1st day of training in Phuket (Chalong)

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind, but I've arrived in Phuket and am actually starting to feel relaxed. It's taken me almost a week to simply relax, not worry about work or the CWSF or the dog at home. Actually, that's not bad! It usually takes me a bit longer. I still feel somewhat tense, but that will diminish as training and the heat continues to tire me out.


My last day in Bangkok (27th) I spent going to Ayutthya to visit the old temples and purchase training daab for Krabi Krabong. The only problem is that I woke up in the moring at 9am, my alarm not gone off yet! I had set it for very early so I could catch a train and see all the sights before meeting Serge to buy daab. Apparently I had the clock set wrong (PM instead of AM) so had a bit of an unplanned sleep in! Although I slept through the night, so the rest was appreciated by my still somewhat jet-lagged body. I find that at 3pm every afternoon, I am ready to crash. It's getting better, but I'm still feeling a bit out of it. I think the exercise helps.

I dressed and got ready quickly, grabbed some quick food (horrid gross breakfast at the hotel), and took the Skytrain to Hualamphong train station. A ticket to Ayutthya was 30 baht ($1) and the trip was 1.5 hours. Total bargain!!! Although that was 3rd class, so no AC, but for that money and only a short ride, I didn't care.

Once in Ayutthya, I walked around a bit and called Serge. I wound up spending the afternoon with him (an ex-pat from Luxembourg who handles selling daab and knives from various craftsmen in Arynik). He took me first to the royal elephant kraal where I got to touch my very first elephants!! There were a couple of babies as well, one just born on Christmas day (they named him Santa...) and they were so cute!! And hairy! The mothers were somewhat protective, but in general they let you play with their babies, feeding them, handling them no problem. The babies like to play games and head-butt you (and even at 2 and 3 weeks old, these "babies" wheigh 300 lbs!) or undo the shoe laces on your running shoes! It was a great experience. Although I came away with elephant snot and dirt all over me! You can actually book to stay at the kraal for days at a time. During your stay, you take care of an elephant, help to do the training, cleaning feeding, etc. It's actually not all that touristy and if i had more time on my hands, I might consider a stay there.

After lunch at an Italian place, I spent an hour or so choosing daab at Serge's place before going into the village to see the forges and workshops. The process of making the daab is pretty simple actually - they cut a blank (taken from railway train springs) to the shape they want, then do all the forging, hammering, etc. The heating is done in an open pit with wood, and the quenching done just in water (no differential hardening at all). The blades are either etched or carved by a diamond-tip scribe for whatever design they want. But some of the woods they use are incredible! Tamarind, rose wood, teak, etc. All hard woods and beautiful. I wound up buying a set of training daab, a 16 inch and a 24 inch daab, both with teak handles and fantastic etchings. Very happy. :)

I took the train back to Bangkok at 7pm (15 baht this time - $0.50 !!) and crashed. I walked around for a bit, had some noodle soup, took a shower and then tried, unsuccessfully, to get to bed early.

Yesterday, I was up at 5:30am to catch my flight to Phuket at 7:55am. Yeah!! It's a short, 1.5 hour flight down the coast, only to step out into sunshine and hot, humid 36 degree weather! And I thought Bangkok was hot!! Nope, nothing compared to here. It's hot and sticky and sunny all the time!! Awesome! As long as you let your body get used to it and drink lots of water. A driver from the gym picked me up at the airport, and we drove the 20 minutes to the Tiger Muay Thai, which is located in Chalong, south of Phuket town. It's a bit in the middle of nowhere, which is nice. Off the main roads that go to Rawai, Nai Harn and Kata/Karon beaches. I'm staying in a private tropical bungalow (complete with banana and coconut trees in my front yard, roosters in the back yard, and my own house geckos!!). I rented an automatic Honda moped as well as it's the easiest way to get around town. I thought it would be more difficult to operate, but so far so good! Although I haven't gotten up to speeds more than 45 km/h yet! Driving on the left hand side of the road is the real worry - it takes a bit of time to learn to look in the opposite direction from what you're used to. But I like having the bike - it gives me the freedom to come and go as I please.

I had my first training session yesterday afternoon. The head instructor put me in the Advanced group right away, which is fine except I haven't really trained in a month because of my shoulder, so I'm a fat lazy slug right now! Nothing like being thrown in head-first to get back into training. Friday's are sparring days, so after lots of warm up and stretching, then some bag work, I got to do a few rounds against this somewhat beginner from South Africa/California. She's been here for a month, so really new, but out-weighed me by about 75 lbs!! Oh man, I got pushed around the ring by shear weight! And no control either, so she managed to knee me right in the crotch which hurt like a bitch. It's still sore today. Not impressed by that at all. Then we did some pad work which almost had me puking in the heat! 50 knees on the bag, followed by 20 right kicks, 20 left kicks and 20 pushups. Repeat 3 times. Yup. Puke factor up!

This morning, at 7am (early so the heat didn't kill us) we drove in the backs of pick-up trucks to Nai Harn beach where we worked out on the beach itself. After 20-25 minutes of running up and down the beach (yes, I think everyone should be able to run up and down a tropical beach to train every day!! it's fantastic to run in sand with palm trees and the surf at your feet), we spent 2 hours doing various technique workouts, shadow boxing, and then finished the session with a tug-of-war! Nice way to spend the morning, that's for sure.

So far I like it here. The trainers are nice and most farang visitors seem to be as well. There are a couple of Canadians here as well (2 from Ottawa actually, but the guy is a bit of a twit and very high on himself - trains MMA somewhere in town). They would like me to fight in Koh Lanta on Jan 18th, but I'm very apprehensive since I haven't been training and my shoulder still aches. I don't want to ruin it for training at home, something more important than a few weeks here. That aside, on a personal level, I also don't want to fight here without my own Kru in my corner. That's important to me. Here, I'm just another farang who they can stick in the ring and make money off of. If I get the shit kicked out of, or even not, they don't really care about me as a person. It would be fun to fight, so I don't want to sound like a chickenshit and say no to a fight, but realistically? is it the best move right now? Probably not. So, I'm here to train hard, to learn, to get back into shape after being off injured for a month, lose the weight I put on during that time, and come back to Canada ready to fight in the spring. Yes? Still, a part of me says "chickenshit".

I'm sitting in a small internet cafe just near Karon beach. Me and my little moped are taking the afternoon to sight-see along the coast. I stopped outside Chalong and had roast duck and pork with rice, and now will enjoy the sunshine! Since tomorrow is Sunday and the gym is then closed for 3 days for New Year's, tonight there is a huge bbq at the gym. All you can eat and drink for 250 baht. Woo hoo!! I think if I drank beer here though, I'd be sick as a dog tomorrow. More water on the menu!!