Temperature

Posted by landoman - 15/09/09 at 11:09:25 pm

Upon arriving in Thailand, one of the first things I noticed was how people were wearing jackets or long sleeves at night. “Absurd”, I thought. “How could anyone be cold in this delightfully warm, tropical weather?”

Then after having been there a few weeks and after having acclimated to the heat, I, myself, began to reconsider my stance on jackets at night. As it turns out, it can get quite chilly at night; doubly so if you’re on a bike after the sun goes down.

Having been home for six months, I can assure you that I’m still quite acclimated to warm weather. This is quite troublesome if you live somewhere like WV where the warmest temperatures we’ve seen this summer have been only in the high-20s C (mid-80s F). Though normally the average mid-day WV temperature approaches the average morning Thailand temperature. This means that it can be rather uncomfortable — nay, downright cold — at times. It will only get worse as summer ends, too. And I’m ignoring thoughts of winter altogether.

Coming Home

Posted by landoman - 02/04/09 at 07:04:05 am

So I left for home a few hours ago. Phuket Int’l doesn’t have free wifi and as big and nice as the airport in Bangkok is there isn’t free wifi there either. I’m in Seoul now.

I sat next to a pretty cool Swede named Fredrick on the way to Bangkok. He had been in Phuket for a couple weeks on vacation. We stumbled around the airport for a bit before we each found out where we needed to be and then decided to go to find out gates and meet back for a drink. But my gate ended up being about 2km away behind two security checks. So Fredrick, if by some freak chance you find this blog, sorry dude!

It’s 5C in Seoul and I’m freezing my ass off. Going from 90F to 38F is a huge change. It sucks. No doubt that WV holds certain misery for me…

Tiger Muay Thai

Posted by landoman - 30/03/09 at 11:03:10 pm

The past three months here have been nothing short of fantastic.  I had only very basic experience with muay thai before I came to TMT but three months of training has given me loads of experience.  Between all the conditioning, technique, and sparring I’ve done I can say with certainty that I have a firm grasp of muay thai.  I’m going to give a quick rundown of TMT for anyone considering coming in the future.
Note: long post.

Training Areas
Tiger has four different training areas. Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, and MMA. Each area has at least four or five heavy bags and beginners and MMA have uppercut bags. Beginners and intermediate also have mirrors to practice shadow boxing and technique and every area has at least one ring. Each section also has padded areas for sparring and practicing. The current beginners area is brand new, having just been completed in early March. Go figure, the beginners get all the new stuff. As a whole, the equipment is a bit beaten up (pun intended) but all of it serves its purpose well.

The MMA section has a normal ring and also an octagon for grappling. The weight area sits immediately beside MMA and houses a wide range of equipment. Two full sets of barbells, two sets of plates, and two sets of kettlebells. There are a few incline benches, a few weight machines, and a stationary bike. My only gripe with the weights area is that the equipment is in poor shape. Either from the humidity or from its age, there aren’t many pieces that aren’t rusting somewhere. This can make exercises a bit difficult when you’re lifting something rusted or when one of the machines grinds from friction.

All in all, the training areas are more than adequate; only a few minor upgrades (mainly to weights) could be used.

Trainers
TMT has about 30 trainers between all the different areas. Most of the trainers rotate between each area monthly so if you’re staying for any length of time there’s a good chance you’ll get to work with just about everyone. As a whole, they’re fun to be around during/after training but they’ll definitely push you if they see you slacking off or if they know you can go harder/faster (which is exactly what I needed). All the trainers have been practicing muay thai since their youth so you’ll be learning from a great source.

But unfortunately, every trainer has his own style and will teach you a lot of the techniques slightly differently than the next guy. This can cause a lot of confusion and frustration. Someone may teach you how to do one thing one day and then another day someone else may come around, tell you you’re doing it wrong, and then have you do it a different way. It can be maddening at times.

I also had a few rather unfortunate experiences after I moved into intermediate. For whatever reason, one of the trainers named Robert Lek decided that his sparring opponents would be his personal punching bag for the day. Normally sparring is done at 50% power/speed but Robert made a habit of going all out on whoever was unlucky enough to get stuck with him. I came out of those sessions with injuries that lingered for a couple weeks.

But in stark contrast to Robert, one of the other trainers named Yon became my new best friend. He was tremendously fun to be around but also pushed me harder than anyone else there. I worked with him nearly every session in March. He’ll be missed.

With the exception of Robert the trainers were great to work with and, overall, are very effective teachers.

TMT Staff
The TMT staff were nothing but helpful throughout the last few months. My luggage got lost during my trip here in January but both Will (camp owner) and one of the staff helped track it down and brought to me in record time. I had a ton of questions that needed answers throughout my stay and everyone was always very helpful. They helped me find medicine, find stores, and answered all my passport questions before I realized I had been given an 90-day VISA. Samai is the guest relations manager and setup a few group activities every so often. And I recently found out that a westerner is being hired as the office manager. My only gripe would’ve been a few confusing conversations that arose because of the language barrier. But that will be resolved soon enough.

Camp Facilities
TMT has a wide range of rooms available to rent. Three types are available: dorm style, standard, and deluxe. The newly-introduced dorm style rooms are the cheapest; they include a bed, small personal area, and a central living area with a small kitchen. Standard rooms are a bit bigger with more privacy; they include a bed, fan, TV, and closet. Deluxe rooms are bigger yet and include all the aforementioned amenities, as well as a bathroom and A/C. Public facilities are located throughout the camp for dorm and standard rooms.

In the middle of the camp there is a small restaurant called the Tiger Bar and Grill. They offer reasonably priced food an drinks and one of the largest menus of all the little restaurants in the area. The food is predominantly Thai for reasons that are currently beyond me but there’s a decent selection of non-Thai food like sandwiches, burgers, salad, and spaghetti. I certainly grew tired of Thai food rather quickly so having alternatives was a life saver.

TMT also has a gear store that recently reduced its prices. You can pick up nearly everything you might need to train muay thai or MMA. Gloves, shin pads, tape, shirts/shorts, protein, etc… They’ve got just about everything you’ll need at [newly] reasonable prices.

Verdict
The two main things that I would like to see TMT improve on:

  • Weight equipment is in rough condition.
  • The trainers teach techniques slightly differently.

In the end, TMT is the best training I’ve ever had.  I was pushed when I needed to be and I learned more in these past three months than I would have in a year of training back in the states.  TMT offers extensive training for people of any age level and any previous experience.  I would wholly recommend anyone come train here if they get a chance.

Tattoo

Posted by landoman - 30/03/09 at 10:03:13 am

A soft breeze blows through the room as a hard tropical rain pounds the island outside.  As relaxed as I am — just on the verge of falling asleep — the dull pain resonating through my arm just won’t let me slip into a tranquil sleep.  My thoughts shift back and forth between daydreaming, the hum of a small machine, and the needle it pumps into my skin twenty times per second.  What surprises me the most is how little it hurts.  Occasionally I’ll feel quick jets of pain as the needle hits a nerve but even then I’m still able to hover on the verge of sleep.  And at the same time I’m enthralled at the idea that someone is literally drawing on my flesh.  That puts a realistic spin on it, eh?

After an hour or so I’ve got a nice, shiny drawing permanently set under my skin.  Finally!  Throughout the whole ordeal, and the time afterward, nothing more than an uncomfortable ache can be felt.  It still surprises me how little it hurt.  Either some people can’t tolerate pain or they all exaggerate the pain.  Probably both.

Then comes round two.  After having my left upper arm stamped we move on to a unique Thai tattoo called Sak Yant.  It’s different than a tattoo gun in that, traditionally, sak yant are performed using a long wooden stick to “tap” ink into the skin.  Fortunately times have changed and instead of having wood tapped into me a hypodermic needle (that’s used in a gun) is stuck to the end of the stick.  Another difference between sak yant and tattoo guns are the rituals behind sak yant.  Before the tattooing begins a brief ceremony is held to bless the tattoo.  The artist purifies the skin and breathes life into the soon-to-be tattoo.

Then the fun begins.  While guns pump the needle into skin so fast that only waves of pain can be felt, the stick gets tapped into skin only once or twice a second — every entry is felt.  Since this one is getting drawn on my left shoulder blade the pain is manageable; still quite distinct, but manageable.  The skin towards my side is the most sensitive but as the needle moves closer to the middle of my back the pain rapidly dulls.  Regardless, time slows with each tap.  But soon the major outline is finished and only a few touch-ups remain.  The pain is nearly gone at this point and my skin is already starting to heal.  Now I not only have an awesome tattoo but I’ve got quite a story to tell as well.

Hurray!

Posted by landoman - 13/03/09 at 08:03:05 pm

This past week has been pretty fun. We went to the Green Man last Thursday and Jazz won a 1000B ($30) voucher to be spent there in the next week.  He won that by correctly answering 6/30 questions about British Prime Ministers.  Yeah…

Watchmen came out last week so on Sunday evening me, Jazz, and Inge went to see it at the VIP theater.  The movie itself was awesome.  Three hours of bliss.  Add unlimited caramel popcorn to that and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success.  On top of that we ate at a little place called the Sizzler before the movie.  I had the best burger of the trip.  All in all a good evening.

Training continued like normal the rest of this week but we went out to the Green Man again on Wednesday so Jazz could spend his voucher.  I discovered that they’ve got some of the best pasta on the island.  A new favorite for me, I think.

And again last night Tommy, Inge, and I went out again to Green Man.  Somehow I managed to win a deep sea fishing trip for two by answering a question about the first railroad accident in America.  I still don’t quite know how I managed to win that but I won’t ask questions.  The trip  ncludes fishing of course, swimming and snorkeling at some of the islands we stop at along the way, and meals throughout the day.  It should be pretty sweet.

Two down, one to go

Posted by landoman - 02/03/09 at 08:03:22 pm

I’m at the two month point in Thailand.  Two months…holy crap.  It feels like I’ve been here a year.  When you’re in a place like this time loses all substance.  Time of day has little meaning and days of the week have even less.  I just hope this last month doesn’t fly by…

This was another slow week.  Eating, training, and sleeping for the most part.  On Thursday me, Jazz, Inge, and Nadine went out to The Green Man for quiz night.  Nearly the whole pub was in on it.  But unfortunately most of the questions were related to British pop culture.  Regardless it was good fun.  We’ll probably be making it a weekly trend.

Later in the weekend I went over to Naiharn to see Marisa and Alex.  We went to Central and had sushi at a restaurant called Fuji.  Everyone had been telling me that this was an amazing place but I found out first hand that they were all right.  Without a doubt it was the best sushi I had ever had.  Afterwards we went down to the cinema and saw Valkyrie.  I had been expecting a mundane movie but it turned out to be surprisingly good.  A good evening all in all.

Slow

Posted by landoman - 25/02/09 at 05:02:50 pm

Not much has happened in the past week.  I’ve just been training like normal and taking it easy in the downtime.  But this weekend I went to a couple pretty nice restaurants.

The first was an English pub called The Green Man.  It’s just a short way past Chalong Circle and offers some of the best traditional English food on the island.  The menu is huge and below each item is a huge description of what the food is and why it’s on the menu.  I had my first proper steak of the trip — and man was it well-needed.

The second place I went to was a little Italian restaurant in Naiharn called La Italiano (go figure).  The owners walk around talking to people from time to time and provide a comfortable atmosphere.  And they have a stone oven.  So, naturally, I had one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten.  A giant pizza, at that.  Both places I ate this weekend offered huge portions — also well needed.

Long Weekend

Posted by landoman - 18/02/09 at 07:02:57 pm

Friday night I went to a movie here.  Me and Alex saw Underworld.  The theaters here are pretty awesome.  You can get either a regular seat, a sofa, or some theaters have “VIP” lounge chair type seats where you can basically lay down and stretch out; those have complimentary food/snacks.  But one ticket for the sofa was about $6, and then a giant drink, giant popcorn, and M&Ms were $3.  <$10 for everything — about 1/3 of what it would’ve been back home.

On Saturday night there were some exhibition fights at camp.  A few muay thai and a few mma fights.  We hung out there for a few hours and then about 30 people from camp all went out to Patong and hit the bars/clubs for a while.  There were so many of us from camp that we could’ve taken over entire buildings if we had wanted to.  I met a cute Aussie girl that was here for the week.  Good times.

The next day Alex and Marisa moved to a new resort at Naiharn Beach so I went over there and hung out all day.  Had dinner and lounged around for a bit and then the three of us went out to Patong again.  I managed to stumble into the same Aussie girl I had hung out with the previous night so we did more hanging.

I stayed over at Naiharn that night and then woke up yesterday, came back to camp, and trained.  Got back and then washed some clothes, cleaned up my room, and went to bed.

Four days of non-stop activity.  It’s fun every now and then but it gets tiring after so many sleepless nights.

Ah Crap

Posted by landoman - 13/02/09 at 06:02:30 pm

Yesterday Alex, Marisa and I all went horseback riding down through Rawai Beach.  For all intents and purposes everything started off quite nicely.  And by that I mean nobody got injured within the first hour.  But then I had to go and ruin everything.

So there we were letting the horses graze when one of the handlers asked anyone if they wanted to ride full gallop.  Of course, this wasn’t something I could resist so I happily volunteered.  I set off down the beach and the horse quickly burst into a gallop; but unfortunately my feet were too small for the stirrups so within the first few seconds I was left holding on for my life.  A few hundred meters down the beach I managed to get the horse slowed and turned around but as soon as I did that he took off back the way we came.

By this point I was literally hanging on by a thread and realized there was no way I would be able to hold on much longer.  We were on the beach so I wasn’t worried too much about leaping off.  As I finally started sliding off I looked down towards where I would be falling and saw a concrete pillar sticking out of the sand.  My last memory before I hit the ground was looking down and thinking “I’m dead.”

The impact knocked me out for just a second but when I came to I could taste blood in my mouth and could feel pain shooting through my arm and leg.  To my relief I realized that my face was in one piece, my teeth were all still intact, and nothing was broke.  Except my nose.  Faceplanting into wet sand has a few downsides.  So a broken nose, a few cuts in my mouth, and scrapes on my chin, arm, and leg were all the injuries I incurred.  I’ll live to ride again one day (but not for a really long time I don’t think).

Interesting Week

Posted by landoman - 10/02/09 at 04:02:24 pm

Last week, two interesting new people showed up at Coco.  A half-brother and sister, Alex was born in Belgium and his sister Marisa was born here in Bangkok.  They met for the first time a little over two weeks ago when they first found out they were related.  So Alex is here training at TMT and having a little miniature family reunion.  Like I said: interesting!

But I’ve been hanging out with them for the past few days.  We went out to eat one night last week and I found out that Marisa is a model and actress in Bangkok.  She’s been in Thai soap operas and other t.v. shows/commercials since she was a teenager.  I thought she was just pulling my leg at first but then I started looking around and noticed every Thai in the restaurant hiding behind things, slack-jawed and staring at us.  It was hilarious and totally awesome.  We went out to Patong a couple times this weekend and it was the same scenario everywhere we went.  People stopping, doing double-takes, and giggling in delight when they realize who they’re looking at.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  It’s amazing!

Speaking of Patong, I’m starting to dislike that place now.  Friday night we went out for a bit and Alex got sick.  Saturday we went out again to make up for the previous night and I got sick.  Also on Friday, Ryan was visiting his parents at Kata Beach and he, too, got sick; blaming Patong for that one anyways.

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