Sor Vorapin Gym .. Sucks!
September 18, 2008 by admin · 11 Comments
Of course, that’s just my opinion. I ended up at the Sor Vorapin gym nearby Khao San road on a Sunday simply because Kaewsamrit gym (where I had originally planned to go) was closed. With its location in backpacker central, the trainers at Sor Vorapin gym have a lot of experience when it comes to teaching foreigners – which is usually a good thing as they can relate the techniques more effectively.
Well, in this case – it wasn’t a good thing at all. At Sor Vorapin gym, I felt like I was viewed as nothing more than an ATM machine. I was asked for 500 baht before I was asked my name. In fact, they didn’t ask what my name was at all! I was simply referred too as “you!”. And at 500 baht per training session, the Sor Vorapin gym is very overpriced. Especially when you consider that you can get a session at Sityodtong or Scorpion gym for half the cost. Fairtex was 800 baht per session but that price is justifiable when you consider how much money they invested into the place. Sor Vorapin gym on the other hand is nothing more than 1 ring and about 4 punching bags in a back alley.
Now, I’m not knocking back-alley type gyms or modest training facilities. All you really need is basic equipment and a good trainer. The trainer I was matched up with at Sor Vorapin gym didn’t know how to hold the pads at all. He would tell me to kick while standing about 2 feet away from me. So I’d kick (as to just be respectful and not correct his teaching methods) and my knee would hit the pads instead of my shin.
This annoying occurrence went on for about 10-12 kicks and I eventually just got frustrated and asked him to move back a bit. After all, I’m the one paying 500 baht for the session – I at least went to get off some decent kicks. Well, I guess he felt like he lost “face” or something because he told me to “go kick the bag”. That was fine with me. I’d rather kick the heavy bag with my shin then kick the pads with my thigh and knee like a goof.
Throughout my session at Sor Vorapin gym, the only bit of good advise I got didn’t come from a trainer, but rather ..one of the students. While I was hitting the heavy bag, he stepped in and started showing me some combinations that he thought would work well for me. I never caught his name but he told me that he had been coming to Thailand since he was 14 (he’s now 22) and that he has now fought in Lumpinee stadium 3 times with his fourth Lumpinee fight coming up in a couple weeks. Here’s some footage I got of him doing pad-work at the start of the session..
I also got some good footage of his clinch work with one of the Thai fighters. While I was watching the clinch-session, one of the other students pointed out the pictures along the wall and apparently the Thai-fighter is a former Lumpinee champion himself. However, it’s pretty bad when the highlight of your workout is watching other people train after getting only 2 rounds of sub-par pad-work in yourself.
I DO NOT recommend coming to Sor Vorapin gym at all. It’s experiences like this that make it worthwhile for me to keep the fact that I’m a Muay Thai journalist a secret so I get to see how anyone who walks in off the street for a workout gets treated.
Again, there’s so many gyms throughout Thailand. Don’t waste your time and money with Sor Vorapin!
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Living With A Showgirl. A Recipe for Drama?
September 16, 2008 by admin · 7 Comments
Kind of makes you want to book a flight to Thailand, doesn\'t it?
Well, it looks as though I’ve managed to bring a slice of walking street to my home life via living with a Thailand showgirl. Throughout my bus-ride from Bangkok, me and the girl I met on my birthday were sending text messages back and fourth. When I told her I was on my way back to Pattaya, she extended an invite for me to stay with her at her apartment. I decided to take the plunge and move in. She seems cool; her apartment is in a perfect location as it’s just a 2 minute bus ride from Scorpion gym; the rent is only 200 US a month and of course, let’s not overlook the fact that she’s so hot that if while I was a chubby, horny, 16 year old, someone somehow showed me what my 26th birthday hook-up looked like through a crystal ball, well ..let’s just say I’d probably be willing to skip an entire decade of my life just to rush to this point.
So it’s been about 30 hours of so since I officially unpacked my suitcase and with the exception of a couple minor arguments, things have been going pretty good. Actually, come to think of it, I suppose arguing prior to even completing day 2 isn’t a good sign of things to come. Either way, regardless of what happens – living with a showgirl surely make for some interesting entries for you to read and of course, it‘ll make for some interesting evenings for me to enjoy : )
Seeing as how the only other 2 girls I’ve officially “lived with” are my mom and my sister, this should make for a unique experience. As for the camps I trained at while in Bangkok, I’ll get the reviews up very soon. I went to Sor Vorapin and Sasiprapa. One was good and the other was absolute shit. Stay tuned for the reviews and camp tours.
Back to Bangkok
September 12, 2008 by admin · 6 Comments
So I’ve went from a modest, all-Thai village in Issan to the huge, mega-city that is Bangkok. I arrived here yesterday via a bus from Pattaya that cost me a mere 128 baht (about $4.50) – not bad for a 2 hour ride. To be honest, I really dislike Bangkok. Sure, it has it’s positives. The shopping is incredible and the girls that you see on the sky train in their university uniforms are really, really hot but .. The air here is very dirty and like any big city, the traffic is insane. I spent about an hour in the back seat of a taxi last night to get from Lumpinee stadium back to my hotel near the MBK shopping centre (a ride that without heavy traffic would have taken about 5 minutes).
I went to Lumpinee simply to check out the stadium (I didn’t have the 2300 baht to shell out for a ticket). It just so happened that there was a fight-night and the atmosphere was really live. There’s a bunch of cool Muay Thai shops all around the place and I picked up a pair of “King” MMA shorts for about $15 (I’m not really a big fan of the traditional Muay Thai short-shorts that ride up your leg while you’re doing your hamstring stretches, thus almost putting your nut-sack in display for everyone in the gym to see). Okay, that’s an exaggeration I know, but I just don’t like short-short shorts. I think I’ll get a pair of the longer Thai shorts custom made. I know Scorpion gym will let you customize your order.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand (I got a little side tracked there) – I’m going to Kaewsamrit gym this afternoon. I have no idea to get there but I have the address so I’ll just give it to the taxi driver and a) hope that he doesn’t rip me off and b) hope that he doesn’t simply disregard my desired destination and take me to see a variety of “ping pong shows” and “soapy massage” venues so he can collect a commission. I’m excited about it though. Kaewsamrit won the “gym of the year” award twice (see video to the right) and it’s where former Lumpinee champion Anawut Kaewsamrit still currently trains as well.
As always, I’ll be bringing my camera along so I’ll get a video tour of the place and hopefully, some good footage of the fighters training as well. My plan is to visit Kaewsamrit gym today and perhaps Sasiprapa gym tomorrow. Sasiprapa also has a very good reputation amongst the Muay Thai community for delivering quality training. After Sasiprapa gym tomorrow, I really have no idea where I’ll be going. I might check out Fairtex in Bangplee or I might check out Ingram or Eminent Air here in Bangkok. I might even fly down to Phuket or I might hop a bus back to Pattaya. I honestly have no idea at all.
Anyway, check back within a day or two for the pictures, videos and camp review for Kaewsamrit and in the meantime, check out this video I took of one of the car stores in the Siam Paragon shopping centre. Siam Paragon is certainly the biggest, cleanest and most expensive malls I’ve ever seen in my life..
 OMR By One More Round Gladiator Tee (Gold or Red) |
 Triumph*United Muay Thai Team T-Shirt (Black or Grey) |
Off The Beaten Path
September 10, 2008 by admin · 9 Comments
My 26th birthday was on the 5th of this month so I obviously went out to celebrate. I’m not going to sit here and claim that I went to the bowling alley or out for ice cream either. Fuck that! I was celebrating my birthday in Pattaya, Thailand so I went right to the gogo bars. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pattaya, I’ll tell you this – this place is known as a “Disneyland for adults” and askmen.com has it ranked as the top “sin city” in the entire world. I train hard and don’t let the temptation get to me but on my birthday – I wanted to let loose.
Throughout the night, I checked out about 15 of the seemingly countless of gogo bars on walking street. My final destination was a bar called “new living dolls showcase”. The girls in this place were all incredibly beautiful but there was one girl specifically who caught my eye. Not just because she was beautiful, but because I actually recognized her from a video on youtube I had seen about 3 months ago and I’m not going to lie – pretty much everyday since I initially viewed it. As a matter of fact, I used to send the video link to my friends while I was in Canada to a) make them jealous that I was going and b) encourage them to book a damn ticket and join me. Here’s the video ..
Anyway, she sat down next to me but started talking to the dude on her right hand side. That went on for about 10 minutes or so but when he got up and walked off (I figured to go to the washroom) I took advantage of the opening to start a conversation. “Hey, how are you?” I said (I’m not very creative when it comes to pick up lines). In true Thailand showgirl fashion, she went right for the wallet – “I’m ok, but I’d be better if you bought me a shot of tequila” she replied. The girls here get a percentage of all the “lady drinks” they sell. I bought the tequila to keep the conversation rolling…
After talking to her for about 5 minutes, the guy who she had been previously talking too walked back but she sort of brushed him off. Awesome! I thought. I drank with her for about another hour or so then we went over to a couple after-hour nightclubs. Unlike a lot of the other girls I’ve met, she actually speaks very good English but not only that, she has a good sense of humour and will joke around with you as well.
Since then, we’ve chilled quite a bit and since she had to come home for a few days to take her dad to the hospital, she invited me to come along since it was an 8 hour drive and she didn’t want to be bored. I took her up on the offer simply because I’m here for an experience, so coming to a place where no other foreigners come too is exactly that – an experience. I seem to get a lot of attention here. As I was driving to her house, we were tailing a mini bus of young Thai army trainees and they got excited and started waving and pointing while saying “farang farang”! The term farang, as mentioned on other entries, is just a non-derogatory term for a foreigner here.
So right now, as I’m typing this, I’m at an internet café that’s located about an hour from “Khan Kaen”. This is the real Thailand (village style). As a matter of fact, the majority of her neighbours built their houses themselves with wood they collected from up in the mountains. The toilets don’t flush (you have to manually pour in a bucket of water). Most people don’t have showers (again, they just use a bucket of water) and her neighbours have a bunch of live chickens in their backyard and when it’s time to eat, I guess they just go out there, grab one, slit its throat and boil it up. It’s definitely been a culture shock for me.
I’ll be taking some plenty of photos and videos while I’m here (I’ve got some good ones already) and I’ll be uploading them for you guys once I get access to a faster internet connection. I should be in Bangkok within the next few days so I should be able to throw up another update then..
Oh wow, just as I was typing this .. My friends sister showed up with 2 chicken/rice meals for me. When you hear people say that they fall in love with “the people” of Thailand – that’s the sort of thing they’re talking about..
This Is Sad
August 31, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
She is five years old. How old were you when you started working?
Well, there are things that I see on a daily basis here in Thailand that really put things into perspective. For example, last night was Saturday and if you’ve been following my entries, you know that I go out drinking on Saturday nights. And yes, I know it’s not good for me but I view it as a reward for training hard all week. Anyway, I was about 11 or 12 drinks into the evening and it was about 4:30am while I was walking to a club appropriately called “Insomnia”. I was with a really hot girl too. Money hungry, yes .. but hot nonetheless.
While we were walking towards the entrance, a little boy (he was about 8 years old) ran up, grabbed my leg and tried to get me to buy a pack of gum. “Mai Me Sataing” I said. Mai Me Sataing is Thai for “I have no money”. It’s become an automatic response along with “Mae Ow Khap” (no thank you) because as a foreigner, I’m constantly being hit up to buy shirts, suits, bootleg movies, watches and as I mentioned in an earlier post – vaginas.
As I was walking towards the club entrance, the journalist in me (I guess that’s what I am now) kicked in. Why is this 8 year old kid selling packs of gum at 4:30 in the morning? Where are his parents? What is the money going towards? So, I had a decision to make. I could either go into the bar with the girl I was with and spend a ton of cash on overpriced drinks for her and her sister or I could go and talk to the kids. I chose the latter. After all, I was too drunk to “boom boom” anyway.
There was actually a lot of them out there. I’d say about 10 or so. The first girl I talked too was 14 – which is about the same age as my little sister. She was selling glow-sticks which, when you think about it, is pretty smart. She’s selling glow-sticks in between 2 after-hour nightclubs that are full of E-Heads (ecstasy users). She said she was using the money to pay for school (2000 baht per month) and her apartment (3000 baht per month). When I asked her where her parents were, she simply replied with “no hab” (no have).
The little 8 year old boy that tried selling me a pack of gum earlier walked by again so I waved him over. I gave him some money and let him keep the gum. After I gave him the money, he slapped my hand, turned it into a handshake, gave me 3 “daps” (“daps” are just a fist-to-fist greeting) and ended the combo with a peace sign. It was really cute actually. I guess he was selling enough packs of gum to afford a TV to watch hip hop videos on. I really wish I had got the handshake on video.
Some random girl then walked by wearing knee high boots and little jean shorts and started hitting on me. She was clearly a prostitute but I ignored her advances and decided to ask her about why the kids were up all night, alone, selling gum and glow-sticks to the club goers. She said that most of the kids are doing it because their parents are making them and that they’re not allowed to sleep until they make a certain amount of money.
I’ve mentioned that in Thailand, often times the kids are expected to provide for their parents but when they’re 8,9,10,11 years old – that’s a little extreme. After talking to the girl for about 20 minutes, I went looking for the cute kid that did the ghetto handshake so I could give him some money and also, so I could get the handshake on film. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find him again. I did however, come across this little girl…
I’d estimate that she’s about 7 years old and just like the others, she was working all night, alone, without any adult supervision. She told me that she wasn’t allowed to go home until she made 100 more baht and that her dad beats her mom etc.
Stuff like this really makes you think. I’ve seen so many orphan kids since I’ve been here. After seeing these kids last night, it makes me have an even greater appreciation for what they do over at Sityodtong (story here). Then of course, there’s the kids that I came across in Bangkok who were forced to sell flowers to the tourists and if they didn’t sell enough, older Thai men would basically beat them down (story here).
Anyway, I felt this was worthy of an entry. Since it’s sort of sad, I figured I might as well leave you with something funny. So, check out this old dude that was on walking street last night. As if the bright white hair and outfit wasn’t enough of an attention grabber. And yes, those 2 gigantic “ladies” he’s strolling hand-in-hand with are actually men. You’ll also noticed that he gets approached by one of the kids trying to sell stuff.
In my next entry, I’ll be doing a camp profile on Scorpion Gym. I also have a “Fon” update (yes, the crazy girl!) and now I’m even more convinced that she’s a psycho.
Stay Tuned..
Touchdown in Thailand
July 31, 2008 by admin · 3 Comments
Sorry for the delayed update. As you may have assumed, things have been pretty hectic. I’m writing this entry from an internet cafe since I can’t seem to find an adapter for my laptop. Since I’m using a public computer, I won’t be able to upload my pics and vids on here just yet for you guys to see.
So where to start?
I landed in Bangkok at around midnight on the 27th. From the airport, I took a taxi into the heart of Sukumvit (Sukumvit is a popular area in Bangkok that’s highly populated with hotels.) The driver just dropped me off around Sukumvit 19 and I checked into the first hotel I saw. It was a little pricey at 1300 baht a night (about $40 US), but it was pretty pimp – I have to admit.
The first thing I did upon arrival was go for a walk. I was immediately targeted by seemingly every Thai person that saw me. They see foreigners and immediately assume that we’re all rich. Nothing but walking ATMs to them I think. I was offered everything from motorbike rides to massages; clothes to… vaginas? Yup, in Thailand, everything is on offer.
I always get mixed emotions when I come to Thailand and this time, so far, is no different. The people are so friendly. And because of that, it’s often hard to see some of the disturbing images that are on display.
One image that took me a while to shake off was one of a girl (she must have been about 4 years old) sitting on an overpass, alone, with a change cup for people to donate. I gave her some money (which I later found out is illegal) and asked her “you have mom?” She replied with a “yes.” I then asked her if she was ok and again she obliged with a “yes.”
Still, any 4 year old girl that is sitting alone on an overpass in the heart of Bangkok at midnight is definently not “ok.” I was telling the story to a girl I met later on in the night (that’s right, I’m a player) and she told me that it’s most likely just a trick that they do to get people to pity her and that the mom was probably off in the distance keeping an eye on things. Who knows for sure though.
In the more populated nightlife districts, you’ll often feel a slight tug at the thigh level of your pants. You look down and see a tiny child (again around about 4-6 years old) holding a handful of roses. Most people just think it’s cute and buy a rose or two for the girl they’re pursuing for the evening but it goes much deeper than that.
These kids are forced to sell the flowers. And at the end of the night, if they haven’t sold enough, they get beat up by older Thai men. The girl I was talking to about it said that one of the young boys had a really bad cut on his forhead about a month prior from a beating, and she pushed his hair back to show me the scar. I asked the kid what happened and he didn’t even reply. I knew by the look in his eyes though that the girl I was talking to was right – he had been beaten.
In Thailand, it’s easy to get caught up with all the excitement and incidents like that are often overlooked.
Anyway, I decided to get out of Bangkok after only 2 nights. It’s not for me. The air is so dirty that you’ll often see the Thais wearing masks over their mouth and nose. If they aren’t willing to breath the air in their own city, then neither am I. However, I will be going back and giving you guys an inside look at all the most popular camps there. It’ll all come later on.
Right now I’m in Pattaya and honesty, this place is insane. I’m pretty sure it was ranked as the number one “sin city” in the world by askmen.com. I fully agree! I’ve been walking around and filming some crazy stuff that I’ll upload for you guys to see in my next entry. I’m also just getting myself settled and I went to check out Scorpion Gym today. I have a video tour of that gym as well.
Anyway, it’s about 8pm right now. The streets are live, the girls are out, and I should be too. Honestly, the next entry and videos that accompany it are going to be insane, so stay tuned. Unless you have a problem looking at insanely hot Thai girls. If you do (I hope you don’t), just skip over the next one then.
I start training tomorrow as well, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some good footage of Ekapol (former Lumpinee champion) in action.
Sawadee Khap…
