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!
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