Back to the training.

20^th December

After recovering from Phuket it was time for the morning run and training. My body was well tired, but I took it easy and survived. After few days off I also had much more energy and power to punch the pads, it fell good to let it all out.

I even surprised myself: I didn’t now I was able to kick as high as someone’s head. Hlukhin, the trainer made me try it and after repeating many time that I think I can’t do it, I gave it a go. What an awesome feeling it was when I kicked the pads very high with a lot of power. I sure need to try it again!

After all the training last week my body seems to had enough… again. My ankle is hurting and the runs are getting more painful. Sometimes even getting up from sitting I loose all the support from my ankle and almost fall over. As there are only few days to go I don’t want to give up and have the days off. Hopefully my ankle will recover over Christmas.

I also got a nice bruise on the side of my right knee. For few days it hurt while I was running, but it’s getting better slowly. I did knee with the same knee again into the other trainer elbow and now the bruise looks even bigger. I took a photo for you to see. 

Secretly we all here are proud of our bruises. Weird I know.

On Saturday Hlukhin and Lisa arranged us a farewell dinner. I’m leaving on the 22^nd, Alena on 23^rd and other soon after. We had a nice dinner all of us with plenty of seafood to go around. Very nice night indeed.

Phuket

15^th December

Congratulations to Chris and James for winning their fights. James managed to knockout his opponent; the happy boy was jumping all over the ring with joy as he only needs to win four more fights to be sent to Bangkok. It was interesting to watch him preparing to the fight; he was so calm and also a bit happy, not nervous at all. I couldn’t handle it that well, but I guess he’s born to be a fighter.

Chris’s fight was against an Australian guy, who seemed to be much bigger than Chris. After poor fighting and a nasty elbow on the cheekbone Chris however managed to survive the fight as a winner. All he needed was twelve stitches and he was ready for some celebration drinking. For me it was very nerve-racking to watch him fight; all the hits and elbow he got, it was a surprise he won.

One of the fights that night was a French girl against a Thai girl, an unfair fight if you ask me. The poor Thai girl was half the size of the huge Frenchie. I guess as a girl it was easier for me to relate to the fight and its unfairness; I could feel the pain of all the kicks and punches. The Thai girl didn’t have a chance.

After the fights and the stitching we all went for a night out in crazy touristy Phuket. Few hours and many drinks later it was time to take poor drunken Chris back to the hotel and head back to party some more. Overall we had a lot of fun that night; the trip back was however less pleasant. I was pleased to get back to the island and get some sleep, pity to miss the afternoon training, but it had to be done.

Week 3

11^th December

This week has been emotional and painful.

It started with a mental breakdown; my body was just too tired to survive from the training. I felt like I couldn’t do anything and I just sucked. I wanted to cry and go home, but I didn’t. Instead I took one afternoon off training to get my head together and for my body to recover. I felt much better the next day. During my mental breakdown Hlukhin and Lisa came over to comfort me and talk to me: a gesture I appreciated a lot.

My body is still in pain: both of my ankles are now f*cked and so are my hands, punching is very painful. My right thigh is also in pain as I was grabbling with Jame, the tiny and skinny thai boy, and kneed him hitting him right in the hip bone and causing myself serious injury.

The biggest problem is my ankles as it has limited my running capability. I have only run twice the whole week. First time was to injure them more and second time was this morning with my new anklets. Lisa was kind enough to give me a pair she found so I could run and train better. The running went fine, I can’t run too fast though as that still hurts my right ankle. I did feel good to run again. Now that I’m sitting here with me anklets off my ankles are in pain, hopefully they will survive.

There are less people at the camp now: all the Americans left and few guys are not training anymore. We also lost “Leon” yesterday as he headed to Bangkok and back to his family in France. I wish all the best for him.

This morning’s training was just for a Canadian girl and me. Chris and the two Thai boys finished their training early right after their 8 kilometres run. It was nice to get all the attention from the trainers, I just wish my body wasn’t in that much pain and I could train harder.

On Monday Chris and Jame will be fighting in Phuket, so we’ll be all heading to touristy nightmare to support the guys.

About the training

4^th December

I thought I should tell you more about the training. It starts with a run, then some skipping, stretching, warm-up, shadow boxing, sparring, grabbling, pads and optional exercise such as sit-ups etc.

Shadow boxing I have mentioned before: punching and kicking air, and trying to learn the right technique. In sparring first we normally put on shin pads and practice kicking and blocking in pairs. Then it’s turn for gloves, so it’s kicking and punching at the same time. Quite hard remember to block one’s face while kicking and other way around. Next the shin pads come off and it’s time for only punching. That’s my weakness; I just don’t seem how to block my face properly, but I’m getting there.

Grabbling is a lot of fun, but it takes a lot of energy. It’s all about trying to lock the other one around the neck or somehow hold the other person so you can either knee them or throw them on the floor. Between all these changes for more or less protection we always do ten push-ups, after shadow boxing it’s three sets of ten.

Kicking the pads is where you can really let the power out, if you have any left. You kick and punch pads, while the trainer is trying to teach you the right technique. One round usually ends in ten high kicks on each side with all the power you have. Normally we do two rounds of pads.

After the pads I have started doing hundred front kicks kicking the bag and after hundred sit-ups. Sometimes I also try to do a front kick and knee combination or just kneeing the bag, both of them require a lot of energy though so I’m trying to take it easy while I’m building my endurance.   

At the moment I’m bruised all over my body, my right ankle and calf hurt, and my right hand hurts from punching. Still somehow I manage to do the runs and the training. Sleeping in between definitely helps and just the love for the training.

Train, sleep, train.

3^rd December

The last week has been all about training and sleeping. Every day I have woken up at 6.50am for a 5km run followed by stretching and almost two hour training. After training a jump in the pool, shower, hanging around few hours, eating and sleeping for 3 hours or so. And then the same all over again except the run is half the distance.

Actually I should be running 8km in the mornings and 5kms in the afternoon. I still haven’t mastered the skill of breathing properly in the heat so I stick to my shorter runs. The 8km run is also full with hills and it ends in a steep long hill one has to sprint up, run down, turn around and sprint up again. Definitely something I won’t be able to do for a long time. All respect to Chris and Jame who run it every single morning.

You wouldn’t believe how hard it feels to run every morning after hard training; just lifting my legs up feels almost impossible. The locals on the way make it a bit easier; children are always waving to me on their way to school, sometimes they even run with me for a while, and others passing my bike are giving me the thumbs up.

The training has been great too. After my slight injury in my right hip muscles, I haven’t been able to do proper kicks with my right leg. So now I have developed quite strong left abdominal muscles only kicking with the left. Both of my hips are fine now but now I’m trying to strengthen the right side as the left one is all muscle and the right leg has no power to kick the pads.

All the sleeping really helps with the training; I guess it works well as a short recovery between the training sessions. One night I didn’t sleep much though thanks to a big fat ass mouse in my room.  I woke up at 3am to find a mouse going through my food and running behind the fridge to hide. I hid all the food in to the fridge but the bugger just didn’t want to leave. I even went outside to look for a cat, there’s always plenty around, but couldn’t find any. So I had to sleep with the lights on.

There’s also more people here now for the training; almost ten people are training now simultaneously, gets a bit crowded in the ring. Feels nice to be a bit advanced in the training compared to the newbie’s; I felt quite strong holding down a girl much bigger than be during grabbling. I definitely need to learn more technique in boxing, my weakest point. One day as everyone’s punching bag was not fun at all.

One more day to go before the “holy Sunday”, the day off. Can’t wait to do nothing at all.

‘That’s it for now. I’m off for my afternoon run.      

A recap

29th November

So what I’ve been up to here lately? Training of course, oh and being sick..

Had few vey good days of training even went for runs, but one afternoon while relaxing in my bed I started to feel cold. I turned of the air-con and still I was shivering. Yep I had a fever. One of fellow students here had brought some sort of virus from somewhere, which enable at least 3 people from training. Ah the stomach aches.

I feel better now still some stomachaches once in a while but I’m back to training. Seems though I don’t have enough energy to train, like dealing with all the pain is eating all my strength. I also have a slight injury in my right hip. It hurts every time I kick with my right. I can also feel the pain when I cough; it’s somewhere deep in my ab/hip muscles. So far I’ve been treating it with a hot water bottle and today I got some cream to rub in on it. Hopefully it will work.

I have definitely learned a lot during the 5 days of training. One of the trainers even said I’m good, which felt really nice :). One day I was sparring with a muscular French guy we call “Leon” and I managed to floor him and punch him several times in the face. It felt good to “beat up” a big man. Even the trainers were laughing.

Yesterday, Sunday, we had a day off. The whole day was basically dedicated to eating. We did manage to do some shopping and a tiny tour around the island on a motorbike. And of course we couldn’t leave out muay thai, so we watch fights on TV for few hours.

The restaurant people here have been very nice to us too. One day we bought a fish at the market and they cooked it for us, it was so yummy. And yesterday we also got fish from them. They are very nice and funny.

Today we are expecting more people to arrive to the camp. There are not many of us left now: only five, of which 2 are in Phuket and one is sick.

Day 3

24^th November

Yesterday’s training was good. We started with warm-up as usual followed by shadow boxing. Step kick step jab. Shin in. Block. More hip. Block.

Learning the right technique from Hlukhin is the best part. He looks so scary so you just have to learn. In the afternoon training he said my left kick was good which is always nice to hear.

Now I kind of know what’s happening and what to do, not like on the first day when I was completely clueless. My right shin hurts like hell though when I kick, it’s all bruised up. I put some ice on it after the afternoon training, as I just couldn’t kick with it anymore. It’s like my body is subconsciously backing up when I try to kick the pads hard.

I did the afternoon run too but only got to run it once; there was a big storm on it’s way so I decided not to risk it and go again. A good decision, the rain started after 5 minutes and it was pouring.

The day was complete with a swim and relaxation in the pool, omelette, a friendly game of poker and a good night sleep, finally. 

Day 2

23rd November

The gang returned from Phuket and unfortunately Chris had lost his fight. They all still ended up having a great night out drinking in the “city”.

Hanging around before the training in the afternoon Chris and me were playing cards. Like I mentioned before I don’t gamble for money we started with playing for who gets the water or gets up to change the TV channel. Then we invented a new game we named The Maverick based on the movie. The aim of the game is to find the ace of spades. Each person has three turns to pick a card from the deck, the one who finds the ace first gets 200 bahts. It felt very good winning that money after a long and nerve-racking game.

Some pictures of the place:

First training

22^nd November

Not feeling like my soul had gone to transformation for the better and cleaner, I woke up 7.30 in the morning to get ready for my first training. I was a bit nervous, as I didn’t have any idea what to expect. They did tell me I don’t need to do morning runs since it is more important for me to learn the right technique first. 

First we did some stretching and a short warm-up and it was time fro shadow boxing. I got to learn the technique with the help of the trainer. The most important thing I learned that day was that muay thai is all about the step. You always need to step forward before punching or kicking or whatever. Believe me it’s much harder as it seems like.

Shadow boxing felt weird and stupid since I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Felt stupid punching air in front of a mirror. And the mirror makes me look fat.

During the training I started to feel dizzy, my body was clearly not used to training in the heat. All the sweating made me feel very weak. But I made it to the end and the trainer was nice enough not to push me too much on my first go.

 In the afternoon almost everyone left to Phuket to watch Chris fight, it was his first fight in Thailand, six previous in Ireland. Everyone left to support him and for a night out. Not much drinking happening on this Muslim island and with all the training. I decided not to go: I had just arrived and didn’t want to spend so much money for the trip, also didn’t feel like drinking.

Me and a Spanish/Australian couple with their daughter stayed on the island, waiting for the news from Chris’s fight. Mike the Australian did a training circuit for us in the afternoon, which we repeated next morning. That was our training since everyone was gone to Phuket.

Before the afternoon training I went for a short run, just to test how my body can manage with the heat. At first it was hard to breath but it got easier towards the end.

Loy Krathong

21^st November

I paid for my training and accommodation, took my things to the room, and was invited to a friendly game of gambling. Unfortunately for some I don’t gamble for money so the game was changed to an open poker.

It was nice to be welcome as part of the “training community”. I even got a motorbike ride and a tour of the small town of the island of one of the guys here.  Not much on this island but few shops, a market, restaurants and a seven-eleven. I just love it so nice and quite, well except for the praying calls as the population of the island is 90% Muslim.

As mentioned before it was the day of Loy Krathong, a Buddhist festival. Part of the festival is getting a floating flower thingy with a candle and incense. We got our from the island’s festival area for 50 baht, all hand made by the local kids and the profit goes to the school. 

After slight problem transporting the floaters on the motorbike, they were pretty big and fragile; we made our way back to the hotel. Then it was time to cut some of our hair and nails, and add them to the flowers.

What made the biggest impression on me that night, was the feeling of being part of the family. The trainers, the students, everyone was taking part in lighting and floating the flowers into the sea. We even took many pictures as a group with the flowers.

The meaning of this float is that it is suppose to cleanse your soul as some sort of soul detox; a nice beginning for my one-month training.

The island

21^st November

After arriving to the Phuket airport I hurried up to the pier so I could still catch the boat. The flight was a bit late and I wasn’t quite sure how late the boats are going. Didn’t want to get stuck in Phuket for sure, hated the place last time I was there.

Entering the pier area ended up costing me 10 baht tourist fee, they sure do charge for everything in Phuket. Luckily I was just in time to catch the next boat and it left right after I got onboard. The trip went smoothly, I was enjoying the amazing view with a breeze in my hair. 

Finally I had arrived to the island. I made my way to the taxi/pickup car and told the driver my destination. The driver was a cute little old man who was telling about the island as we were heading to the muya thai gym. He had lived there all his life for 52 years and had a big family. He also told me about a festival that was happening later that night something called “Loy Krathong”.

Bangkok

19^th November

So I finally arrived in Bangkok with my backpack. Unfortunately my friend couldn’t make it to the airport to pick me up but I managed to get to their place by myself. It was so nice to see her again and of course to meet her son and boyfriend.

The place was very far away from the Bangkok I knew. It was outside the city centre where the “real” thai people live. Spend few wonderful days with my friend shopping for presents for my family and random things from me.

I also learned a couple of new thai believes such as changing your name so the death won’t find you and setting all the clocks at different time for the same reason.

Time in Bangkok flew by fast and before I knew it I was, yet again, heading to the airport. Luckily this time the trip was only 1 hour long.

Apology

I’m sorry it’s been a long time since the last update. I only have limited access to the Internet at the moment. I will be writing as much as I can and uploading posts at one go. I will add the date to each post to make it easier to follow my journey.

The flight

It’s the 18^th of November and I’m already updating my blog, I’m surprised.

Currently I’m on the flight from Amsterdam to Bangkok. This is a huge plane and it will continue it’s trip all the way to Taipei; a good opportunity for me to practise more Chinese and show off my Feiyue shoes.

So far it’s all been good. My flight from Helsinki to Amsterdam went smoothly. My dad accompanied me to the airport and was nice enough to take my winter clothes back home with him, quite a waste of space to take that with me to sunny Thailand.  At the airport my backpack was labelled as “special” and I’m really hoping it will arrive to Bangkok with me. When I arrived from Shanghai my back got lost in Paris and now I’m paranoid.

At the airport one of mine handsome friends was so nice that he took some time off work to have a cup of coffee with me, well at his work place, but still a nice gesture.

The flight left from a different gate and I was yet again suffering from the “window seat syndrome”. That’s something I always experience since I don’t want the aisle seat but then feel bad to use the toilet too often while on the window seat. I guess I just care too much.

Well anyways now I’m on the flight to Bangkok happily on my window seat; still happy, as I haven’t got the urge to use the toilet yet.  All was going fine during the boarding, and there was an empty seat between me and the man on the aisle seat. But of course at the last minute a nice and over weighted British woman arrived and literally took all the empty space between us, Not that I have anything against fat people but she does smell, pick her nose and for some reason doesn’t eat. And yet again not that I’m against fat people not eating but now she’s getting all cranky and spilling her wine all over the place. Finally feel good choosing the window seat; poor guy on the aisle though having to get all the napkins and stuff.

By the way if you’re wondering why this is not published at the same time as it is written is because I’m on the airplane and even though the fat lady feels ok texting to someone: “ I’ll be hungry when I arrive..”, I don’t feel comfortable going online in the air.

That’s it so far; I’m back to my red wine and filling the arrival card.

Happy snow to all the Finns!

Welcome to my blog.

This is my blog experiment.

I’m Yelena a BBA student from Finland and this is my course assignment. I was assigned to write a blog about anything and update it weekly.

I have just returned from China and after the 7 months in the land where all blogs were blocked, I find this assignment as a way to return to the “civilized world”.

I also take this as a challenge as I was never able to maintain a dairy as a child and writing has never been one of my strongest skills. However I am looking forward what will turn out from this experiment and hopefully pictures will tell more than words.

As the blog can be about anything in the world, and there are many things out there, the first challenge was of course to come up with a subject that would be interesting to the potential readers and myself.  Luckily this assignment came at the right time for me, just in time before my trip to Thailand. No not just backpacking around Thailand. Been there done that.

You will be reading, if you choose so, about my mental and physical challenge of surviving through
one month of Muay Thai training on a tiny island of the Andaman Sea.


The Plan.

I will start my journey on the 18th of November flying from Helsinki to Bangkok through Amsterdam. I will arrive on the 19th and will spend the first few days in Thailand with my friend’s family in Bangkok. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her and I’m very excited to meet her son and husband.
On the 21th of November I will be arriving to the island where my training will begin. As a traveller I will not mention the name of this island in my blog to keep the place as tourist free as possible - However as a favor to the hotel and training people I have changed my mind and will reveal this information.

The island is named Koh Yao Noi and is located between Phuket and Krabi. The place I will be spending my month is called K.Y.N Gym next to the Lamsai Village Hotel.

I will try my best to update this blog as often as possible and take as many pictures from the journey as I can.

Welcome and please come again.