Category: Thailand

In another world, I was a warrior.

Maybe it was another life. Many months ago, I left Thailand behind. I left with bruises, for sure, though disproportionately less than I should have considering the beatings I had been taking. I credit much of this to the healing properties of yoga, Reiki, thai massage, and what the Thai call pran.

I left on this journey around the world to finish something I started a long time ago. To change the direction my life was headed; to bring new things into my life. That’s exactly what I have done.

Meeting Simon was really just the next step, I suppose.

Zsofi and I were both excited to get to Thailand. I was much more interested in Muay Thai training, and she was more into cooking, yoga, kiteboarding, and all the other fantastic things that are right at your fingertips on Phuket.

Part of my training was early morning yoga with Simon the Yogi. It’s hard to just jump up and run off to being beaten on all day without a little warm up and stretching first. I watched trained fighters make this mistake and pay for it with their bodies. Only part of the yoga was physical, though. Simon spoke to us through the whole hour, waking up our minds and getting us ready for a day full of possibilities.

“This is not an ashram or a temple: life here is different. With the sounds and clatter of battle around you, you cannot fool yourself. You are not a monk. You are a warrior.”

Also, he often sounded like a complete madman.

Simon didn’t just do yoga, he taught weapons classes; stick fighting, krabi krabong, and knife offense and defense. When he spoke about using weapons it was again with mysticism.

“You are performing sorcery. You are causing solid objects to move around your body in geometric patterns.”

Given all the exposure I had to Simon’s particular brand of  acceptable lunacy, I had a great deal of time to chat with him about energy, pran, ki, chi, chakras; the intangibles.

One afternoon, somewhere between the spirit house and the giant golden Buddha, over the sounds of battle, Simon told me he did Reiki attunement, and I was immediately onboard.

Sundays are the only day of rest at Tiger. Hence on Sundays, when Simon wasn’t off in the jungle somewhere, he would sometimes initiate the curious into the world of Reiki.

I was concerned that it wouldn’t ‘work’ for me. Somehow, after traveling halfway around the world, running with the bulls, working with the IDF, riding camels through the Sahara, making friends in every corner of the globe, I still believed that there was something uniquely and fundamentally ‘wrong’ with me; that I couldn’t do it.

Simon tapped into this and in his own way, tailored everything he said towards it.

“Inadequacy is an illusion,” he would say to me. “You can do all of this. Effortlessly.”

Effortlessly. He kept saying that word all day, it just kept coming up; through the smoke, over lunch, through meditation and Reiki sessions.

Years later, I have been given more Reiki attunements. I have experienced numerous healing modalities, and even endeavored to make some of them my own. If you are interested in learning more about Reiki or Yoga, just google your area. Enlightened people are everywhere. It may change your life in some small way. For me, I can say it has given me a number of tools for making my life easier, though perhaps not quite “effortless” as was promised. I still hear his words sometimes, echoing in my memory. And so I offer them to you, dear reader.

“Protect me. Evolve me to the highest good. and all else too.”

After getting in touch with the softer side of things for a couple weeks at the Shivagakomarpaj Thai Massage School in Chiang Mai, I decided it was time to go back and beat people up again. Tiger Muay Thai was more than happy to have me back.

This time, instead of straight fight training, I decided to mix it up, start doing some more weights and taking part in their Crossfit/Bodyfit challenges; like Beach Day.

Beach Day is a 2 hour montage of pain sprinkled with humiliation.

First off, we load a van up with a bunch of these tires attached to ropes.

Then we drive to this picturesque beachside cliff.

Then we all lose our minds.

We begin the exercises by doing backwards pushups up 5 flights of steps; 2 larger and three smaller. We do this 4 times. We sweat a lot.

Sometimes we take breaks.

It kinda looks like this…

Afterward, we form up in groups of 3. We take turns running up and down the 2 larger sets of stairs carrying one of these lovely tires overheard, and doing 10 squats at the top and bottom of the flight of stairs, handing it off to a partner each time we come up or down. After one has done 10 squats at top and bottom, then drop to 9 squats, top and bottom, then 8, and so on until you reach 0.

Then tourists decide they want to act the part…

Then we sweat some more.

So, that was a pretty good warm-up for the real monster exercise of the day… The Hill.

The Hill doesn’t look like much at first glance. It’s about 200 meters downhill to a 90 degree bend in the road where it goes out of sight. We are supposed to split up into teams of 3, grab a tire and run up and down the hill twice performing hundreds of various exercises at the bottom, midway, and top.

What you don’t realize the first time, is that the 200 meters of the road is just the beginning. The road is roughly 1 kilometer each way. Thankfully, traffic is light and usually just the occasional scooter, so if you do fall down from exhaustion, you probably won’t be killed by oncoming vehicles.

This is where most of the “first-timers” walk away. From the stairs to the top of the hill, somehow half of the people disappeared. That left myself and Joe as a 2 man team to drag the accursed tire rather than 3.

I wish I could say I was more of a help than a hindrance, but Joe took the tire almost 90% of the way. He was a powerhouse.

Finally, after buckets of sweat and a handful of “I Quit” moments, we dragged our tire and tired bodies to the top of the mountain. We would have celebrated if we had any energy left. As it was, we just lay there for a while, baking like roadkill in the sun.

After everyone could walk again, we made it to a little beachside bar and got a round of fresh coconuts to rehydrate and laugh about how crazy we all were for doing this willingly.

Tiger is one of those places in life where you can work as hard or as little as you like. The half asses sort of sift to the bottom of the pile, and the people who really go for it form a fantastic friendship through the blood, sweat, and tears of it all. I’d like to say this will be an annual vacation for me, but I’ve no idea what’s in store for me after this trip. I do know this; I will be back again. This was just too much fun.

Wrap-Up:

Tiger Muay Thai and MMA

http://www.tigermuaythai.com/

tmtphuket@gmail.com

TMT Office:+66 (0)76 367 071

TMT Office (alt. nr):+66 (0)76 367 072

Night Office:+66 (0)86 596 9090

Bookings:+66 (0)80 519 8234

BlackBerry Messenger:310208FD

Stories of Chiang Mai were some of the first things I ever heard about Thailand. I knew the city existed before I knew anything about it.

Anyone can get along here just fine. Like most of Thailand, Chiang Mai is set up to allow tourists the ability to do anything their little heart desires with the greatest of ease. There are, however, some very special things that happen her.

Chiang Mai is renowned for classes. There are a number of universities and specialty schools here that teach everything from the remedial to the spiritual. Unfortunately, they are not all in the same place.

Chiang Mai is something of a rectangle. There is a wall ( or sorts) surrounding the inner city with 4 gates. These gates provide easy navigation points for directing taxi and tuktuk drivers.

One of the most important things to know about getting around this town is the red and yellow trucks. The red trucks will drive around and take anyone to anywhere for 20 baht, or about 65 cents. The yellow trucks drive along relatively fixed routes through the city and will take passengers for 10 baht. Flag them like a taxi, state your destination to the driver who will then accept you or not. Do not ask how much it costs, because the driver will then seize the opportunity to make some extra money off of you; just jump in. When you arrive at your destination, pay the man the correct amount and go on your merry way.

If the driver asks for a different amount, simply correct him before getting in or find another truck. they come along often enough.

Chiang Mai is home to the largest amount of proper motorcycles I have seen since I was at the MotoGP race in Brno last year.

Chiang Mai is very geared towards the tourist. You can rent bikes, motorbikes, ride elephants, play with tigers, or attend classes in almost anything you can imagine. My primary reason for being here was learning Thai Massage, but I managed to squeeze in some cooking classes too. The cooking classes in Chiang Mai are a fraction of the cost of the classes in Phuket, fyi.

One thing I missed out on that I hope someone will do and inform me of how cool it was, is the Jungle Survival Cooking Course! You can schedule it with the booking agent at +66-53-208-661, but in order for the class to run, they need a few people interested in it, or you have to pay for 2 spots. When I checked the class was 1200 baht; less than $40 a person.

There are plenty of great places to eat in town; Fat China Man’s BBQ, Jerusalem Falafel, Starbucks… take your pick. Odds are, if you wander into any restaurant in town, you will get a great meal at a decent price. Fair warning, the owner of Jerusalem Falafel is never in a good mood, but the food is definitely worth it!

Breakfast…

Don’t plan on being an early riser to catch the proverbial worm. Nothing seems to open here until after 8 a.m. Not even the coffee shops. The Starbucks in town doesn’t open until 10 a.m.

If you are looking for a unique treat, head to the Chiang Mai Gate (south gate) market and find the sticky rice vendors. They cook sticky rice inside bamboo tubes that you can peel like a banana!

While in Chiang Mai I attended an insect riddled classical music performance, I saw tiny motorcycles, met all kinds of wild people, and generally enjoyed myself. That does not mean that Chiang Mai is a particularly enjoyable town.

Chiang Mai is something of a funnel, designed over time, to draw as much money from tourists into the local economy. This is not necessarily bad, it’s just what happens when enough tourists come to a town with money. It’s a great place to enjoy a couple of days off, book a tour somewhere, or learn some new skills, but if you are going to be based here, try to get out of the city as much as possible to really enjoy the area.

Hopefully, this short guide will give you a few things to do and see and make your life a little easier while you are in town. Cheers!

Wrap-Up:

Chiang Mai is great… for tours and classes.

There is a ton of good food here. Look around.

Red trucks are the best way to get around town. Yellow Trucks are a little more difficult to work with, but are half the price.

There are so many tour agencies here that any question you have about almost anything can be answered in a very short time just by asking around.

Protip: I am told that The Tiger Experience is awful; don’t waste your money by helping those people profit off their poor treatment of the animals.

Old Medicine Hospital, Chiang Mai, Thailand. That’s my new address.

I’m tired. I’ve been crawling around on the floor a lot lately. I enrolled in a massage school in Chiang Mai Thailand to absorb a couple weeks worth of training in the healing arts before I go back to getting bashed in the face at Tiger Muay Thai.

It’s been interesting.

Thai massage is something of a mix of wrestling, yoga, and chiropractics. Add in some basic chakra points and energy lines and you have the lovely art that I have been practicing lately.

I am thrilled to be in Chiang Mai. This is one of the first places I ever knew existed in Thailand. Koh Samui and Chiang Mai were the two places I was told I had to visit in Thailand. I haven’t made it to Koh Samui, yet.

The Old Medicine Hospital houses the Shivagakomarpaj Thai Massage School. I still don’t know how to accurately pronounce that.

The establishment itself is great. They have a fanatical security guard on duty all night, good wifi coverage, and plenty of instructors. Some of which are retired ladyboys… like I said: Interesting.

The part about this place that grabs your attention is that lodging is included in the 6000 baht a week price, and there is a discount for booking ahead. The lodging is extremely basic, but not bad. There is also a great penthouse at the top of the building that you can rent for 380 baht a night, about $12, which is well worth the money.

The crew here have been astounding. People from all over the world (the only Americans all seem to be from the Bay) and everyone is so easy to be around 12 hours a day.

The day starts about 8 am with a call to prayer, some chanting and singing around an ornately decorated statue. Fresh flowers, food, water, and (what looks like) alcohol are placed out for the spirits every morning.

We then head to the classroom (no cameras allowed) and watch the instructor bend, twist, and grope one of her coworkers for a couple hours. Afterward, we get a couple hours to practice and are released for lunch. After lunch the afternoon session is similar and the classrooms close down around 6 p.m.

Everyone grabs some dinner and then finds areas to practice the new moves into the night.

Some nights are different: Linda throws a dinner party at her tiny apartment, Cameron performs for a new bar on opening night.

My instructor, Fai, is always smiling. Even when she is telling me I am doing it wrong; which is pretty often.

At the end of each week, there is a 2-part exam on the material learned that week; both hands on and written.

At the end of the second, third, or fourth (etc) week, when people are graduating, they hold a special ceremony where your spirit is bonded to your body with a white string; something like the Sou Khuan in Laos. They put a dob of paint on your forehead and offer a prayer over you, but I don’t know what all that was all about. Good fun, though.

I passed my exams; flying colors and all that. But I need to keep practicing. If I am going to be in your neighborhood, beware; I will need practice dummies!

Wrap-Up:

Shivagakomarpaj Thai Massage School.
Phone  : 66 53 275085
Fax : 66 53 201663
E-mail : info@thaimassageschool.ac.th
Office hours are 9.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m. Monday thru Sunday
Office address: 238/1 Wuolai Road (Across Old Medicine Culture Center)
Chiang Mai 50100 Thailand.
Website: www.thaimassageschool.ac.th

Thailand; meaning Land of the Free. That seems to be the pervading theme here. You are free to do whatever you want, but at your own risk.

After a month and a half here, I am still as excited about this country as I was after arriving. The people are full of smiles, and it is just easy to be a farang, or foreigner, in Thailand.

Project Terminator was a huge success in many ways. I dropped a lot of excess weight I had been packing on. I feel more confident with my fighting skills, and I am more aware of where I need to work harder. I met brilliant folks from all over, and really got to know some Thai people in the month I stayed in Phuket.

I still love Thai food! It’s funny, years ago I decided I didn’t like Thai food even though I had barely ever had it. Now with more exposure to it, I still want to eat it every day.

With so many new sights, sounds, and bruises that I found in Thailand, I was often overwhelmed and almost always tired… but I’m going to try and wrap some of them up with a brief, yet familiar, exit interview.

New Shorts! After a year, I finally retired the shorts I started out with, as they had both been repaired numerous times and were quickly passing the point of no return. I certainly did not spend a lot on food. Food was cheap and delicious. Transportation was relatively cheap as well. We caught a bus across the country for 1/2 of what my new shorts cost.

The constant laughter and smiles of the staff at Mama’s! It was a constant bolster after so much abuse at Tiger.

Koh Lipe. Such a calm and peaceful place. Aside from the dog eating the frisbee, it was perfect. Snorkeling off the coast of Koh Lipe for Christmas is probably my best memory. So much fun, sun, and adventure in such a quiet setting!

I need to perfect my defense mechanisms. Both in the ring and out of it. Something to keep working on.

The constant endorphin high of training. Bruises, sweat, blood; all of that made me feel fantastic for the rest of the day.

The Visa! When I entered, I came in through a small outpost on an island, so I was only given a 2 week visa as opposed to 2 months if I had flown in. Luckily, Zsofi thought about it and I caught it without needing to pay for overstaying, but I had to pay for visa extensions and make a Border Run to Burma to extend for another two weeks. It was an unnecessary hassle.

Being punched in the face. Seriously. Simon, Tiger’s resident Yogi, taught us that when great Thai boxers get hit particularly hard, they smile. So I took that into the ring. Every time I got my bell rung or knocked down (which happened more often than I would like to admit) I would smile as big as I could and get right back to it.

Chilis, garlic, sweat, and blood. There was this extremely weird smell on one walkway at the Tiger Muay Thai camp. Behind the kitchen, and between two of the fighting areas in the morning. Once the kitchen started preparing for the day, the seasonings would start to filter out and mix in with the smell of violence, old and new.

Thailand is really “at your own risk.” Cliff diving, boxing rings in bars, a distinct lack of handrails; you need to keep your head on straight. It’s brilliant, but you have to have a clear internal sense of when to ‘Stop’ because no one is going to impose a limit on you. Excess in almost encouraged here, so if you are not careful you will find yourself somewhere you may not want to be; i.e. in a ditch or in bad company. I have truly enjoyed Thailand; in speaking of the country as a whole, not necessarily about the certain areas of Bangkok we all have heard about, it has been one of the easiest countries I have seen in terms of getting anything you could want, getting around safely, quickly, and not getting ripped off.

This is coming from a guy who never thought he would go to Thailand. I thought it was all about prostitution and insane parties, but that is only the most talked about aspects. There was peace and quiet when I wanted it, social life to be had, exercise, great food, and friendship on every corner. Thailand is definitely on my Top 5. Do like I did and go see for yourself.

Oohweeeeee!!!

That was the noise that every one of the Muay Thai coaches made when I punched or kicked or elbowed the striking pads with particular force and accuracy. I can still hear the different versions of the noise and see the associated faces. I didn’t hear this a lot when I started.

In reflection, I remember early days where I was just going through the motions, and I remember the exhausted satisfaction that came from the later days where I gave it everything I had. I have not taken so many mid-day naps since I was a baby.

These trainers are tough. While a professional western boxer may have 50 fights by the end of his career, some of these coaches boast over 350 fights and still counting; they start young. When they get injured, their solution is to train harder. It’s unreal. The commitment level of these coaches coupled with their laughter and smiles kept me pushing my limits for weeks on end.

The weeks seem to have been distinct phases in themselves.

Week one was mostly making my body accustomed to the stress and ready for real workouts. I limited myself to about 4 hours a day of exercise. Then about 4 hours a day at the pool or beach.

Week two was where I turned up the heat. I pushed it out to around 7 hours a day and really just tried to put in the time and eat properly. By the end of week 2 I could physically see the change in my body; muscles appearing in my legs, gut shrinking. My energy level was increasing every day and I could work that much harder.

Week three was great. Energy level was off the charts, I could push it all day. My shoulders didn’t ache from swinging the sticks for hours on end. The bruises were healing faster. I was happier. Everything seemed to be coming together. After weeks with no alcohol, I felt like Superman.

Week 4 was short. As my Thailand Visa  was expiring, I only got to spend a few days training, but they were great. I had acquired friends all over the camp and there was always a friendly smile to be had. The routine felt good. It was hard to leave.

The whole daily process could get pretty gross. I have never had so many other peoples sweat all over me in my life, aside from perhaps a California warehouse party. Showering simply became a necessity several times a day, as did Tiger Balm: maintenance.

I watched some of the other guys go out and sample the night life in nearby Patong and Phuket Town, but I just couldn’t imagine tagging along with them; I needed my sleep, and the stories they came back with were like something out of a comic book.

Living and training at Tiger Muay Thai was an experience like none other. It wasn’t a boring place. There was no complaining, no griping, no politics; it was just people who wanted to be there and were working their butts off for themselves and no one else.

Simon, Tiger Muay Thai’s resident Yogi, said, “This is not an ashram or a temple: life here is different. With the sounds and clatter of battle around you, you cannot fool yourself. You are not a monk. You are a warrior.”

Words had power there as much as fists. We would start every day with the words, directed at what the Thais call pran (the life force that surrounds us), “Protect me. Evolve me to the highest good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

This was possibly the best vacation I could imagine for someone like me. I would love to make this an annual thing. This was a move from apprehension to truth in much the way that this entire trip has been; it was the microcosm of the macrocosm.

When I paint the picture this way, the patterns come out.

This didn’t start easy; training at Tiger was a lot like this trip.  Dangerous, intense, requiring a huge commitment and offering comparable rewards. It didn’t start easy. I fell down… a lot.

As things progressed, I gained experience. Things moved more smoothly, fists and feet started landing where I wanted them to. The sticks that were lead in my arms after an hour, soon became smooth graceful instruments as extensions of my arms.

Training at Tiger was good for me. Now, the daily routine is over, but so much of it stays with me. The friends I made, the coordination, the knowledge, the renewed sense of health and strength; all this I take away with me.

In times like this we learn and relearn that life’s challenges become easier and that when it is difficult, determination sees us through. Soon we are doing things that might have seemed like magic even a short time ago. If you can apply the formula of determination, commitment and consistency then experience will start to fill in the rest and soon, we are performing sorcery where we were stumbling just a short time ago.

This applies to anything in our lives; a huge trip around the world, learning a new martial art, or a lifetime with a partner. We just have to start, then stick with it. It gets easier and easier, and one day someone watching will simply mistake it for being effortless. You’ll just have to explain it to them.

For the end of week one of Project Terminator, rather than just type up some of my observations, I thought I would try something different and toss in a quick video journal. Is this something I should do more often? Let me know what you think.

For the month of January, I will be in Thailand training at a Muay Thai / MMA camp: Tiger Muay Thai. I’ll be training, 6 days a week,  in Muay Thai, MMA, Jiu Jitsu, stick and knife fighting, and even yoga.

I’m calling it Project Terminator.

This is all in an effort to convert my travel worn body back into something of a specimen to behold.

I have a Thai number: +66 (0) 83-392-2967, and incoming calls are free, so skype me if you get bored. Also, if you know anyone in the Phuket area who feels like hanging out (or has a guitar) send them my way!