Living in Thailand

[c0bra]

how much money does it cost for like a year? like $8,000 USD? How hard is it to get into the muay thai camps?

[S.Anucha]

living there for a year... Mate what are your needs? how do you measure comfort? I personally can live on a single matress in a small shitty room with cold water and for food I can live on Thai diet, anyway i love Thai food especially the Northern food, shit its hot and spicy.

There are many places you can stay which are relatively cheap, well to be honest they are damn cheap! £30 for one month for a two bed (not bedroom) air conditioned (which you must pay for in you electric bill) appartment with bathroom, shower and bath but cold water..... this is a Thai appartment and you'll find mostly Thai students living in these. Its cheap and the best thing is you have your own space, you can bring a woman back or have a little party and invite all the neigbhours round, you can also get cheaper or more expensive it all depends on your needs, some people cannot live with a cold water shower, I personnally dont see the problem cos the water is kinda warm in the mornings when the sun is shining but its just ball freezing when you get back from training!

And then you have location, Bangkok costs more than Chiang Mai, camps or gyms, many camps will let you train for free if you fight for them, the same as the Thais but yet you have a lot of camps and gyms that are only interested in taking money from interested Farang (westerner), common sense tells you which are scams and which are not.

I m training with a Thai fella who started fighting when he was 14 and is now 26 years old, he has had 130 fights been champion of Thailand and loves what it is he teaches, he has had 130 fights, is that all? you may ask, well he is good I seen him fight and LannaMuay Thai boxing coach Taywin Boontham knows him personally. He's trying to build a future for himself with teaching now and yet still hasnt retired from fighting, he fights nearlly every night in show fights but they dont count.

I train with one guy you may ask, well no, there are actually more, he has a trainer and there are also the family members of his trainer. His style of Muay thai is Muay Boran, this is the ancient style, its funny cos I was talking with him on the phone the other day about this and he said its the same technqiue just fought with gloves and in a ring, he is a genuine Thai who loves to teach people what he loves most, really, he doesnt charge me anything as I have already fought for him before and I will continue, he matched me up well and encouraged me with kind words while also taking me to see fights with them all, in other words he accepted me into his family, I usually hung out with all the boxers and helped out in the Thaiboxing shows they have around Chiang Mai for the tourists, its all great fun, I never feel I am being asked for anything nor do I feel I am being taken for a ride.... I have known him now for over two years and the more i get to know him the more I understand that he truely is a good fighter and teacher not to mention a very humble man. he has trained champions, young fellas 16-18 years old, but as is the norm in Thailand champs change like the weather. I can only guess that his teacher is now handing down the main role as teacher to him, its cool when training as sometimes, well a lot of the times his teacher and some others would all share their piece, his teacher was 4 times champion of Thailand at 4 different wieghts, you'd look at him now and not belive he was, he promotes fights at Gawilla stadium in Chiang Mai and takes fighters to Bangkok to fight in the bigger stadiums.

The best thing is there aint many people who train with him and the ones who do are Thai people, there was 3 farang training there when I was learning from him, there was me, an Aussie mate and an English fella who was teaching in one of the schools, the English fella still trains with him.

I have learned that its not exactly what the camp has in terms of equipment and size but its the attitude and the expertise of the teachers which make it what it is. Also in the North of Thailand you have more of a chance to learn Muay Boran.

I met these guys while I was training somewhere else, by complete accident. Watching a fight I noticed the distinct difference in style and the skill level shown from these fighters was fantastic, the way they grappled was powerful and the movements of the fighters really caught my attention, this was 100% Muay Thai.... these guys were fecking great! So I asked a guy standing beside me, a tallish beer bellied Thai fella who trained these fighters, he was standing watching and said "they are my students fighters", it all went from there. Complete accident. Kinda strange, almost like fate.

It takes you to ask around.

[c0bra]

what kind of experience should i have if i were to go there?

[S.Anucha]

how much experience do you have?

Depends if you are already trained in Muay Thai, I mean if you are going to learn Muay Thai and you are coming from a Kickboxing gym they will know as soon as you step in the ring and start pad training, they will train you from scratch if that is the case but dont worry if you have previous martial arts experience it shouldnt take long till you get the hang of it, man two 2-3 hour sessions in one day and 6 days in a week, if you dont get better there is something seriously wrong.

If you are complete beginner then that also doesnt matter, dont be put off by the young Thais, mate its their country and Muay thai is in their blood so obviously you aint gonna get started at the age of 5, just go and join a gym they will take you through the rest of it.

You will learn a lot, belive me, your ability in Muay Thai will become incredably better in the first month of training... no shit!

goodluck mate and I really do hope you go for it. Just be careful.