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.

First Month

Posted by landoman - 05/02/09 at 10:02:18 am

I’ve officially survived my first month here.  Thailand has been fantastic thus far and the next two months are eagerly anticipated.  I’m getting fairly well-adjusted to intermediate muay thai now but I still get wrecked sometimes.  And I’m settled into my villa with my own food so I don’t have to waste money eating out anymore.

But in my time here, do I miss home in the States?  Yes and [mostly] no.
Yes because I miss the convenience of Sam’s Club — buying in bulk is something I took for granted.  Also I actually do like snow; I was hoping to get a bit of skiing in this season.
No because I’m in a tropical paradise with perfect weather every single day. I get to train muay thai all day, every day. And everything here is incredibly cheap. And there are beaches and pools everywhere.

What can I say? It’s a rough life here. I suppose I’ll manage to pull through this…

Powered by WordPress with GimpStyle Theme design by Horacio Bella.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS.