Last session at Rawai Muay Thai

March 5th, 2009

It’s Thursday evening, and I’ve just got back from my last training session.  It didn’t quite go as I planned but hey!  This morning I went up there to do the usual weights and stuff and to catch Ot for 1 round on the pads for the camera.  So this afternoon I head up there a little early to do the same with Theng but he got there late so said I’ll have to wait until the end of training, so I ended up doing the whole session which I hadn’t planned for.  As has been the norm lately there was loads of people, so much so that I just decided to stay on shadow boxing because there wasn’t enough bags to go on and the rings were full.  Towards the end of round 5 Fin came up to me and said ‘you go ring 1′ - ring 1!  At bloody last, I’ve only been training here 2 months and it’s my last day, but I got there - ring 1 is the ring with the fight trainers in and you only got there if they think you’re any good (or if you tell them you want to fight, which I didn’t).  So during the 5 rounds I had in here with Yib I had James an Irish lad record me, he fought last night up in Patong and won with 4th TKO knees from the clinch, he fought a really good fight!  Thursday is Wai Kru day so I did that and caught Theng standing around so I got some Thai chick to record a round with him, it was a much better video with him than the one I got this morning just because it was only at the weekend I stopped VIP training with him so he knows my style and he’s also nearly as tall as me so the pads are always a good height.
It was also the Australian boys last day so we were all going round getting loads of photos, got a few group photos with all the trainers as well which was pretty cool.  Famous last words popped up ‘1 more photo’ - as I handed the camera to Jason he dropped it :( it’s dented around the lens (as it was zoomed out a little) and the shutter doesn’t cover the lens when it’s turned off, but it still takes photos and zooms normally so not all bad (but will sort it out when I get home!!)

Here’s me, in Ring 1 (Where I belong lol!!):

Tonight we’re heading into Patong for one last time.  Even though my flight isn’t until Saturday lunchtime I’m going to treat tonight as the last night because of the ozzy boys and I don’t wanna be hungover trying to get myself across to Koh Phangnan!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Time to leave Rawai

March 1st, 2009

Since the last post we had a big night out to Freedom bar on Wednesday night as it was Kirst’s last night, I took my camera so got plenty of pics as I think this was the first time I got some photos from Freedom!  She left Thursday lunchtime and was replaced by Jason who returned from Bangkok which was good to have a regular face back in the house.

Last week I had VIP training with Theng, he worked me pretty hard - instead of starting with shadow boxing and bag work we just went straight into the ring for round after round of punishment!!  Although a lot of people of the gym don’t believe it, Theng is actually really good fun and always joking around.  We never did any sparring, just padwork as this would work on my fitness, he also concentrated a lot on my boxing which has improved immensely in this 1 week of training.  I missed Friday’s lesson because I had a stomach bug which kept me glued to the porcelain :-) and I couldn’t eat anything until Saturday evening!  So even though I managed to get to training on Saturday I could only manage 20 minutes before telling him I hadn’t eaten so had already run out of steam,  so at this point he said he would show me some technique - we were doing elbows I haven’t seen anyone at gym practice, these elbows are VERY dangerous!!  My favourite one is where they go to do a left body kick, you then turn sideways and open yourself up to the kick but quickly sliding towards them on your left foot and planting an elbow straight up under their chin.  Like all the moves I have been taught (and remembered) I have written down in my notebook.

At the weekend I didn’t really do a lot, mainly down to being ill - this has now spread as the two Germans got the same problem, but they got it from eaten copious amounts of chicken from one of the street vendors!  I nearly went out Saturday night for a few drinks but decided it would be best to stay in and rest some more and to take it easy on my wallet for a weekend.  I had spent all of Friday in bed, and most of Saturday apart from VIP training so on Sunday finally managed to force myself to the gym to do some weights before finally setting off for Naiharn beach with Jason (the Scottish 1).  In the evening I went down Freedom on my tod to watch the Man Utd cup final (result!) and fortunately bumped into the 2 English lads Tony and Dave who I’ll be joining over on Koh Pangnan for the Full Moon Party.  Meeting these 2 last night leads me on to the next story…

…Scooters.  OK everyone says ‘oh you need to get a scooter to get anywhere blah blah blah’ but I’ve managed just fine on my mountain bike so far, and if we are going out in a group it’s either a taxi (to Patong) or there’s enough scooters to carry everyone.  Most afternoons when Jason wakes up he’ll tell me about what him and the Aussie boys (Chris and Danny, nutcases!!) were up to the night before, this would usually mean going about on the scooters to either Patong or Kata or anywhere inbetween and end up riding drunk coming back.  That’s not a bad thing over here, everyone’s done it and will carry on but it’s when these guys are saying they are going flat out (Aussie boys are nuts so this is 100% true) and it’s like the TT race through the jungle roads.  Anyway suffice to say if I had a scooter I would no doubt be joining them on the drunk escapades to neighbouring towns.  Sometimes they would fall asleep on the bike (Danny, Dave) and just fall off hahaha or worse they could come off at speed and into a ditch..A la Tony the other night.  He went into a ditch but because it was at night time poor Dave thought he had gone over a cliff and started crying LOL, anyway he called out for Tony and he replied, he had rolled down an embankment and cut his ankle, they were pretty drunk so they went to a pharmacy to patch it up and went back out (to Kata beach).  Later on they eventually went to the hospital because of the huge amounts of blood everywhere, Tony needed 5 stitches for his ankle.  On the way back from the hospital Dave fell off his scooter not once but twice!  Both times for falling asleep haha, the second time he scraped off a lot of skin from his arm and side and has cracked a rib too.

Anyway enough about Scooters, the Full Moon Party is next Tuesday (10th) on Koh Pangnan, to get there I need to fly from Phuket to Koh Samui, then get a ferry from there to Pangnan where I’ll be meeting up with Kev, I’m not sure if the other guy Jason is up for coming but it sounds like his sort of thing.  Also Tony and Dave are waiting on Dave to get a replacement bank card sent out this week before they head to Phi Phi island before eventually getting across to Pangnan for the party.  Kev had said he is staying at a place called Coral Bungalows which is £10 a night and has a gym and pool to use and there’s a Muay Thai gym called Jungle Gym not too far away either, so instead of me going over for the party, then back to Rawai, then on to Bangkok for the weekend I’m just gonna stay with Kev on Pangnan for an extra couple of days and then head to Bangkok for an extra couple of days too.  This works out well because I’m trying to get some custom muay thai shorts made and they do this in Bangkok but not sure how fast they make them!

So finally this week I’ll be going to the gym as often as possible (probably not much) before leaving the island on Friday, there could well be a blog update before then though especially if things change!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Another night in Patong

February 24th, 2009

On Saturday night Faith had organised to go out with Pippen and her friends into Patong while Jason and ze Germans said they’d go too, I wasn’t overly up for it as I just wanted to get drunk at Freedom so I decided to go and just get a taxi back a bit earlier.  We jumped on the back of a pick-up truck to head into town which was pretty cool in itself, I’d say Patong is about 20-25 mins drive away, the ‘taxi’ only cost us £1 each :)

In Patong I went with Kirst to sort out her tailored clothes whilst everyone else went straight to the bars, during the walk I managed to get my haggling skills up to par and bought a few bits, mainly some muay thai sorts for £5 (rather than £18 but they’re much lesser quality but that hardly matters as long as they don’t fall apart!) and got an Osama Bin Laden mask for £4 too which was the highlight of my night haha that was loads of fun with that on.  I had a look at some of the fake Rolex’s too which would cost about £30 so think I will wait till Bangkok to get some of those!  Along with the mobile cooking stalls, e.g. pancakes, skewers and waffles there are mobile beer sellers!  These are good because beers in Patong are 100-120 Baht but these mobile guys were selling them for 50 Baht (same as Freedom back in Rawai) so we had a couple of these to get the ball rolling!  In the meantime I bought some more Muay Thai shorts for 200 Baht (really good haggling which I was pleased with) which are a thin nylon but they’re shorter so are less restrictive than my proper shorts when I’m kicking, and they match the colour of my gloves (although tempting to get some camoflage gloves too).

Anyway after some shopping we headed straight to the bar where everyone else was, I reckon there was at least 12 of us out that night it was great!  We only stayed in the 1st bar for one drink, a Chang was 100 Baht from what I remember before we moved on to a small side street that was literally rammed full of small bars.  The first place we went to had a game where you hammer nails into a log, 1 handed with 1 shot per person, so the games would last a while.  I didn’t play just got a few photos of the game whilst knocking back some Sangsom Red Bull which was 80 Baht in here.  In Thaildn the smaller bars (e.g. this place, Freedom and the other bar we go to in Patong) are generous by giving out a few rounds of free shots if you stay a while and are in a big group.  When we left this bar most of the group moved on to a nightclub, but the ones interested in drinking stayed in the side street and moved to another bar from memory I think Nick and ze Germans was with us for a bit before leaving for the nightclub, then there was myself, Kirst, Faith and Jason.  They even had the Man Utd game here so I was well chuffed, although not so chuffed when I kept getting notes from a Thai bird sitting opposite me!  We got smashed in here, 60 Baht for a Sangsom Red Bull and again some free shots, they also had a pole in the middle behind the counter which you would climb to write your name on the ceiling, the first 2 guys to have a go couldn’t get up there so I was worried I’d look just as bad but fortunately got up the top, it was just hard to stay there to write my name!!   So much for coming back to Freedom bar, from what I vaguely remember it was about 3am when we got back and a massive water fight broke out….

Sunday was pretty much a write off which was a pain because in Patong we arranged for 3 of us to go to Phi Phi Island for the day - we were to be picked up at 8am from down the road, none of woke up until 10:30 (Jason didn’t even come back to the bungalow!), I wasn’t hungover but had no energy to barely move so couldn’t really do a lot.  I managed to force myself to the gym though to keep with the 500 situp routine but wasn’t able to force myself to do many weights like I normally try to do on a Sunday.  Due to laziness I found myself eating all 3 meals today in Archee’s restaraunt which is the place over the road, but after adding it all up this only cost me £6 so not all bad!! 

I’m doing my best to get my fitness up at the moment so went to the gym early, and also arranged to start VIP this week with Theng at 2.30 so I have a small window of recovery until afternoon training starts, but this turns out to be harder than I thought.  There was the MOST people I’ve EVER seen at the gym today, it was an absolute joke!  I went on the bags for 5 rounds then went and did some situps and weights, I arranged to do 5 rounds with Buoy which was the hardest thing I’ve done whilst I’ve been here, felt great when I finally got home though to have trained so hard.  I had some take photos of my doing the training, I set the camera to high burst and in the first 3 rounds they took nearly 700 photos, but amazingly I went through them this morning and only managed to get 3 decent photos, but still that’s 3 more than I’ve got!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Fight Night

February 21st, 2009

I always think I need to sit down and write my blog because I’ve got something to write about, but when I finally get the chance I forget most of the things I want to mention!

Roommate update: Jason left the bungalow on Thursday for a week because he’s gone to Bangkok, his replacement is a Scottish guy called Jason (2), by the time he gets back from Bangkok Kirst should have left so he’ll hopefully come back into our bungalow.

I’ve been training pretty hard this week now there’s other people in my room that go to morning training I’ve got extra help getting up on a morning!  It’s getting close to crunch time on deciding whether or not to fight, I’m training hard for the next 2 weeks to see where I can get my fitness as this is key to having a good fight experience or not (win or lose).  After this time I will have just enough time I think to get a fight but it’s no real loss if I don’t fight, it’s not like it will complete my Thailand experience as everything here has been amazing anyway.  I hyperextended my toes on my right foot in VIP the other week so am having to hold back on my kicks at the moment, I’m having the weekend off from Muay Thai (still do weights tho) and hopefully have it much better on Monday when I hope to start VIP with Theng.  Also, along with the mandatory 150 sitsup per session I’m forcing myself to do 500 situps for a week and hopefully continue doing so for the rest of the trip!

Last night (Friday) I went to my first Muay Thai fight night, I decided to finally go to one because Dado is a genuine bloke and is a professional fighter so I knew it would be a decent fight, it also happened to be for the World Muay Thai Federation 170lb belt.  During the day I managed to convince Faith, Kirst and Adrian to come along too, you pay for the ticket (£20!! rip off) at the gym who give you a receipt which you give in at the gate of Bangla Stadium (or wherever the fight is), if you wear a Rawai vest or t-shirt you get in the minibus for free which is a bonus.  Bangla has recently moved into ‘new premises’ but it was pretty crap, there were domestic leather chairs for VIP tickets (£40!), soft stools for about £25 and then we were sat in the bleachers, but this wasn’t too bad as we were quite high up (it was only 5 rows up, it was a small ’stadium’ it maybe held 200 people!) so it was good for photos and videos.
The fights started with two 8yr olds who would really entertaining although a bit weird watching small children fight in the exact same way an adult would (e.g. no protection).  In total there was probably about 8 fights, two title fights and probably 3 thai vs thai fights as the rest were thai vs western or western vs western.  Adrian and I stuck 1000 Baht (£20) each on Dado to win with the help of our trainer Fin who was near the bookies at the time, thanks to the 4th round TKO victory (leg kicks) we doubled our money, result!  After the fights we had a walk round Patong trying to find some shops open but most had closed as it had just gone midnight.  We found a travel agent that would take us to Phi Phi island for £24 which isn’t too bad (didn’t book it but might do so tonight if we head back that way).  We managed to haggle a Tuk Tuk down to 500 Baht to get us back to Rawai (probably 20 mins drive or so) which was good, but after taking a few photos from the taxi I decided to go through the photo album, only to find most of the pictures and videos I had taken that night were gone!  The SD card could show me the pictures before last night and knew there were photos of the fights etc but they were all coming up as a blank screen, this got me in a bad mood because I had video’d a lot of the fights and took tonnes of pictures through the night which isn’t something I usually do (have to start making the effort because of hardly any photos so far).  When we got back I got the Tuk Tuk to drop me off at Freedom bar so I could down my sorrows before closing, then when I got back home I put the card into the laptop to see if I can salvage anything, nope nothing!  I woke up early this morning still pissed off so searched on the net for a solution, I was able to acquire some software that magically recovered all my lost images and videos which was amazing!  Can’t believe I’ve never come across this sort of thing before, anyway I copied them onto the laptop ASAP and then binned the SD card, I had packed a few just in case anyway.

This morning me and Kirst went to Promthep Cape which is sign posted over the road from where we’re staying, took at least 20 mins to get there and it was already boiling by this point (9am).  It’s a tourist area with coach loads always go up there, it’s pretty high up so good for a few photos, there’s also a string of shops but they all sell the same stuff!  I ended up taking about 60 photos up here, we jumped the tourist wall and walked through a mini jungle, climbing down rocks before eventually getting to what could be the most southern point of Phuket - I was so far out I was able to take a photo of Nai Harn beach front on!  Got quite a few good pics here, it took us about 10 minutes just to walk/climb to the end of the point.  Back at the shops got a few gifts and a Chang vest just for me before we headed back via Yanui beach, as soon as I got back I took the photos off the camera just in case this memory card decides to break too.

Here’s a pic of me and Dado before we left the gym on Friday night:

And a pic of me and Jason (far right) before he left on Thursday:

 

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Bank episode

February 18th, 2009

A couple of things to write about to today, but I’m going to start with another cock up at the bank!  I had no money after leaving training this morning (no VIP sessions this week so have to get up for bloody morning training!) so I went to the 7-11 store to get some money and a few bits.  I asked for quick cash 1,500 to which it replied ‘the transaction has been cancelled by your bank’ - great this is the second time!!  Fortunately Jason has a thai sim in his phone and also a phone card I could use to contact the bank (the phone card is loads better than the one I usually get, he has about 40 minutes to use on a landline!).  So for whatever reason the bank cocked up but after the phone call the card was working again.

I’m still taking the antibiotics for the strange lumps I have under the skin on my throat, the sore throat has gone and everything has returned to normal size again so I went back to training after just having Monday off.  The lumps are still there though so will stay on the antibiotics until I run (only 2 or 3 left).

Today I spoke to a guy at the gym who is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Blackbelt (a tough task, usually taking at least 8 years training to gain), wasn’t too much in the conversation but I bumped into him at the beach at lunchtime along with his mate who is also a BJJ blackbelt.  This guy Dado is fighting in Patong on Friday night, and I haven’t been to a fight night yet so will be checking this out.  Amazingly this guy has been doing Muay Thai for 15 years and is a Brazilian Champion in his weight class, on the other hand the other Brazilian is a lawyer!

The German guys are actually really sound, I didn’t doubt it but it’s like a tradition that Brits and Germans don’t get along.  Their English is really good as well so it’s not a problem having a conversation with them.

Here’s a pic of me with Ot (my VIP trainer) - he’s messing around tucking his vest into the shorts just to show off the shorts, this is because my friend Craig who came here last year bought him the shorts, so this one’s for you mate! (Sheer comedy, also bad photographer (Scottish, no offence Kev!))

P.s.  300+ situps a day will do that for anyone!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Thailand | No Comments »

Sunday afternoon

February 15th, 2009

Not a lot to say really, just a quick update…a guy called Jason is staying for a week in our bungalow, he’s from Oz (just like everyone else in here!!).  Didn’t drink on Friday night which is a first - was pretty knackered, have been training a lot this week (not necessarily muay thai but still out for a cycle and weights etc).  After doing VIP on Saturday morning I went and chilled at Yanui beach for a few hours listening to my MP3 player just to work on the tan!!
I went out for dinner with Jason and a few other people from the gym who I’ve seen around, everyone had fried fish except me!  I had stuck with the trusty prawn omelette and rice mixed with vegetables, anyways eventually went to Freedom bar later on and met up with a few people from the gym and the English lads (Tony and Dave), suprisingly I didn’t drink to much instead just stayed sober enough to appreciate the quality Thai band that’s on every weekend at Freedom.  Towards the end of Freedom we left to stock up on Sangsom and Chang from 7-11 to head over to the beach party at Nai Harn, on the way there we stopped off at the bungalow next to mine for a beer or 2 before heading - we were here for about half an hour I think and by the time everyone went to move on I just couldn’t resist going to bed as it was right there, wasn’t feeling 100% to be honest….

….I woke up this morning with a bit of a sore throat, after a feel around my neck I’ve found quite a few lumps - slightly worrying!  My neck is puffed out a bit and my was face a little bit but has gone down now.  Eventually found the energy to go to the pharmacy (halfway to the gym) to get some antibiotics then treated myself to an oil massage - not sure what all the bloody fuss is about! cost about £6 for an hour which is obviously cheap compared to home but it’s not like I felt extra relaxed or anything, maybe cause of the fact I’m ill who knows.  The antibiotics are called Millimed Celex-500.

It’s the middle of the afternoon now, was thinking of going to the beach but can’t really be bothered I can’t be arsed to do anything really.  Annoyed as Sunday is my best chance of doing weights properly as I haven’t done training for 2 hours before hand!  I’ll see how I feel in the morning but it looks like chances are I’ll be missing training, fortunately I forgot to pay for more VIP this week so I saved myself any hassle (I don’t think the gym are too appreciative for refunds for 1 or 2 days missed in VIP, although to be fair when I bought my muay thai shorts in the morning I had no money and they let me take them home to make sure the fit and just had pay in the afternoon, also they let me swap a vest I bought as the original one was too big (XL))

Kirst is already moving out of my room, basically Cameron still has a key to our room even though he isn’t paying to stay here (Pippen who works here, really nice person is letting him leave his stuff in our room) and she doesn’t feel comfortable with that so is moving out tomorrow.  This evening I have a new person coming in and then tomorrow Kirst’s replacement is coming.  This annoys me 2 reasons, Kirst is really nice and so I might end up with someone really annoying as a replacement, also the room is barely big enough for 2 people let alone 3!  Update: turns out it is 2 German guys here for 4 weeks, 1 has moved in tonight and the other will move in tomorrow.  Joy.

Without going to the party last night I am left with a carrier bag with a few Changs, some Red Bull and a bottle of Sangsom…hmmm…..

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Thailand | No Comments »

Time for a change

February 12th, 2009

No, I’m not going anywhere - everyone else seems to be!  Unfortunately for Kevin, it appears he may have torn his calf muscle as it happened 10 days and there has only been a minor recovery in walking with a slight limp, so that and his hamstring injury has left him with no choice but to leave Rawai.  He has a friend who he travelled New Zealand with in Thailand so will be meeting with him tomorrow, I think on the island Ko Samui - he’ll be leaving tomorrow.  Bob, the English guy who moved in last week is only here a for week as he has been travelling Thailand and is just waiting for his girlfriend to get here, which is also tomorrow when he’ll be going to Phuket airport with Kevin.  All is not lost though, Kevin’s flight is only a day after mine so I will be meeting with him in Bangkok 3 days before my flight to go around the City together.  Also, Bob runs a pub which is only 40 minutes from Cheltenham so whenever I go to stay with Rich I can go there as well.
On Tuesday morning, Sonya left for Chang Mai to learn the Thai language - I think she plans to stay there inevitably!  And I think I mentioned earlier that Cameron moved out a while ago to a nice house up near Chalong Circle.  So this leaves me with Faith (Oz girl who moved in end of last week, here for 3 weeks) and Kirst (also from Oz) who moved into my room on Monday night, she’s here for 3 weeks and is currently on the detox program before starting training next week.  This means unless I see Cameron and a few of the other guys out and about it means I’m without drinking buddies, so I might be able to attend Saturday training for once!…

…Or not, as today in VIP training I damaged my right foot, which feels similar to the injury that kept from playing football for nearly 3 months last winter.  I was just doing normal padword with Ot when I did a left kick, my standing foot felt a bit funny but didn’t think anything of it until I was asked to do a right kick - as soon as I landed the kick I nearly fell over in pain and stopped the round.  I carried on training but with no kicks so it was pretty crap, I skipped afternoon training to stay off the foot and will see how it is at VIP training tomorrow morning, hopefully it’s not that bad!  Really disappointed as I felt my game was finally coming together and really enjoyed sparring as I was finally linking decent combos and basically put up a good match with the trainers (clearly not going their best but still feels a lot better than the first 20 times I did sparring!).  Talking of trainers I managed to injure Deng (trainer in ring 2 with Fhad and Joy), I’ve never had him before during padwork so was a bit excited to see another style (each trainer does different combos and favoured techniques), he showed me a move where I would his side kick, give him a left knee then kick his standing leg out from under him with my left foot - unfortunately for him he landed straight on his shoulder and that was that…I felt bad as it was my first time with him so God knows what he thinks of me, also thought I might have taken a shot or 2 as a consequence!  It was OK though, Fin the training co-ordinator just smiled when I told him what happened, and also Ot found it funny as well - the worst thing you can do here as a foreigner though is let a Thai lose face so for Deng it looks as though some foreigner has just got 1 over on him infront of the other trainers!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Thailand | 1 Comment »

Start of a new week

February 9th, 2009

OK so Friday night was a total write off..I was drinking Chang beer (£1 a bottle 6.4%) for most of the night before eventually changing over to the great Sangsom and Red Bull, in all honestly I don’t remember anything of the night after this point and there was still about 2 hours until I actually got home.  Fortunately Cameron wasn’t drinking so I got a lift back with him, this guy goes as fast as he can on his scooter and I was so drunk that I didn’t even take notice of how fast we were going!  I think we spent a lot of the night near the pool tables playing every now and again, the live band is on Friday and Saturday so there was that in the background, the pool tables are just round the corner so you can still hear the music but it’s not too loud.  I think the only part of the night I can remember was playing pool at around half 12 against an English guy and as I moved round the table I had to keep grabbing hold of it to stay standing up, this was so funny though because I managed to beat him several times whilst he was stone cold sober, much to the amusement of his girlfriend!
Before going out we went to Yanui Corner for some dinner as this place has a lot of meat on the menu, a mixed grille would set you back £7 here.  The waitress isn’t too good with her English (I think more Germans go here),  there was a bit of confusion when Cameron asked for a Duck Fillet, and she replied Duck Salad, Kevin then corrected her for the Fillet and that was that.  When the food came out Cameron had a Duck Salad but he didn’t mind, but just as we were finishing up the chef came out with the Duck Fillet, we said no there was a misunderstanding but he didn’t take too well to it, some Germans he knew that had arrived in a large group had it as a starter!  Anyway, don’t think we’ll be going back there any time soon.

Saturday was quite funny as I woke up drunk, managed to cycle to the Gym for my VIP lesson to which all I had to say to my trainer was ‘Sangsom’ and he knew what I meant!!  I did 5 rounds on the bag with him then did clinching for the rest of the lesson, I took my notebook with me to write stuff down as I knew I’d forget before getting back home, unfortunately I forgot before the lesson actually finished. I was exhausted by this point so just hung around the gym for a bit doing sit-ups and took a few photos.  The afternoon was pretty much a write off until we went out for some food in the evening.  I remember the other Saturday we went to a place called ‘Maneo’ that did a buffet for £6 so we headed there, this time though there was a few dishes missing from the selection…and we also arrived there a while after serving the food, this was bad because last time we got there at 7pm when it opened and left before 8pm - this is when their Ladyboy Cabaret started!  I’ve heard these are actually quite entertaining but this particular one was crap and also we had just finished eating so didn’t really seem like a good time to watch the show.  I took a few snaps when they went and sat of Kevin’s lap haha!


We had just asked for the bill when 1 came over to me and grabbed my wrist to go up to the front! Sod that no chance in hell was I going up there (Faith has a photo I will try to get off her, I have a look of sheer panic - like I’m going to die or something!), especially after stuffing my face in a buffet ( :-) ) they had a bloody strong grip though (obviously!).  So they went and got another victim, some German guy looked in his late 20’s quite a large build,  they took his top of and kissed his chest and stuff - clearly saved myself some embarassment.  To be honest, I couldn’t get out of there quick enough, me and Bob ended up just slying away out the back to get away from it all!
Didn’t really drink too much at Freedom Bar, we were all a little fragile from the night before!  We headed home after a few beers to watch the Portsmouth v Liverpool match, unfortunately the once mighty Pompey threw the lead away twice!

Sunday was a much better day for me, this was probably the first Sunday where I didn’t had a slight hangover so I managed to get to the gym quite early (for a Sunday!) and managed to get a good workout on the weights.  Afterwards I went to Yanui beach to get top up on the tan and to chill out as I was exhausted.  This was probably one of our last nights together (myself, Kevin, Bob, Sonya and Faith) so we went to M&M pizza place on Rawai beach.  I had a Ciccia pizza (sausage and spinach) and it was awesome, but all the pizzas I’ve had here have been amazing!  Danny the gym owner came by to pick up a takeaway and took a quick shot of us (lens is dirty):

..Anyway, I started VIP again this week with Ot.  He has been working with me on my techique and grappling and I felt we were getting somewhere last week so thought it would be best for me to with him again for another week.    Grappling/clinching is definately the weakest area of my game when I got here and especially until I started VIP, after training today Ot said he will keeping an eye on me this afternoon (Monday and Tuesday are grappling days) telling me it should be much easier than when I’ve done it before, so fingers crossed I annihilate everyone at training today, hah!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Thailand | 1 Comment »

Just over a month now..

February 5th, 2009

As of tomorrow I will have been here for a month now, training and accomodation will need renewing.

OK so this week has been a little different but still nothing too exciting, I’ve been looking for a new place to stay, basically anywhere decent with a swimming pool - unfortunately haven’t found anywhere reasonable or found anyone else to share with.  At the moment me and Kevin have been trying to find a 2 bedroom villa with pool, for about £250 a month each but there’s nothing there (we have been riding around on the scooter trying to find somewhere to haggle for), I found a house on the internet but it was 4 bedroom, just for the 2 of us it would cost £400 a month (bear in mind I’m only paying £100 a month now). I would be willing stretch a bit more if we could find a third person but unfortunately it’s not been the case.  So I’ve got a decision to make, whether to pay for another week or another month where I’m currently staying.

The 2 English lads that were staying here for a few days have moved on to their new place now, which is right next to the gym they train at.  After going out on the lash with them it turns out that originally planned to go to Rawai however Danny, the gym owner, messed them around with their accomodation where I’m staying and generally wasn’t all that friendly, so they didn’t even check out the gym they just went to the next closest place which is fair enough as it sounds (and looks) quite good.  Since they’ve gone, another English guy has moved in for 1 week, and last night a girl from Australia moved in for a month or two.

On Monday I started VIP training, with is 1 on 1 with any trainer I want for a week, I chose a guy called Ot as he seems very friendly and technique based with his training.  Since then I’ve learned a whole lot more than during group training, everything I can remember afterwards I write down as there’s a lot to remember, especially when I’m knackered and he’s still showing me stuff.  I’ve had 4 lessons with him and will probably go with him again next week.  I have the lesson at 10am, so I miss morning training entirely then rest before going back for afternoon training, so I’m able to go to 12 training sessions this week!

Monday was the day I started the VIP, on the evening we went out to get some food which happened to be near the cash point - for some reason the transactions were being cancelled by my bank, it was about 8.30pm when this happened.  I spent £10 on phonecards and couldn’t really get an explanation as to why it was cancelled, I had to speak to 2 different Indians - the second one said he would have my card reactivated by the morning.  Tuesday morning came and I had enough of my crappy mountain bike so swapped to a newer one which is so much easier and less stressful to ride to the gym it’s unbelievable!  On the way to the gym I checked the cashpoint and was able to get money out, phew what a relief!
I mentioned changing bikes because there was a minor incident on the way back and had I been on my original bike then I would’ve most probably found myself in hospital.
The main road here is 2 lanes each side with people riding/driving all over the place, there are no designated paths just a solid white line at the edge of the road with a gap of about 6′6 until the grass/dust/ditch - here you find a lot of scooters going the wrong way until they find a gap in traffic to get across to their lane (Thais drive on the same side of the road as UK).  I always ride next to this sold white line, at the time there was a coach infront of me indicating right for quite a while, I wasn’t sure to overtake so just left it be but eventually it started to slow down, as I went to overtake he changed his indicator to left, so I just pulled out to overtake - but for some reason he changed back to his right indicator and started moving for the outside lane!   ‘Right’ I thought, sod this I’m just going to undertake, so I went for it - just for a 4×4 to come into sight going up the ‘path’ area - I put my back brake on and found myself doing a skid like a speedway bike going round a corner.  I thought I was going to end up going under the wheels of the car, but fortunately managed to shift my weight enough to bring the bike back up and straighten up to skid through the gap of the 4×4 and the coach!! It was totally mental, afterwards I realised I could’ve easily high-sided the bike and gone straight into the windscreen of the 4×4!  I got off shortly afterwards and was having a right laugh at it!!!

Anyway, it’s Friday today, I’ve done VIP and just about to get something to eat, then I head back to the gym for afternoon training then get on the 6.4% Chang Beer in the evening…

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Thailand | No Comments »

A real Thai experience

January 30th, 2009

I said there was going to be a quick update!  OK firstly I want to quickly show what £5 will you get in the local 7-11 store:

Back at the gym, Kev has been doing VIP work with a trainer named Pom.  Apparently he has only been at the gym for a month or so, he is very technique orientated and seems like a nice guy.  His brother owns a gym over on the Full Moon Party island, turns out that his brother was the Lumpinee champion 3 years in a row at Featherweight, which is basically the world champion, suffice to say this guy is also pretty good.  Anyway, yesterday Pom invited Kev back to his apartment and eventually invited Kev to the Chalong Market that night (Friday).  So after going to beach and getting something to eat we headed up the road, probably 10 minutes by scooter (we went passed the Tesco store) and met up with Pom and his girlfriend who eventually led us into the market.
The market is massive, there were times where we had no clue on how to get out of the place!  Apparently it is held once a month for 2 or 3 days, it was so busy that it seemed as though is was once every few months, it was rammed walking through ’streets’ looking at all the stalls, it had a bit of a carnival/festival feeling to it - there were plenty of games to play (which we did!) and also PLENTY of places to choose to eat, for example we sat and had rice and chicken along with squid soup which ended up costing us £1 each!
But the reason this is titled ‘a Thai experience’ is because I’d say there was only 2% farang (pronounced falong - a term for westerners) we were in an extreme minority, EVERYONE was Thai here.  It helped that we went with a Thai as there is always a Thai price and a Farang price, for example I was trying to buy a watch (at last), I was getting prices from 300 - 800 Baht, but eventually I gave in and asked Pom to ask for a watch which I got 120 Baht, a little over £2 for a digital watch!
We were in the market for about 3 hours, there was loads of clothes, a converse hoody was about £6, t-shirts were £3.50 - unfortunately I didn’t go with too much money (and this is definately a place to go with small notes to haggle with), I think about £20 so I spent most of it buying food ( :-) ) getting a few gifts and playing on some of the basic but extremely fun games.  There was one game that was you would get 8 darts and you had to pop 8 balloons, it was the easiest game in the world to get a prize but the Thais don’t play darts so they weren’t all so good and was more down to luck than accuracy. Another game was with an air rifle and bottletops to win a better prize but I’m sure my gun had a dodgey aim!!  We travelled through a few of the Buddhist temples that the market is based around, in the 10 minutes we waited outside one of them at least 50 people passed through to pray and light candles.  It was strange not seeing any other foreigners in there, from memory I saw about 20 others, and possible a few thousand Thai.  We might be going back this evening as Kev didn’t have too much money either (to be honest we didn’t really know what to expect, we’ve been to a couple of markets but weren’t aware this was only monthly).

After leaving Pom we headed back to Rawai to go to Freedom Bar to have a few drinks, on the way we stopped off at Camerons new house (he was in my bungalow from the beginning and also came to the market with us).  It is a 5 bedroom house that is 35,000 Baht a month to rent, about £140 a month per person.  All rooms but 1 have an en suite, each room has a massive TV, there is 2 washing machines and fully fitted kitchen.  The lounge has a big dining table, leathers seats and a big screen TV with surround sound.  Out the back there is a decent sized pool with sunloungers and the whole place has metal railings round the edge, and an electric front gate.  I was pretty jealous as this is only £40 a month more than I’m paying!!
My rent runs out next Sunday and Kev’s on Friday so I think today we may be going round trying to find somewhere else to stay, because Cameron’s place isn’t a one off, there are loads with pools and kitchens + washing machines for the same as I’m paying.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Thailand | No Comments »

« Older Entries