Muay Thai, cooking, and more
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2007
1
5
19
Trip End
Ongoing
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Monday - Saturday 6-10 am and 4-8 pm.
In the morning, you do a long run 8-12 km depending on the day then you come back, jump rope, shadow boxing, work on the bags, and then spar with a trainer. 5 minute sets with the last minute going full speed and 30 second breaks in between. The evening session is the exact same except you only do a 4km run to warm up.
Because it is a school that is known for training a lot of foreigners, I thought that there would be more people there like me who were complete beginners. As my step dad used to tell me, "There you go thinking again." I was the only novice and the people were either Thai's who have been there for years or foreigners from all over (Scotland, Canada, Australia, Slovakia, Holland) who had also been fighting for years and were just here in Thailand to do some intensive training before a big fight back in their home country
Lanna Muay Thai
. I tried it out for a week and actually learned quite a bit. In the end however, I decided that it probably wasn't the best place for a complete novice like me to try to take up the sport.Everyone was saying that it is something that you HAVE to do when you're in Thailand so I thought I would check it out. After walking around town one evening I finally found a place that offered the service at a great price. I walked in to an air conditioned waiting room (a much welcomed feeling after being outside in the Thai heat) where there were about 4 women sitting down in chairs. I shyly told the lady at the counter what I wanted and she led me into a room in the back of the building. She didn't speak much English but motioned to me that I was to take off my clothes and put on the towel that was lying on the bed. She left and closed the door behind her. A few minutes later another Thai woman came in the room and we began. She was very pretty and her hands were small and soft. I can't say it was the most enjoyable incident, at times it really even hurt, but I must say, it was quite an experience, definitely not one to be missed.
Everyone should try a Thai massage ;) You perverts.
I hung out in Chiang Mai for about another week and even did a cooking course. I learned how to make several popular Thai dishes, almost burned my eyebrows off, and got a cooking course certificate. It was a great course with a very funny instructor. We even went to a local market to see the different fruits and vegetables
Chiang Mai night market
. I highly recommend it to anyone who goes to Thailand. One day, I walked around the entire town looking at the different temples. While walking, I stopped at a women's prison where they teach the women to do massages and sew so that they can have a job when the get out. It all sounded really interesting to me so I stopped in and this time got a foot massage for 120 baht (4 dollars). I really wonder how the massage places in Chiang Mai stay in business. There are about 5 stores on every corner and all along the street there are also people who put up chairs and offer foot massages as well.I wanted to go to Myanmar (Burma) and was trying to find out information about travelling into Yangon (Rangoon). No one in Chiang Mai seemed to know anything so I just found a bus that was going to the border and hopped on.
