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.
Taam (younger fighter) went home and will be home for a few days and one of the other kids is sick in the hospital right now, so the camp is fairly quiet. "Jim," my favorite of the younger guys hasn't been around often, I think he's been in the hospital with the other younger one keeping him company. Kru Mee has been taking time visiting the hospital and bringing some food and other stuff.
Day 15: Got a chance to hit pads with Kru Mee today as Kru Daam is sick. For a big guy, Kru Mee has plenty of tricks. I was kind of bummed Kru Daam wouldn't be holding for me today but turns out it was a blessing in disguise. Kru Mee's pads are a treat as he emphasizes the finer points of Muay Thai - specifically defense. His English is pretty good to, he explained to me the importance of defense in Muay Thai and says he says that is the most important thing, in his own words of course. "No block, get hit, no power, no win. Only bad. You get weak, round tree, round foah, round five I win, you lose." It was explained to me that Kru Mee's career was cut short due to a motorbike accident that trashed his shoulder, I have yet to get more out of him but he's always got something to say and he's definitely growing on me.
Pii A returned this afternoon and the pace of the day turned right around. I hit with Kru Yod this afternoon who holds smooth, very solid pads but can get a little goofy time to time. Kru Yod retired in 2010 after a looooong career of 6 titles and tons (I think they said 300+?) of fights and he's only 28. Taken from the site:
"Having earned six championship titles, Yodbuangam Lookbaanyai gave up fighting in 2010 to focus on teaching. He has fought everyone from Saenchai to Nong B, Sittachai, Attachai and Kaew Fairtex, with many notable wins among them."
He definitely holds pads like he fights with emphasis on block / return combinations and defensive elbow techniques. I really enjoyed getting to work with both of those guys as their pace differs and their styles, while relative, are new and exciting for me.
Got some clinching in with Jun today, pretty much threw me at will but I started to get the flow of things as he took the time to point some stuff out and even taught me a few things. He also made a point to let me know that he knew very little about clinching and his technique wasn't great, haha...just fantastic. Kru Yod said he would work with me Friday on some clinching technique. Doug, Jake #2 and Ian hopped in and got a lesson in clinching as well.
Turns out Muu is not fighting Friday as he lost too much weight too fast, or something. I'm not entirely sure what was said but he went home for a day or two to recoup. Wicked bumout but he is only human.
Jen returned from Bangkok today as well. We all ate dinner and made our way to the night market to eat stuff we shouldn't eat and spend money on fake things. Actually, I think it was just Jake #2 who ended up buying a knife or something crazy. We ate some street meat and plotted out me and Brendan's bug consumption challenge next week. The bug booth also sells grilled up mini-frogs...you can bet I'm gonna chow down on some mini-frogs.
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