Just a little bit of info on what some one can expect at True-Bee Gym. I’ll outline it in my typical day so far.

I wake up between 6 and 630 am to the sound of three kids waking up to get ready to run and clean the gym. I crawl out of bed and I am running by 6:30-645. There are a lot of hills around Pai and a nearby temple that has 400 steps. So my running alternates between doing a long slow jog around the town which is pretty flat or jogging to the temple or a hill and doing sprints. I get back to the gym around 7:15 or 7:30 and start skipping for about half an hour. Most people show up around 7:30-7:45 and do the same. Around 8 o’clock is when training officially starts and everyone gets called up into the ring for a quick warm up and stretching that lasts about 10 minutes.

After that everyone gets their hands wrapped. The hands are wrapped a little differently from what I am used to in that they fold over the first half of the cloth a few times to make a thick pad on the knuckles. Once everyone is wrapped, everyone goes through a few basic combinations, counters and techniques that can will be used later on the pads.

Once all that is done, the pad work starts and everyone not hitting the pads is free to shadow box, or hit the bags.

Rounds are not timed and so more conditioned students will get longer rounds and newer students will get rounds based on their fitness level. Some days they get straight to sparring or practice a number of techniques one at a time on the pads for an hour. Sparring is done about twice a week and technique days once.

The sparring is technical and the trainers will go with everyone and so a farang/farang sparring round is rare but happens especially when there are lots of people. It’s good to spar with the trainers because they really adjust their level to yours and so expereinced fighters are gooing to get a challenge while a beginner can feel confident that they aren’t gonna get their face smashed in.

On some days (3-4) times a week there will be clinching after the padwork. This goes on for about 15 minutes.Once training is over, everyone gets in the ring to do ab exercises and usually number at least 200.

Anyway, thats training at True-Bee in a nutshell. Obviously it doesnt differ too much from other camps. The differences in these matters can really be explained unless one already has expereince training in Thailand.

This is just to let everyone know that I haven’t forgot about the blog. The posts are being spaced out a little more than usual but that’s because I am now staying in one place and JUST training. It’s been exactly one week since I arrived at True-Bee and I already feel much better in my Muay Thai. I am training twice a day every day and my body is doing well. I still live in the gym and I have decided to stay there. I am enjoying the camaraderie of staying with all the trainers, and when I mentioned that I was going to move to a bungalow, no one wanted me to leave, especially the kids, they find me very interesting to have around, not to mention that they get to play around on my lap top.

Just to let you know in the coming weeks I’ll do some profiles of the trainers here along with how I am progressing in my training for my fight which is pretty much confirmed for the 18th. I will be fighting in Chiang Mai at Thae Pae Stadium. What I can say so far on my progress is that my cardio is improving everyday and I would actually feel not too uncomfortable if I had to fight this weekend. I can’t in anyway say its the best but it would be manageable for five rounds if I paced myself. Technique wise I am also improving everyday but unfortunately technique is one of those things where as you get better you realize how little you know. So although I know I have improved I actually feel like a crappier Thai Boxer than I was a week ago.

So anyway the battery is running out. But I promise I will write up a good post in the next couple of days.

I left Chiang Mai yesterday around noon. I was not looking forward to drive up to Pai. It’s 130 km (approx. 75 miles) but takes a little over 3 hours because half of it is all uphill into the mountains. Three hours is not bad for a drive, but the sharp turns that the drive entails gives me serious motion sickness. I felt good driving into town, not only because the ride was over but because Pai is a wonderful little town and the training at True Bee is the best I have had in Thailand. I’ll get into why I think that in a bit. As I came up to the camp I could already hear the camp staff Eck going “Somchai ueee Somchai” a few meters ahead I heard Ae one of the trainers start singing the same thing. Somchai is what everyone in Thailand calls me. I got the name the first time I came to Thailand three years ago from a lady in a restaurant who couldn’t say Bashir. Every time I met someone new I would tell them my name is Bashir and they had a terrible time saying it and I would tell them they could just call me Somchai. In the end everyone chooses to call me Somchai. It’s a very old, very traditional name and so people get a kick out of calling a foreigner such a name. The “Somchai ueee Somchai” is something that a lot of people would sing as I walked past or when they would see me. This went on for a while and I never understood why. I found out it’s a very famous song about a guy named Somchai who leaves his village and is missed. Anyway, Out of the 25 or so trainers that I have gotten to know over my trips to Thailand I would say a good 10-15 of them start singing this song when they see me.

Back on track. I walked up to the camp just as everyone was training. It was good to see everyone and good to see the camp. Not much had changed. I dropped my bags inside the little room by the gym and got ready to train. I will be staying at the gym for a few days until I get my living situation sorted out. Originally I had planned on staying at the gym with the trainers for the whole three months I am going to be here but since I last left they have gotten 3 new trainers and now have 3 kids living in here as well. Bee also moved out of his in town and is staying at the gym as well. Last time I stayed here it was me, Eck (camp staff) and one of the older trainers, Pi Aun who is not here anymore. So, 3 of us in two 3 x 5 meters rooms. Now it is 7-8 people in here to sleep and with me it makes up to 9. When it is time to sleep there is no floor space only mattresses on the floor. I don’t mind but I don’t want to make things more difficult for everyone else here. So Bee is trying to get me a deal on the bungalows nearby so I can stay there for cheap for 3 months.

There are two main reasons why True-Bee gym has become my favorite place to train in Thailand. It’s the most authentic Thai camp out of all the Farang gyms that I have been to. What I mean by that is the way it is run and the atmosphere surrounding it. First of all the physical location of the gym is great. It is surrounded by rice fields, a very simple bamboo village, some very basic bamboo bungalows and a great backdrop of lush green rolling hills. There are a whole bunch of chickens running around in the camp as well as some dogs that the camp has adopted. Next door to the camp is a traditional Thai family living in a bamboo hut, they are living very basic and bathe outside under a make shift shower. Every day during training you watch farmers till their fields across from the gym, very cliché Muay Thai camp surroundings. I think it’s great.

Add to that the trainers. First of all they are all from Isaan save for one of the new guys “Tree” who is from Pai district. Isaan is the home of the champions. To name a few fighters from Isaan, Yodsanklei, Saenchai, Jomthong, and Buakaw. You get Isaan trainers in Bangkok, but most of the trainers whom I have met in Phuket are from Southern Thailand. Not to take anything away from them, because great fighters come out of Southern Thailand as well such as Nam Sak Noi but Isaan is where 75% of the Thai champions come from because of the rugged life and poverty that they live in. Isaan is all rural and the poorest part of the country. The camp that I was at before, Sor. King Star is also in the heart of Isaan. One of the reasons that I enjoy the fact that the trainers are Khon Isaan (People of Isaan) is that I personally enjoy the life, food and people of Isaan more than any where else in Thailand. The trainers here love the fact that I can eat Isaan food at Thai spice levels and can speak a bit of their dialect.

There is no business atmosphere at the gym at all. Yes you have to pay. But you don’t have a cash register and receipt greeting you like at some camps (i.e Tiger Muay Thai). Every camp I have been to the trainers have been great and there is always a great bond formed between everyone. At True-Bee this camaraderie is taken to another level, students are always asked to eat with the trainers after the training session, and are invited to their homes for dinner or just to hang out. I have noticed that Bee always has a very close relationship with his students and even after two months here I felt these guys were like my family. I actually missed them the whole time I was in Pakistan.

True Bee gym is unlike most other Farang Gyms in Thailand, because this camp is run entirely by Thai people. Most gyms that cater to Farang with good reps are run by Farang. To name a few, Kaewsamrit, Legacy, Lanna, Tiger, and Rawai. These are gyms that I have trained at and know for a fact are run by foreigners. Please note I am saying this to say that the training there is, because of this fact inferior. Not in any sense. I do not imply that at all. These are top notch camps that top fighters have gone to train for their fights. But it does give the camp a different vibe. And if one wants to come to Thailand to not only make their Muay Thai better but really understand the culture and lifestyle of a Muay Thai camp without having to go to a camp where no one speaks English True Bee hands down has the upper hand in that respect out of all the farang camps I have trained at. No one even comes close. I am not saying that they don’t exist. I just haven’t come across any yet. You get to see a lot of interesting things about Thai culture, for example the gym not only trains fighters for Muay Thai but trains…chickens. For cock fights. They have a whole stable of roosters that they take to local fights and bet on them. You may not agree with, I am not sure I do but it is very interesting facet of Thai rural life to see.

Onto the training. I can’t complain about any gym I have across in terms of training. I have always benefited in some way from every camp be it in technique, in cardio or just learning a new drill that I can work on when I am on my on. However, I have to say overall I have benefited most from True Bee Gym than any other gym I have been to. There are two reasons for this. One is that it is not the biggest name out there yet. So, there is never a huge crowd training there and you get a lot personal attention. Second reason is that they are open to teaching you things you want to work on including HOW you train.

For the first reason. True Bee hasn’t been around long enough to get a real big reputation amongst those in the “know” concerning the Muay Thai Camp scene in Thailand. It is steadily gaining a fan base and a reputation for good training and it’s a matter of time before True-Bee joins the top Farang camps in the country. But as of right now, it’s not on the top of everyone’s list and so the student to instructor ratio is low. Right now they have 5 instructors and the most people I have seen at training must have been 10 people. The trainers also have no problem giving you time and in my opinion this is one of the best camps for beginners. And for the more advanced fighters, those who fight competitively like myself this gym offers variety and an openness amongst the trainers to train not only the traditional skip, shadow and 5 pad rounds routine but to change things up, depending on you. For example, I will some times do five rounds of just play sparring. The trainer will put on shin pads, belly pad and gloves and for five rounds you play around and spar lightly. Sometimes we will do the same but work on only defense, I will not attack other then the odd jab and counter but will constantly defend low kicks, teeps and round houses. I try to change things up regularly and work on different aspects of my game that I want to improve on. You improve what you know as an experienced fighter you need to work on. You don’t get forced into doing jab, cross kick for five rounds, twice a day every day. For those who require a strict schedule played out the same week after week, this may not be the gym for you. For those who appreciate variety, flexibility and the ability to give you own input into you training than I have come across no better gym in True Bee.

I am here for the next three months so you’ll get to hear much more about how the training here works. I don’t want to try to cram everything in. Also, I am fighting on either the 11th or 18th against the guy who beat one of True Bee gyms fighters last Sunday in Chiang Mai. Stay Tuned.

Got to Chiang Mai this morning. I spent 12 hours on a bus getting here from Khon Kaen. I had to sit next to one of the fattest Thais in Thailand. Some seriously obese 60 year old who was taking up half my seat and kept jiggling into me on every bump. There were a lot of bumps and my head kept hitting the window next to me. I left at 8 pm and arrived 8 am, travelling at a top speed of 40 mph with the air conditioner on full blast. Needless to say, i did not get much sleep. However, I got a nice hotel room for cheap with free wireless and I downloaded the latest UFC, Silva vs. Leites. Had a good time unwinding from that bus ride. Tonight I am heading to Thae Pae stadium to watch a fighter from True Bee compete. I don’t know anything about the guy or what to expect so I’ll fill you in on a later post. Chiang Mai is a nice city in the mountains of North Western Thailand. It’s the second biggest city in the country but is not as fast paced as Bangkok. It has a lot of history here, many temples scattered throughout the urban sprawl. It has a very distinctive feel and vibe to it like many other great historical cities like London, Casa Blanca or Moscow. A lot of nice views even in the city itself, just like this one from the balcony of my hotel. I was going to go train but changed my mind after I did not get the nap I wanted to, due to watching the UFC. I have a thing about training on a lack of sleep. It doesn’t seem like you would get too much benefit out of it. Anyway, I save some money by not having to pay for training and taking a ride out to Lanna or Chai Yai, I’m gonna need it to pay for the entrance fee to the stadium. Should be a good night of watching Muay Thai and seeing old friends. At least the fights should be about 3 hours long instead of 8 and a half like last time at the village festival.

Like, I said earlier I was gonna add another profile of a student of mine. The students name is Mashood Ahmad and he actually just started training on my last visit but has shown himself to be a dedicated student committed to learning all the technical aspects of MMA. Like a lot of Martial Arts players here, he has really taken to the ground game due to the novelty of it. Also the fact that I toy with everyone I roll with despite only being a blue belt shows them that this stuff works. You can do that with MMA and especially the ground game, showing someone a fancy trick and a kata and assuring them that it will work takes faith, not rationale. Before I left I asked some of the guys to give me some info about themselves and Mashood actually wrote it out for me so i am going to include what he wrote as is, with no corrections.

“I am a great fan of Martial Arts. I have gone to many clubs to watch fighting skills.I found ninjas to be the best. Once I watched MMA match on TV I saw it combined Muay Thai with Jiu Jitsu. I wished if it were in Pakistan. I was pleased to know that its been started in Pakistan. Now I am training MMA and hope it would spread in Pakistan very soon.”

We know that MMA isn’t only Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu, but I think the point is, is that he noticed it combined a striking game with a ground game.

Anyway, Mashood is 21 years old and is very new to the MMA game but I think he has a bright future if he keeps it up. He is one of the few students that really pays attention to other students and myself rolling and then asks questions about how I did a certain technique or what a counter to a certain move would be. Very analytical fighter this guy. Wish him the best of luck and thank him for his support and for serving as a good role model to other guys who train with me.

Anyway I going to post this later but I just got back so I will do it really quick now. I just got back from the fights at Thae Pae Stadium. Pretty good time. The crowd was all farang which was a novelty for me. I am used to seeing at least one large section of loud Thais going Owaii! The two guys from true Bee Gym fought well. I have never trained with them so I have no perspective to which to judge how they performed in their fight. One guy lost due to knees to his hip, he had had issues with it before as well. One of those nagging injuries, before that he was doing really well and walking his opponent down. The second fight was won by the guy from True Bee due to a punch to the solar plexus in the second round. The fight was entertaining before that. I would say the guy (his name is Matt) had the upper hand most of the time but it was still a pretty close fight.

Anyway off to Pai tomorrow in the morning to begin some serious training in the mountains of Mae Hong Son.

I am leaving Khon Kaen later this evening to head to Chiang Mai. I am meeting up with the owners of True-Bee Gym who are sending some guys down from Pai to fight tomorrow night. I will be in Pai for the next three months.
I am a little sad about leaving Khon Kaen. But I am very happy to go see the guys from True-Bee they are like family to me an you are about to hear alot of great things about the gym in the coming weeks. It’s been a great time at Sor. King Star. I’ve written enough about it that I dont think I need to go any more into it today. But in summary, training is excellent, and simply watching how they train and the play sparring they do is going to increase my game immensely. I will definitly be back here. In the mean tine here are all the picture you have all been missing. Alot of these are form my last post. I figured I would just add them all on here.

This first picture of the guy int he red shirt is a picture of the Head Trainer.

The second picture is of their homemade sit up bench. Can anyone say ghetto? Nonetheless it goes to show you dont need fancy equipment to run a great camp.

The next one is of where the fighters live.

Saenchai Lek (blue) and Khong Saenchai (red) sparring.

One of the fighters before his fights.

The guys wrapping up before the fight.

The festival fights.

The really old drunk man geting in the ring to settle a 25 year old feud.

Songkran, kids gathering outside to throw water on passing trucks.

Walking over to the ring.

Alright then next posting should be from Chiang Mai. I’m also going to include another profile of one of the students of MMA in Pakistan at the moment.

Just to let you know I have been trying to add pictures for the past hour. I have had no luck with this rural net cafe so I will wait til tomorrow when I am in Khon Kaen city. Onto the blog post.

I am going to start this post with some updates and announcements for Mixed Martial Arts Pakistan. I can say with almost 100% confidence that there will be a permanent training facility in Lahore come Dec/Jan. We have already started looking at buildings and thinking about locations. If anyone has any suggestions please email me. We are thinking that most likely the first training center will be in Model Town area. We hope to expand into inner Lahore later once we are firmly established. I really want to take this sport to the masses of Pakistan. To anyone reading of this, if anyone has any friends who are interested in being fighters or trainers please get us in contact with them as opportunities are going to open up along with possible financial incentives. We are going to start taking applicants in now and will have a final interviewing process come this winter. We are looking for trainers in any style, but are particularly interested in Judo, Jiu Jitsu ,Wrestling, Karate, Muay Thai and boxing but remember we are accepting ANY style (this is Mixed Martial Arts after all). Also anyone interested in fighting for Pakistan please contact us as we may have shows for you to compete in sooner then expected. This is the chance to begin a new life and career as a professional fighter. We need the help and support of the entire Martial Arts community of Pakistan. We are not out to prove that MMA is the best and the baddest since MMA is the culmination of all Martial Arts. We hope that MMA can bring the martial arts community together so please anyone wanting to get involved and help out please contact me and if there is anything that you can help with I will let you know. For those reading this post and cannot help but have a friend who is in the martial arts scene in Pakistan pass this info to them. I prefer people in Punjab since it is easier to travel but if someone from elsewhere (Karachi, Peshawar etc..) is willing to travel to Lahore then that’s fine too.

As I said before my training is on hold for 4 days as it is Songkran. If you want a detailed summary of Songkran and it’s history I suggest you look it up on Google. My basic understanding is that it is Thai New Year. It is also New Year in other parts of Buddhist South East Asia e.g. Laos, Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam. This year it is officially 3 days long, I heard it is usually 5 days long but the government has shortened it apparently due to drunk driving. The hall mark of Songkran is the water throwing. I’ve heard Songkran be called the world’s biggest water fight and that is probably true. The days leading up to the festival and during it, every corner had a stand selling water gun of all types, small water pistols to elaborate backpacks. Most people however just use small buckets. The water throwing takes place mostly on the roadways. People of all ages set up their posts and peg cars and motorbikes with squirts, hoses and buckets of water. In busy sections of road, traffic literally grinds to a halt as they get ambushed by dozens of people dumping water and painting the car with a mix of flour and water. I wanted to take a lot of pictures but this would be an unwise idea. There is no mercy for anyone during Songkran and at some point or another my camera would get soaked and I would have no recourse as I should have known better. I did however get this picture two days before the major festivities began, as some kids got an early start. During the three heavy days of Songkran I would be riding my motorbike down an empty stretch of country road and all of a sudden people would pop out of the sides of the road (I usually knew it was coming because there would be a giant wet spot on the road visible from far away) and set up a road block and just soak me in water and cover my face in clothes in a mix of flour and water. By day three this starts getting a little much but nonetheless the entire experience is very interesting and a lot of fun. Other then the water throwing there is a lot of family time as people take holiday and come back to their villages away from their jobs in Bangkok and other places, namely tourist spots. This makes even the sleepiest rice farming village a loud hubbub of activity with kids running around, music playing from houses at full blast and everyone eating outside. There is also a whole lot of drinking. It is so bad that the government has taken extreme actions to prevent road deaths including setting up check points every kilometer made up of community organizers and even sealing off villages with a barricade so that anyone wanting to leave has to be checked to make sure they aren’t too drunk. What I found funny while driving past some of these posts was that the people inside were also having a hard getting up and walking over to the vehicle due to being extremely drunk. Finally and what should be most important is the spiritual and religious element of Songkran. People take their families to the temple to give alms to the monks, pay homage to the Buddha statue by pouring water on it and visiting the graves of ancestors. The water throwing is actually a sort of blessing and sometimes I will be driving past and have people sort of flick water on me, it is meant to bring good luck. Most people however prefer the ambush and drench method. The spiritual background to the holiday however has been slightly lost in the fray of drinking and revelry. there is pressure from traditionalists to emphasize this aspect of Songkran more so. I am not sure if it is some places or what the exact details are but the sale of alcohol has been restricted during Songkran and I have heard of some people calling for a dry Songkran. Songkran also has a lot more Muay Thai fights during the festival then usually occur and in fact bare-knuckle, or rather the hands bound in hemp fights occur on the border of Burma and Thailand in a town called Mae Sot. I had originally planned to fight during this time but changed my mind when I did not train as much as I needed to while I was in Pakistan before coming here. Gassing out in a fight where a the guys hands are bound in rope, making a cast, didn’t appeal to me. Hopefully I can fight next year, this is definitely one of those things that I plan on doing while I am still young enough to. This gives me a nice transition then to talk about my time at the village festival fights.

The fights took place to mark the beginning of Songkran and were out in the middle of nowhere. While at afternoon training at Sor. King Star the trainer told me that five of the young boxers would be competing and that I should come. It was going to take place at a place called Baan Feng “not too far away.” After training I showered and got ready and got back to the camp around 6:45. Fifteen minutes later the camp owner, a guy named Lek came up in a pick up truck to take us to the site of the fights. What I thought was going to be close by ended up being an hour long ride through the middle of nowhere crammed in the back of a pickup with all the young fighters. There were a total of 16 people in the truck, 5 in the front and 11 stuck in the back. We drove through endless farmland, pitch dark and nothing but rice fields. We got to the venue which was a field in the middle of a village which consisted of about 2-3 stores and some other administrative buildings at about 8 o’clock. The fights began immediately and as I picked up the fight program I was shocked to see that there 26 fights! In fact later on I am assuming there were probably even more then that. The earliest fight from someone from Sor. King Star was number 13 on the card. Usually, fights go by smallest weight and age group to heavier and more experienced fighters. This fight card however was all over the place. Sometimes in between scheduled fights there would be someone from the crowd who decided that they wanted to fight and would get into the ring (no warm up, nothing) and the announcer would call out if there was anyone of his size wishing to fight. I had seen village shows like this and they are definitely the most fun to go to in my opinion. The youngest fighters were probably 6 (full rules, elbows, knees and no protection other then gloves) and the oldest about 60 , I probably saw a dozen or so fighters wear a mouth guard the whole time, if that. The 60 year old who was fighting was taking part in a grudge match against someone in the village he had had problems with 25 years ago. They were both very, very drunk and the really old looking fellow, (that’s his picture here) could hardly walk. I saw him before the fight his hands wrapped up in strips of cloth wearing his boxing shorts and I was in shock, This fight could never happen in the back home. I have to say though that the referee did a very good job and any time a solid hit landed he would separate the fighters and check on them. The whole thing was obviously a big joke as the whole crowd was cracking up at watching these two old men shuffle around the ring trying to hurt each other. The fight ended in a draw and it was obvious no one took it seriously.

There was an announcer and it was obvious Sor. king star was big. Way before any of the guys went up to the fight the announcer would call out some of the Sor. King Star fighters over the loudspeaker and let the crowd know well in advance that these guys were fighting. Two of the boys in particular whose names that he kept saying were Saenchai Lek (little Saenchai) and Khong Saenchai (I dunno the translation of that one). You can tell the influence that Saenchai has had on the Muay Thai scene when two of the top fighters at Sor. King Star are taking his name as part of their own. When time came for these guys to fight they really lived up to the hype. I did not really pay them too much attention during training but wow. These guys have potential to be future greats in Muay Thai. Khong Saenchai is 13 or 14 and Saenchai Lek is 16. Both very creative fighters but I have to say Khong Saenchai definitely has his own style and likes to use a lot of sharp angles and forward striking elbows. During the fight you can tell this guy is loving what he is doing because each strike that he would land cleanly you could see his face make a big Owai! expression followed by a big grin, great fighter. Watching this guy was really watching art in motion. For those really into the Muay Thai scene remember the name Khong Saenchai Sor. King Star in 3-4 years. The other fighter, Saenchai Lek had the most air play over the loud speaker and it probably had a lot to do with the fact that there was a 20,000 baht (approximately 600 dollars) bet riding on his fight. Big money in Thailand and really big money considering where the fight was taking place. He dominated the whole fight, I can’t say he had a more aesthetic style than his younger camp mate but this guy was really, really fast and had amazing counters and reflexes to every strike that his opponent through at him who was also very, very good. Despite having a great opponent Saenchai Lek dominated the whole fight and by round 4 was just playing with his opponent. His camp mates would often shout Jai Yen Jai Yen! (cool heart) meaning they wanted him to keep his cool when his opponent came in with a decent strike. I actually heard this a lot through out all of the fights which goes to show a lot about how the Thais view a cool headed fighter as a more effective one or at least a more honorable one. It was great watching these guys fight. The other three fighters went 1-2. One of the fights took place the entire time in the clinch and was won by the Sor. King Star fighter. One of the fighters did not seem like he wanted to be there and in fact neither did his opponent and the ref actually went off on them between the third and Fourth rounds to start doing something. Very boring fight which the Sor. King Star fighter lost. The final Sor. King Star fight was very good and very close but the Sor. King Star fighter was much smaller than his opponent in weight and height by about 15-20 pounds and 2-3 inches. Pretty even technique wise but the other fighters strikes were much more damaging. He lost by decision. An interesting point is the amount of smiling the fighters did during the fight. Very few of the fighters put on that mean psycho face you often see in fighters from the west, the whole time smiling, whether winning or losing. After all the guys had fought it was about 3:45-4:00 am. Almost 8 hours of Muay Thai, as I sat in there in a daze the camp manager started talking to me, asking me how I liked the fight. I said I liked them very much but to watch 8 hours of Muay Thai was a new experience for me. He told me that the camp was started by his father and so the camp has been owned by father and son for about 30-40 years. He said he would come by while I was still there and teach me and said “I teach technical…not power” if that was his outlook on making a good fighter it shows in everyone who has come through Sor. King Star, very technical, smart fighters. I wish I had videos of the fights but I was caught off guard about going to the fights and my camera ran out of juice. Anyway we left the venue about 430 while there was still a fight going on. I assume they went on til about 5 or so. Nine hours of Muay Thai, now that shows dedication and love for the sport.

Thanks for the support, this is growing everyday. I am getting new emails from people every week. It’s been about 6 weeks since I started this, let’s wait and see what happens in 6 more months.

So I woke up today at about 6:45. It was great to get out of the waking up at noon habit. I headed over to Sor King Star from my hotel at 8 and got there 10 minutes later. The camp looked way more busted up from what I last remember. I like it. I personally like the gritty camps, no glitz, no glamor, just hard work. Camps like this scream it at you.

The camp manager was out in front and gave me the weird, awkward smile that I sometimes get when everyone knows there’s about to be a really awkward conversation in a mix of terrible Thai and English. I wai’d him and he pointed me towards the back of the camp where the fighters stayed.

Last time I was here I came around noon or so, and everyone was having their mid day nap. This time however I saw a whole bunch of people running around, some of the meanest looking Thais I have ever seen. Among the crowd was the head trainer whom I had met last time. I asked him if he remembered me and I think he said he did (we spoke Thai) but I think he was being polite. He asked me if I wanted to fight (I said not right now) and how long I had been training Muay Thai (around two and a half years) and how many fights I had had (seven, six of them in Thailand). Here started to explain something about training and that is where I started losing him. I held up my hand to motion, “just a sec” and brought out my phone. “Put kub puen Khon Thai pom” I said, or “Speak to my Thai friend” and he smiled and nodded. Much easier then the pantomime we were playing before. After getting off the phone he then clearly remembered who I was and that I had com to the camp four months before. He also told me that there was another foreigner at the camp as well. “Si Dam…Nikro.” What he said was there was a black guy at the camp, (the Thais call black people “nikro“, my guess is that it came from the vocab of U.S soldiers during the Vietnam war who came here for RnR, it’s not meant to be offensive, they don’t know any better). I asked him where he was from and he said he was from France. I also found out that I would have to come back in the afternoon for training since morning training was already done. This made sense to me since I knew that Thai camps trained early, 530 in the morning or so. I was confused when I was told to come to the camp at 8 am. So I said thank you and started walking back to my hotel room and kill time until 4 pm when they would have afternoon training.

I returned at 4 pm and everyone was getting ready to go for their run. I forgot to bring my running shoes so instead I skipped rope for about 20-25 minutes. I saw the black guy they were talking about coming back from the run. Really tall and very jovial looking guy, fooling around with all the kid fighters, I went up to him and introduced myself. His name was “serge” or something similar, he had a very thick French accent. He was a pro fighter back at home and had 67 fights, one of them just last week, which he won by knockout in the first round. I figured this guy was a Thailand vet coming here to Sor King Star but I was wrong, this was his first time in Thailand. I asked him how he ended up here. Most, if not all newcomers to the country go to camps with a website (I know I did, Rawai Muay Thai). I asked him how he ended up at Sor King Star and it turns out that his trainer back in France is from this gym and arranged for him to come to Khon Kaen. He was even staying at the home of a friend of his trainer. I told him he was very lucky to get this experience for his time. That he got to see the real Thailand on his first trip. As much fun, and as unique as Phuket, Patayya and Chiang Mai and a couple other tourist spots are, they are not the real Thailand. Yes they do show you a glimpse of this place, but they in no way shape or form can give you an honest and full perspective of what this country is like.

On to the training. After warming up with skipping rope and shadow boxing I was told to go do some drills with a trainer wearing spandex tights and a wife beater (what we Americans call sleeveless shirts). Pretty funny looking dude actually. Very good stuff. After that I was asked to spar with the boxer for two rounds. One of the guys at the camp was a western style boxer (Muay Saakhun) and he is the pacific champion. He is fighting on Thai TV on the 16th. He fights at 112 pounds. I was hesitant at first but I said I would do one round. After settling in and seeing that this guy was a good sparring partner (kept his punches crisp but controlled his power) I ended up doing three rounds with the guy. I then did some work on the bag (filled with wet sand, may as well be cement) and some knees. Finished off the day with some clinching. The trainer said he would do pads for me and “serge” tomorrow. So I will write some more on how that went. He also asked me if I wanted to fight on the 10th. The day after tomorrow. I politely declined.

Basic overview of things I noticed. The kids at the camp are very self motivated. They hold pads for each other without the trainer telling them what they need to do or they practice different tricks or techniques with each other or spar. They basically play around very constructively the whole time with the trainer observing and correcting any major flaws. I definitely see where the Thais get much of their creativity from in the ring.

On the Mixed Martial Arts Pakistan front, I already have received emails from people wanting to know if there was somewhere in Lahore where one could train MMA. I told them right now no, and to be careful of anyone offering any training of the sort. One downside of this blog is that it gets noticed enough there is going to be some fraud trying to cash in on the work I am doing. So to anyone reading this, please be careful. My friend and partner over in India, Danial Isaac was telling me that they already have losers popping up saying that they are black belts in MMA. It’s unfortunate but in the end when it comes down to it, MMA is the kind of sport where frauds like these get exposed. To anyone wanting to try the same thing in Pakistan, remember MMA is a combat SPORT. You play it, and you play full contact. The real MMA in Pakistan can and will only come from here through myself and others whom I have verified are knowledgeable about the sport, what it entails and what it is about. Accept no substitute.

I will write some more about my time here in a few days time. I am going to try and keep my Internet use to a minimum the next few days. Thanks for the support guys, its already growing.

I left Ubon Rachathani this morning for Khon Kaen. I caught the 12:30 pm bus. It took me 5 hours. Not too bad. Luckily the bus didn’t stop every 2 minutes (it stopped every 15) to pick some random dude off the side of the road, which is very common for non-luxury long distance buses here in Thailand. They’re sort of a mix between a long distance bus and a city bus. Its very convenient for people who want to catch any bus heading in their direction, you don’t need to be waiting at a bus stop. But it gets annoying if your the one who got on at the source of the bus and have to feel the bus made sudden breaks every time the bus driver THINKS that someone is waiting for the bus.

I have been to Khon Kaen a few times on brief stops, either on the way to Laos or visiting friends outside of the city in the Isaan country side. Pretty plain Thai city, nothing much to do here if your here for a few days. For some reason though I am seeing a lot more foreign tourists walking around. I have seen farang who retire here (old guys with their Thai wives) and have seen farang who are teaching English, you can pick them out from regular tourists by the way they carry themselves. I don’t know why the sudden interest in Khon Kaen for these backpackers, I suppose its just people wanting to get off the beaten path or possibly on the way to Laos. I think alot of people come to Thailand with the misconception that there going to be like, the 10th white person to ever stop foot in the country. They then realize that about 25% of the western world comes here on a regular basis. By the way I”m kidding, its not that high but sometimes it really seems that way. As I start seeing more and more hippies and backpackers, which I am bound to since I will be heading to Chiang Mai and Pai next, you’ll probably start hearing me complain about them more and more. I’ll forget them for now. Just know that I don’t think they’re all really annoying, but many of them, far too many, definitely are.

I start training tomorrow morning. I am alone in this crappy hotel room (170 baht per night) so I am hoping I will fall asleep early from sheer boredom, I had a Thai friend call the camp Sor King Star before i left Ubon so they are expecting me. You may be wondering how I even found this camp. Once again, sort of like Legacy i sort of stumbled upon it out of sheer luck. I was wanting to train in Isaan for a while and I decided to pick Khon kaen because i was familiar with the city and even though training in some camp in the boonies would be interesting (I have done it before in a place called Chumpae but only for one day) I assumed that the camps in the major cities of Isaan would be where the top guys from country side went to befor eheading to Bangkok if not staying there throughout their careers. So, I asked a tuk-tuk driver to take me to a camp and he did. When I got there the driver kept saying “Khai Muay Kang Raeng” meaning “Strong Muay Thai Camp.” I didn’t figure it all out until I did some research on my own. When i go train tomorrow I will get some more information.

So, hello Khon Kaen and Sor. King Star. Goodbye Ubon Rachathani and Legacy Gym. Legacy was a good gym and I am sure I will go back, if anything to visit my friend Niran who will now be living there for a while. Solid pad work, frequent sparring and serious students made it a great place. I attached some pictures from my last session with one of the young Thais training in the ring. That is another hallmark of a good “farang” camp. If the camp is training new fighters as well as foreigners they are serious about having a legitimate camp and are not only a money making machine. However there are plenty of exceptions to the rule, so, just because a camp has young Thai fighters doesn’t always make it good, but it generally does, nor does a lack of young Thais and only foreigners necessarily make it a “tourist camp” though it often does.

I will try and update you ASAP on how my first day at Sor King Star went.

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