:::written yesterday but couldn’t upload because internet wasn’t working:::
New Years on Phi Phi Island was great. It’s a small tropical island, with tiny little walkways jam packed with young people from all over the world. Flip flops, bikinis, sand, Ray Bans, little animals wandering around, sarongs for sale, peeps handing out flyers for the nightclubs, banana pancake stands, Australian accents, lithe bodies, and “paradise” may be words that describe the environment.
me n my homegirl Madelleine
us at the BBQ Buffet (see below)
As we walked in off the boat to Phi Phi, here was an amusing sign:
We arrived on Friday morning and explored the island. One of the bars we went to at night is a bar called “Reggae Bar” which is well-known for the Muay Thai fights they host there. Hilariously, they give out free “buckets” (yes, small buckets!) of alcohol to people who volunteer to fight Muay Thai fights for everyone else’s enjoyment. The volunteers get headgear, gloves, and shinguards. They fight three ONE minute rounds and get about a four minute rest! LMAO.
Our friends Red and Ian decided to fight each other and it was sheer comedy. In between rounds, they would do silly dances- I LOVED it. The rest of the crowd loved it, too.
I also signed to up to fight, but no one wanted to challenge me! Wow, story of my life
I told them I wanted to fight but the staff couldn’t find a gal to fight me. Toward the end of the night, they called me into the ring and held up my hand and the referee slowly took me around corner to corner, eyeing the chickies in the crowd, pointing at them, but all them refused. At the end, can I say I won?? He raised my hand high, and I left the ring, feeling extremely amused that all the gals were too scared of me to step up!
Saturday one of the highlights was getting this picture with a super cute MONKEY!
Sunday we hung out, and before getting on the return boat to Phuket, we ate at a bookstore with outdoor seating. The food wasn’t very good, and on the boat I started feeling ill. Once I got back into my room at Tony’s, I started puking and feeling terrible. All night this continued. I was REALLY looking forward to getting back to training this Monday, so despite a fitful night, I woke up and wanted to go to class. I felt dizzy as I took a shower and everything, but carried on. Once class started though, I knew I couldn’t continue, as I was still feeling weak and dizzy and bleh from the food poisoning. So I sat it out and decided to take today off : / Hopefully I’ll be 100% by tomorrow and will be able to get back to my delightful training. I haven’t trained since Thursday- I’m going through withdrawals!
That’s all, lovelies. I’m here in my room taking it easy and not doing much at all. Skype me or email me if you have a moment and let me know what’s up
<3
:::post-note: internet working, so I can post my entry. woot! I am feeling much better today, and got back to training. yessss:::
Sunday was my visa run, so I flew to Malaysia and back. I also called Orbitz, the company I bought my airline tickets from, and they said that I had the option of flying on January 20th at no charge because it was the “same class” of tickets, but if I chose any other day to return home, I would have to pay at least $500 for change fee plus fare difference. Since I am trying to watch my money, I decided to just go home on January 20th. So, I have another month abroad!
Today I did jiu jitsu and that was fun, then I had a private Muay Thai lesson with Kru Yod and we mostly worked on fixing my abysmal kicks. I did feel I improved a little bit within the course of the hour, though I still have a long way to go.
I had already worked out for 4 hours, but had more energy, so I asked Kru Yod if I should take a class, go to the gym, etc, etc, and he said I should do some cardio. So I went to the Chalong Gym, which I joined for this month, to use its decrepid cardio equipment.
At night, I watched my friend fight, watched the WEC fight, watched the jiu jitsu class, and watched Kru Yod train a little boy! It was soooo cute, I had to record it! Here is the video! Love you peeps~
Just a quick update! After my time off of classes to heal up the staph, I was SO ready to get back into it! It sucked to have to “quarantine” myself. Monday I took classes and that was ever so fun. Tuesday I took classes and that was ever so fun. And today I’m ready for more! The only thing I kind of need to figure out is how to balance it all out. I want to take so many classes because I am so excited, but then I get so tired in classes because I am doing so much. Hm, what to cut?
In other news, my plane ticket is scheduled for Sunday! But let’s have a recap:
1 st week: arrived injured, so just did sightseeing
2nd week: trained (FUN, YEAH!)
3rd week: out because islands/staph infection
4th week: this week. I’m training!
So, this whole time, I have only trained for one solid week! ummm I’m not quite READY to go home! So I am changing my ticket to return to the States in early/mid January- TBD (within the next few days). But I have to do a “visa run” because upon entry I received a 30 day visa. Which will expire, unless I leave the country and come back in. Then when I come in again, I get another 30 day visa if I arrive by air- or a 15 day visa if I arrive by land. So, this Sunday I am flying to Malaysia and flying right back, to get another 30 day visa so I can stay here in Phuket longer. Such is the price to live and train in Paradise!
That’s my forearm. Looks weird in the picture? Anyway, peeps, looks like I must delay training once more.
Who: Me
What: Staph
Why: Training Jiu Jitsu in the Tropics?
How: I don’t know. I wash with anti-bacterial soap after training, shower 2-3 times a day, wear long shirts and pants. But so many peeps have staph here, and it’s all over the sweaty mats.
What did I do: See bumps I thought were insect bites turn into little red lesions.
Then what I do: buy rubbing alcohol and anti-biotic cream and applied it
Then what: It didn’t go away
Then what: I went to the hospital
Then what: They diagnosed me with mild staph
Then what: I take an oral antibiotic 4 times a day for 5 days, apply a stronger anti-biotic cream 2 times a day, and avoid contact sports (e.g. muay thai and jiu jitsu) for 2-3 days. Boo hoo!
So now what: hit the gym. So I can get back to regular training Monday, damnit. This chick wants to TRAIN! Please. Thank you. I had a great workout doing weights & traditional cardio today, so I’m off to a good start.
Let’s see, where did I leave off? After working out a lot on Monday, Tuesday I was pooped. I took a morning class and then I vegged for the rest of the day. Wednesday (today) was off, too…but for good reason…we went on a Phi Phi Islands Tour!!!! It was SPECTACULAR. We stopped at Maya Bay (the beach featured in the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DiCaprio), Loh Samah, Pileh Lagoon, Monkey Beach, and Khai Nok Island! My favorite part was SNORKELLING!! I rocked the fins, mask, and snorkel…head below the turquoise waters, I could see all sorts of coral and schools of exotic fish swim around me!! It was so nice and quiet, just hearing the sound of my own breathing, and observing the ocean floor…
This morning my sleep was quite fretful because not only was I emotionally riled up, but I kept on having visions of this dead Thai girl. You see, last night on the way back to Tiger, right at the intersection before you go down our street- was a lot of traffic. We were riding in a tuk-tuk, which is a car with no windows so we could see everything very clearly. As we made the turn, I saw a Thai girl just a few feet away, laying on her back, laid straight out, unmoving, eyes open, face white as a ghost. She looked dead. A motorbike accident. Where was the ambulance? I was most disturbed by the fact that here was a young dead Thai girl in the middle of the street, and there was no ambulance. Just a policeman directing traffic, and some people surrounding her.
This morning, I went to class, and someone said they saw a dead Thai guy yesterday by Tiger. I said I saw a dead girl! People commented on how this was very common, and Ray said he had seen a dead guy last week. The boy in class today said yesterday as he was coming back to Tiger, he saw a guy flat on his back after getting in a motorbike accident, and blood was gushing from the back of his head. Quite disturbing : (
Let it go, let it go. I can only focus on living my best, positive life, and be safe e.g. wear a helmet! I see so many Thai’s around here stacked 3 on a bike, with no helmets!
I was excited to go train today after the rest from this weekend and the less than stellar diet over the weekend.
Morning jiu jitsu still confounds me but was fun of course. We played “King of the Mat” (ahem! Queen of the mat) which is where it is a free for all! I got tapped right away; I loved the idea though! New to me. Then in rolling at the end of class I got tapped again and again, but people have told me to expect to get tapped for like the first 6 months anyway, so I’m okay with it. Ray put up a video of today’s “King of the Mat” ->
Afternoon muay thai was fine except that when I sparred this one guy, I accidently hit the top of my foot on his kneecap. Now I have a big painful bump on the top of my foot. I just iced it and wrapped it with an ace bandage for compression and just hope to God it ain’t a big thing! Everyone is always injured here…but I just don’t want something to take me out of the game. Pain I could care less about. Debilitating injury is what I want to avoid.
Night time jiu jitsu was fine also, fun, though I don’t know how much I can apply right away but at least I am exposing myself to concepts. The first round I rolled with a guy who said he didn’t have much experience…and I could kind of tell, except he did catch me in a guillotine. Oh well! THEN (drum roll please)…I caught him in an ARM BAR FROM MOUNT!!!!!!!! He didn’t “LET ME”! I asked him if he did, but he was wincing in pain and said no, he wouldn’t LET me tap him..I tapped him fair and square!!! WOOOTTT!!!! Grand victory! I’ve never pulled off that submission before!!! Somehow I got from side control to full mount, he struggled as I worked to isolate his arm, I went for it, he got out of it, I re-established position and went again for it, got the arm bar, and TAP!!!!!! yesssssssssssss.
Well. I hope my foot is fine. And I hope the bug bite-y looking things on my arm is not staph. Everyone here is SUPER paranoid (and rightly so), so that’s why I always wear long sleeve clothes to jiu jitsu, and take 2-3 showers a day with anti-bacterial, anti-staph soap, and always wash my clothes after one time on the mats. The mats are mopped every day, and deep cleaned every week. BUT, with so many little scrapes and cuts that magically appear by the dozen on our limbs while doing this fight training, and the maddening humidity, staph is everywhere, and so every little bug bite and mark I look at like ehhhhhhhh is that staph?!!?!?!!?? Hope not!
Saturday night we went to Patong. VERY different from the quiet street I live. Flashy lights, clubs, bars, ladyboys, cigarettes, shots, loud music, people asking you every 10 seconds to see a PING PONG show!!! Please, people, you know what this means…Not into any of that stuff so much, but interesting to take it all in. My favorite part was walking past a “fish therapy” place and Tina wanted to try it! So we did The fish are supposed to be good to exfoliate your skin, decrease inflammation, promote blood circulation, and be “tiny masseures” LOL! The moment I put my feet in the fish tank, it was a CRAZY, ticklish feeling!!! I started screeching, it was hard to keep my feet in the water as the fish flocked around my toes and ankles and calves and all that was submerged and nibbled away, ahhh!!!!! It felt SO FUNNY!
I went to bed late, woke up late, then Tina and I went to Kata Beach, a nice place where I tried to work on my tan, sporting a black bikini, white skin, and several dark bruises on my thighs and knees. I don’t how tan I got : / Today is Sunday, so it’s rest day…Tomorrow back to training.
My cousin asked me to post some pics of where I train. Below is one pic of the boxing ring, where you can see me chopping it up with a great English boxer with an accent that amuses me to no end. In the corner of the pic is Chok Ti, the boxing champ/boxing teacher I’ve mentioned earlier. The other pic is of the MMA area, where you can see two peeps practice the art of Krabi Krabong (stick fighting) and in the background, in the cage, you can see two peeps rolling. I will post more pics as they come, but if you want, you can check out more at www.tigermuaythai.com.
Since the last update, I visited Wat Chalong, the biggest and most ornate of Phuket’s 29 Buddhist temples:
I also visited The Big Buddha, one of Phuket’s most important and revered landmarks (though still under construction). The Big Buddha sits on top of the Nakkerd Hills and is easily seen from miles around because it is about 148 feet high!
Inside the temple by the Big Buddha were some papers on the wall with a wonderful message:
“May we close our eyes and we look inside. We make strong wishes. May I be happy 5 times.
Then at first we think of our mother. May our mother be happy 5 times.
We wish every happiness for our father. May he be happy 5 times.
Happiness for our family. For our sons and daughters, for our wives, our husbands, our brothers and sisters, our grandparents. May they be happy 5 times.
For our relatives and friends, for our neighbors who are close to use who like us. We like them. May they be happy 5 times.
5 times we send happiness to the leaders of our countries, the kings and queens, the prime ministers and presidents, may they be happy 5 times.
To all people who are suffering in the hospitals, with diseases and pain. May they find happiness, may they be happy 5 times.
Happiness for all without freedom, the captives and prisoners around the world, may they be happy 5 times.
Happiness to our enemies, the ones who don’t like us, who don’t understand us, we send them every happiness 5 times.”
The view at the top was gorgeous!
It actually reminds me of my hometown of San Diego.
Since I am not training yet, I feel like exploring Phuket while I have the time. Not only that, but there are certain things I need which require me to go places to get. Case in point: my pink flip flops were tearing up my feet! Because you take your shoes off before you go into places, everyone wears sandals that they slip on and off. My flip flops were not cutting it. I need a different pair. You can purchase some at a big store called Big C, about a 15-20 min motorbike ride down the way.
Without a motorbike, you would have to pay a lot of money for someone to personally drive you there….So I realize I need my own motorbike. Since I’m here for a month plus, it’s a necessity. So my life’s mission became to get some sandals. And, correspondingly, rent a motorbike and learn how to drive it.
So I picked up a yellow baby from Tony.
I rode up and down the streets around Tiger Muay Thai which are relatively quiet. The hardest part is that in Thailand, they drive on the opposite side of the road than in America, so that really throws me off!
I rode down a side street to practice turning, and a guard dog came at me!! I picked up speed to “outrun” it, but the dog picked up speed too!!!! It was growling and barking and looked ready to attack!! I screamed HEY!!! at the top of my lungs, and miraculously, the dog stopped and I sped off, heart pounding, terrified! I returned back to my place after that, having had enough close encounters on my motorbike for the time being.
The next morning, I woke up early so I could explore some of the busy roads before they got too congested and crazy. You see, here, their “rules” are crazy. The incidence of mortality while driving a motorbike is ridiculously high. There are no “lanes.” Well, they’re painted on the ground but no one follows them. Tony had recommended that I don’t go out on the main roads for a few more days. But I was determined to get my sandals. I had practiced and practiced as much as I could on the dinky little road by Tiger, but I needed to try to go on the main roads…So I did my lil workout in my room, showered, and crept out as the sun was rising. I strapped on my helmet, rolled out my motorbike (anyone have a good suggestion for a name for a yellow motorbike?) and off I cruised, the weather perfect for my tank top and capris, at 6:30 AM
I came back and had breakfast. Feeling good about my trip, I decided that today would be the day. I decided to be confident in myself and trust I could navigate these insane streets on the motorbike. I would get my sandals and not rely on anyone!!!!!
I headed out and went went went. It was about 20 min down this busy road, hitting speeds up to 40 mph but luckily it was just straight. Once I handled my business and bought my sandals (SWEET VICTORY), now was a challenge of making a U-turn. This requires me to go towards the right hand side (the fast side) of the left lane to make a U-turn!!!! Turns are the hardest part. So not only did I have to have the confidence to stop in front of the speeding cars, I also had to time my U-time with oncoming traffic and bang it out!! And I did! With ease! I felt so victorious as I jetted back on my motorbike within the crazy traffic, we’re all zipping past and through one another, and it’s a great feeling to have the wind cooling you down on the hot and humid day…Freedom!
(Post-note: not freedom the way, though, because there are a lot of places I want to go but don’t know how to get to and it’s kinda scary to navigate these roads when you don’t know where you’re going and don’t know exactly how to drive here!)
After that, I stopped by Tiger Muay Thai to have them call the place I got my excruciating massages from, so I can go get another one. I also took a walk around the complex, to see if anything interesting was going on. I did spy some SLOSH PIPES and was very excited because I have never seen a place have slosh pipes aside from our magnificent gym, Functional Core Fitnessin Mountain View, CA, U-S of A! Not only did they have ONE slosh pipe, they had FIVE!! (2 pictured- the big blue pipes)
Wow, I’m very curious about what they do with them! I wonder if they do different things with their slosh pipes than we do with ours. Here’s a vid with Omar doing some slosh pipe exercises.
I bet the conditioning with the slosh pipes is part of the Body Fit Program at Tiger Muay Thai, which everyone is raving about! I actually hadn’t even known it was so popular (as one always thinks of Muay Thai when thinking about Tiger Muay Thai) but apparently this program is hella-legit, if I may be so eloquent.
Saturday night was the BBQ Beatdown, which is a monthly event with smoker fights in Muay Thai, Western Boxing, and MMA. Of course, mostly Muay Thai. I had to go to scope the scene Sadly, no girl fights : /
Sunday morning I tested out my toe and TOOK A JOG OUTSIDE!!!!!! I taped it up and decided to go for it, just a brief warm up…there is no treadmill at Tiger, so everyone runs on the street. So…I had my go. I haven’t run in AGES due to my broken toe, and prior to that I didn’t run much either, being the iron addict that I am. I LIKE LIFTING HEAVY SHIT. Despised cardio. Until I started getting interested in fighting and realized I needed to run to increase my stamina. The last time I ran consistently was about 3-4 years ago, when I would frequently run 5 miles daily, sometimes more. Then I tore my ACL and that’s a whole different story. Anyway, I was proud of myself that I ran without stopping up and down the hills (okay fine I admit they weren’t that steep but STILL), and infinitely relieved that the toe felt fine Then I came back to my room- since I don’t yet have access to the weight room at Tiger since I haven’t started training there- and busted out my beloved JC Band:
I always take it with me when I’m travelling. I did some rows, some bicep curls, a little this, a little that, so that my body remembers resistance and remembers how to MOVE!
Monday morning (tomorrow) I plan to test out the bod and do some training at Tiger for the first time!!! So excited! Will definitely let you know how it goes
The trip over here was like 30 hours altogether from start to finish but thankfully it went by quickly and smoothly!
I am staying at a place called “Dream Village.” The owner, Tony, is an awesome guy (born and raised in Phuket) who has gone out of his way to help get me settled.
Others, such as The Fight Geek, have recommended I go with him, too, and I can confirm I’m in good hands. This place is less than a 5 min walk from Tiger Muay Thai, where I hope to start training on Monday.
(pic taken when I arrived at like midnight)
For now, I am resting up, hanging out, and exploring the sights. Yesterday I got a Thai massage and exfoliation (er, Thai massage was wicked! Especially my toe- when she massaged my toe, it was excruciating. Hope it’s just scar tissue?), saw some of the city, saw a dog on the lap of a girl riding a motorcycle, tried strange fruit, saw many lizards,
took three showers, and slept a lot ☺
Today, I plan on checking out Wat Chalong, and the Big Buddha- pics and details will be forthcoming.
Here are some of the eats so far including this morning:
3 egg white omelette with spinach and fruit (some unknown). It felt nice and healthy! The unknown fruit was pretty good, and the banana I saved as a snack for later.
Chicken with “kale” (is it really kale?). The greens were really good! The chicken was pretty oily and I tried to pat it down with a napkin, but it was still pretty oily. Not bad though!
Muesli with fruit and yogurt. Not bad! This wouldn’t be my typical breakfast but I have to bend my preferences while abroad
Unpictured: one protein shake with cake batter protein powder (I brought) and one protein shake with Jay Robb pina colata protein powder (I brought)
Random Pic:
They sell gasoline often in bottles by the road! Yummy, soda!
I am a certified personal trainer, avid fitness enthusiast, and creator of Freestyle Fitness Addiction. Come visit frequently, as I add articles, video clips, and personal blog posts related to building strength, power, and stability in fun, outside-of-the-box ways; nutrition; inspiration; injury prevention and rehab; figure and fitness; mixed martial arts; random ruminations, and daily personal life. When not driven by my fitness addiction, some of my favorite things include being a badass with my hoodie up, sparkles, and kittens.
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Then I came back to my room- since I don’t yet have access to the weight room at Tiger since I haven’t started training there- and busted out my beloved JC Band:
