Pattaya

We arrived to Pattaya yesterday and it’s a huge difference for us. We feel like kings being here. Fairtex in Pattaya is very luxurious compared with what we are used to. We both walk around with a big smile on our faces enjoying all the small things you’ve been missing. For example air condition, tv on the room, hotel like breakfast, big swimmingpool and a lot of other facilities. Yesterday we had proper pasta for the first time since we arrived in Thailand. It was delicious. We took a quick tour in the neighbourhood yesterday and we we’re appreciated by the locals. They were very friendly to us calling us very handsome and stuff like that =). A lots o bars and massage places in the neighbourhood. Anyway I’m gonna bring my camera on the next walkabout in the camp so you can see some pictures from it.

I also want to take the opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Best to do this now since I apparently suck at updating this page. Miss you guys!

Training update

I increased my efforts to a new level here at fairtex now. I added an evening session as well where I do some cardio and weightlifting. Also I switched the normal running to intervals. I can feel a big difference by doing intervals. I think I’ll be dropping quite fast in weight now atleast it seems that way just judging from the last couple of days.

We bought Monopoly to the camp here so during evenings people change from Muay Thai fighters to businessmen. A lot of haggling and dirty business going on during the games. It’s fun with some new entertainment. Me and Nicklas also changed plans about Pattaya so we will go there for 10 days over Christmas and new years eve instead of the 4 weeks we first planned. The decision was primarily due to a lot of hearsay about that the training is better here. It’s also cheaper so there’s really no reason to stay longer. We just doing it for a change of scenary and a change in training.

I hope the weather isn’t to bad for you guys in Sweden, I’ll probably spend christmas by the pool =). Time really flies here and it’s only like 7 or 8 weeks to go. I can definitely recommend all of you doing this adventure, it’s been really good for me atleast. I’m totally relaxed here and I wouldn’t mind doing the whole thing over again in a year or two. Any takers? =)

Pool party and visa run

This Saturday we had a pool party here at camp to celebrate a bunch of Americans last weekend here. A very nice bunch of people who are here with their trainer to see King’s Cup and train. It started out with three people sitting by the pool with a bunch of beer and then expanded to about 15 people and more beer. We all got a bit tipsy and had great fun. It’s kind of a strange feeling sitting there with some of Thailand’s best Muay Thai fighters drinking beer. Kaew Fairtex for example was there the day after a tournament with the 8 best fighters in Thailand. His legs were totally ruined but he didn’t complain.

On Monday it was time for our visa run. We called this german dude who arranged these things for1900 baht including car to Cambodia, water, food and some administrative help. It all went very smoothly and I got to see part of a new country for me. You could quite easily tell that Cambodia is a poor country even compared to Thailand. A lot of begging children are hanging close to the people coming here for the visa runs. Me, Nicklas and a danish guy got a car of our own. The other 20 or so shared to 10 seat vans.

It all started with us waking up a bit later than expected. After that we prepared and went to get the danish guy who were still asleep so we waited for him as well. Then we went down to the main road to get a taxi but not a single free taxi passed for like 10 minutes. Luckily for us the traffic weren’t as jammed as it use to be at on nut so we got there just a little bit late. I guess approximately 15-20 minutes late before we found the german and the rest of the guys. His meeting description was not crystal clear once we got there. Anyway we were in time to join the caravan and we got to finish our papers at the border instead of in Thailand as first planned.

We got into our car and drove for like 2 hours before we had a 15 minute stop at some gas station. Just enough time to stretch our legs, go to the bathroom and devour an ice cream. We then continued for another 2 hours before we got to the border. Once there we went to some counter with a visa/passport guy who told us to go to another counter called “Overstay”. Apparently due to some Thai mathematics we were 1 day late for the visa renewal which cost us 500 baht each. We then walked over to the Cambodia side where we were directed to a casino for some free food and drink.

When the food was done we check the tax free zone where they sold a box of cigarettes (10  packages) for 150 baht. That’s 15 baht/package (3 kr/package). Oh and she even tossed in a fancy lighter in this price with a flashlight and stuff. I just had to buy a box for my trainer. After this we went home and the driver actually took us all the way home to camp. I think we were home like 17.30. I can recommend using this service if you need to renew your visa here sometime. It all went very smoothly and the german guy helped us get what we needed. Now I’m allowed to stay in Thailand for another 2 months.

Another one going home

When you start knowing people here it gets pretty sad when they have to go back home again. Yesterday it was Andrew’s and Scott’s turn. Scott is a Scottish lad who been here for a couple of weeks. Really nice and funny guy. He left pretty early on the day back to Scotland. Andrew is an Australian guy who have been here for like a month and that we’ve gotten to know quite well during this time. A great guy and we went to the local pub Mellows for a couple of hours of farewell party since he was leaving pretty late. I took some pictures from the event and found one from the suit place as well before batteries went dead which I put last.

Martin from Gothenburg to the left and Andrew from Australia on the right.

A bunch of fairtex students saying goodbye to Andrew.

Another groupphoto from left to right:  Anthony (Eng), “The General” (Trainer), Nicklas, Vladimir (USA).

At the suit place. Grand Fashion International in Bangkok. We’ve just gotten free coffee, water, beer or whatever and waiting for them to bring up our suits for fitting.

Suits

Since I last wrote I ordered 2 tailor made suits of the highest quality here in Bangkok. For two suits and 4 shirts I’m paying 36000 baht (7200 kr). It’s one black and one dark gray suit that are being sewn from Armani models. The shirts are double cuffed with my initials written on the cuffs. Today was my first fitting and we corrected a few things. The suits is just in pieces so far. I thought I’d be a good boy and bring my camera for this event but of course after one picture in an escalator of the ones who joined me the batteries went dead and right now I’m reloading the batteries. I guess I’ll have to bring the camera for the second fitting which is December, 16th.

We were five people there. Me, Nicklas whose dark blue top quality suit is finished already since he ordered it long before me (he also have 2 extra pants and 3 shirts), Martin (from Gothenburg) who made some last changes on his top quality brown suit, Vladimir (USA) who purchased his first suit ever and choose a medium quality gray suit which looks great as well and Anthony (England) who joined for some taste advice.

After the fitting we just had to pull a prank on the jewelery ladies next door. As a background we went there a couple of days ago and they claimed that all jewelery was the real deal and still they sold the diamond ring for only 1500 baht (300 kr).

- Vely cheap, student plice! (they said)

- But it’s plastic (we said)

- No, no, plastic. You think you smart!

This time however we since Nicklas and Martin wasn’t with us the last time we claimed that Martin was a jewelery expert from Sweden who we brought to authenticate the jewelery before out buy. He actually played his roll so well that we he got them to admit it was fake stuff. This is a part of the long conversation.

- Vely nice ling for mothel (Thai lady)

- Let me see it (Martin)

- How much? (Anthony)

- Only 800 Baht. Special student plice fol you. (Thai lady).

- But this is a fake. (Martin)

- Yes of coulse is fake. That why so cheap. Still cheapel then you countly. (Thai lady)

- Yeah, it’s cheaper cause it’s fake. (Martin)

After that they started shouting some Thai words to each other so we decided it was time for us to go.

Oh well I wish I had some pictures from the event but some higher power doesn’t want me to document this trip. I think I forgot to mention that I deleted 90% of my pictures by mistake.

Two weeks of serious weight loss in front of me

I talked to Tien here today he’s in charge of planning and stuff around here and I said that I was tired of changing trainer and also I wanted a special 2 week program to lose some fast weight. He told me that I should point out the trainer I want tomorrow and he would make sure that trainer would stay with me and also put me on a special program for 2 weeks that according to him will guarantee me a weight loss between 5-10 kilos. It looks something like this:

6.00 – running on empty stomach 60 mins. (drink some water or a Gatorade)

7.00 – stretching and then normal muay thai fighting with pads

8.00 – 10 minutes jumping stances on tires and 3*100 sit-ups

9.00 – light breakfast, just a small portion of rice, meat and vegetables.

Rest

12.00 – Lunch (Special ordered chicken or tuna salad)

Rest

14.30 – 30 minutes running

15.00 – stretching and then normal muay thai fighting with pads

16.00 – 10 minutes jumping stances on tires and 5*100 sit-ups

17.00 – special ordered lunch no carbs (chicken salad)

Rest

20.30 – I protein drink

22.00 – Sleep

I will be stubborn and do this for two weeks now and see if the 5-10 kilos loss is possible. I will weigh in tomorrow before training and report back Tuesday in two weeks or so. 

 I have to mention that the invasion of people here before the King’s Cup really starts to suck. Getting hold of a computer gets harder and harder, also watching tv and other things you do between sessions is getting harder. And I still think it’s about 20 people incoming (we are around 40-50 now I guess). Oh well I’ll just have to stick it out for two weeks and they will be gone.

The exploration day with temples and other exotic places we were supposed to have this Saturday is moved to next Saturday. We did however see Beowolf at the Imax this Sunday and it was a really nice experience. I was a bit worried about the 3D part but when the goggles were on and the movie started I was really impressed. All I can say is that it was really awesome with 3D and it literally adds another dimension to the movie. The movie itself was ok but with the 3D it was really enjoying.

 Yeah, yeah, no new pictures, sorry again. 

New trainer

Had a new fighting trainer today. Seem like he will train me for a while now. The good news is that he already lost both his front teeth so I don’t have to worry about hitting them out with a bad aimed punch. The bad news is that it kinda sucks switching trainer since the old one new what he learned me and what my strengths and weaknesses are. On the other hand they are all professionals so I guess they find out pretty fast.

The King’s Cup  team seem to be arriving tomorrow so I guess it will be very crowded here after all. Looking forward to this weekend when I get to view Beowolf in imax format. We were also talking about checking out some temples on Saturday and maybe something more exotic in the evening. We’ll see about that. I will write a report on it later. A short update without pictures but that was all I had energy for now after a hard training session, my fists are still shaking.

Update shortage

Hi again guys. I’m sorry that I’ve been slacking with updates lately. I just haven’t had the energy for it lately. I’m gonna try to get better at it again. Also I know I’m slacking with the pictures but you don’t really carry around the camera at the training and it’s a bit slow internet connection here so it’s takes a while uploading etc. I’m gonna try to summarize the last 2 weeks in this post and some other general reflections. There won’t be any pictures this time either though.

Ok what have we been doing besides training. We’ve been watching quite a few movies on the Sundays. We’ve seen Captivity (worthless), Stardust (ok), Kingdom (ok), Lion for Lambs (ok). The last one we saw on some royal theatre really, really big and fancy. Next weekend we will see Biowolf (3D) and Imax format.

We also located a few new places not to far from camp. One food place that looks like four open party tents and each tent serves different food. It’s just a couple minutes walk from camp. We tried steak slices with some sticky rice and it was real good, cost us 40 Baht (8 kr). Then we we’re taken to some club place called Mem Seedz by some girls when we were celebrating Nicklas birthday at the local bar Mellows. We had a few beer’s for once and was pretty tired the next morning. Nice place though. When it started raining they just raised a small tent over us so we wouldn’t get wet.

Injuries and hospital:

As you might have figures out already Muay Thai training comes with certain injury risks. I’m gonna mention the bigger things that happened during training while we’ve been here.

1> An Australian student makes a spinning elbow during sparring padwork and hits the trainer right in the temple leaving him unconscious for about 2 minutes. The reason was miscommunication.

2> A french guy doesn’t wrap his hands before sparring which splits his old fist injury open (some kind of titanic screw in the hand). He visits the hospital and then leaves for France prematurely.

3> A danish student knocks out his trainer during sparring with a punch to the jaw. The trainer suffers short term memory loss and a small bleeding to the brain (probably some old injury that re-emerged). He ends up in the hospital for a day or two.

4> An american guy fight a match. After resting from fighting for about a week after the match he starts kicking pads and gets some kind of shock reaction in his chins turning them all red and swollen. He gets medicated at the local hospital. His fifth visit btw since he came here 4 months ago. Spider bite, hair sack infection in shins and some other stuff.

And this is during training, fights are a bit harder. I’ve managed to keep it down to baby feet (have them again atm, blisters and cuts under the feet), groin injury, and the normal pains you walk around with daily. I’m back training full fighting again btw since my groin is better I just hope it holds. Now when my groin is ok I hit and kick with almost double power, feels great.

There were supped to come about 40 people here on Monday from USA and Canada to prepare for King’s Cup for two weeks which would make this place really crowded. None has arrived her yet though which we are real happy about since they would quadruple the population here. You can imagine having 60 people sharing 4 computers, 10-15 trainers, one small swimming pool, lunchroom build for 30 and living room build for 10.

Oh well that’s an update for you, as I said I’m gonna try to put some more effort on keeping blog updated and with pictures.

Attention divided

Haven’t been updating the blog for a while and there are two reasons for it. The secondary reason is that there are more students here now which means that the availability of the 4 computers is much lower. But the primary reason really is that I bought an Ipod Touch. So the last couple of days I’ve been doing everything to fill it with new contents. I have some music now and me and Nicklas is working on making an Ipod accepted format out of a store bought TV-series on DVD, Season 1 of ’24′. We have been hunting for converters for a while but unfortunately there aren’t dvd players in the computers here so we just hijacked a laptop from our new roommate Richard (Chud) from Wales who will be sharing room with us for a week or two. 

This weekend we also visited the huge weekend market in Bangkok and a 5 stories high Tech Mall where I bought the Ipod. I paid about 17600 Baht (3000 kr) for the 16 Gb version of it which is about 800 kr cheaper than in Sweden. We are going back to the huge market early on another Sunday since it was too hot and too much people there for our taste.

And about the training it’s been going great so far this week. I have been training very hard double session. No pictures this time since this computer didn’t have all fancy programs I needed installed.

Fight night at Bangplee

Yesterday we visited a local fight place for some matches. There were Fairtex (our gym)representation in every match and we won them all. There were about 6 or 7 matches with kids from 5-13 years and 2 adult matches with the trainers. This event seem pretty popular here and there was a lot of people watching the event. They had the usual food stands all around. We took a taxi there with Nicklas trainer, and the trainers wife and son. They supplied us with water and popcorn (sugar version) and the event was started at 19.00. The fights were very entertaining and we saw 3 knockouts, both adult matches ended with an elbow to the face and one of the kids matches ended with a straight right to the face. It’s kind of exciting to watch how Muay Thai really involves the audience here in Thailand. They really adds to the experience by shouting after each knee etc.

Know it’s time to end the cliffhanger from last week. As I said then I got my trainer to shout out: “NOOOOO, no, no, no, no, not good, not good”. This was just after warm up running and before putting my gloves on for fighting. I was doing some shadowboxing for extra warm up and technique training and since my groin still is injured and stops me from kicking I felt kinda silly doing shadowboxing just using my hands and elbows. So I got this brilliant idea of adding my own ‘flying-knee-to-the-head-technique’. When I did this my teacher reacted in this pretty negative way telling me that this was not the Muay Thai way. I can add that anything that’s not a real Muay Thai technique here is not welcome. Nicklas can confirm that since he tries to add a Krav Maga technique every now and then which always ends up with his trainer saying ‘No good’ even though it probably work just great in practise.  The whole incident ended up with me doing 4 rounds of real knee techniques. I just have to add that I still think my flying knee was awesome.

I also got another understanding how Muay Thai is a part of living here around the camp yesterday. I was running on the treadmill when I saw this 4 year old boy outside just started running. No parents were close to either tell him to do it nor cheering him on. He just ran for 15 minutes because he wanted to. And it was not the kinda of playful running you might expect of a 4 year old, it was really focused jogging with intervals back and forth along the road. He was training on his own in between practise sessions just because he wants to be as good as the older guys. It was really inspiring. The kids here often use the Muay Thai training equipment as part of their everyday play.

My groin got worse this Monday again btw. I was feeling pretty ok before practise so I decided to kick with full power for all rounds but this was a poor decision I realized after. My groin was even worse than before after training. I guess I will have to focus on cardio this week as well and maybe start up slower next time. As long as I can train I’m happy though, if it’s Thai boxing or running doesn’t really matter that much. I have a lot of time still to learn all the proper techniques.