Only a week left! Update: On the road home!

Well, just under a week. Pretty crazy to think
my adventure is almost over. I leave Pattaya Wednesday and head to
Bangkok for three days. There I plan to visit Lumpinee to get gear and
go to a fight. Maybe I'll try to be touristy and visit a temple or
something also. I gave myself two full days there so we shall see what
happens.
This week is going pretty well. My trainer Pon has been in Italy for a
convention of sorts where he is apparently a celebrity. I have been
training with Tia since Pon is not around. They have very different
styles of teaching so it has been fun to change it up for a week.
I have been somewhat lazy about running this week. The hotel where I am
staying has a pool so I have tried swimming a bit to make up for it. I
have never really swam that much so it actually kicked my butt pretty
well.

Update: I thought I was going to see Pon before I left, but
unfortunately I didn't get to train with him one last time. It was sad
to the leave gym. I gave the boys a soccer ball and a dart board that
they were very excited about. I am going to miss them tons. I know the
two that I where my buddies are going to grow a foot and turn into men
before I get to see them again. They are the two in front Dia and Beit. Everyone was chillin on the floor of one of the
rings after a long hot day of training.
So let me show you Sityodtong a little bit. Below is the statue that you
see when you first enter the camp.

When you look to the right of the statue you see
the gym. It is completely open. The breezes are so nice when its hot
and you are training really hard.

Another view as you get closer you can see the
bags lined up, then carpet and three rings behind that. There are also a
few bags behind the rings and a bunch of large tires to the left that
you can't see in the photo. I spent about 5-10min a day before training
jumping on the tires. Great calf workout!
Next is me and Ploy. She runs the place. She is
the daughter of Master Yodtong. She also trains as well.
Here is the camp mascot. His name is "Loi Lan"
Ploy says it means something along the lines of "a Million Bucks" in
Thai. He loves to play and loves having the boys around.
So my last day in Pattaya I went to get my
coffee at the local little coffee shop that I love and spotted one on
the many fruit vendors out front. I stocked up on fruit for my Journey
to Bangkok. These guys are awesome and I only wish that we has them in
the states. They are everywhere here. I think they are one of my
favorite things about Thailand. you can buy a sliced up mango for $.60
or some watermelon or pineapple for about $.30. So good!
Ok quick synopsis of Bangkok because I don't have to long till I board my last flight home.
SO I headed to Bangkok on Wednesday after I had
my last training session with Tia in the morning. It was rainy and
dreary when I left and all the boys were in school. I was a bit sad I
didn't really get to say goodbye to them properly. I left Pon a card to
say goodbye since I didn't get to see him either.
First night in Bangkok was great. I checked into a slightly nicer hotel
for my last three days just to chill and relax and have a comfy bed. I
think I lucked out really because I got a place for about $45 a night
and it was right downtown. The other hotel right down the street was
about $200 a night. The location was awesome.
First thing that I did when I woke up Thursday morning was head to the shop to pick up some gear. I found out it just so happened I was right down the
street from probably one of the best place to buy gear in Bangkok. I
spent about $180 on gear. I got 4 pairs of fancy shorts, new fancy twins
gloves, Thai pads, wraps, and ankle supports. I was like a kid in a
candy store. I spent hours there looking at everything. The ladies were
so sweet about it all. I probably saved myself $30 buying from her as
opposed to the actual retail stores at Lumpinee.
The first day I was only able to pick out some stuff and she had to order a few things I wanted from the Twins shop to come in the next day. So I decided to check out the downtown area where I was staying. I wandered into the Bangkok Arts and Culture building while downtown and it turned out to be pretty great. They had a "short film" film festival going on. Pretty cool to see what artists on the other side of the world are doing.
Next I wandered into the giant mall to look for some dinner. I found the most amazing place to eat and I am so jealous we don't have it in the states.

This Place is called "ShabuShi" It is an all you can eat Shabu Shabu and Sishi place for about $9.50. With the Shabu Shabu they give you a pot of broth and then all of the raw good come down aconveyer belt that runs to all the tables. (picture of conveyer belt above) you just pick what you want and toss it in your broth. It's the best! I went there two nights in a row. I am gonna miss that place.
Friday morning after breakfast I headed to the #1 attraction in Bangkok. The Wat Pra Kaew. Its a Palace that houses this highly esteemed Buddha that is completely carved out of Jade. The grounds have building completely covered in gold. it was crazy!
After retuning from the palace and grounds. I head to the Gear shop to pick up all my new goods. I was so excited. I spent majority of the rest of the afternoon trying to figure where to put everything in my bags. I don't know how, but some how I managed to fit everything. Phew, it literally took a few hours.
After packing I took off for Lumpinee that famous muay Thai boxing stadium. It was amazing and the fights were so good!
I can see why it's so famous.
I have tons more to say about it and lots more pictures but my flight is very close now so I'll keep it short.
Today I woke up early and took a cab to the airport. The first flight went smoothly. Now I am in Taiwan getting ready for my second flight of 15 hours. uggg
This was such a fun adventure! Hope you all have been able to enjoy my blog. I'll post all the other pics on facebook.
See you all at home!

sooo it's been a while

ahh training. In these photos is one of my biggest accomplishments. (well maybe not one of the biggest) See what I'm standing on. That's carpet. As a Farang(foreigner) it can initially be one of your worst nightmares. They don't do it like we do at home. It has taken me 3 weeks of ridiculous blisters to be able to train on that carpet. I did 5 rounds on the carpet Tuesday. My feet have never been so tough in their life. So, even if I am not as conditioned as I wish I could be before leaving, at least my feet are.

The last week has been a really tough one physically and emotionally. I spent majority of it in bed with a fever. ugg. I was only able to train Mon and Tues before it hit me. I am trying not to be too disappointed about it, but it's really difficult because I wanted to be further than where I currently am. Now I am going to have to use this entire next week to work back up to where I was. That's ok though. I'll try to work hard when I get home and use this summer to improve even more.
Yesterday I was still sick and starting to get worried, but today I woke up and am feeling a ton better. I think that I will finally get to have a really good week of training. No more sickness! Yes! I am really looking forward to focusing this last week and a half of training that I have left. Last Monday one of the boys kicked me good and I didn't block. This thing got even larger the next day. It's Sunday now and its still there! I have had it a whole week.

So, being that it's Sunday (my day off of training) and I was feeling good, I went to downtown Pattaya to check out this little cooking school I had read about on the internets. Happy Home Thai Cooking School.
The lady Sheri who runs it was super sweet. She gave me a three hour lesson on how to cook four different Thai dishes. I had so much fun. The food is definitely tasty in Thailand, but this was way better than anything I have had in the restaurants here. It was soo delicious! There were also two other people there taking lessons. They were cooking different food, so not only did I get to eat everything I made, I got to taste what they made also.
Below is all of the ingredients I cut up that I am about to crush and turn into Penang Curry paste.
Finished product: Penang Curry with Pork. It was so good
Now you know I am gonna be makin this when I get home. I am gonna have a Penang party.
I also made Tom Yum Kung spicy soup. It was amazing!
She also taught me how to make Pad Thai. It was good, but I wasn't as excited about it as I was the other two. But I will definitely still remake it at home.

Now to my favorite! I had this dish when I visited Taiwan and I have never been able to find it at any Thai places in the states. Now I know how to make it myself. I am so excited about it. It's my favorite cooked green. Stir Fried Morning Glory.

Yeah, that's me enjoying all the good eats.

Here we all are after a rough day slaving away in the kitchen. hah
The guy on the left was making all different Thai desserts so I made a bunch of notes about how to make them also. I am going to try to have a dinner party when I get home and make everyone Thai food.

Me and Sheri. She has 5 different classes so I might just try to take one more before I leave since I enjoyed the first one so much.
I'll leave you with this sign that was on the back of one of the toilets I was in earlier today.

Don't stand on the seat!

Half way there!

So today marks the official halfway point. Pretty crazy I have already been here 3 1/2 weeks! It's gone by so quickly. I have really been enjoying the time here so far. It has been really nice to explore as well as train. There is a lot of free time during the day that I poke around Pattaya eating at different places and finding different coffee spots. The massages here are amazing and sooo cheap. They are only like $8 or less. I have been getting two-three a week. I am definitely going to miss them when I come home.

My training is becoming stronger now. I still have a bit of a cold which is keeping me from being at my full potential, but I think once it's gone my stamina will be the best it's ever been. Before I got sick I was averaging running about 3mi, then 8 rounds on pads plus sparring and clinching(about 2 1/2-3 hours a day at the gym). My trainer suggests taking it easy so that I can recover, so I haven't run yet this week. Hopefully I can start again in the next few days. I think the most important technique I am learning overall is to be relaxed. This is something that the Thai's master so well. Every Westerner I see get in the ring to do pads is so tensed up. It's such a strength and energy drainer. Everyday Pon (trainer) yells at everyone to relax. Occasionally I get it but majority of the time I forget. Now that I am used to the heat and all my blisters, bruises and aches have healed, I am hoping to really focus and improve my technique over the next 3 weeks.
Update: Training was just ok today. I get really frustrated with myself a lot when I want to push further than what I can actually do. Today I did 5 rounds of pads, clinching for 20min, 100 knees and 200 situps. The pads went better than yesterday, but it's amazing how quickly I feel I get out of shape. I know part of it's my body fighting the cold that I have, but it's just really frustrating. Tomorrow I am going to run a little bit. Probably no more than a mile and a half. I am realizing now more than ever how much more the running really helps with stamina in the ring.
Below is a photo of the boys goofing off and trying to be acrobats on one of the swings at the gym.

In Thailand people have different Buddhas for protection that represent the day of the week they were born on. Usually people will give each other small amulets of the Buddha for protection. There are also different ones for wealth and other blessings. Today I was shopping and ran across this small one at a pawn shop. When I bought it I didn't know that it represented Wednesday morning. I was actually born on a Saturday, but I think the meaning of it represents me more than the Saturday one. Motivated, artistic, adventurous. So, I am okay with having the wrong one. I know it wasn't given to me, but I bought it used so maybe that counts.

My English friends have made friends with a group of guys from Australia that where also staying at their hotel. The Australians friend who they were visiting in Thailand happened to be incredibly wealthy and took us out for drinks a few times and then to dinner one night. They were a fun bunch to hang with for a couple of days. It was also really nice being spoiled.
Only one of my English friends (Star) is still here with her two sons. Both Lamia and Rachel have returned to England sadly. I miss them, but it's definitely going to be worse when all of them are gone. It has been a unexpected and pleasant surprise finding people that I enjoy to hang out with. I feel very fortunate to have met them and am so excited to go visit them all in London some day. It might have to wait until the dollar gets a little stronger. Below is me and Lamia at the night market.
Not only did my friend Star meet the Australians, but her and her boys also met a brother and sister vacationing down here from Bangkok. The girl 17 is in LOVE with Stars youngest boy 11 and he in turn is planning to bring her to London to live with them when he is old enough to date her. They barely speak each others languages, but it is just soo cute. They are all about each other. I will get pictures of them and post them tomorrow.
The brother and sister also being somewhat wealthy have paid for my dinners on several occasions and took all of us bowling the other night. (I love being spoiled!)
Yesterday I found the mother of all junk stores where almost everything that you find at the night market you can find even cheaper here. I think I am going to be in trouble with this one. Definitely going to have to spend half of a day at this place.
Tonight I went out to dinner with Star and we both got massages for $6. Following that we went and had a piece of chocolate cake. It was a really nice evening. Hopefully tonight I can get some sleep. I have been tossing and turning lately trying to get to sleep anytime before 2am. Hopefully now that training is getting better and with the help of the amazing memory foam mattress that I now have thanks to my boyfriend I will be able to sleep more easily.
more to come....

Sick :(

So, I am sick and stuck in the hotel because it is down pouring at the moment and doesn't look like it's going to stop. I figured I would update you guys on the past few days. Songkran was crazy. People throwing water(buckets full-probably why i'm sick) and pasting flour all over your face. It was insane. They really go all out here for new year. I was drenched from head to toe and had flour all over my face.
Here's the girl that brought me to the festival. For some reason people were all over her with the flour.Too much fun, I think we need to change our new year to summer time or make 4th of July all about water. After walking through some of the festival 6 of us took two mopeds across town to another area and this is what it was like during the ride.




The whole thing was just nuts. Although now that it is over it is quite nice to not be getting hit with water everywhere I go on the moped.
So, both boys that I have become buddies with had fights this past week. Dia won:) and Beit lost:(. This is Beit bowing to the corner during his ritual dance before the fight.Dia (in blue) is in the two photos below.
The first one he is challenging his opponent in the ritual dance done before every Muay Thai fight. He's got a lot of spunk in him.

Dia did a really great job. The coolest part about his fight was that I was one of the only foreigners there. This was a legit everyday kinda fight where people were yelling and placing bets and getting in the fighters corners telling them what to do. It was also a free fight which was great. It was so much fun! The other place where Beit fought was where foreigners usually attend and it cost $40. You get VIP tickets, but it just wasn't the same.
At the place that you pay more specifically I have noticed that when they set a westerner up to fight it is with a Thai who is not an equal match. The same night that Beit fought there were quite a few westerners that fought. The Thai matches tend to be really good fights, but I think that the Westerners are set up to win the fights. The Thai's that fought them seemed to be smaller and not skilled or don't really even try. One match was just ridiculous with both the Westerner and the Thai seeming like neither of them had any Muay Thai technique whatsoever. Pretty interesting. It's probably not that way everywhere but who knows. I would prefer to fight where I could feel good about my win and not like it was handed to me. Not saying that they do that everywhere for those of you who have fought here, just saying that this is what i have seen thus far.
At the fight that Dia was in there was a festival going on since it was the last day of Songkran. At the festival were some Thai Cowgirls doing sexy dancing on stage and lip sinking to some Thai pop. Pretty entertaining.
Below my trainer was playing one of the carnival games they had. He was trying to win his girlfriend a stuffed animal.

I was playing this game where they fill a kiddie pool with goldfish and you have this paper spatula thing where you try to catch fish and get them in the pitcher before the water breaks through the paper. Really cool! I need to invent it in the states.
Also, there were a bunch of food vendors. I've seen them at the night market also. They have a bunch of different sticks of meat lined up. You just pick yours out and they grill it right there. Yummy!

A little later during the week one of my new English friends(Lamia) and I headed to an elephant farm and went on an hour long ride. So cool! We bought bananas for the elephant and during the ride he would stop and make us give him one every 50 feet.

At the farm they had a momma and baby elephant. Shortly after this picture was taken the baby elephant head butted me. He didn't want me touching him. He was strong.
I have been updating this post over the past few days. It is now Monday and I am feeling a little better. I had a really bad head and chest cold for the past three days and ended up taking Saturday and Sunday off from training. Feeling slightly better now. Still have the cold a bit but I think I am going to try to train today.
More later...

Week 2

So it has been Songkran all week long! Which basically means plan on getting hit with water everywhere you go. Especially if you are riding a moped (which happens to be my only option for getting to food)
The week has gone by so fast.
Let's see. It has been my second week of training so far. I definitely have felt stronger this past week and am able to handle the heat a little bit better. I have decided to take it a little easier with my runs rather than just going all out and running 6 days a week. It was making my training sessions less than they could be. Plus, I don't run or train this much at home so I figure I have to ease into it a little bit more or I will end up burning out from exhaustion. So last week I did 4 days running and 6 days training. The two days that I took a break from running were definitely my strongest. It's crazy how much I feel like I know nothing even though I have been doing this a little over two years now. There are a lot of really good people training at the gym right now also. No other Americans are there at the moment but I have seen English, French, Finlanders and several Thai's(It's a given).
Here are two people that I have made friends with. The girl is Thai and the guy is French. I find It so fascinating that they don't speak each others languages but have managed to fall in love in their second languages(english). He has already left to head back to France to figure out their marriage paperwork. They are both very sweet. (Thomas and Fon)
Since Fon lives here hopefully she and I will be hanging out more before I leave.
On to the boys. There are a bunch of boys that live at the gym during the week then go home to their family's on Sundays. They are so cute. My buddies are Beit and Dia. They both run with me sometimes if I make it there before they leave. (They run at 6. I tend not to make it there till 6:45-7)
This is Dia showing off.

This is Beit doing his 500 knees while Dia is trying to get me to call him some sort of insult in Thai.

They are both a ton of fun once they warm up to you. I spend majority of my training with them clinching and sparring. They are both great at teaching and their technique is beautiful.
Beit has a fight coming up this Thursday.
Sunday I took off and somehow managed to eat everything in sight. I spent majority of the day at the beach with one of my new friends from England Rachel.
I realized I have no photos of my English friends so I will be sure to get some this week. They are leaving this weekend:( They have been my buddies for the last week. I have spent almost every night eating dinner with them.
Speaking of food my diet mainly consists of cereal, noodles, rice, some sort of stir fried meat, pinapple, and the occasional ice cream.
This was lunch the other day. My first taste of Pad Thai in Thailand! Cost me about a $1.50. It was delicious!
At one point during the week I started getting somewhat ill because I didn't know how to tell people not to put MSG in the food.(Which I am allergic to) It made training difficult for a few days. They love themselves some MSG over here in Thailand. After a few days my friend Fon helped me learn how to say it. Now since I have gotten the tones down most people understand me and I have been feeling a ton better.
I definitely need to update you guys on Songkran but I have to get ready for training now. I'll try to post videos as soon as I can. It is so much fun!
Miss you guys!

So far so good

Things are going pretty well this week so far. Two days down, four to go. I am feeling better than I did last week by far. Looking forward to next week and hopefully being able to deal with the heat. At least now I am able to run 3.5 mi and train for a few hours everyday and not feel completely dead at night. I see the kids from the camp running every morning. They are little athletes. They run 5mi a day plus they train in the morning and in the afternoon. Training sessions are about 2-3 hours. They have unlimited energy. So Jealous!
So let me update you on the last three days.
Sunday I had off. It was a pretty chill day. I spent majority of it wandering the gigantic mall that they have in Pattaya. Didn't really buy much, but got a local cell phone for $30 with 100min on it. Just so I have a local number where people can reach me or I can reach people.

(Side note: Saw two lizards duking it out on my way to leave for the mall. One had the other one by the leg. It was funny to watch.)I ate at the food court at the mall once again and then took home leftovers for dinner. After I had already eaten, the people running the hotel invited me to go with them to the night market for dinner. I went and ate more. I figured why not its just fish and I am training like crazy.

I don't really like fish all that much, but this fish was delicious!

Ate it right off the bones....mmm delicious!
The night market they took me to was huge. I have never been to one so big before. The ones in Taiwan don't compare to this one. Tons of different food and wares for sale. There are a few night markets near the hotel where I am staying but this one was way better.
All in all a good day off. Went to bed around 10:30.
Work up around 6 to head out to run. Only did 3 miles Monday. It was a fairly boring day. Just trained and ate and slept. 3 girls from London showed up to the gym though. They are all very nice ladies. They will be around for a few weeks so that will be really nice.
Yesterday I went out to run and one of the boys from the gym ran with me. It was really sweet. I think his friends were making fun of him but he didn't seem to care. I did 3.5 he did 5.
The girls from England invited me out last night to the night market but it ended up being closed. We decided to go to Walking street instead. (for those of you who don't know Walking street, there are tons of bars and clubs and prostitution there, but also shopping.)
We just went to check it out. It was packed.

Along Walking street and other places in Pattaya they have these fish tanks that people put there feet in for a "Fish Massage". The fish basically eat the dead skin off your feet. uuuckk
I didn't try it.Also along Walking street they have all kinds of different food vendors including people selling bugs to eat. Eeewww
I didn't eat any of them.
The night was pretty good overall. The girls were a lot of fun to hang with. I ended up staying out till 11:30 which is way too late for training purposes. Needless to say I ended up sleeping past 6am today and didn't get my run in, but at least I am going to training.
Today is the first day of Songkran. Thai New year. What this means is being prepared to get drenched everywhere you go. During the next week the idea is to shoot everyone with water. So, when I went into Pattaya today I had completely forgotten about this. I was just riding my scooter on my way to get food and passed a truck full of people with giant water guns. It was all over after that. I was soaked. I think I will be avoiding the central part of down town for the next few days. more later....