Days 24 - 26: cock-a-doodle-d...FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SHUT UP.



big boiler behind the rooms



sauna



Day 24: Sunday, much resting was done. Like...laying in bed and watching movies till 3pm type resting. After everyone started to wake up from their mid-day slumber, we made our way to the much anticipated saunas as everyone was plenty sore from the week's training.The saunas, run by monks, are a few concrete rooms big enough for 8 or so people, complete with tiled benches, burning blocks and heaps of bundled up greens to burn. Imagine vaporizing Vick's Vaporub and just hanging around a thick cloud of it - boy does that clear you up. They had a little hose outside to wash yourself off before, after and between sittings. It was a really nice day out, some cloud cover to block out some of the sun and a slight breeze blowing through. This time of year has been much more forgiving - weatherwise, than my last trip to Thailand which was in the months of May - June.

The cloud cover soon turned to an absolute downpour which was unfortunate for Pii A as he had to drive into Bangkok and stay overnight with Taam and a few of the guys for Taam's fight at Raja the following evening.

Oh yeah, Muu came back!

Day 25: Nothing of significance here, Apirak seems to be picking up training. He might have a fight coming up. Putting in 6 rounds with Kru Dam now, focusing a lot on elbows and getting my eye much better in the pocket. I think I'm slated to go pro upon return to the states within a month+. Hoping everything follows through and I can start elbowing/getting elbowed real soon.

Days 20 - 23: Uhhhhh...

Captain Good Intentions never got around to updating this thing so I'm gonna try my best as I stopped taking mental notes for the last few days.

Day 20: Nothing significant sticks out...Kru Daam is sick so I've been hitting pads with Kru Mee. Kru Mee prides himself over his placing defense (aka "safety") over offense, saying that's what won him his fights. I enjoy these lessons in "safety," defending myself against a man the size of a small water buffalo. He doesn't throw any heat but he gives you a good reason to use your eye. His padholding is remniscient of my trainer, Bill's style minus the getting whomped. Kru Mee focuses on simple punching, tons of strong side kicks and as I previously mentioned, defensive techniques first and foremost. I can't even begin to type the hilarity that ensues when he gets excited, I'd go out on a limb and say his English...err...his ability to get his point across is the best at the camp. He has a few buzzwords/phrases that make things hilarious and easy to understand: "safety" or defense, "dead" or knocked out, "wun-hunnit puh-sent!" or  100% aka a sure thing / best choice, "supah-stah!" is pretty self-explanatory, "fight IQ, no tingtong" or smart fighter, not a brawler...the list goes on. I'll try my best to get a video of him explaining things. He is a very blunt and simple man, no surprises here. He doesn't like it, he makes sure you know....again and again...ask Jen.

Day 21: Brendan, Doug and I did our morning training, ate quickly, said our goodbyes to the English dudes as they continued their journey further into the Land of Smiles and then headed out to Wat Bang Phra with Pii A, Jun and Bai Pai. In classic Pii A fashion, he made sure we ate an hour after breakfast before hitting the Wat. After some excellent noodles, fried banana and fried potato sticks, he made it to the Wat safely.

Pii A's driving is something to experience before you die...most likely it will be the reason you die. This man drives wild even for Thailand's standards. In this country, the size of your vehicle determines your right of way. Pii A drives a nice extended cab turbo pickup with a cab so he commands most of the road unless there is some wild bus driver or supply truck on the road. Regardless of the lane markings, Pii A gets to where he needs to go in record time, every time.

Day 19: Stadium days.

Knowing today would only be a half day puy my nagging knuckles a little at ease. I snuck in my own workout as Kru Daam, Kru Mee, and Pii A were already in Bangkok with P'neh for his early morning weigh in. Everyone is fighting or has just fought leaving the numbers really low in the gym which is A-OK with me. More time for padwork and technique but less people to clinch with and tech spar, takin' the good with the bad.

We ate a quick breakfast and split up into groups to head in for the fights around 3pm. Jen and I went with Mama on the public minivans, Brendo and the Englishmen went with Papa in the car and poor Doug kinda got screwed with miscalculations and had to head in by his lonesome via bus.

After milling around the gear shops, eating some zany soup with all sorts of unfamiliar fungus and meats in it, we headed to our ringside seats (which are 2000bt but we paid 1500bt. every little bit counts.) for the night's battles. Pornsaneh would be the 4th fight of the main card, one before the main event. He would be squaring off with Palangtip, who according to Rob Cox is fast and technical but doesn't deal well with getting hit hard...that's not verbatim.

The first fight of the night featured a Kiatphontip (Rob's gym) 100lber fighting for a massive side bet. He would come out on top convincingly demonstrating proficiency in just about all 8 of his limbs.

The next few fights were great, back and forth battles that sent the bettors into a frenzy for the last 2 rounds of every single time. The fight before Pornsaneh's...good lord. Talk about "weathering the initial storm." I'll be checking Rob's site (http://www.muaythai2000.com/ - you're a fool if you're not already wise to it!) to catch these guys' names because the fight was just phenomenal. A true battle between two types of nak muays found on opposite ends of the spectrum. Blue corner (again...names unknown) came out heaving each shot in with 100% power looking to close the fight early with either his right cross, left hook or right leg kick or any combination of those. Each shot was felt in the first few rows ringside, inciting some serious cringing from the unprepared foreigners just looking to catch some "authentic mai tai." Red corner soaked up some savage punishment for 2 solid rounds, 6 straight minutes of the unrelenting assault. His lead leg looking worse for wear but managed to teep his opponent to keep him out and tie him up in the clinch before the elbows starting following the hooks and crosses.

The 3rd round, when the real fight begins, usually determines which fighter is awake and ready for the long haul. The judges are now making pencil marks on their score cards and aware of which way the crowd is swaying with the deafening roars of "OOOOAHWHEEEY." Red corner begins to come alive now sensing his opponents frustration and semi-depleted gas tank. To completely empty that gas tank, red corner begins heaving in those body kicks knowing just how much they really matter to the judges, the bettors and his opponent. His clinch became active, never letting his opponent catch a moment's rest, continually burying knees that only get harder and heavier as the rounds progressed. By the 5th round, Blue corner's corner had enough and began to wave him off as to avoid further damage and take the defeat gracefully. Red corner seemed to sense this and wasn't ready to let him off that easy - the toe shaped bruises on his lead leg may have reminded him not to let his visibly winded opponent off just yet. Red corner pushed forward with teeps to the chest now, jarring his opponent into the ropes where he would fall prey to the clinch again. The knees were now more exaggerated, red corner leaping into the air using his opponents neck as leverage to swing in punishing tip knees knowing his opponent would not have the energy to muster a sweep or a turn. Soon red corner honored the last 60 seconds of his opponent, backing away and began celebrating his hard earned win.

Days:16, 17 and 18...I think. Slackers gon' slack.

Definitely a bit behind. The internet has been in and out, so I think I'll just blame it on that.

Day 16: Banged out morning training quick (still no Kru Daam), ate breakfast and fresh off the tree coconut that Jun hacked open with a giant butcher's blade and then the Englishmen, Doug, Brendo and myself headed to Bangkok via an 80 baht minivan ride. $4 for a 2 hour trip, can't beat that. The van ride wasn't bad, not the most comfortable seats but there was A/C which was very necessary on that 92 degree day. Pii A waited for us to get on the van safely before taking off. Sho' nuff I'll be doing an entry dedicated to just Pii A, pictures and all.

Anywho, we did some gear shopping and minor sightseeing. The weather was pretty unforgiving but it could've been worse. Thanks to Doug's great navigational skills, we made it to all our destinations without a hiccup.

First, we stopped by Boon. Grade A gear shop that carried just about everything. We got some gloves, some guys got shorts, shirts, jump ropes, wraps, etc. Again, great store and the young girl working spoke some good English. Met a French dude who was training out of Kiatphontip who spoke well of the camp and wished us luck training. I guess that's not a big deal to some people, but it's pretty cool that even with the language barrier - a few charades and some Thai boxing buzzwords, we were able to have a full fledged conversation. We took a motorbike back to the end of the street as Brendan had never took one and why wouldn't you want 3 dudes on one bike?

 

Next off was Actionzone, which I was fairly familiar with from my last trip. This shop has tons of hidden gems, cheap Songchai DVD's, cheap bags, all sorts of gloves and shorts...most importantly...free water from the shop owner! Super nice lady with some good english. 

We all got what we needed and hoofed a taxi over to Rajadamnern to grab some food at this spot Doug spoke very highly of. Sure enough, Likit did not disappoint.

Straight up frog. Bones and all.

After dinner, we parted ways with the Englishmen as they would choose to stay overnight and carry on with the English debauchery and such. Doug, Brendan and I walked around for a bit...bought oreos and ate poorly before heading home on a nice air conditioned bus that gives you a complementary water.

Days 13, 14 and 15: Serious dog beef / While the cat is away...

Day 13: Took today off to rest the great machine. Walked down the street to get a shave today with Brendo. Not bad, the guy spoke a little English to boot. The shave took literally 5 minutes and he managed a decent shave on my less than forgiving facial hair. I can't imagine how hard it would be going from shaving little to no facial hair on your clients to short, plentiful, thick, going-in-every-which-way western vanilla face facial hair. He stuck to the grain and did pretty well save for a few cuts. How much you ask? 20 baht. Less than a dollar. At home, while it may be a bit nicer, it would cost upwards of $25 - $30. I tipped him 20 extra baht because he had a great ponytail.

Day 14: Pii A is has been in Bangkok and will be for a few days. No camp manager = lax camp. Can't say I'm super siked on that. The focus was on the fighters today, I guess as it should be but we are still also paying customers. I think Doug and Jake #2 didn't get pads come to think of it.

Saw some seriously awesome dog action on the AM run. One of the dogs at the camp, a younger rottweiler whose name sounds like "oo-lee-ay," trots with us at the beginning of the run and takes a few short cuts staying with us for a good portion and meeting up at the end, occasionally barking at the neighborhood mutts for the sake of keeping the runners safe. This morning, one of the dogs down the street (trash dog) attempted to nip at Pornsaneh - this did not rub boss dog (Oo-lee-ay) the right way, and a true dog fight was soon underway. "Oo-lee-ay" completely broadsided the trash dog, rolling around with it on the ground in a flurry of saliva, guttural growls and the occasional glint of large white teeth. They both stood up after a good 10 seconds of dog-jitsu with trash dog looking to back away from the altercation. Suddenly boss dog leaps and grabs a mouthful of trash dog's scruff in it's mouth resulting in trash dog slinking to the ground, accepting utter defeat. Like a boss, Oo-lee-ay released trash dog and continued trotting alongside Pornsaneh.

Day 11 and 12: Informative information informing the uninformed.

Ok that title was a stretch, sorry. If you haven't had a chance, check out these sites as they were my guide as to making the final decision to come to Sitmonchai:

http://www.mymuaythai.com/ - my go-to website for Muay Thai in general. Easy to navigate, plenty to look at and some pretty knowledgeable people share their two cents in the comments section.
http://www.muaythaitrainingcamps.com/ - another great site with some awesome visuals. The guy, (guys?) that runs it shoots some awesome pictures, keep good account of their travels and it's got a great read on Sitmonchai.**
www.dirtywhitegi.com - good site that is run by Greg, a guy who's trip to Sitmonchai coincided with the above mentioned website's main man, Michael Galvin's trip. I think that last sentence was terrible English. Anyway, another wicked informative read on Sitmonchai and it's denizens. This site also has plenty of BJJ information, outweighing the Muay Thai about 60/40 but is a great read anyway. Greg is an MMA fighter who has stayed in Rio to work on his BJJ, Thailand for his Muay Thai - an honest martial artist, I'd say.

Onto Day 11: I forgot to mention, Just as quickly as the Norwegians left on Sunday - Doug from America arrived. Turns out, he posts on http://www.muaythailand.com/ as well. Doug also took part in the inaugural Muay Thai Tours put on by Nop of http://www.mymuaythai.com/ fame and fell in love with Sitmonchai his first time day-long visit in May.

Days 9 and 10: LOOOUUUUUD NOOOOISESSSSS.

Day 9: Sunday, the rest day. The rest day at this camp is either adventure-filled or completely the opposite. I didn't even see most of the nak muays, they pretty much stay to their rooms sleeping or blasting music. Pornsaneh was gone the entire day, leaving on motorbike in the AM.

Muu fights at Lumpinee on the 19th. Although the promise of seeing all these guys in action is flat out awesome, aside from Pornsaneh, seeing Muu (Yodkhunpon) excites me the most. Taken from the Sitmonchai website:

"One of the top ten fighters in his weight division at Lumpini stadium, Yodkhunpon is also regarded for his knockout record. The Thai press have named him the "new Pornsaneh" and his fights also demonstrate the Sitmonchai sensibility -- powerful punches and low kicks."

I'll throw a video up of him hitting pads on facebook. He's about 17 years old and packs some serious power. He was my first sparring partner and showed he isn't all smashy-smashy, he's got plenty of flash...y....flashy. I'm not deleting that.

Very relaxed day, plenty of sleeping, reading, resting and obscene howling. Ah yes, let me let you in on the noises of Sitmonchai.

First, we have the handicapped rooster. Is he really mentally challenged? No. I think he may be broken though, I hope they kept the receipt. He may crow/yell/whatever they do incessantly anywhere between 1pm - 2pm, 12:00am - 12:30am, and 3am - 4am almost every single day. At none of those times does anyone need a wake up call. Brendan just loves this thing, ask him about it.

Next, we have the howling dogs. There are a set of train tracks about a 1/4 mile from the camp which of course carry a train through the town and into neighboring towns. Now there are no gates that come down when the tracks run through the street so the train simply barrel-asses through ripping on it's horn for quite a distance before and after it passes the street area. Again, the times for this train are: Sometime in the afternoon, sometime during dinner and right when you finally achieve your 2nd REM cycle of sleep. The horn really isn't too bad, EVERY SINGLE DOG IN THE SURROUNDING 1/2 MILE RADIUS INCLUDING THE ONES IN THE CAMP howling at it is, though. Of course when one dog hears another dog howling, it either needs to match the howl or strain itself to the point of turning the howl into a rape scream. Not even slightly exaggerating, Brendan and I woke up simultaneously on the first night at like 4am staring at eachother in what must've looked like a fair mix of fear/anger. I thought there must be some sort of Thailand Chupacabra scavenging the farmlands of Thamaka, scooping up little kids and dogs for snacktime. I'll try to record this auditory massacre.

Second to last, we have the neighbors. Again, 4am is definitely the busy time for this country. They truly do run on a different timetable than we do in the States. The streets are busy throughout the night, motorists making their way to god knows where, houses blasting music, most business still selling their wares into the wee hours of the morning. The neighbors to the camp love blasting some booty-bumpin' jams at all hours throughout the day. I think they just put their subwoofer face-down onto the ground because our window shakes.

Last, but certainly not least, Mapraao. Remember that little dog Pii A bought for Pornsaneh I mentioned a few posts back? Yeah, quite the mouth on him. Whether he's antagonizing the other dogs, yipping at the baby, humping people's legs or yelping from getting whacked by some of the nak muays for peeing, pooping or chewing on things..just shrill, right-through-your-skull, crappy little dog barks. I'm sure once it finally learns, it'll be a decent dog. Until then, harumpf to you, Mapraao.

Day 7 and 8: Back in the saddle again.

Friday, 7th day of the trip, rolled around and I decided lame toe or not, twas time to hit something. I got in some skipping instead of the run in the morning session and hit some pads with Kru Daam, primarily punches and elbows. Man, does that guy get you amped up. He yells as loud if not louder when you hit the pads and keeps his holding very consistent. Simple combinations, hard and fast.

Upon arriving to the camp last week, Brendan and I noticed the fighters were primarily holding pads or working with beginners and not doing much training. As of the the last day or so, Jun, Muu, Pornsaneh, the twins and Apirak have been getting their pad work and clinching in which can only mean one thing...fights! While all these guys are complete goofballs outside of the ring, always teasing eachother and pretty much anyone else in the general vicinity, it's pretty jaw dropping when they hop in on pads. These guys all pack dynamite in everything they throw, the crack of pads is almost deafening with every strike they throw.

Watching the guys clinch is also a treat. Just when it looks like one of them begins to get the upperhand, just as fast are they knocked off their axis and hit with a knee before they hit the ground - all with a smile. The twins clinching is just plain awesome to watch. I wish I could accurately describe how it happened but Apisak threw a knee that Apisit somehow parried and in a flash, snuck behind Apisak and climbed up his back. Even Apisak looked surprised. It is very apparent that while all the nak muays in the gym have formidable clinching skills, the twins (and their cousin Apirak) are the standouts in that facet.

After snagging some sa pa rot (aww yeah, new word. pineapple.), we (Wyatt, Jen, Brendo and I) made our way to a Wat about 30 mins away to get a 2 hour thai massage for $10 tip included. I got hooked up with my man, Tsam, who worked on my toe the other day. He again spent a grueling 30 mins just on the toe/foot which made me think he's either really thorough or he doesn't quite understand you can't exactly massage a sprain away. Regardless, I am thankful for his hardwork and dedication to fixing this vanilla face's trash toe.
After some close-calls and compromising positions, Tsam finished up the massage with some serious elbow drops on my neck ala mid 1980's Ultimate Warrior. Jen, Wyatt, Brendan and myself hobbled over to the hot springs area which were really just metal cyclinders just big enough for a grown man to fit in and soaked in fairly hot water fed through pipes that I assume ran from the hot springs. The man there told us "NO DRINK NO DRINK OK OK?!" While the advice is appreciated, I don't think we had any intention of slurping down some luke-warm, hair filled water that smelled of 100% cocoa. Yeah, that's real.

Pii A then took us to a roadside Udon noodle joint where we ate pork balls (tasted like high school cafeteria meatballs minus the unnatural crunch...I'm not complaining) and noodles. Pii A made sure to dump chili flakes, a table spoon of sugar and chili jelli in each of our bowls. Ended up costing less than a dollar each, fantastic.

Afternoon session brought more padwork with Kru Daam. I think I've almost got his flow down, creating a pretty nice rhythm. My poor knuckles are screaming from all the punishment, hurts so good. I brought my 14 oz for this very reason because I knew this gym would be heavy on the hands but it looks even that isn't saving em. Wah wah wah, I'm sure once I can bring kicks back into the mix, the knuckles will get a little break. We all gathered afterwards to watch a big clinching session between all the fighters - I think someone taped it. Brendan and I were too busy staring with our mouths opens, catching flies.



Bren working leg kicks with Kru Yod



Today was also the Queen's Birthday / Mother's Day (yes, Mother's Day in Thailand is whenever the Queen's Birthday is. Double the presents for the Queen.) so we all gathered around to watch the Queen's Cup around 10pm. I wish Muay Thai was televised at home. Saturday afternoons are Channel 3 fights at Omnoi Stadium. Sure as sugar, Pii A can be found watching them rattling off Thai at the television. Kru Mee usually joins while some of the other nak muays, if not asleep, pass by and OOOOOWAAY at the tv briefly and head back to their rooms.

Days 4, 5 and 6: Puppies and babies.

Playing a little catch up here, a not so brief recap:

Day 4, I spent most of the day grumping about because of my foot. I managed to quit being a wimp about it and watch the guys train. Pii A had a masseuse come to the camp to work on some people who had requested a massage. Pii A, noticing my infinite bummed-ness about my foot, had the masseuse come to my room and do some work on my toe/foot for free. Yup, I'm moving in. Sorry, friends and family.

The masseuse, Tsam he said his name was, apparently studied massage therapy here in Thailand for 4 years after being a nak muay for 9 years and made his way to America where he was a fisherman, a cook and a "driver" of some sort (taxi, I'm assuming?) for a few years before returning so his English was pretty good. Right when we hit a rut with either his communicating in English or my communicating in Thai, we ended up sitting comfortably in a back-and-forth match of Thainglish (pronounced ting-lish) and hand gestures. He mentioned in his first 4 years of being a masseuse he estimated giving over 1,000 massages and he made "good good money." I'm sure I've misconstrued some of the above facts but that doesn't really matter because he did a great job and really helped speed up the recovery process. He attempted to refuse my money but I got him to take it anyway on the contingent I wouldn't tell Pii A. Your secret is safe with me, Tsam.

Day 5 saw a repeat of day 4, more of me being a whinebag as I watched all the nak muays in camp get back to kicking pads and sparring with the foreigners. If that wasn't enough, Pii A, Kru Daam and Pornsaneh kept checking up on me: "You kick today?" or "We do technique today?!" Torture, I'm telling ya. It's nice to know they are aware of all their customers/visitors/nak muays and their well-being. Abigail also checked up every now and then when she could. After dinner, Jen (Five Points NY fighter) went with Pii A to pick up turnbuckle covers and returned with said turnbuckle covers...and a puppy. The story as she tells it:

"Yeah, so we went to this place to pick up the covers and there was this little puppy running around. Pii A asked me if I liked this little dog and I said 'sure, it's cute...' so he just buys the thing for 2,000 baht."

Right now 1 USD = roughly 28 baht. This pup is an American Pitbull (we think...) which go for $1,000-$2,000 at home I think. He got that dog for roughly $71. Like a true boss.



Wyatt (left) and Brian with Mapraao



Speaking of Pii A and boss-age...Pii A's daughter, Aiko (sp?) aka Sitmonchai Big Boss, has been be-bopping around the camp lately. She usually joins us for meals, running around the ring, giving me a heart attack hanging off the ropes, yelling about little thai girl things and hugging Jen whenever she gets the chance. She is an absolute riot, Pii A has her walking up to all the foreigners with her hand out, looking at the ground saying "Hello" and moving on to the next person...which isn't really to far for her as we are all eagerly huddled around her for the chance to shake her hand.

Jun and Abigail's little baby (less than a year old, I believe?), Bai Pai has been making an appearance as well taking walks and handing people coins and then taking them back...and then giving them back to them again and so on and so forth. Just a whole big bag of adorable going on in this gym right now.

Day 3: Agony of da-feet.

Morning training session went well, hammered out the run and got to technical sparring with Muu. As if I didn't learn my lesson the last time I sparred with a Thai - BLOCK, DON'T CATCH. My left arm has some pretty awesome velcro burns from all the catching I was doing. He did teach me an awesome sneaky little trip manuever that I can't wait to test out. After that I got to work some leg kicks with Apirak and clinch with the twins. At the very end of clinching, Apisit pulled some sneaky-sneaky on me and I rolled my big toe on my left foot. No me gusta. Minor sprain, probably going to miss out on the next 3 - 4 days of training. Really bummed about that but what can you do? I'll probably just go crazy, sounds about right.

During the afternoon session, a Thai (western) boxing champ came to the gym to spar with Apisit. Seriously brutal sparring session, Apisit must've outweighed the boxer by 15+ lbs. It was awesome seeing the difference in the way they moved and threw their punches. They both had some serious respect for eachother and did just enough to train efficiently but remain injury free, total pleasure watching that go down. I have a video on my camera but I think it was unfocused. I'll throw that up when I get home.

Everyone got some pads and technical sparring today, all the nak muays getting into the mix and having an all around fun time. Everywhere I looked, everyone was learning something be it a significant technique or just a little tweak to up their game. Pornsaneh got into the mix and worked with Wyatt and one of the Norwegians who has a fight saturday. Pornsaneh has some seriously hilarious communication skills outside of some decent English. The squeaks, grunts, groans and yells make you like him just that much more. He worked a few combinations and some tricky teep stuff with Wyatt all while putting on a one man comedy show.

sidenote: It is awesome seeing him teach and explain actual tried-and-true techniques you can catch him using in the ring on his poor, poor opponents.

Afterwards, we ate some Grade A chow complete with baby octopi (taste like shrimp - don't forget to remove the beak!) and some really good soup that had chicken bones and whathaveyou in it. I like the fun food like that, bugs are next on the list. Wyatt, Brendo, Jake #2, Ian and myself walked to Tesco and grabbed some food. I got packaged pineapple slices for 4.25bt (about 14 cents) and some "thai melon" which brendan accurately described as "cantelope that had been submerged in water for years." Brendan got a pack of oreos that were half peanut butter half chocolate flavor...all heaven. Best part about Thailand: oreos are cheaper than dirt and come in exclusive flavors. Before I leave, I will gorge myself on ice cream flavored oreos.

Yeah, you read that right.

ps: There might be a gap in entries unless I can get Burkinator to post up some stuff. I won't be doing much but complaining and grumpin' until my toe gets better.

Day 2: Monkeyin' around.

My sleep (or lack of) has been rough but I think as I type this, I feel adjusted to the time change and plan on getting a great night's sleep tonight.

After 4 hours of solid (buh) sleep, we watched some riveting tennis on the television - if it's a sport, the Thai's love it. It's genuinely funny to see them "OOOWWWAAAAY" at just about anything with a ball, haha. After a quick breakfast, the camp packed up, Mama (Pii A's mother - greatest cook in all the land) and another woman (whom I'm not quite sure who she is yet...) packed up some food and cooking supplies, all the farang in one van and the rest of the Thai's in another and we made our way out for the day.

First stop was to Wat Tum Seu. Truly a beautiful site - this one started off with a hundred+ step staircase. I honestly don't know how many steps there were but there were enough that they had an automated cart that would bring you to the top incase you weren't up for the challenge. Right away all the nak muays and a few of the foreigners went for a full sprint up the stairs, instant butt-burner. A giant 60 ft Buddha, humongous gongs and various other religious statues awaited us at the top (once I figure out how to add pictures, this blog is sure to be littered with them).

The average age of the nak muays is on the younger side, Pornsaneh being the oldest at 30, the twins 23 years old, their cousin just a little bit younger (20-21?), Muu who is 19 and a few others who can't be any older than 15 at the most. Once the guys caught site of the gongs, they immediately made their presence known! Plenty o' gong banging and laughs to be had. While taking a stroll, I came upon a building that had a tree growing into it from the ground, surrounded by a small pool of water with a giant 4 ft ladle in it and next to the tree was a sign written in Thai. A few of the nak muays came in, wai'd to the sign, said a prayer and began scooping water out with the ladle. I kind of just stood there, probably with my mouth open, as the nak muays began taking handfuls of water out and patting their faces and necks down with it. I would assume the prayer was a thank you for the water one would use to cool yourself down with ala holy water in a church back at home.

After the Wat, we all packed back in and made our way to our next destination -- Erawan National Park. Before the park we did hit a food stand and chowed briefly. Alex, our South African friend at the camp who teaches English in Kanchanburi, stays at the camp and trains every Saturday and Sunday, attempted to teach me a little bit about Thai script and how to read Thai. He managed to stop just before my head exploded as I still struggle with mastering my own language.

Upon entering the park, we noticed the huge amount of other farangs here as well which gave us a good read on how popular the park was for tourists. The farang managed to find a booth that gave everyone their coffee fix and we were soon on our way. After a short 5 minute walk, we came upon some signage warning us of "ferocious monkeys" and their thieving ways. Almost like clockwork, a little monkey swung down from the trees and snagged this woman's purse right out from her hands and began digging through it, slamming anything down that didn't interest him. Not only was going to the park and seeing the waterfalls on the list of stuff to do, but seeing a monkey doing mischevious monkey things was just the icing on the cake and the day had just begun.

Soon we came upon the first of 7 waterfalls. Mama and her friend set up a picnic blanket and immediately got to preparing food while we all got ready to swim. Pii A had made a 100bt bet with one of the Norwegians - if Chris could catch a fish with his hands before they left he would get his 100bt, if not - the Norwegian would owe him 200bt.

At the edge of the water were 20+ fish (carp?) all looking for some chow, be it dead skin off your foot, crumbs or anything else. While none of them posed a threat, it was a little unnerving at first but if anything it gave you a little push to swim just that much faster to get to of the water. The water was pretty cloudy so you were sure where the ground was, if there were any rocks sticking up...eh, whatever. We all jumped in and swam to the little cave under the waterfall where we would hang out and swim back. We visited the 2nd, 3rd and 4th waterfall before heading back to eat. The 4th waterfall had two natural rock slides which we went down every which way we could, stomach down, facing backwards, in groups...I managed to slip and barrel ass down the slide in the least graceful way possible. Sounds about on par for the Jakeman.

Day 1: Train hard, sleep harder.

(I should preface this entry, it is actually Day 2 at 4:30 am. My sleeping schedule is all outta whack and I don't foresee getting anymore sleep any time soon so apologies if I'm all over the place.)

Day 1 saw Brendan and I roll up to the camp with Pii Mot (not only was he punctual, he was exactly where we were told he would be in the airport, anxiety steadily decreasing!) at the ungodly hour of 3 am after sitting on a plane for 17+ looooong hours. Suprisingly, Abigail (the camp's contact for anyone wishing to stay) and Kru Mee had woken up and come to greet us with sleepy smiles. Talk about dedication. After showing us to our room, Brendan and I dropped our stuff, explored the room and hit the sack...

Ok, not so much. Brendan hit the sack facefirst and konked out quick. I struggled with the zipties (next level anti-airport staff thievery prevention, thanks Dad.) on my bag as I wanted to unpack, finally laying down after 20 mins of figuring out a wire hanger would do the trick. 

Just as I thought, I laid in bed restless super amped up at the thought of meeting new people, kicking pads and sparring with nak muays that I have spent countless hours of my last year watching on youtube and eating strange food with names I couldn't possibly pronounce. I figured it must've been about 4 - 4:30am when I finally passed out after setting my alarm for 6:10am, excited to join the morning run.

Still running off of tired energy, I laced up my runners and headed out to the main area. As some of the nak muays were still waking up, I was greeted by Pornsaneh and Apisak. Pornsaneh was getting ready to go home for the weekend to celebrate his birthday. Some of the other foreigners began to emerge from their rooms and headed straight to the community fridge to put something in their bellies before the run. Wyatt and Jen, both from 5 Points Fitness in New York and then several Norwegians would soon follow.

Once the remaining nak muays were ready, Kru Mee hopped on his motorbike and led us on a 20 min run (3-4k maybe?) done at a pretty relaxed pace. I kept stride with Wyatt, talking about home and wasted youth the entire run making for an easy time. The morning running path brings us past some open fields to one side and a river to the other, some food stalls and some very relaxing visuals. One of the dogs from the camp ran with us, keeping an eye on the other local dogs who all seem to have an issue with human beings running past them. Grumpy bastards.

We returned to the camp and some wrapped up and hit the bags, some stretched. I was called into the ring after a few rounds on the bag to hit pads with Kru Daam - something I was looking very much forward to prior to coming to the gym. Known for developing KO-worthy hands amongst other things (See: Pornsaneh's career) I was siked to be able to focus on something I need to improve while being here. Kru Daam immediately started working with me on my left hook through his very limited english skills but his very easy to understand body language.