From Kanchanaburi we had to make the 2 hour trip back to Bangkok to catch a connecting bus North to Chiang Mai. When we arrived in Bangkok there was a bit of messing around and an hour or so wait until we were away. Wil and I were the first on the bus so we were able to score the best seats right at the front. These seats are highly sought after because of the extra leg room they offer.
The trip to Chiang Mai from Bangkok is about 1000 kms and takes about 10-12 hours. After the on-bus movie and a couple of sleeping pills, I woke up Thailand’s second biggest and northern most major city.
The first few days in Chiang Mai consisted of a lot of relaxing, a little exploring, and some moderate drinking. The city is quite large and spread out with a population of about 1.5 million. The oldest part the city is surrounded buy a moat and a partially restored wall, both constructed approx 700 years ago to keep the marauding Burmese from attacking. Visually the city is like any other in Thailand, but there is a more relaxed feel to it than most places. The locals are nicer and everything is that little bit cheaper. Maybe something to do with the altitude...
After a few days Wil disappeared further North to go on a trek with some of the hill tribes around the town of Pai. I stayed in Chiang Mai to train at a Muay Thai gym.
Muay Thai is Thailand’s own martial art. It is similar to western style boxing or kick boxing but uses feet, legs, knees, elbows, and grappling as well as the fists. Professional fighters start at a young age and train twice a day for 2-3 hours each session, six days a week. A training regime for a single session usually consists of an 8-10 km run, 15-20 minutes of skipping, stretches, shadow boxing, drills, sparing with a trainer, bag work, sparing with a partner (semi contact), grappling, a light weights session, and some cool down stretching. There are usually a lot of pushups and sit-ups thrown in there as well.
Sound like fun?? Well it’s not quite as horrific as you’d think. The trainers don’t push you much past your current level of fitness. To start out you do a much lighter version of the standard training session and work your way up a more intense workout. As you can imagine, after 6 weeks of partying and very little exercise my body wasnt going to enjoy working out very much. My first session was one that I would rather not speak of again! To say that I was fatigued would not really describe how my body felt afterwards. In fact there is yet to be a word created to describe how *#@!ed I was! The next day I was so sore and stiff that my second attempt of a workout was even more pathetic that the first! By the third day my body had adjusted and was able to withstand the rigours with minimal fuss. I trained for a solid week before I had a day off, and after just 7 days was I feeling pretty good and really getting into it.
Every Tuesday and Friday night there are professional fights in Chiang Mai and the whole gym (staff and students) go along to support their fighters.
Fight nights are a great experience. Even for those who aren’t into that sort of thing. There are usually 8-9 fights and it will typically go from 8pm to midnight. In the 10 days that I trained I saw about 30 fights at various venues around the city. Fighters of all ages, weight divisions, gyms, and districts beat the crap out of each other for titles and prize money. There is always a fantastic atmosphere and the crowds really get into it. Some would argue that boxing is just a brute sport, but there is an incredible amount of tactics and planning that goes into a fight. Not to mention the amount of training it takes to be a winner. Plus all the fighters are the nicest people Ive met so far, and they all have a drink together after the fights.
Before I could finish my 2 weeks at Chai Yai gym, Chiang Mai was partially flooded and the gym was under a foot of water. Not knowing when the waters would subside I decided to bin the last few days of training and head further North to meet up with Wil in Pai.
Laters
Roh
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