Patong Stadium & Ladyboy Muggings

I know, I know – it’s been a long time between entries. It’s been getting hotter here every day so I changed to a room with air conditioning but unfortunately, the internet connection here sucks. It takes me a couple hours to upload a minute long video to youtube and that’s assuming I don’t lose connection in the process.

I’ve also been working on some other projects because well, I don’t want to have to come home. I think I’ll go back to Canada for a visit, but I’d certainly like to have the option of staying or at least the option of coming right back within a couple months of being back at home.

Muay Thai has become a part of my lifestyle now. I can’t even imagine not doing it, or even going back to the Western style classes where random, inexperienced students are your pad-holders.

It certainly doesn’t take much money to live here – and live well – but the whole process has been taking longer than I expected. But hey, if what I’m doing ends up working, I’ll write out a “make money online” guide and just give it to you guys for free so you can just bounce to other countries to train as well.

So as for my training, I’m still at it 6 days a week at Patong Boxing Gym. I’ve spent a lot longer than expected here but that’s just because I like it so much. The location is perfect, the trainers are very technical, you get plenty of pad-work and everyone there is just so friendly. It’s actually a big family – literally. I’ll throw up an official review of the place soon.

Last night I went to another fight night at the stadium – which is about a 2 minute walk from my apartment. Two of the trainers and one student from the gym were fighting and they all won actually. One of my trainers was fighting and I was a little nervous for him since he never even bothered to train.

For the past two weeks leading up to the fight, I’d show up for training and before I started my pad-work, I’d ask him if he trained himself and his response was always the same – he just kinda smiled, laughed and said “no, no training”.

Anyway, to my surprise – and perhaps even to his surprise – he ended up knocking his opponent out in the first round. The guy threw a leg kick, my trainer caught it and just smoked him with a right hook. It was pretty sweet actually. I guess when you’ve been training and fighting your whole life, it comes naturally and you don’t have to train as much.

The whole fight card was pretty good. Lots of knockouts. There was a Thai vs. Thai fight and one of them got his knee blown out from a low kick. I was sitting up in the stands and even from where I was sitting, I could feel the power of the kicks. It’s hard to believe they were only 17 years old.

In another fight, one Thai guy backed the other into the corner and then just brutalized him with jumping elbow spikes to the top of his head. You never see that in MMA competition simply because well, it’s too dangerous and I’m pretty sure downward elbow strikes are actually banned.

Needless to say, the guy that was on the receiving end of the strikes dropped after the third one and just laid there motionless for a couple minutes – I thought they were going to have to bring out the stretcher. Luckily he was alright though and walked out of the ring on his own.

In my last entry – which was actually about a month ago (time flies) – I talked about how some drunk little Thai dude was following me on his motorbike trying to start a fight. Well, I haven’t seen him again since then and if he’s seen me, I doubt he’d even remember considering how hammered he was.

I did however run into a couple “ladyboys” the other night as I was walking back to my room on a deserted stretch of road behind the Jungceylon shopping center. I saw them ahead, walking towards me and I did what any heterosexual man would do when he sees two “tranny” prostitutes walking towards him – I walked to the other side of the road and hoped they wouldn’t follow.

Well, unfortunately they did. And so they approached my despite my obvious disgust. One of them – who looked like a fucking monster by the way – said “let me see” and tried to reach into my right pocket. It was either reaching for my money or something else – either way, it was getting access to either!

I just grabbed its wrist, twisted it a bit and said ‘MAI OW” – which means “no” in Thai. For some reason – whether you’re trying to shrug off pushy street vendors or fighting off trannies on dark stretches of road – speaking even the slightest bit of Thai helps a lot. I think it shows that you’ve been around long enough to be tuned into the local hustles – in this case, it was the lady boy pick-pocking attempts.

Anyway, when I grabbed and twisted its wrist, both of them kind of let out a gender-confused scream – or a yelp. I really don’t know how to describe it. Ladyboys obviously have to make an effort to disguise their manly voices but when it comes to natural reactions, they can’t really do it. Tickle them or twist their wrist when they try to jack you – they’ll sound like a dude either way.

And as for how I knew exactly what they were trying to do. Well, I came here last year and while I was here, I just randomly ran into a guy I went to school with – both elementary and high school. I was sitting at the bar (drinking water of course) and he just walked by. I had to do a double take but to my surprise, it was actually him. What are the odds, huh?

Anyway, later on that night we were walking down the street and every time we walked by some ladyboys, I’d be like “he likes you” just to mess with him. They would then approach and try to molest him while I just laughed it up – and took some pictures of course.

I had to dig this from facebook but look closely, the ladyboy is jacking his wallet. Neither of us noticed at the time but luckily he noticed his wallet missing about a minute later, freaked out and ran after them. When the ladyboys saw him coming, they just kind of tossed the wallet and scattered away.

So I’ve been at the Patong gym for quite a while now simply because, well .. I haven’t really had a reason to leave. It’s just so convenient and the training is great. But I know some of you are wondering about Sinbi and Rawai so I’ll be sure to check them out this week and throw up some reviews.

THINKING OF GOING TO THAILAND TO TRAIN?

I’ve developed a 70 page guide that profiles everything you need to know about training in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya. In the manual, I discuss the visa issues, the Muay Thai camps, the different areas, the transportation, the food, the culture and customs, the girls, the scams, the safety issues and most importantly, how to save a ton of cash along the way!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Training Update

It’s been a while since I threw up an entry so I figured I should stop slacking and get on it. As I mentioned in a few other entries, I’ve been working like crazy trying to get other online businesses going so I can stay here for longer, keep this site going and who knows, maybe have the opportunity to go to Brazil next. The good news is that the other sites/books etc. are almost done so hopefully I’ll be able to shift my focus back to Fight Passport – since this site really is my “passion project”.

Anyway, I’m still training at Patong Boxing Gym and it’s going well. I feel as though I’m improving a lot here and lately, the atmosphere is changing and it’s changing for the better. The owner shut down her original location and all the trainers are now at the new camp in the hills. Most of them are still fighting professionally so not only am I getting trained by them, but I’m training with them as well. This, to me, is important since I find it very motivational.

When you’re running alone or with another foreigner, when you’re tired, you take a break. You’re not being judged so who cares, right? Well, when you’re running alongside a group of Thai fighters, you really don’t want to be the out of shape foreigner that can’t keep up so you tend to push yourself more. Running with them has been good for me since my cardio is terrible – which I really don’t understand considering how long I’ve been here. Actually, I think my problem is that when I’m doing pad-work, I focus too much on hitting the pads as hard as I can that I forget to breathe. I never thought that I’d actually have to think about breathing as it’s something that should just come naturally.

Anyway, what I’ve really been trying to work on lately is the multiple-kicks in succession. Up until about a month ago, I couldn’t do them at all. I’d try and I’d just lose my balance. Having gotten tired of seeing people being able to do it and not being able to do it myself, I told the trainer at the gym here in Patong that I wanted to focus on it and since then, I’ve been removing my gloves and dedicating a whole round to doing nothing but those kicks.

Here’s a video of me working on it. Actually, the video isn’t even that long and you’ll see that by the end of it I’m slower and I look really tired. See what I mean about the cardio? Have a look..

I’ll post another video in a couple weeks of me working on those kicks to see if there’s any improvement. And while I’m posting videos, you have to see these. Here’s some footage from a fight night that was held over at <a href=”http://fightpassport.com/muay-thai-training-journals/tiger-muay-thai-review/”>Tiger Muay Thai</a>. These particular videos feature Thai fighters – and top 10 ranked ones at that – fighting under MMA rules. I really hope MMA catches on here in Thailand because as we all already know, the Thai’s are incredible strikers. Add some wrestling and BJJ to that Muay Thai base and they could really shake up the lightweight divisions in MMA orgs.

I think it would be sick if Tiger took in a few youngsters and cross trained them in both Muay Thai and grappling. The Thai’s start training at such a young age here – and with such dedication – that they’d be incredible by the time they started competing.

Back to the training at Patong Boxing Gym. Here’s a video clip of the trainers/fighters doing some clinch work. There’s actually a gym down the road called “SingPatong” and every now and then, the owner will show up with one of his fighters and they’ll all do clinch-work together. They usually do this when one of the guys has a fight coming up (which is quite often actually) so they’ll have someone different to work with. Anyway, here’s the clip..

The guy you see in the black & white shorts is amazing. I’ve never seen anyone beat him in the clinch. He literally just throws everyone around – myself included – and I probably outweigh him by about 30 pounds. I’ll try and get some footage of the guy kicking the bag as well because it’s incredible to see. These Thai’s are so little yet so powerful. Seeing the amount of force that can be exerted by these tiny guys is really a testament to the effectiveness of Muay Thai as an art form.

On a different note, I have to leave the country (yet again) in a few weeks to apply for another tourist visa. Right now it’s a toss up between Cambodia and the Philippines although I really have to do some more research into it. Either way, both places are pretty appealing and would be cool to visit.

And as for the lady situation, I’ve actually been on my best behaviour despite the fact that I see hot Thai girls everywhere I look. I completely cut out drinking so I don’t even bother going clubbing and it’s weird but the more time I spend here, the more motivated I am to just work. I’ll go for a walk, the scene will be “bumpin”, everyone will be having fun and rather than joining in, I find that I just want to come back to my room and get some work done.

I’ve actually never been so motivated and it’s all due to the fact that I don’t ever want to have to leave this place. But I guess that’s what Thailand does to people. I’m certainly not the only foreigner that has fallen in love with this country..

That about wraps it up for now..

Oh, and about FEDOR/GSP and the STEELERS ..

I couldn’t be happier!!

THINKING OF GOING TO THAILAND TO TRAIN?

I’ve developed a 70 page guide that profiles everything you need to know about training in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya. In the manual, I discuss the visa issues, the Muay Thai camps, the different areas, the transportation, the food, the culture and customs, the girls, the scams, the safety issues and most importantly, how to save a ton of cash along the way!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE