 Brown Belt
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Slovenia
Posts: 4,859
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Report on my trip to Thailand
Hey guys,
I just got back from 3 weeks at the Rawai Muay Thai camp in Phuket, Thailand and I just wanted to give you some of my thoughts on everything. Please feel free to ask questions, especially if you are planning on taking a trip to Thailand to train.
After a few days in Bangkok, my friend and I flew to Phuket on Sunday afternoon and arrived at Rawai Muay Thai in the evening. We immediately met a few of the people training at the camp who were hanging out at their rooms. However, even though we had send an email ahead of time and booked a room, there was nobody there from the camp itself, which was a little worrying. Luckily, the manager was back after dinner and we got a triple room with a fan and bathroom right beside the camp.
The training at the camp was great. We trained twice a day Monday through Saturday from 7-10 and then from 16-19. Training usually started with a run and some stretching, followed by a few rounds of shadow boxing and bag work. After that, you would get called into the ring to work the pads with one of the thai trainers. After that the trainer would send you to do 300 knees and 300 front kicks, followed by some sparring. Training ended with some weight lifting, stretching and a trip to the herbal sauna in the afternoon.
I did most of my training with Fad and Fin, who both taught me a lot. It is amazing how fast you pick things up training 6 hours a day. The hardest part of the training is not the time, but the heat and humidity, since it was about 35 degrees celcius with 80% humidity almost everyday. However, I got used to it after about a week and really felt my conditioning go up. A lot of the people who come here end up fighting at one of the local stadia in Patong after a few weeks of training, and sure enough, after about a week Fin told me, "You good. You fight end of month." Well, that did not happen this time around, but I hope to make it back to Thailand sometime for a few weeks longer so that I can prepare well and take a fight before I leave.
The social situation at the camp was amazing. I met a lot of amazing people at the camp, who I hope to keep in touch with and see again sometime. We spent a lot of time together training, eating and supporting each other at the fights. We had people from the camp fighting at the boxing stadium in Patong every week, so we would make the 30 minute trek out there to watch them fight. Quite a bonding experience and something I did not want to miss, even though it was quite expensive to go and watch all the fights.
There is actually a lot of time between the end of morning training at 10 am and the beginning of the afternoon session at 4. We rented a motorbike and spend a lot of time at the beach between training sessions. There are a couple of great places to eat nearby, where you can get great meals for about $1. The food is amazing, though not for those who are sensitive to spice, since the Thais put chili and/or curry on just about everything. Overall, the food was one of the best parts of the trip. While we were there, Jernej and I also took a cooking class once and learned how to make red curry chicken, Glass noodle soup with vegetables and chicken and pad thai. Everything was pretty simple and straight forward, though some of the ingredients may be hard to find in Europe. In any case, I hope to be able to recreate a bit of the Thai culinary experience for everyone back home. The food should be really authentic, since the ladies who taught us were Thai and barely spoke any English.
Asside from the beach and cooking classes, my friend and I managed to do some touristy things as well. We headed out to Phuket town a couple of times to do some shopping and see thing interesting blend of Thai, Chinese and Portuguese architecture left over from Phuket's time as Portuguese trading post. Often, the buildings are built in one style next to another. Every now and then however, different styles are mixed together in the same building. Perhaps the best and most interesting example was a Wat (a Buddhist temple) which had Doric columns along the side. We also discovered a really authentic Thai restaurant with no English menu with the help of our Lonely Planet. It was really amazing food, but very spicy. Each of us had three dishes, since the portions were very small. We got to sample a lot of food typical to Phuket. Very nice and incredibly cheap. With drinks, we each ended up paying about $2. Great stuff.
Sunday is a day of rest at the camp and is a great opportunity to take some excursions around the island. By far the best was our speed boat tour of Phi-Phi Island and the surrounding beaches and national park with 10 other people from the camp. Despite the bumpy ride on fairly rough seas, it was worth it. We saw Long Beach (where the Hollywood movie Beach was filmed), Maya Beach, Phi-Phi Island and Monkey Beach. Absolutely amazing. All the islands are small, and generally have cliffs dropping straight down into crystal clear water and coral reefs. We did a lot of snorkling around the beautiful water and fed the fish with bread from the boat. We also spend some time observing the monkeys on Monkey Beach, though it was a bit of a painful experience, since we had to wade through water littered with old, dead, sharp coral to get there. We also had a bit of an adventure when our driver miscounted us since were were divided between the front and the back and we ended up temporarily leaving someone behind at Maya Beach snorkling. He hitched a ride back on another boat and we met back up at Phi Phi, so everthing was fine. We ate lunch there and did some swimming and sun bathing as well on the sandy beaches. Very picturesque.
Overall, a great trip. I would love to do this again. In total, I spend about $1000 over the whole month I was in Thailand, including training, room and board, and my round trip flight from Bangkok to Phuket. I would also recommend Rawai Muay Thai to anyone who wanted to come to Thailand to train.
Even though I learned a lot, there are some things about the training that could be improved. First of all, you have to ask a lot of questions to learn, it is not handed to you on a platter. Training is not very organized, so it is up to you to work hard and make sure you learn. Additionally, there is a lot of pressure on you to fight if you are good, since the camp earns money from you that way. You have to make sure that you are ready yourself, especially since a couple of guys at the camp were pushed into fighting a little too early. However, as I said, I loved everything despite these problems and I think that it is good for everyone, as long as you are smart and self-motivated.
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