A whole world of bananas

Tonight, I found the banana pancake woman in Kata. All is now well with the world. I hadn't seen any of these vendors to date while here, so the random walking tonight proved to be very fruitful!! I thought I was going through banana pancake withdrawal. I certainly am going through mango sticky rice withdrawal, but I can find that again in Bangkok. I am certain that banana pancakes are good for training. What's not to like? Banana in dough all fried up? But here, you can get one with egg as well, for that extra protein kick. And don't forget the Carnation milk and chocolate!!

Speaking of bananas, there's a whole world of banana species out here that I never knew about. Yes, the standard Chiquita-type banana that we are all familiar with is found here, but in addition are all other shapes and sizes! Tiny little fingerling ones, red ones, brown ones, big ones, small ones... My personal favorite, the meatiest of bananas I have ever encountered (if one can call a banana "meaty"), are the fat, stubby ones. About 3-4 inches long, and a good 1.5 inches in diameter. Awesome. I have 12 of them in my bungalow right now. They have become a staple after training and for breakfast. There are other fruit here I have just not figured out yet. Sour apple is okay, as is green mango (not my favorite). I can't say I'm a fan of papaya. Never liked it at home, and I haven't developed a liking for it here either. There are a few other fruits kicking around that I need to ask what they are as they are totally foreign to me. But taste good!

Three days of training have passed and I have to admit the puke factor came into play today! A typical afternoon training session goes as such:

3:30pm : run anywhere from 3-8 kms (I usually reserve longer runs to do by myself if I'm not training at that time)
4pm: skipping or bouncing on a tire (excellent workout I've discovered!)
4:30pm: stretching. Also excellent. Nothing like a good 20 min of stretching
4:45: shadow boxing, round 1 (goes on for 15 min or so)
5pm: wrap hands, shadow boxing round 2
5:25pm: depends on the day, but either sparring or bag work
5:30-6:30pm: a combination of bag work and pad work (at which time the puke factor starts hitting); 10 push ups between rounds every time
6:30pm - 7pm: sit ups, plyometrics, more sit ups, 15 min of cool down stretching

Morning training is the same, starting at 7:30am. Yup. I'm a little sore today after just three days of this so far! I've only been doing one session per day this week, and plan to advance to 2 per day next week, if I feel ok. No point in pushing it. And doing only one a day, plus an additional run or weights, I manage to get in some actual vacation as well!!

I did inform them that I'm not fighting while here, and the reaction was not one I would have expected. One of the owners was quite understanding, the other was pissed. Two of the head trainers were not happy either and still keep asking me if I want to fight and I have to keep saying no thanks. A weight was lifted off me when I finally told them no, and now I feel I can train in peace and not stress out about getting back to 100 % in 3 weeks. For some reason though, the idea of being injured and not training for a month didn't seem to make sense to them. I didn't think it was a difficult concept to understand!

Yesterday I went to the Phuket Aquarium and learned all about fish and swimming bug things and coral and plants/trees. At least now when I dive tomorrow, I will know what I am looking at. Walking the beaches here is like deja vu from working in Swap Shop at Science North! All those shell and coral names that I knew for so many years are apparently still stored in the hard drive and I actually remember them!

I've gotten into a bit of a routine after the evening training session. I shower, get dressed and head out on the moped to Kata. I have found this small restaurant (I hesitate to use the word restaurant as it's actually more a street vendor with a roof and a sit down area) run by a woman and her two daughters just outside the main center of Kata. It has 2 tables and awesome food!! For 30 - 60 baht ($1 - $2), I can eat a great meal. The chicken with basil and garlic is particularly awesome! As is the pad thai. Although it doesn't beat out the Phuket noodle dish with seafood I had on Karon beach - incredible. Yes, I am eating my way through Thailand! Thankfully training burns off a hell of alot more calories than I am putting in! And I'm staying away from the more fatty dishes which contain either fatty meats or coconut milk. Although I guess the banana pancake pretty much negates the concept of avoiding fatty things eh?!

Tomorrow I am going diving with a PADI-certified dive operation out of Kata. It's 2 hours in the classroom in the morning, then an intro lesson just off-shore on Kata beach, and 2 dives in the afternoon, one off a long tail boat. I can't wait. I might do my open water certificate with them, but I'm deciding if I want to spend the money or not.