Sunday 4 October 2015

To Bangkok, then home!

Three months. Eighty-nine nights. Two muay thai gyms with over 400km between them. Countless rounds of hitting the pads and bags, shadow boxing, sparring, clinching. Litre upon litre of sweat. Sleepless nights and days which consisted of nothing but training, eating and sleeping. My first win in the ring. Friendships made with people across the globe.
It's been one hell of an adventure. And now it is over.


The two gyms I trained at, Diamond in Koh Phangan (left) and Sitjaopho in Hua Hin (right)

It was 5am, Friday morning. My last week in Thailand. I climb into the taxi and take one last look at the premises of Sitjaopho muay thai, still shrouded in darkness. This place has been my home for nearly 6 weeks. I'm sad to leave, as much as I know I will be back.

Thailand has been good to me, good for me. I've begun to realise I'm just not built for that 9-5, career, wife, house and 2.4 kids life that most of us simply accept is our destination without question. I've been waiting for the moment those things become important to me to arrive for some time now. I'm starting to think it never will. It's amazing how taking time out of the hustle and bustle and stress of our everyday lives can change our perspective.

Most people manage a week or two every year, going on holiday and trying their best to forget their lives at home for a brief time. But going out for longer, immersing yourself as much as possible in another culture and dedicating your time to achieving something, rather than simply escaping, is something else entirely. Being away for long enough that all these new things, and the lack of the old things that so occupied your mind and life, cease to be a novelty and become your life. When this happens, you start to question why all that stuff seemed so important in the first place.
For the past three months, I have been able to devote all my time to one single objective: to become a better muay thai fighter. At home, I put as much time to this objective as I can, but other responsibilities consistently pry into the time and energy I have available for it. In removing all those obstacles and distractions, in finding myself free to pursue my passion, to pursue the ultimately unreachable goal of perfection in an art, I found a freedom and happiness that can only come from knowing, truly knowing, what you want.
A truly unforgettable moment, just out of the ring after my first win

And now, it was all over. The next week, I would be back in the UK. But first, I had a few days to enjoy myself in Bangkok.

I'd spent a couple nights in Bangkok on arrival in Thailand, staying on the infamous Khao San Road. However, I hadn't found it that great, the constant nagging of hawkers and rip-off taxi drivers quickly becoming irritating. Being nowhere near the BTS skytrain or MRT underground services, one was forced to take taxis and tuk tuks, many of which would insist on taking you to a particular shop or tailors' along the way, no matter where you actually needed to go. So this time, I decided to book a hotel in the Sukhumvit area, a popular destination for tourists and convenient for getting the skytrain. So here's the (redacted) highlights of my three days in Bangkok.

Upon arrival at the hotel, I took a quick shower, had some dinner and headed straight out. I had plenty to do over the next couple days. With muay thai gear being so much cheaper here, and in need of some new gloves and a few other bits, my first port of call was the Boon shop. Boon is a relatively new, less well-known brand that neverthless has some top quality gear that eschews the flashiness of many popular brands for a classy, old-school look and high quality craftmanship. In addition to my own stuff, I had a significant list of items for people back home at Shor Chana muay thai, and ended up spending over 11,000 baht (£200) without even getting everything on the list!

Being close to the skytrain, it was so easy and cheap to get to the shop- just a 30thb, 5 minute ride on the BTS to Mo Chit, then a quick ride on a motorbike taxi (10thb each way) from the station to the shop. No tuk tuks, no haggling required!
Pratunam Market- yes they drive scooters down there!

Saturday morning I made my way down to the Pratunam wholesale market. I'd read about this place online, and it seemed a great place to stock up on some new clothes at bargain prices. However, after over an hour of wandering the chaotic, noisy and kinda dangerous market (think small alleyways that can barely fit two people across, yet which still have scooters and motorbikes making their way down) I had yet to find anything to suit.

I hopped back on the BTS to National Stadium. Another quick motorbike taxi ride took me to ActionZone, a well known little shop selling all kinds of muay thai gear, mainly from the Twins and Fairtex brands. Here I managed to grab the last few bits I had been unable to get at the Boon shop. Next it was to the Ma Boon Khrong (MBK) mall, the eight-floor, 2,000+ store shopping centre. I was certain that all the things I still needed to buy, both for myself and others, could be found here. I was pretty much right on that one, though it took me several hours to traverse the entire place.
Street food is one of the best things about Thailand

That night, I decided to check out another internet recommendation- the street food on Sukhumvit soi (street) 38. Based on what I'd read, this would be a place I could try all the various delights of Thai street food, something to rival the awesome Phanthip food market in Koh Phangan. Unfortunately, it turned out to be somehwat underwhelming. Rather than a street filled end to end with culinary delights, I found a handfull of stalls clustered around one corner. Never mind, quality over quantity anyway, time to dig in.

Despite being in Thailand so long, I had never tried one of it's most popular foods- som tum or papaya salad. Som tum pu (green papaya salad with fresh crabs) sounded exotic enough, and at only 60thb it was worth a go. The actual papaya salad was nice, but the crabs seemed to be all shell and little meat.
Som tum pu (green papaya salad with fresh crabs)

Soi 38 is, according to my Google searches, home to some of the best pad thai in the city. Pad thai is one of my favourite Thai dishes alongside massaman curry, so I had to give it a try. To be fair, it was pretty damn good.
I really love Pad Thai!

I finished the feast off with one of my favourite Thai treats- a roti (pancake) with banana, honey and chocolate sauce.
Sweet rotis- so good!!

Sunday was set to be a day of muay thai- not training myself, but taking advantage of the fact I was in Bangkok, home of the best fighters in the world, by watching some elite level fights. So, first of all, it was to Channel 7 stadum (actually a TV studio) for their afternoon show. Channel 7 is known for putting on some of the most exciting fights around, and as it's less well known than the iconic Lumpinee and Rajadamnern stadiums, few foreigners go there. I saw only a handful of other white faces in the crowd of Thai gamblers, who made an impressive atmosphere as the fights got going. It was impossible not to be swept up as they shouted "oooeeiii" whenever the fighter they were backing landed a hit. Entry was completely free too!
The crowd goes crazy at Channel 7!!

Later on, it was to Rajadamnern stadium, the oldest muay thai stadium in the world (built in 1945). However, the Sunday night show is not one of the big ones at the stadium, but it was the only one on that I would be able to attend. Despite the stadium being half-empty and the fighters not being the best known ones, there was still a decent atnosphere and some quality fights.

The show finished around 10pm, and I knew I had to get up early as I had a taxi to the airport booked for 6am. However, I wasn't ready to call it day just yet. I spent a couple hours wandering the Sukhumvit area, taking it all in and wondering when I'd get the chance to come back, stopping at a couple bars for a beer. In the end, it was around 2am I finally got to sleep, with an alarm set for 5am.
I opened my eyes. My alarm wasn't going off, so what time was it? I looked at my phone. 7.30am. Shit. My flight left at 9am. Shit, shit, shit. Throwing the remaining things left to pack in my suitcase, I jumped into a taxi. However, I didn't make it to the airport until almost 8.30am. I'd missed my flight. Fuck. After a brief moment of panic, I calmed myself down and went about sorting it out. There was another flight I could get, leaving at 8.40pm. It cost me over £200 to change my ticket, and now meant I had a near 12 hour wait for my flight, plus a 7 hour stop in Doha, in addition to the 12-13 hour actual flight time.

Obviously, I was pissed off. I'd just cost myself £200 and made my journey a shit ton longer. But, I quickly realised, there was little I could do about it now. It was my fault, nobody else's, and I certainly wasn't going to stress out at the airline staff who were just doing their jobs, like you see those idiots do on TV. This was just another life experience, and a big (expensive) lesson. Also, I thought as I actually started to chuckle to myself about the whole situation, it would make an interesting blog post!
A much needed beer in the airport!

I'm not sure how much of my reaction was down to my naturally laid back disposition, and how much to the influence of spending time in Thailand, where losing your cool is one of the ultimate social taboos. Mai pen rai (loosley translates to "don't worry, it's okay") is more than just a phrase, it's a way of looking at life and the world. There are so many variables that affect our lives, often causing us inconvenience or even suffering, over which we have no control. Even things which we at one point have control of, such as getting up on time, are thIngs we cannot change once the time has passed. So what's the point in getting stressed about it? Unnecessary stress is something that almost everyone here in the West deals with. We create it for ourselves, feed it and let it grow until it consumes us. The detriments to our physical and mental health are obvious.

I don't like getting stressed. I'm a naturally relaxed, chilled out person (probably why Thailand agrees with me so much!) and I don't see the point in stressing about things I cannot control. I might get worried about things, but if there is little I can do about it, I try not to let it effect me or my life any more than necessary.

Missing my flight could have become a bitter end to an amazing trip. Or it could just be something to laugh about later on. The choice was mine. After such an incredible 3 months, I wasn't going to let something like this spoil it. This trip was a resounding success, I've had the time of my life, achieved a lot, improved as a fighter and as a person, and learnt somevaluable lessons about life, people and the world. And that's the way I will always remember this trip.

Mai pen rai, guys.

Until next time, Thailand, thank you and goodbye! Khob khun khap!

Take me back here now, please!!

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