muay thai sangha

the school i'm attending now is very different from muay thai i've trained before. the stances and techniques are different, as well as warm-up exercises and all. the concepts are also different, in that it focuses a lot on self-defense, and the possibilities in a fight outside of the rules of the ring. the teaching is very technical and relaxed. conditioning and strength training is up to you on your own time. i think i will have a much better understanding of balance and coordination after studying here. the class is rather small, with only about 5-6 students. there is the main teacher, or "kru" as they say, whose name is pedro. and there are two instructors in-training, marco and ivan.


here's pedro and me, standing in his beautiful backyard which he turned into a little school.
pedro is much, much stronger than he looks. his understanding of the physics and mentality behind martial arts puts him light years ahead, i think. he demonstrates takedown techniques on marco and ivan. making it look like picking up and throwing someone who is 180 pounds of muscle is similar to turning a page in a book. trying to learn the techniques makes me realize how difficult it actually is, and he makes it look absolutely effortless.
he covers a lot of different aspects of muay thai and self defense, as well as takedowns and grappling techniques. things like throwing or bringing your opponent down, and then gaining a dominant position or order to attack or put them in a submission hold. the fighting on the ground is not allowed in traditional muay thai, so i'm not used to it, but it's nice to learn something different. it's also really nice to learn a completely different style, being able to blend things that i like and make changes to things i don't.


i walk down this alley from my house to the main road, and about two minutes down the road to the school. it's not very far at all. there's probably about 20 dogs at the houses along this walk that go NUTS every time someone walks by. they run out to the street and bark at you until you get far enough away. i never feel threatened by them, though. especially in the mid-day when they are all sleeping in the sun, too lazy to chase me off.


this is the main training area, with a ring, padded mats, and all the bags. this is where we do the ground techniques, and sparring in the evenings.


this is where we train in the mornings, to stretch and warm up, and go over the details involved in what we will apply in practice the rest of the day. it's just a little dirt area. it's humbling. the whole place is very simple and basic. it's really nice.
anyway, it's about time i get ready for the evening.
i'm hopefully going to do a thai vegetarian cooking course on thursday, so if all goes well, i'll post something about that!

chai poom and chiang mai

well, after a long over-night bus ride, with a monk who snored incredibly loud, and an unidentifiable sandwich for a complimentary meal, i am in chiang mai! i've been here a few days, but i've been busy running around and kind of lagging on updating this.
i have some pictures from chai poom's restaurant, the place where i got the awesome pad thai.


that's chai poom in the yellow shirt. and his wife is cooking there (i never learned her name). he speaks english pretty well, i guess he gets a lot of practice with the students from the muay thai institute.


this is the seating area inside, which i believe used to be his garage.


and this is the famous dish itself. with an omlette and some rice on the side.


this is sven, from switzerland, enjoying some kind of chicken dish. i'm not the only one with a name the thai people find difficult. sven is either referred to as "steven" or "seven".


these kids were playing soccer and taking up the entire street right outside the restaurant.

but now i'm in chiang mai! i stayed on night in a really nice place, and then heard from my teacher that there was a nice guesthouse that was much cheaper, but it didnt have hot water. i thought, "no big deal, it's hot enough here anyway."
so he showed me the place really quick one day, but i didnt get to check inside the room. so i went back to my room from the night before, packed up all my stuff and walked to the new place. i had to cross a highway, and walk down these sun-baked dirt roads and alleys for about 3/4 of a mile, with my backpack and my heavy duffel bag. in the middle of the afternoon, it gets REAL hot, when the sun is beating down like that.
so i get to the new place, a sweaty mess, and someone led me to the room. she didnt speak any english, so i couldn't ask too many questions. i gave her the month's payment, and started to get set up.
the cold shower would have been fine, if it was a shower at all. it had a shower head, but it didn't work. when i pointed it out to the lady, hoping i made a mistake and she would show me how it works, just said "no."
like, "nope it doesn't work. did you expect it to?"
so the "shower" was actually just a faucet coming out from the wall, about waist height. crouching and being pressed up against a wall under a cold faucet is not exactly what i want after training. but i thought i could deal with it, seeing as the place is much cheaper.
then i laid down on the bed. i mean the twin beds pushed together, with a huge gap between. and it felt pretty much like a board with a sheet on it.
strike 2.
i sat and thought about this. maybe the more expensive place might be worth it.
i set out to get some water, and couldn't find any kind of drinking water dispenser in the place. i found the lady and showed her my water bottle like, "anywhere to fill this up?"
again, just a "no."
okay. i'm starting to think that the money i'm gonna spend on bottled water alone is going to make up the difference in how much less expensive this place is.
not to mention that it doesn't have a fridge, or internet for that matter.
so i packed up my bags again and politely asked for a refund. she was very nice and didn't even ask why. i think she probably gets that more often than not.
so i trekked all the way back to the guesthouse i stayed at before, and by this time, this place looked like a palace. it's about twice as expensive, (though still only about $150 per month) but it's got everything.
A/C, a fridge, hot shower, fitness room, tv, and free wireless internet. it's way closer to the school i'm going to, and there's a nice little restaurant behind it that serves vegetarian food.
so it's worth it.


the room is REALLY nice. my A/C unit has a remote. yeah.

i'll take some pictures of the new school and post them too.
it's a really nice place. much smaller than the other place, but its surrounded by nothing but greenery, instead of highways.
it's a very different teaching style too. extremely technical, and not much conditioning. which is nice. but i think i'm gonna have to do some running and exercising on my own time.
anyway, thats all for now. i'll put up some pictures of the school later.

exam

well, i just finished my exam! it wasnt very difficult, just some shadow boxing, and blocking kicks and such. i had to do the wai kru at the end, and one of the guys (who speaks better english than the rest) said that i did it like the thais, and better than most people. i was really happy to hear that. i was more nervous about the wai kru than anything. i felt prepared, but i certainly didn't want to mess up a ceremonial dance. the boxing was the easy part.
anyway, they said i did very well, and i should be able to get my certificate tomorrow.
i really liked training with these guys.
i kind of assumed, because they have the authority to give out certificates, that they would see a ton of foreigners come through, and maybe they would be a little judgmental and dismissive. but they were very welcoming, and seem to have a lot of fun training people.
they are a great group of people, and some of the best muay thai boxers.
i would recommend them to anyone who wants to learn muay thai.
they won't go easy on you, but you can be sure you'll appreciate it in the end.

i'm off to chiang mai tomorrow night, on an overnight bus. but i think i'd like to come back here sometime and finish some of the other courses they offer.
maybe even an instructor course at some point. gotta get a job back home, and save some money first.

everyday

i just had the best pad thai of my life.
tofu, egg, peanuts...i'll be going back there everyday that i'm still in rangsit.
the restaurant is this guy's garage that he modified into a little kitchen and sitting area. he and his wife run it. his daughter goes to high school, and his 3 year old son runs around like a maniac all day. it's a wonderful place. his wife makes all kinds of curries and tofu dishes and just really good food in general.
i get some pictures of them and upload them on the next post.
for now, i have some pictures of the everyday training in the gym.
these pictures were after the second training of the day.
there are four during the day, but we are really only supposed to attend two.
so i train once at 7am-9am (because the sun isn't really out yet and its nice and cool.)
the first pictures of the gym are from that session.
then, i train again at 3pm to 5pm.
the rest of the pictures were taken during that session.
one of the instructors had me lightly sparring with him, and i had master noi take some photos.
since i had some boxing experience, they placed me in the 2nd level.
every training session for muay thai 2 starts with 15 minutes of running, (about 2 miles), 10 minutes of jumping on tires (to strengthen your legs), and then stretching. the training here is actually a lot slower than i'm used to.
they focus on form and technique really heavily.
the higher levels are faster and more intense, but still very focused on technique.
anyway, we do about an hours worth of different shadow boxing drills, focusing on footwork, guarding, hand placement, and different combinations. then we usually do about an hour of punching bag work, and/or pad holding with the trainers, depending on the amount of students.
most of the time, it's one-on-one, or at most, three or four people per instructor.
which is really great.
then, after the session is over, there is usually free sparring, there is an open gym, and usually someone teaching the wai kru.
the wai kru is the traditional dance performed by the boxers before every match.
each school and camp has it's own version of the wai kru. it pays respect to the masters, your parents, and to the other fighter.
i pretty much have it down now, though i'm still working on the details. there are a lot of important symbols and intricacies involved in it.
well, enough writing, here's some photos:





this is the gym, early in the morning. its nice and cool, the class is small, and you have the whole day ahead of you. i really like the morning sessions.



the guy in yellow is the oldest instructor here. he's 65. he kicks the bags as hard as any of the young guys, and he is hilarious. he kicked my legs right out from underneath me the other day, right onto the hard concrete floor. and then he showed me how to do the same (but in the nice padded ring)
he's a muay thai champion, with over 200 fights and 180 wins.
he took me around the front hallway a few days ago and showed me some of his pictures. and then proceeded to point to like 20 different people in the pictures and said things like "him, me...5 fight. i win 5. him, me...3 fight. i win 3. him, me...6 fight. i win 5." and this went on for quite a while.


these are from my light sparring match with a younger instructor. i think he's only part-time here. he was going really easy on me.













this is master noi on the right, (he picked me up from the airport and took me out to lunch the one day) and master somchai on the left. (i might be wrong with his name. the thai people have such long names that they get all kinds of nicknames.)
i train with somchai almost everyday now. he's really funny. and he's 49!
i couldn't believe it when he told me. he looks like he's 29. and acts like it, too.

when i tell these guys my name, they have a hard time remembering it, and pronouncing it for that matter. one day, master noi introduced me to someone, and they had trouble with my name. so he said, "like jack daniels!"
and so now nobody has any trouble with my name, although half the time, i just get "hey, whiskey!"
which is fine by me!

THE FOOD.

the past few days have been a little rough.
on the 16th, after my first full day of training, i was starving.
i went to the mega mall place near here called "FUTUREPARK"
and i went into this quiet-looking place called MK. but as i turned a corner, i realized it was a huge restaurant, packed with people. i started to turn around to find something else, but i was already being ushered to a seat.
i wish i had brought my camera, because what happened next was terribly embarrassing, and i should have documented it for you all.
no one spoke english, and in my frantic hunger, i forgot to look up some simple thai phrases, like "no meat" or "vegetarian food please."
so, they hand me a menu, and there are no platters in the whole thing. just little single pictures of vegetables, meats, seafood, you name it.
the waiter stands near me, ready to write down my order, and i have no idea what to do.
so i started pointing at vegetables. hardly any i could recognize, and none that i could read the description of, as it was all in thai.
i point, the waiter says okay, and looks at me for more. i point again, same thing. point, okay. point, okay, point...until i have pretty much pointed to every vegetable on the menu, and (excitedly) at tofu!
he takes the menu, and about three minutes later, comes back with a huge rack of about 7 plates of raw veggies.
i took the plates, and started eating them.
i failed to notice the little stove on my table, and the pot of water boiling on top.
after a few bites of my raw meal, one waitress comes over, laughing, and says, "no, you cook! in water!"
OHHHHH.
okay. that makes perfect sense. like hibachi? kind of?
anyway, so i take a little bit of some seaweed, wrapped up all nicely, place it in the ladle provided for me, and dunk it into the water.
i take it out after a minute or two, and eat it, and go for another.
the same waitress comes back, laughing even harder.
"may i help with you please?"
YES. PLEASE DO. by all means, because i obviously have no idea what i'm supposed to do.
she grabs the plates one by one and empties them into the water.
"mix! 5 minutes, tofu. 2 minutes, eat. okay?"
okay! now we are getting somewhere. meanwhile, i feel like all eyes are on me.
the bumbling, red-faced foreigner, completely lost in the simplest idea of cooking your own vegetables.
so i try my best to act like i know what i'm doing. i add the tofu after a few minutes, and eventually start ladling out the food into a bowl.
as if i wasn't starving an hour before i even came in to the place, the smell and sight of this meal cooking in front of me, every minute going by slower than the last, i was dizzy with hunger at this point.
this, such an embarrassing moment just minutes ago, became on of the greatest meals of my life. it was simple. bland, even. but after not eating for nearly 8 hours, expending tons of energy for four of those hours, this was absolutely heavenly.
i left a big tip, and walked out feeling like i could dance the rest of the way home.
i felt like my feet might just come off the ground and i would float away at any moment.

i got home, and after a little while, i started to get hungry again. i decided to look up some simple phrases, and try my luck with the street vendors.
"pom gin jair" means "i only eat vegetarian food"
i said to to an older man at one cart, and he smiled broadly, and said "no, no, no, sorry." so i bowed and said thank you, and started to walk away, but he came up behind me and grabbed my arm, and started leading me and pointing, all with a huge grin on his face. "jair, jair! here, okay?"
i got a little baggie of cooked rice, and a little baggie of this:


no idea. didnt really care.
it didnt look like meat, and it only cost me ten baht. which is like 30 cents.
it tasted like a plant from a pond.
i ate it and the rice and fell asleep.
and at about 1AM, i woke up sick as a dog.
terrible.
somehow, i managed to keep all my food down, for fear of being so awfully hungry again. with demon-like belching, i got through the night, on about 3 hours of sleep.
training at seven was horrific after that.
i slept after the session, and trained again at 3.
i was completely drained.
i ached, my stomach was sick and empty, and i just felt totally beat down.
not to mention the impromptu 3-minute sparring round my trainer put me through at the end, whereupon he landed a very, very clean kick in my ribs.
all i wanted was a shower and my bed.

sunday, i was determined to find groceries. tofu, beans, nuts, SOMETHING.
my two attempts at the huge supermarkets close by had not yielded much.
but upon arriving at the mall again, i noticed a market i hadn't seen before.
TOPSmart.
i wandered inside, and it looked pretty good. english writing here and there, prepared foods, seafood....
SCORE.



coconut flavor coated, and soy sauce coated peanuts.





soy milk, soy cappuccino, orange juice, and this:



i don't know if you can see what this is. but this is and pomegrante juice latte, with soymilk.
YES.
its amazing.
anyway, here it is, monday the 18th. about 11am, after the first training of the day. i am refreshed, i am eating well, i feel wonderful.

today and yesterday were crazy days at the institute. they filmed a music video here yesterday. two thai girls were fighting, (choreographed) and there were a ton of people, and equipment and everything. today, they are filming some advertisement or something.



they have a smoke machine, and there were tons of people for extras earlier today. it would be so loud, the crowd cheering, the fighters going at it, music, lights, and then someone would yell what i believe was the thai equivalent of "cut!" and everything would just STOP.
it was pretty funny.

unfortunately, because they were in the gym, we had to train upstairs in this weird classroom.




thats the instructor that kicked me on saturday. hes incredible.
you do something wrong, and he hits you with pads.
if your feet arent in the right place, he kicks your legs and yells, "BALAN!"
if you do it right, he goes, "UNNNHHHH. velly goo."


some trucks for the filming.






this is the snooker table, and that little man, is tan.
he was born in thailand, moved to england, and is now visiting some relatives with his family. he and his brother surprised me with their perfect english, until i learned that they live in england.
but he also speaks thai, which is really impressive.
he's going to teach me to play snooker later.

well, thats plenty for now.
im going to eat, read and nap before more training.
hope everything is wonderful back home.
my e-mail is oldrustedtrain@gmail.com, if i havent posted it already.
i'd love to hear from anyone!
until then,
-daniel

arrival in rangsit

i have arrived here, at the muay thai institute in rangsit, thailand!
its 8:51 AM right now, which means its 8:51 PM back home. its about 82 degrees, sunny, and humid. its beautiful. the city is full of action, cars speeding all over the place, motor bikes dodging between the cars, and tons of people everywhere. i got to the institute and set up my stuff yesterday at about 3pm. the room is bigger than i expected, with A/C, TV, a fridge, and a private bathroom.






the institute is like a hotel, with rooms on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors, and the gym on the first floor. its a gigantic place, i could definitely get lost in it.


this is the gym, with the ring in the center, and all the bags around the edges. there's stadium seats for the fights. the whole place doubles as a stadium. theres also a bigger stadium right out front, which also has a night club.


you walk through this alley in front of the institute to get out to the street.




this is the street that the school is on, and the sign for all the buildings.


here's the staduim/night club. the institute is behind this buliding, to the left.
there's a whole bunch of dogs that just hang out around here. i don't know if they are strays or what, but they are really sweet and calm. they are pretty much always panting and lying in the shade.


oh yes. there is a ping pong table on the second floor.
yes indeed.


this is the sun coming up this morning, off the balcony on the third floor. the washing machine is on this balcony, and there is also a snooker table just inside. i have no idea how to play, but maybe i can learn.

anyway that's all for now. i'm going to be testing at about noon, to see what level i should be in. and maybe tonight i'll head into bangkok. see if i can convince anyone to go get some food and wander around in "the new york of southeast asia."
take care, everyone.
la gorn! (goodbye!)
-daniel