Well I did promise shorter entries, a promise which I intend to keep; pictures, however, will have to wait as my camera is dead until I can find a power converter, so for now, ladies and gentlemen, it's imagination time.
My training has recently got a kick in the ass and my secret has become clear, Chocolate. No that was not a grammatical mistake, the C is capitalized because my training has been inspired by my new private Muay Thai trainer, going by the nick-name Chocolate. I know some of you may find this funny, thinking that from the beginning of the trip I'd fall for a Thai lady boy and that this particular character might have fit the role, but don't be fooled by his unintimidating moniker. This man has had 200+ fights in his life and is kicking the crap out of me to learn me some Muay Thai.
Moreover, I had a little bit of a health scare recently, finding a scratch that turned into, what I believed to be, an infection. I drove to the hospital (Yes, drove. I'm actually driving... everywhere actually) and was warmly welcomed by a friendly Thai girl who took down my info, commented on how often Muay Thai fighters visited the fine facilities of Phuket International Hospital, and referred me over to the doctor. The whole trip, which included referring me to an ENT by accident due to miscommunication (my friend was there for a broken nose, turned out to be mighty serious) and checkup with prescription took 1 hour and cost just under $20, ha!
The hospital is immaculate and I recommend hurting yourself in Thailand any time. The hospitality is great.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Gymnauseum
It's been a month and life is good in Thailand. On the 30th day I had to make a run for the border, hopping on a bus for 5 hours, a boat for 1, crossing into Myanmar all for the sake of a measly stamp; oh well, such is life. I've also gotten some great feedback about this blog. I assume none of you are still reading, as pointed out by my ever intelligent older brother, the blog is too long and I apologize. Starting next post I'll have 1) shorter 2) more frequent and 3) more picture-filled posts. I've never been a photo guy, but just as I discussed my blog with another guest a moment ago, he told me I would regret not capturing the memories.
Myanmar was a great trip and really got me motivated to train. The trip home afforded me an opportunity to discuss fighting and life in Thailand with an unsuspecting Swedish man who turned out to be fighting and living in Phuket full-time for the past 7 years. For him, 15 km running and 6 hours of training has been par for the course every day for years. He told me to relax and enjoy my time and not get caught up in the moment; rather, he suggested, take it easy and enjoy the experience, taking home a lot of good training and memories (could not agree more).
On Saturday the camp hosted its full-moon day, featuring beach training at sun rise and a bbq with 'smoker' fights in the evening. Training on the beach was magnificent and I do wish I had pictures, though I will rip them off the camp website very soon. Running in the sand as the sun started to rise was picturesque and cooling off in the waves was a welcomed change of pace. Hours later at the bbq, with bellies stuffed with Thai cuisine and, for some (not me), the unlimited beer, we watched a few MMA and Muay Thai fights. The action was great and a Canadian guy from Toronto ended up taking home the win; nonetheless I'll be waiting until I get home to have my first fight, when I'm more prepared.
Almost 8:00am, time to go jump rope for 30 minutes. Adios.
Myanmar was a great trip and really got me motivated to train. The trip home afforded me an opportunity to discuss fighting and life in Thailand with an unsuspecting Swedish man who turned out to be fighting and living in Phuket full-time for the past 7 years. For him, 15 km running and 6 hours of training has been par for the course every day for years. He told me to relax and enjoy my time and not get caught up in the moment; rather, he suggested, take it easy and enjoy the experience, taking home a lot of good training and memories (could not agree more).
On Saturday the camp hosted its full-moon day, featuring beach training at sun rise and a bbq with 'smoker' fights in the evening. Training on the beach was magnificent and I do wish I had pictures, though I will rip them off the camp website very soon. Running in the sand as the sun started to rise was picturesque and cooling off in the waves was a welcomed change of pace. Hours later at the bbq, with bellies stuffed with Thai cuisine and, for some (not me), the unlimited beer, we watched a few MMA and Muay Thai fights. The action was great and a Canadian guy from Toronto ended up taking home the win; nonetheless I'll be waiting until I get home to have my first fight, when I'm more prepared.
Almost 8:00am, time to go jump rope for 30 minutes. Adios.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Rain rain go away
I made a little remark about the weather a couple of days ago, complaining about how hot and dry the Thai winter has been and maybe a nice downpour would be nice to cool down the camp for training; well when it rains, it pours. 2 days and 48 solid hours of rain later, I'm officially sick of the weather and finally know why the call it the rainy season.
It's been a while since my last post, but don't take that as me not having any mind-blowingly exciting experiences in Thailand; it is quite the opposite. Since my last post I've witnessed the seedy underbelly of Patong beach, experienced a legitimate Muay Thai match, and experience all that first class movie theatres in Thailand have to offer.
Last Saturday we all decided to cut a little loose and head off to the (in)famous Patong Beach for a night on the town. After having finished training and started drinking with the relatively palatable Chang beer at dinner, we hopped into two pimped out mini-buses and motored off to Patong. I had been told before that the place was something that could only be understood by seeing it for myself and I couldn't agree more. As soon as you walk down the main drag you are assaulted by impoverished folk trying to peddle off their Thai schwag and entice tourists to come watch their various go-go-dancing and sex shows. Being my mother's son, I of course refused both and did my best to weave through the droves of lady boys and bar girls.
Once in the bar, you're accosted by every girl in sight. As you all know I'm a strikingly handsome guy, but the number of girls latching onto me seemed to be a little higher than usual. You walk between tables and honestly 4 girls will grab your arm, hug your waist, touch your face, etc. It's really uncomfortable because some of the girls in this certain bar are 'actual' Thai girls and others are 'bar girls'. You never know whether someone is interested in you or your wallet and usually its the latter. Going to the bathroom was also a trip; you bust through the line up of girls like you're playing red rover and then stand at the urinal only to be grabbed, this time, by a guy. The guy gets you into a full nelson and shakes you about (while in mid-stream) and cracks your back like a celery stick. Not that it was entirely unpleasant, because it wasn't, but it was a little awkward to have someone unannounced latch onto you and perform a chiropractic readjustment. After 'partying' until 5 am we all headed home, a few of the guys with what we think were girls, and did our best to keep our dignities in check.
Next on the menu were the fights last night. Again, the usual mini bus trucked us off to Patong, this time to the more respectable part, and we headed into the, let's just say, humble stadium. We were up on the side of the arena with our $30 tickets, but for $9 more, we could sit in sofas close enough to smell the linament and blood. The night started off with two 7-year-olds going at it. They were tough as nails; the fight ended with a head kick knocking out the smaller of the two. When I was seven I was collecting pogs. The next was a pair of 9 year olds. One was extremely tubby and reminded me of a young Matt Charleton. Naturally I called him Matt and cheered him on, but the bean-pole-esque young Thai taunted and baited the kid until he ended up putting out his lights in the 3rd.
The main reason we showed was to see two of our trainers fight, Ngoo and Aor. Ngoo is a 22 year old fighter who took the traditional strategy of doing jack in the first 2 rounds of the fight. Nobody really understands the scoring system, but basically the jist of the strategy is to be boring for the 1st 2 rounds and explode in the last 3. In typical fashion Ngoo stuck it to the cocky Thai and won on points. Aor, a top-ranked boxer and Muay Thai fighter, took the less traditional route of winning the fight with his hands. Apparently Thais believe that your fists are the weakest tools in your fighting arsenal, so kicks are par for the course. Aor took the man off guard and worked his knuckle game until putting him to sleep in the 3rd. Quite an impressive match and if he understood a word of English I would have congratulated him.
Finally I was the first of everyone I know to see Batman yesterday when taking the time difference into account. The movie was amazing and the atmosphere possibly rivaled the quality of the movie itself. We opted against the $3 standard tickets because the show times conflicted with training and decided to stick with the $15 VIP First class theatre instead. Once you select your assigned seats you get to enjoy the perks of the lounge; cocktail food, unlimited drinks, snacks, and popcorn. We made sure to maximize our time eating the little sandwiches and got into the theatre to find only about 30 seats in the entire place. Each was a lay-z-boy which fully reclined into a bed. They were even so kind as to include a very comfortable blanked for when you're sprawled out and hopefully still conscious while enjoying the movie. During the show, ushers periodically refreshed our drinks and popcorn which led me to fill up my bladder like a damn fool. So even as amazing as the movie was, not bursting on the brand new upholstery was at the forefront of my mind. I give it 10 head kicks out of 10 and think that Heath Ledger deserves best supporting actor. Coming soon, Matt's Hardcore Movie Blog.
Ta ta for now, doing nothing all day until training is calling, and it's going to take me all day to finish.
It's been a while since my last post, but don't take that as me not having any mind-blowingly exciting experiences in Thailand; it is quite the opposite. Since my last post I've witnessed the seedy underbelly of Patong beach, experienced a legitimate Muay Thai match, and experience all that first class movie theatres in Thailand have to offer.
Last Saturday we all decided to cut a little loose and head off to the (in)famous Patong Beach for a night on the town. After having finished training and started drinking with the relatively palatable Chang beer at dinner, we hopped into two pimped out mini-buses and motored off to Patong. I had been told before that the place was something that could only be understood by seeing it for myself and I couldn't agree more. As soon as you walk down the main drag you are assaulted by impoverished folk trying to peddle off their Thai schwag and entice tourists to come watch their various go-go-dancing and sex shows. Being my mother's son, I of course refused both and did my best to weave through the droves of lady boys and bar girls.
Once in the bar, you're accosted by every girl in sight. As you all know I'm a strikingly handsome guy, but the number of girls latching onto me seemed to be a little higher than usual. You walk between tables and honestly 4 girls will grab your arm, hug your waist, touch your face, etc. It's really uncomfortable because some of the girls in this certain bar are 'actual' Thai girls and others are 'bar girls'. You never know whether someone is interested in you or your wallet and usually its the latter. Going to the bathroom was also a trip; you bust through the line up of girls like you're playing red rover and then stand at the urinal only to be grabbed, this time, by a guy. The guy gets you into a full nelson and shakes you about (while in mid-stream) and cracks your back like a celery stick. Not that it was entirely unpleasant, because it wasn't, but it was a little awkward to have someone unannounced latch onto you and perform a chiropractic readjustment. After 'partying' until 5 am we all headed home, a few of the guys with what we think were girls, and did our best to keep our dignities in check.
Next on the menu were the fights last night. Again, the usual mini bus trucked us off to Patong, this time to the more respectable part, and we headed into the, let's just say, humble stadium. We were up on the side of the arena with our $30 tickets, but for $9 more, we could sit in sofas close enough to smell the linament and blood. The night started off with two 7-year-olds going at it. They were tough as nails; the fight ended with a head kick knocking out the smaller of the two. When I was seven I was collecting pogs. The next was a pair of 9 year olds. One was extremely tubby and reminded me of a young Matt Charleton. Naturally I called him Matt and cheered him on, but the bean-pole-esque young Thai taunted and baited the kid until he ended up putting out his lights in the 3rd.
The main reason we showed was to see two of our trainers fight, Ngoo and Aor. Ngoo is a 22 year old fighter who took the traditional strategy of doing jack in the first 2 rounds of the fight. Nobody really understands the scoring system, but basically the jist of the strategy is to be boring for the 1st 2 rounds and explode in the last 3. In typical fashion Ngoo stuck it to the cocky Thai and won on points. Aor, a top-ranked boxer and Muay Thai fighter, took the less traditional route of winning the fight with his hands. Apparently Thais believe that your fists are the weakest tools in your fighting arsenal, so kicks are par for the course. Aor took the man off guard and worked his knuckle game until putting him to sleep in the 3rd. Quite an impressive match and if he understood a word of English I would have congratulated him.
Finally I was the first of everyone I know to see Batman yesterday when taking the time difference into account. The movie was amazing and the atmosphere possibly rivaled the quality of the movie itself. We opted against the $3 standard tickets because the show times conflicted with training and decided to stick with the $15 VIP First class theatre instead. Once you select your assigned seats you get to enjoy the perks of the lounge; cocktail food, unlimited drinks, snacks, and popcorn. We made sure to maximize our time eating the little sandwiches and got into the theatre to find only about 30 seats in the entire place. Each was a lay-z-boy which fully reclined into a bed. They were even so kind as to include a very comfortable blanked for when you're sprawled out and hopefully still conscious while enjoying the movie. During the show, ushers periodically refreshed our drinks and popcorn which led me to fill up my bladder like a damn fool. So even as amazing as the movie was, not bursting on the brand new upholstery was at the forefront of my mind. I give it 10 head kicks out of 10 and think that Heath Ledger deserves best supporting actor. Coming soon, Matt's Hardcore Movie Blog.
Ta ta for now, doing nothing all day until training is calling, and it's going to take me all day to finish.
Friday, July 11, 2008
That Sweaty Kid
After an epiphany had during the rest between morning and afternoon MMA training, I've decided to dedicate my time here in Thailand entirely to Muay Thai for the duration of my trip. Honestly, having come to Thailand, why practice anything other than the national sport where I have access to some of the top fighters/trainers in the country and world. This is saying nothing to knock the training I've had with Ray Elbe, who is a master of jiu jitsu and MMA, but I feel that MMA training can be had back home, but the muay thai kickboxing will never compare.
The training is vastly different; you're starting every session with 30 minutes solid of skipping rope, then shadow boxing, stretching, pad work, sparring, and a grueling ab workout that keels everyone over. The weather is clearly hot as hell and with the hard cardio, I've been struggling to quench my thirst as my pores drain out liters of water over the 3 hours. In the last two days I've had 18 liters of water, I kid you not, yet still don't need to go pee. I've gained the reputation of being that sweaty kid in class, leaving a massive puddle beneath me even after only a brief stretch.
The trainers here are fantastic though; they bust your chops constantly and are righting my poor technique aquired trying (and apparently failing) to teach myself boxing solo. My stand-up game is actually starting to exist and I really am enjoying throwing my hands and legs. Muay thai is all about the 8 point strikes - 2 hands, elbows, legs, knees. So you exhaust yourself using your entire body as a weapon. I'm happy to say after 2 days they've moved me up to the intermediate level where I'll see more sparring, which I really enjoy; a punch to the nose never hurt anyone! My goal is to see a couple lessons in the advanced ring before I leave, which is reserved for those few training for a fight and is home to some hardcore badasses.
I'm also in training for one of my next challenges, which I'll be taking on tomorrow. I'll be taking on the task of bringing home the Phuket Eating Competition 2008 title back to Canada. I've been training hard, eating enough to feed an army on a constant basis and think that I might have a chance. Once you've seen the small stature of the Thai folk, you might consider me a contender, though they can really tuck in and eat a fair bit. I hope you're all cheering me on, I'll do my best!
To all of my so-called "friends" drop me a damn line while I'm here; it's always nice to hear news from back home and I will be home eventually and might just have to use my Muay Thai on your faces otherwise.
The training is vastly different; you're starting every session with 30 minutes solid of skipping rope, then shadow boxing, stretching, pad work, sparring, and a grueling ab workout that keels everyone over. The weather is clearly hot as hell and with the hard cardio, I've been struggling to quench my thirst as my pores drain out liters of water over the 3 hours. In the last two days I've had 18 liters of water, I kid you not, yet still don't need to go pee. I've gained the reputation of being that sweaty kid in class, leaving a massive puddle beneath me even after only a brief stretch.
The trainers here are fantastic though; they bust your chops constantly and are righting my poor technique aquired trying (and apparently failing) to teach myself boxing solo. My stand-up game is actually starting to exist and I really am enjoying throwing my hands and legs. Muay thai is all about the 8 point strikes - 2 hands, elbows, legs, knees. So you exhaust yourself using your entire body as a weapon. I'm happy to say after 2 days they've moved me up to the intermediate level where I'll see more sparring, which I really enjoy; a punch to the nose never hurt anyone! My goal is to see a couple lessons in the advanced ring before I leave, which is reserved for those few training for a fight and is home to some hardcore badasses.
I'm also in training for one of my next challenges, which I'll be taking on tomorrow. I'll be taking on the task of bringing home the Phuket Eating Competition 2008 title back to Canada. I've been training hard, eating enough to feed an army on a constant basis and think that I might have a chance. Once you've seen the small stature of the Thai folk, you might consider me a contender, though they can really tuck in and eat a fair bit. I hope you're all cheering me on, I'll do my best!
To all of my so-called "friends" drop me a damn line while I'm here; it's always nice to hear news from back home and I will be home eventually and might just have to use my Muay Thai on your faces otherwise.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Rata tat tat
So I just made it home after a speedy trip through Phuket town in search of the Golden Needle, the destination for the few and proud who train here at Tiger and are looking to get some ink. Alas, I am not ballsy enough to commit to a tattoo (you're welcome Mom), but my friend John was looking to get himself some of the permanent art before his leaves Thailand, which may in fact be quite soon as he has been given a job offer as a tradesman in Iraq. Speaking of which, I should mention that a lot of the folks here are involved in some way with the military. Thus far, I've met 4 or 5 guests who are just coming from or going back to Iraq while training Muay Thai. Much like you all think I'm crazy for making this my vacation prior to school, they have been the butt of jokes after leaving one swelteringly hot venue and back-breaking training for another.
Yesterday I made the first conscious effort to relax while I've been here, opting to skip on training while my trainer Ray was making his visa run to Burma for the day. I decided to go for a nice jog along the local streets; easier said than done. There are a lot of honks and beeps directed my way as I'm sure running at high noon in tropical Phuket is a humorous sight to many. Nonetheless after drenching my shirt in sweat after a brisk stretch and actually finishing a run, we made our way to the white sandy beach of Nai Har (no clue how to spell it).
I've been trying to ask everyone where the best destination is for a relaxing time at the beach and it's essentially useless as the names of the beaches are impossible to recall let alone pronounce phonetically to a taxi driver. Yet, by some stroke of luck, we made our way out, the 4 of us, between training sessions and got a hefty dose of UV rays. After that I opted out of the famous Thai massage and watched all of the movies I could handle on our very nicely loaded cable bundle. The massages cost just shy of $10 for 2 hours and is literally back-breaking, but I'm told it complements training well and may just get roped into one some day soon.
We finished up the day of zen with a trip to Central Fair and SFX Cinemas where we hit the food court for indian food, of all things, and watched Hancock for 100 baht, or 3 dollars. Our assigned seating fully reclined and the theater was amazing and it made the 3 minute standing salute to the King of Thailand nearly bearable.
On a very ironic and AWESOME note, this sunday at the same food court there is a regional eating competition that I plan on entering. So I come to Thailand to get fit and trim and end up gorging myself on delicious local cuisine for money. Sounds about the opposite of cage fighting, but I think I have a chance! Wish me luck!
Yesterday I made the first conscious effort to relax while I've been here, opting to skip on training while my trainer Ray was making his visa run to Burma for the day. I decided to go for a nice jog along the local streets; easier said than done. There are a lot of honks and beeps directed my way as I'm sure running at high noon in tropical Phuket is a humorous sight to many. Nonetheless after drenching my shirt in sweat after a brisk stretch and actually finishing a run, we made our way to the white sandy beach of Nai Har (no clue how to spell it).
I've been trying to ask everyone where the best destination is for a relaxing time at the beach and it's essentially useless as the names of the beaches are impossible to recall let alone pronounce phonetically to a taxi driver. Yet, by some stroke of luck, we made our way out, the 4 of us, between training sessions and got a hefty dose of UV rays. After that I opted out of the famous Thai massage and watched all of the movies I could handle on our very nicely loaded cable bundle. The massages cost just shy of $10 for 2 hours and is literally back-breaking, but I'm told it complements training well and may just get roped into one some day soon.
We finished up the day of zen with a trip to Central Fair and SFX Cinemas where we hit the food court for indian food, of all things, and watched Hancock for 100 baht, or 3 dollars. Our assigned seating fully reclined and the theater was amazing and it made the 3 minute standing salute to the King of Thailand nearly bearable.
On a very ironic and AWESOME note, this sunday at the same food court there is a regional eating competition that I plan on entering. So I come to Thailand to get fit and trim and end up gorging myself on delicious local cuisine for money. Sounds about the opposite of cage fighting, but I think I have a chance! Wish me luck!
Friday, July 4, 2008
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!)
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!)
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
First Blood!
I've watched countless MMA fights and am what some may consider a fanatic, so when a little blood is spilled I'm the first to yell 'keep fighting!'. Nonetheless, when I was confronted with the same situation, I was a little surprised that there was no pause in the action -- "A little blood never hurt anybody" announced the head trainer, Ray. It was a pretty rude awakening and a well overdue blow to the ego to get that blow to the face and scramble my brains a little bit.
Having trained in Montreal and shadow-boxed until the cows came home, I had yet to have any actual fight experience; as such, a small MMA sparring 'drill' was a bit of a change of pace for me. The Irish fighter with many times the experience of myself decided to keep it standing and I was nobody to argue after getting popped in the nose and a little shell-shocked. In retrospect, maybe using my wrestling would have been well-advised, but at the time, the thought was a distant second to, what the hell is all that pouring out of my nose!? He also did a very nice job of working the kicks on my 'heavy' front leg, leaving it black and blue for the next day.
With all that behind me, I started training again the next day, in regular fashion, surprisingly unscathed for the morning session. In the afternoon, I decided to try the muay thai class for the first time, rather than my usual MMA session and found myself surrounded in a gallon of sweat - having drank the equivalent and not having to go to the bathroom is usually a sign of a rough workout!
I'm slowly getting into the rhythm, but it's really too hard-going to be enjoyable at this point. I'm going to need a little longer to get my own pace set and let my body get used to the beating. Hopefully all of this humiliation will toughen me up a little bit - it would be nice to see something in return!
A belated Happy Canada Day to everyone back home - mine was spent rolling around with sweaty, shirtless men -- so it sounds pretty similar to most of yours. Let just hope you all partied enough for me as well. Take care and drop me a line; south east Asia can get a little lonely.
Having trained in Montreal and shadow-boxed until the cows came home, I had yet to have any actual fight experience; as such, a small MMA sparring 'drill' was a bit of a change of pace for me. The Irish fighter with many times the experience of myself decided to keep it standing and I was nobody to argue after getting popped in the nose and a little shell-shocked. In retrospect, maybe using my wrestling would have been well-advised, but at the time, the thought was a distant second to, what the hell is all that pouring out of my nose!? He also did a very nice job of working the kicks on my 'heavy' front leg, leaving it black and blue for the next day.
With all that behind me, I started training again the next day, in regular fashion, surprisingly unscathed for the morning session. In the afternoon, I decided to try the muay thai class for the first time, rather than my usual MMA session and found myself surrounded in a gallon of sweat - having drank the equivalent and not having to go to the bathroom is usually a sign of a rough workout!
I'm slowly getting into the rhythm, but it's really too hard-going to be enjoyable at this point. I'm going to need a little longer to get my own pace set and let my body get used to the beating. Hopefully all of this humiliation will toughen me up a little bit - it would be nice to see something in return!
A belated Happy Canada Day to everyone back home - mine was spent rolling around with sweaty, shirtless men -- so it sounds pretty similar to most of yours. Let just hope you all partied enough for me as well. Take care and drop me a line; south east Asia can get a little lonely.
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