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.
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| 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 6 Captain Burke confirms he has a cold and sounds like trash to back it up. Typical immune system eating dirt after a few days of re-adjusting coupled with heavy physical activities. We've got enough supplements and drugs to fix him, mai pen rai. We took a walk today while people were training and attempted to explore outside out mile radius bubble. We walked along the main road in town and with our luck, managed to time it with the release of school. Keep in mind, foreigners (falang/farang) are not a very common sight here so we get plenty of stares and "Farang, Farang!" calls. It totally boggled my mind for a second today as I have never really been in that position, even in my first trip to Thailand. We were closer to Bangkok so it wasn't too outta sorts to see Whitey walking around. Not here, my friends. Being 'the foreign guy' is kinda cool. Little kids look at us like we're mythical creatures and some of the older sorts just think nothing of us - whether it's because we're no big deal or because they don't care to speak to foreigners I don't know but I doubt it's the latter. Nevermind when we say 'hello' in Thai, they damn near jump outta their skin. Most of the time they just smile and return the favor. It's nice not to be completely crippled by a language barrier this time around even though my grasp of conversational Thai is so basic it's almost a joke. As long as I speak slow and clearly, the Thais seem to have no problem using context clues and don't get picky with my lack of conjugation and improper syntax. Brendo's picking up a little as we go too EVEN THOUGH I GAVE HIM A CHEAT SHEET 2 MONTHS AGO, BRO.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, there is a market in next to the Tesco up the road - Thursday's market being the larger of the two. Tonight, Bren, Myself, Jen, Wyatt, Jake 2 and Ian went and got plenty of stares, but most importantly we ate some fun (non-paleo, boy am I wrecking my diet this month...oh well.) junk food stuff. Brendan and Wyatt bought these fried dough/taco looking things while Jen and I got these giant shredded coconut things pressed in a Belgian waffle maker...so essentially coconut Belgian waffles. 100% delicious all around. I also spied a booth selling cooked bugs. I will be sure to get some before we leave, complete with pictures.
Thus far, I cannot figure out how to put pictures on this damn thing. I get too frustrated every time I attempt to so I might let Brendan give it a go. Time to get some sleep as tomorrow I will make my not so triumphant return to the ring and probably just punch. A lot.
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