It’s been a month

So, it’s been a month and some change. Where am I at? Thailand. Specifically, in a village named Mae Taeng. You see, at first, I thought I was going to be in Chiang Mai, which is Thailand’s seventh largest city. It doesn’t have the authoritative pomp of a capital like Bangkok, nor the allure of warm water scantily-clad beaches of Phuket. However Chiang Mai does have a charm. I haven’t visited much, but I’ve seen it riding along the canal in the middle of the city and in the various lively night markets and ornately constructed temples.

The village I am residing in is about 38 kilometers (or about 24 miles) north of Chiang Mai, which takes about 40 minutes by car or motorbike. Speaking of, I rented one to help me get to and from Chiang Mai for church as well as get to the training grounds from the guest house and run some necessary errands. Mae Taeng is a village, but don't think, huts in the middle of the jungle, rather a more remote district with a significantly smaller population. Mae Taeng has modern grocery and convenience stores like Tesco Lotus and 7-11. It also has traditional markets like Mae Malai market and plenty of street vendors and small businesses. I go to Mae Malai market for yellow mangos, coconuts, eggs, and watermelon and usually get a selection of sweets from Dang Bakery which is right down the road.

I am training Muay Thai at a school named Muay Thai Sangha Fighting Arts. My head instructor is Kru Pedro Solana, a fifty-five year old Spanish expatriate who has lived in Thailand for about half of his life. He’s trained in martial arts since he was fourteen , starting with Judo, and eventually found his way to Thailand via the United States after seven years.

The training I’m doing in Mae Taeng is time consuming and exhausting. I signed up for Pedro’s one month intensive Muay Thai course. This course is meant to teach the basics of Muay Thai and consists of training twice a day for five days and once in the morning on Saturdays. The only true break I have is on Sundays. Days started at either 6:00am or 6:30am depending on my level of fatigue. Since I am a simp, I would use this time to talk to my fiancé who is eleven hours behind me. After the I love you’d were finished I headed to the training grounds and Pedro’s home which is about a fifteen minute walk or five minute scooter ride from the guesthouse I am staying at. For the first week I did not have a scooter, so walking during my muscle adjustment period was not enjoyable to say the least.

At 7:30 am training would begin. First up is running between three and four miles depending on level of fatigue, followed by jumping rope, then shadow boxing. This por was mainly independent. Pedro would come down and start instructing us on techniques. This included practicing kicks, knees, elbows, and a host of punches. We would then do five, five minute rounds on the bag. Did I mention that the training grounds are completely outside and the humidity is consistently at 90 percent. In layman's terms, it means things get hot and sweat really quickly. After bagwork, Kru Tao would lead us in strength training for thirty minutes— mainly utilizing light and body weight— doing exercises such as pull ups, rope climbs, and various core exercises to develop body fortitude. Training concluded at or around 10:30am and we would finish up closer to 11:00am after cleaning the gym.

The second session starts at 3:30pm. A pleasant tradition was coffee. Many people would congregate at the restaurant Pedro’s wife, Pandip runs, which is about 100 yards from the gym at 3:00pm. We would chat and drink coffee before training started. Sometimes coffee would start at like 3:20pm and we would linger, putting off training for maybe twenty minutes. This depended on people’s energy levels. Following coffee we would start with skipping rope and then get into bagwork again. If it was Tuesday or Thursday we would run sprints on the dirt rroad between the restaurant and the gym. This is actually quite treacherous because of the uneven surface, potholes forming and shifting due to the raincoat constant rain fall. For the first two weeks, Pedro made us carry bricks from the gym to the restaurant, as his two turtles outgrow their constructed shelter. It gave Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi vibes as we carried, organized, and even tilled the dirt for his turtles. Evening sessions were my favorite because of the aforementioned activities, but it was also a bit more interactive. The evenings where we would hold pads for one another and even get into some sparring.

My second instructor is Kru Tao. He is a twenty-eight year old Muay Thai fighter who’s been training since he was eleven. He has over three hundred fights over his belt. To me, he represents the stereotypical Siam boxer—shorty, stocky, and physically obstinate. Thai fighters are resilient—as in their shin bones are literally thicker than average persons because since their youth they’ve been smacking them against tires, metal, and other fighter’s tibias. He is flexible and fast, but also playful and not as intense as Pedro. When Pedro got sick, Tao had to lead and the atmosphere felt lighter. He is also a father. He always brings his four-year old son Khampan to the gym with him. It is precious.

I wasn’t the only one attending the intensive course. I was training with about nine other people. Let’s see, there is the father-daughter duo, Rick and Greta. Rick is a recently retired American citizen who spent the past thirty years teaching abroad in international schools. He’s been everywhere from Guam, to Ecuador, Mozambique and most recently Poland. His wife is actually still there, planning to retire after this academic year I believe. He is accompanying his nineteen-year old daughter Greta, who chose to forgo university in favor of developing an arsenal of martial arts, practicing the likes of Krav Maga, Kung fu, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and now Muay Thai. She is also traveling to different countries to do this. It’s not new to them as she grew up in the grey area of international education and traveling. She indicated that there were some mental health issues when graduating high school. From my understanding This led her to desire to blaze her own path, aspiring to teach martial arts one day as a profession.

Rick is a small, lean, almost-gaunt math-teacher who possesses the idiosyncratic love of nature. Imagine a skinny Henry David Thoreau with braces and a Minnesotan accident. His daughter is rather hard to get to know, but polite none-the less. She has a bit of a tomboyish and a bit defensive disposition , but also a nurturing and playful personality when it comes to little kids—specifically Toa’s son Khampan.

Another notable personality is Arelis, the seventeen year-old Serbian who’d been training with Pedro for a month before I arrived. He possesses the lanky and scrawny build of a five-foot-eleven kid who's never lifted weights. He is a bit of a trickster, when sparring, always congenial, and he laughs often and sincerely, even when he is the but of a joke. He is however soft. But it is the result of what I believe to be a pampered lifestyle as Pedro identified him as a rich kid. The kind that calls Pedro and Pandip when he cut his foot on a piece of metal believing he needed to go to the hospital for a vaccine instead of just cleaning and dressing the wound. He is a delight and there is no pretense with him. He eats a lot, sometimes in the middle of practice, preferring the sticky rice and fruit he gets from Mae Malei and he cares about girls and making his muscles bigger.

Then you have the Swiss gang. As mentioned before Pedro has an affiliate in Zurich. This gym is run by a Swiss national named Roger who’s been doing Muay Thai for fourteen years. This guy is good! He would often throw Jose-David to the ground when clenching with him. I would describe him as a front-runner. Very much in shape, attractive, easy going, but also dangerous. He didn’t go around advertising that fact, but people know it, and I think his humility is what draws people to his gym. He could be Captain Switzerland, if the country decided to incorporate their own Marvel Hero, and of course if Roger were taller. That is not shade either! As a fellow short man, I am painfully aware of the privilege that comes with height. He trained with Pedro on and off in Thailand for six years. For the intensive course he brought five of his students: Dominik, Jamin, Omar, Claudia, and Laura.

Dominik is a thirty-two year old chef. A very accomplished one at that. He ran the kitchen of the restaurant in one of Zurich’s limited skyscrapers. He is a generous and humorous man who gets along with literally everybody. He is also well traveled and a bit of a polyglot, speaking Swiss German, English, Spanish, Thai, French, and Italian. He learned Thai while living and working in a restaurant on Ko Sumai for four years— Thailand's second biggest island. He recently quit being a chef and is taking some time before choosing his new endeavor.

The Swiss girls—well one Swiss and the other Portuguese just living in Switzerland were also Roger’s students. I didn’t get to know them much as they stayed only two weeks, but they were both amicable. Claudia was the elder, a thirty-two year old Portuguese chef who previously worked for Dominik— and came to find Roger’s gym through him. Laura was a twenty-two year old nurse , who was a quite femine young lady. I actually found it quite funny that she kept painting her nails, knowing that it would chip during training. They were both good. I was impressed by Claudia's strength; in one instance Pedro decided to “save” Greta from Claudia while sparring, because she was not controlling her intensity. Pedro explained that if he let them continue and allowed Claudia to match that energy, Great would get hurt. Laura’s form and technique were graceful and accurate. I would often look at her while shadow boxing and try to imitate her moves.

The last duo would be Omar and Jamin. These were the young men closest to my age, Omar twenty-six and Jamin twenty-three. They were both cool dudes in their respective ways. Omar is a professional photographer and a bit quirky. Immediately he stands out among the Swiss people because of the tint of his skin and the curls in his long hair. Omar’s mother is Algerian and his Father is Swiss. He is a rather sensitive young-man, very aware of his emotions and wears his heart on his sleeve. Yet he is not a dandy. Omar is in shape, you hear me! He is about five-foot-ten broad shoulders and big chested. He does Muay Thai, because of his tendency to overthink and says it anchors him. I got along with Jamin the most out of the Swiss crew. He is just quiet, but has a subtle charm. He speaks carefully, but not softly. He is a grounded young man, just even tempered. To boot, he also has a keen sense of fashion which is not too flashy. I always always respect that in a man.

September along with the intensive course is over and the Swiss people left. That leaves just Arelis, José David, Rick Greta and myself. For the remainder of my time here, I’ve decided to learn Pedro’s double-sword style and meditate in the mornings in addition to Muay Thai training in the evenings. Overall, I would characterize my experience in Thailand as uncomfortable and unfamiliar. Uncomfortable because of the sporadic heat and torrential rain combination paired with all the bugs and critters. I no longer flinch when I see an ant crawl on me while in bed or a gecko scurry through the atrium to my bathroom. Mosquitoes are the literal bain of my existence as repellent doesn’t work when I’m outside because of the amount I sweat. The constant exhaustion, fatigue, bumps and bruises don't help.

It’s unfamiliar just because—things are different here. I am not a tourist, I am a traveler and that means I get a more authentic experience. I walk through the open air markets fumigated with putrid smell of fish— dead, alive, and fried. If I need something I brave the perils of Thai traffic driving on the left side of the road. I hang dry my clothes, sometimes hand washing the athletic-wear I need for the next day. Seeing stray dogs rome the streets during my runs is strange and I miss landscaping and fast food (I have to drive 25 minutes to get to Burger King). I really do not hope to come off as complaining. I asked to be here and I would not change it. Uncomfortability is a catalyst for growth, and unfamiliarity broadens horizons making you more adaptable.