Blake with kru Tao, and Eck, plus a monk who is friends with kru Tao
Bangkok
After a wary flight from Dunedin to Bangkok I arrived to the sweltering heat of the Thai hot season, thankfully my Bangkok hotel had air-con. After a much needed sleep the next day I headed to Wat Tong Nai Temple to arrange getting a Sak Yant tattoo done by the Ruesi (holy man) Adjarn Thoy. This is a traditional Thai tattoo (also done in neighboring Cambodia, Burma, Laos etc) done with a metal rod much like a sharpened knitting needle. I had to wait for almost all of the day as Adjarn Thoy was out, so I spent some time in the courtyard talking to a monk who could speak English and was very up to date with current world affairs as he asked me a lot about the Christchurch earthquake. After an initial ritual Adjarn Thoy got to work on putting two large Thai tigers on my chest and the accompanying spells and symbols done in ancient Sanskrit. The Tattoo took around two hours and at the end Adjarn Thoy chanted a blessing into the tattoo. I don’t know if it was the relieving feeling of not having a metal rod jammed into my skin or the actual blessing but I felt an over powering feeling while he chanted his spells.
Blakes tattoo
The remaining time in Bangkok was spent catching up with friends and exploring using the overcrowded BTS sky train.
Bangkok BTS
Chiang Mai
A few days later on the date of my 30th Birthday I headed to Chiang Mai and caught up with the owner of Lanna gym Andy Thompson and my main trainer Taywin Boontham. I trained at Lanna for a few days and even after the first session got a dozen or so pointers and new tricks from Taywin.
Training stopped temporarily from the 13th of April through to the 15th for Songkran, Thai New years. Initially a person would receive a gentle pouring of water over their head by a monk as a blessing to wash away the ills of the previous year, but somehow this has evolved into a massive 3 day water fight involving people driving bumper to bumper around the city in their Ute’s and motorbikes with buckets of ice cold water, super soaker water guns etc as well as giant dance stages with bands. No one stays dry at Songkran. I felt a bit sorry for some tourists who had just arrived in Thailand with their back packs obviously unaware the entire country is involved in a war using water. Songkran was a nice cool off from the heat though.
Uttaradit
On the 17th of April once the madness of Songkran had finished I made my way over to Uttaradit where my wives uncle lives, this isn’t a large place and definitely isn’t a tourist destination as few people speak English and the infrastructure isn’t set out for westerners. Knowing some Thai people here is essential and at least having some Thai language skills. Uttaradit is however the stuff of legend when it comes to the Thai hero “Praya Pichai” who defeated a Burmese general long ago using Muay Thai once his sword broke in battle. It is also one of the last places to teach Muay Tha-So, one of the ancient Muay Boran styles that are relatively unknown to those outside of Thailand. Foreigners are not permitted to learn this style. Even finding a regular gym over this way was difficult and took me months whilst in New Zealand to hunt any information. Fortunately a Thai contact of mine was able to steer me in a general direction.
The day after I arrived I went and checked out a small gym in a slum area called Rorpor Chaud. The gym itself was rustic as. One make shift small ring that was falling to bits, 3 bags and a heap of old worn Thai pads. I was sent off on a 3km run and the small Thai kids kept trying to converse with me in a mix of English and Thai as we ran, mean while one of the trainers followed us on a motorbike to make sure we kept running. Once back at camp and after a short shadow boxing session I was put in the ring to kick pads. At first with a chubby old trainer and then with one of the younger lads. The only thing holding me back I felt was the heat. It was at least mid 30’s and completely sapping. What this gym lacked in facilities was made up for in friendliness of the locals. Between each round I was given an ice rub down by one of the trainers. The whole lane had turned up to watch hearing that a “falang” (foreigner) was training. After pads I had to spar with the same guy who held pads for me, then clinch with him before doing the standard chin ups push, ups and sit ups. This doesn’t sound like much but it was a 3 hour session in souring heat. I was told I could have free training here if I wanted and even asked to fight the next day. I declined the fight knowing my fitness is far from on par and I’m definitely not acclimatized yet.
The next day I headed to the fights that the gym had mentioned to have a look. It was an outdoor event situated overlooking a river. I ran into the guy who had given me the ice rub downs during pads the previous day and he informed me that the guy who held pads, sparred and clinched with me was fighting today!!! I soon learned that these farm boys out here are half mad. The first fight was two young boys who let elbows rip from round one, really taking it to each other from go. Even as this fight was happening we could hear he the sound of thunder and flashes of lightening in the sky. As the fights wore on it started pouring with rain. Instead of stopping the event the fights continued as per normal with the two fighters plus the referee and the ring completely soaked. They just didn’t seem to care, in fact no one did until the wind got up and it turned into a proper storm. Eventually the fights seized. Unfortunately the pad man who I worked with didn’t end up fighting as his fight was supposed to be the next one. He still got paid though and thus returned home happy.
As we found out later, the owner of the small gym I went too just happens to be ex-work mates and friends with my wives uncle. He happens to own a second larger gym. So the following day I headed there to take a look. The facilities and pad work was much better here so I decided to stick around. I did a couple of afternoon sessions with the main pad man who was very technical and took things right back to basics correcting me as we went and also drilling strategy and ring tactics as we went. On the way to training on Friday I got a phone call from the first small gym I checked out asking if I wanted to fight that night, I informed them I better ask the guys at the bigger main gym if it was ok. They were very keen for me to fight, so with two days training (and a total of about 8 sessions over the last month) and 3 hours notice I jumped in the ring in the middle of no where at a temple fair. I started the fight fairly slowly mainly left kicking, throwing a few testing jabs etc. I went to throw a long left upper cut to set up a low kick as Kru Tao had shown me the other day and the upper cut ended up dropping my Thai opponent unexpectedly. I though he might of slipped and he was up fairly quickly. The slow first round feel out continued for a bit longer until he threw a right low kick at me which I blocked and returned with a counter left kick to the neck Ko’ing him and thus ending the fight. I got plenty of offers to fight again really soon afer it and was injury free, I would of fought the next day but my wife and I were going to Khon Kaen to visit more relatives and me to check other gyms.
Khon Kaen Province.
The final stage of my initial month in Thailand was spent in Khon Kaen; many of the best boxers come from here. The likes of Somrak Khamsing, Saenchai Sor-KingStar, and Lerdsilla Chumpairtour all come from over this way. Khon Kaen is one of the major cities in Issarn region; the eastern hot bed of Muay Thai Talent. After initially settling in Phu Khieo which is in the middle of nowhere I drove a further 80km eastward to check out a gym ran by a fellow New Zealander by the name of Paul Wright. His gym is called DonKing Boxing. Now before you wonder if the Fuzzy haired American boxing promoter has made a base in Thailand let me explain why the gym is called this. The main trainers name is Sudon and somewhere along the way he got nick named DonKing. It was a Sunday that I trained here, traditionally the off day for Thai boxers but since they boys had a big fight coming on the 7th of may and they didn’t do much over Thai New Years they were made to train. I did some pad rounds with former super pro samui trainer named Tan before getting my butt kicked clinching with the large stable of Thai fighters that train there. I believe by New Zealand standards I would be considered pretty decent in the clinch, but these lads were untouchable by me. They were incredibly strong in the clinch. The gym here also doubles as a stadium and since its all brand new it’s one of the best set ups I’ve seen.
As my first month in Thailand came to a close I decided to return to Uttaradit to stay there and train. Financially this would be my cheapest option, plus I really liked the trainers and fighters there and my Thai uncle is there for support should I have any problems.
Until my next article, Chok-Dee
From Blake.
Photo Gallery
Songkran / Thai New Years
