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.