The Blog of E.M. FitzGerald

I looked out this morning and the sun was gone…it was poring as though the natural phenomenon was going out of style. The monsoon rain season still has not yet descended upon us, I can only imagine what that is going to look/feel like. I hear it’s quite amazing, due to the sheer amount of water that drops from the skies above. Doesn’t mean that much to me though, as I have become fully immersed in the world of Muay Thai. My kicks are crisp, as are my punches. I am getting faster and stronger by the day, and due to getting more rest than normal I am no longer getting hurt or sick. I’ve effectively cut beer out of my diet, which I am sure has helped my cause no small amount.

I have found that my skipping ability has become greatly improved, allowing me to skip (jump rope) for extended periods of 30+ minutes at a time, even though it is really boring to skip so long! I also started doing a kettle bell workout, which just about destroyed every muscle of my body- but I figure that I will get used to the stress of such a workout soon enough. If I can conquer the now livable heat and humidity, then weights are not a big deal. It is more than a feeling that I am getting that my training is improving. There is a photographer at the Muay Thai camp who is now taking a bunch of pictures of me training, so that I have a photographic record of my progress here. I have seen some of the pictures, and even when I am exhausted like I was today, my form is good.

After doing the normal 5 and 5 routine that is done every day, today we did Muay Thai Boran after the workout. Muay Boran is what the art was before there was any “formal” teaching. It is a much more brutal martial art, and as such is no longer used in sport Muay Thai (for which I train). We engaged in three different techniques of Muay Boran: grasping the kicking leg, and striking the leg with an elbow; grasping the kicking leg and kneeing the muscle; and avoiding a straight, moving out of the way and elbowing the opponent in the back of neck to stun then. Naturally we did these drills at a very slow and safe pace, and I can only imagine how nasty they would be if put into practice. I will be going through the motions in all of them, so that I can get them down into my muscle memory so all I have to do is react. I figure that if a street fight situation ever occurs, these Muay Boran skills would be good to have down pat.

Just after the satisfying workout we had a nice buffet that was put on by the gym, and as such it was free. As I am never one to say no to free food, I took an active part in downing my fair (or maybe not so fair) portion of the food prepared. It had been prepared by the mother of the owner of the gym, Tuk, and looked/smelled amazing. To begin I made a nice bed of white rice on my plate, then covered that with massaman chicken, which I was told was not hot. In addition, I took a bit of pineapple and watermelon. Little did I know, eating the food would be harder than the training.

The chicken was unlike any kind of hot that I’ve ever had before! My lips were on fire, and my eyes began to water. I am very used to the hot that one finds in Mexi-Cali cuisine, but this was on a whole different level. I can withstand hot sauce pretty well, and most peppers to boot if they are prepared right. This time though, things were different. Thai hot is something out of this world. I started to sweat again, and a few tears fell from my eyes at the extreme amount of spice in the chicken. My sinuses got all clogged up and I had to make a trip to the bathroom to clear them out, trying my best not to breath in any of the spices in the process. Coming back to my plate, I began eating once again which proved to be a painful experience. Yet, like a good boy I finished my whole plate and quickly downed the fruit. It was the fruit that saved me, as the watermelon put out the incredible fire that was roaring through my taste buds. After about 10 slices of watermelon and 8 of pineapple, the sweating stopped and I could breathe normal again without the fear of getting the spice up my nose. Hopefully, I will be able to avoid the potential for bodily destruction of that nature the rest of my trip!!!

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 5th, 2010 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Phuket, Thailand, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.