After a 12 hour bus ride from the border I finally arrived in Chiang Mai around 8 in the evening. I'd already got a guest house lined up and headed there to drop off my bags and freshen up. Didn't do a great deal over the weekend, just watched Leeds lose (again) and wandered around Chiang Mai.
When it came round to Monday it was time to track down the boxing camp, head up there and sort out joining up for a few months of serious exercise!
I should have been a bit more ruthless with the price for the rickshaw from the city centre up to the camp, but the driver was a former champion boxer and told me a few sad tales about him being involved in a car crash and losing his nephew. I like to think that his story was true but ended up paying over the odds all the same. We got to the camp at about 10:30 and it was deserted, but this was due to training sessions running from 06:00 - 09:30 and 16:00 - 19:30 (crikey!), so my accomodating driver agreed to bring me back again that evening, at a reduced rate, for the next training session.
The session was hard and I knew I had some work to do when one of the trainers asked how many months gone I was! Had to laugh at that one but it made me realise that I needed to do some serious work to try and lose the booze tyre that I'd picked up around Vietnam and Laos.
It was also apparent that staying in the city centre wasn't going to be practical when having to get up to the camp for 6 each morning, so I booked myself into a new guest house near the camp and by tuesday was on the move. Apologies to the cyclo-rickshaw driver that I got to take me up there for 100 baht (still too much!) as it was hell of a long way to peddle with a fat falang and his rucksack in the back. I reckon his calves took a few days to get over that one.
The camp was predominantly for thais, but there was such a mixed bag of other nationalities that it was like a league of nations; danes, swedes, norwegians, english, germans, french, belgians, spaniards, americans, canadians, new zealanders and australians.
I won't bore you with the ins and outs of each day (needless to say a routine of train / eat / sleep / eat / train / eat / sleep soon became the norm!), but will pick out a few highlights of my time there.......
1) The belgian lunatic Wix making a big impression on his first weekend by knocking someone out at a party with an elbow strike. This did not impress the spanish lads who told him in no uncertain terms that if he'd have pulled that stunt in Spain he'd have probably been stabbed. No laughing matter and the stand off was tense, however it was comedy as the spanish boys didn't speak a word of english so lots of wild gestures and repeated use of 'loco' meant that the message was understood! (I understand from other sources that Wix was sent home some time after my departure due to trying to trash a motorbike and set it on fire....)
2) The border run to Burma in order to renew our thai visa. The driver was a lunatic and I can't recall him using the brake once on a 3 hour trip! Burma itself was full on, and in many ways like India with the sellers and hagglers following you down the street. The cigarette sellers hadn't learnt the english response of "no thanks mate, I don't smoke" and just kept coming. Eventually amused myself by asking a group of them if they knew where I could buy some cigarettes. Such wit was wasted as they all picked up a box and waved it at me.
3) England winning the rugby world cup. The egg chasing aint really my bag, but it's nice to see the nation win something, especially as we were watching the final in an aussie bar with a load of aussies. Once Johnny popped that kick over the place went very quiet (we can see you leaving!).
4) Completing the morning 12km run in 3rd position, against a good field. Needless to say the rest of the day was a write off for me.
5) The Loi-Krahtong festival on the 8th of November. The explanation I received from the friendly bar staff at the Chiang Mai Saloon (good grub by the way) was that it was an annual confession of the previous years sins, which were 'put' in a vessel that was sent down the Ping river, thus 'cleansing' you, and you then wished for good things for the year ahead as you lit your lantern and watched it float up into the night sky. All these things were great to see, but the real highlight was the cheap fireworks and the fact that they went off under water! This meant endless fun dropping a well placed 'depth-charge' near the vessels in the water and then watching them get blown to bits. I don't think that's in the spirit of the festival........but my conscience is clear by the fact that the thais themselves were doing the same thing.
The main bridge across the river was like a war zone as groups of thais lobbed firecrackers at each other and roman candles were being let off in the middle of the road on a regular basis with people scattering all over the place to get out of the way. It's all fun and games until someone loses a thai.....
All in all I had a great time, met some great people and recommend a visit to anyone passing through Chiang Mai, even if you only have a day or two free.
Check out the website www.lannamuaythai.com
If you want to get there from the city, ask a rickshaw driver to take you to "Kiat Busaba" and don't pay more than 50 baht!
Also, anyone into foreign films (not that kind though) keep an eye out for 'Beautiful Boxer' which is the true story about a thai who trained at the camp several years ago for a title fight at Lumphini, Bangkok, and weighed in for the fight wearing nail varnish and lipstick! with the proceeds from the fight he subsequently had the snip and is now a Katoy (lady-bloke). You wouldn't mess with him/her!
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