What we did: Muay Thai lesson, watched Muay Thai matches, went out with fighters
Budget: 1800B/$60; Spent: 3942B/$131
We slept in wonderfully late this morning. There was no rush because our Muay Thai class didn't start until about 3pm, and we had no other plans for the day. We decided to try the restaurant we had had a beer at our first afternoon in Chiang Mai because we had noticed it had good breakfast prices. Turned out the food is really good, too!
Afer breakfast, we came back to hotel to do some blogging and trip planning. Around 2:45pm, we went out from of our hotel to wait to be picked up to be taken to our Muay Thai. We were picked up and driven to the class in the back of a pickup truck; we shared the ride with an Argentinian woman, named Gabby, and her son, Martin, who is 11 years old. Gabby has been living in Spain for the last 13 years and regularly comes to Chiang Mai to buy jewelery to sell in Majorca. It’s apparently quite a lucrative business. Martin was taking classes, not Gabby, although it seemed like Gabby might be interested in trying.
When we arrived at the gym, we were warmly welcomed by the trainers and fighters, alike. We started off training by skipping for about 10 minutes, then we stretched, and then one of the trainers, named Samart (pronounced ‘Samat’), began by teaching us the stance and then how to do some of the basic hits, including the jab, kick, hook, uppercut, knee, and elbow.
We had regular water breaks, which we were very thankful for. It was extremely hot, but actually keeping moving kept us a little cooler. Plus, we were in the shade.
Next, we put on some boxing gloves and climbed into the ring to do some one-on-one training. I trained with Samart and Patty trained with another trainer named Wimbledon. We don’t think that’s his real name... Anyway, we practiced all the moves we had learned on the trainers who were wearing padding. It was really fun and really intense. It was exhausting. I did much better than I thought I would, but Samart is an excellent teacher and a stickler for technique.
Patty had a similarly good experience with Wimbledon. He apparently made fun of Patty whenever she made a mistake, but she had a lot of fun with him anyway. She even almost elbowed him when he called out punch and she elbowed. Probably would have deserved it for making fun of her so much...
All of this was interspersed with push-ups and sit-ups. They really kept us busy! But we weren't worked to the point of exhaustion other than when we were training one-on-one in the ring. That was by far the hardest part.
The two hours passed by very fast and all too quickly it was over. We stretched with Samart and that was it.
We talked with two fighters at the end, Alan and Landon. Alan is from Argentina and was fighting tonight. Landon is from the US, though he hasn't lived there for years. He hasn't had his first fight yet, but he’s been training regularly for four months. He’s a teacher in between teaching positions. They invited us to the fights tonight, which happen to be at the venue directly beside our hotel. How convenient is that!? Here's a pic with Alan.
We talked with Gabby on our ride home and she got us thinking about maybe spending our time in Spain in Majorca, since it will have good weather in April, which is we plan to be in Spain.
We took our time after the Muay Thai class. We were very tired and very lazy and just had dinner at our hotel. Our hotel cooks very nice food, although a little pricey.
We were late to the fights, but arrived just in time to see somehow get knocked out by a kick to the head. That was intense. We then saw two women fight, but unfortunately the fight was cut short because one of the women got injured in the first round. She looked like she had hurt her knee, unfortunately. We then watched the oddest things we'd ever seen: blind boxing, where five fighters put on blind folds and just wander around the ring trying to hit each other. We winced at several points when people got hit behind the head. Seemed kind of dangerous, but we learned later that they were given instruction to only use their hands and not punch properly. There were a couple times when some of the boxers started attacking the referee, thinking he was another fighter, but then the referee would give them a pretty firm kick to the stomach to set them straight. Landon was one of the five fighters and he definitely won the match, if you can say anyone won. I guess this is supposed to be like the half time show.
We watched the matches by ourselves, and saw Alan win his fight easily. That was the last fight of the night.
We then saw Landon and wandered over to say hello. He introduced us to his friend, John, who is a mid-thirtiesh guy from England. He was very intoxicated, and had apparently been so since the previous night!
We ended up buying Landon a drink and then he invited us to play some pool, since it’s free after the fights. We played for a while and chatted with Landon and John, and then Alan joined us after cleaning himself up. By the end there were seven of us playing: a cute Thai kid, Samart our trainer from this afternoon, and then rest of us.
We then decided to go grab a bite to eat. We went to a nearby place with Landon, John, and Alan. They were all really nice and we had a great meal with them. John was still quite intoxicated, but somehow still very quick-witted. He mocked Landon most of the night.
Alan, it turns out, is the gym’s prized gem. He is expected to do very well and apparently has lots of potential. He just loves fighting. John ended up buying dinner for Alan. Sounds like they treat Alan like a baby. He is only 21 after all. Makes us wish we were that age again!
From there Landon took Alan on his motorcycle over to the most popular bar in Chiang Mai. The three of us took an auto-rickshaw there to meet up with them. John kept forgetting Patty's name and where we were from, and he knew he kept forgetting so we had a couple laughs over that.
We all found each other outside the bar and headed in. A German girl also met us outside the bar, named Isabelle. She's Landon's friend. When we walked in, it was just this big open courtyard with tons of hippies and young kids sitting around picnic tables in the dark for the most part. Surrounding most of the courtyard were actual roofed bars that were open to the courtyard. Landon introduced us to a bunch of people. We also saw many of the trainers from today along with some of the fighters, including Wimbledon the guy who trained me in the ring. We all agreed we needed some drinks if we were going to enjoy this atmosphere. I think Landon, Patty, and I were feeling a little old for this crowd! The music was loud but it wasn't too crazy, though apparently there had just been a fight a couple minutes before we arrived.
We met some of the American girls who do a fitness "Muay Thai" class every evening. They are also English teachers in Chang Mai and they hang out with all the fighters and trainers. They’re like one big happy family.
Landon recommended buying this drink that came in a huge pail with multiple straws, so we shared that. It was interesting. All five of us then had a couple drinks together at a quieter bar. From left to right it's Landon, John, Isabelle:
We then chatted with Lewis, an English fighter who will begin teaching English and fighting on the side. Nice and friendly guy. Patty somehow got chatting with him about whether he liked any of the girls there. Patty pointed at one and asked him if he liked that one...strangely, she was right! He simply responded saying “maybe”. But then went on to admit he liked her. Patty then spent the next 10 minutes trying to get them together to talk. At one point they both even agreed to go on a date together! But who knows if that will actually pan out.
We ended up leaving shortly after to go to another bar that stays open after 2am. We didn't stay there long, though, and we ended up taking a taxi back to the guesthouse. It was a great day!
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