere that isn't here. Last night I went to a very nice restaurant and purchased a large thin crust pizza for about $4.50; last week I went to Journey to the Center of the Earth with my least favorite person in the universe, Brandan Fraser, only because it was hot outside and $3 for luxury reclining seats and air conditioning is too good to pass up (not a horrible movie in the end and only slightly scientifically inacurate, ha).

Back to the supplements; with the cost of living so low in Thailand, so is the average wage. People live here in pretty scant conditions just to get by; the workers commute into building sites in the morning, packed 30 deep into a truck's flat bed and live in shantis alongside the job site most of the time. That being said, those things that aren't domestically produced are obscenely expensive. While most things are 2 or 3 times cheaper here, supplements and 3 or 4 times more expensive, which is a dilemma for the athletes here. Thus many turn to 'the gear', as the Aussie's affectionately refer to it, or steroids. Everyone at camp has some horror story about the stuff, but still I can imagine how many people have dabbled or are currently dabbling in the juice. You need not worry about me; after an entire science degree and too many pharm classes, I will never, ever touch the stuff for fear of all of my organs simultaneously failing.

Still, training is hard going and I think there I can almost see a bright light at the end of the tunnel. One more week then I'm off to Phi Phi Island for a few days of tropical relaxation before I come back for my last 2 weeks of training. I still can't be sure whether or not I'll fight as now it's not so much a question of my ability, but rather the availability of opponents. So I'll put that to the back of my mind and train today, sans roids.

PS: This is me against Mr. Thailand competitor Peter, AKA the Thai hulk. I had him, but he's a big fat cheater.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=62530920175

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.

Fast and Furious

Again, no pictures, I'll spare the excuses.

One month and a week in, training and life in Thailand is peachy keen. Recently I grew a pair and rented myself a bike. This despite not having a license or ever having driven before in my life. Much like jumping into the ring, it's scary at first, but you get used to it very quickly or at least much get used to it. I'm happy to say after navigating home from a night out in Phuket town with another guest hitching a ride home to camp, I am very confident in my moped driving chops thus far.

My private sessions with Chocolate and twice daily muay thai sessions have started to pay off and am very quickly seeing the improvement in my striking. Sparring is starting to come easier and I'm getting a lot less degrading Thai thrown my way, reflecting what I assume to be proportionately fewer screw-ups. Chocolate insists on me fighting and says that if I were to lose he would quit his job as a trainer; I'm glad for his vote of confidence and considering he made this point so clear despite his incredibly broken English hammered to point home. So I'll be training, running, and doing my best to get ready for a fight I may, or may not, have.

Finally, for comic relief, I though I would share how precarious flirting with the opposite sex is here. It's such a foreign concept to me and every other westerner, but in going into a conversation with any woman, you legitimately have no clue whether or not she is even a she. Tonight panning across the bar, you could spot half of the lady-boys but many of them are extremely convincing in their trade. Having started their 'transition' early in life, they are passable as women to say the least. With that said, I'll keep my flirtatious self clear away from the 'women' and rather focus on the task at hand: Training.