Ong Bak 2?

So yesterday while I was training this Thai woman came into our stadium and started taking pictures of everyone. Front, center, side, and finally in a guard stance.

I'm thinking "what the hell?" but hey this is Thailand, so I let her take a shot at me, it was kind of awkward but she spoke enough English so that I didn't look like a complete fool.

Later on I find out that this woman was scouting for Ong Bak 2!

If you haven't seen Ong Bak, go rent it now. It's a great Thai movie, and if you like any Jackie Chan style stunt work then you'll love it. Also check out Tony Jaa's last movie "Tom Yun Goon" or "The Protector (USA release name)", get the international version if you can as the American cut takes out over 20 minuets and a whole lot of Thai customs.

Granted I probably have a snowballs chance in hell of getting called, even for Badguy #37 or something. I imagine that they want some beefcake guy like this one guy from Egypt whose pectorals probably weigh more than half of me. But the feeling around all the other students and myself is "what if?".

It'd be cool as hell to be a part of this especially since it's Tony Jaa's first shot at directing as well. I'd love to have a reason to extend my stay in Thailand, pending of course an event in November that I will be home for. Not to mention I would not only meet but act with one of the people who got me so interested in Muay Thai to begin with.

Bah, enough of this, I have training to do.

Weight Drop.

When I left the states I weighed a good 155-160 pounds (~70kg) on any given day. Much of this was made from the past year or so of building myself up from around 140 (~63kg), which is the weight I somehow stayed at all through high school and college.

I don't want to fight lightweight and so I tried to gain weight. Much of the same time my friends were doing this as well, Jeff for instance has had some great success at this back home in Colorado. We hit plateaus and moved on and kept sharing tips for healthy weight gain with each other.

Anyways, after the first month of training here I dropped down to a solid 150 (70kg), and I mean SOLID. I was happy with this as the excess fat that I had put on from plowing through some of my weight gain back in America had vanished. I was now able to use the smallest hole in my belt like I was before I started trying to gain weight, but I looked like a beast. Simply put I was merely cutting fat, seven pounds of it which had me thinking "woah!" I didn't know that I had that much to get rid of.

This past Sunday I got some wicked food poisoning. I'm not exactly sure what from because I've been eating like a monster, however a big red pig statue comes to mind. The food here in Thailand is great and training four hours a day gets you hungry. I basically order two dishes worth every time I go out, plus the Thai's serve small portions. So needless to say I ate quite a bit from quite a few places.

After about 3 days of worshipping the porcelain god and other unpleasantries I decided to get back to training today. My stomach felt weird but not queasy or hurting, and I’ve been able to hold small amounts of food down for about the past day. So I figured that I was good to go.

Before training I hopped on the scale in the weight room. 143 pounds (~65kg).

Son of a bitch!

That’s about 14 pounds (~6.5kg) since I arrived in Thailand that are gone. I do look worse for wear though, and I knew during training that I must’ve lost some muscle during my sickness as training was making me ache and I was going light today. Danielle said that I look as scrawny as I did back when I was 18. So I figured that I dropped a few but I didn’t think that I was down THAT much.

So here goes another attempt at getting up to a good, healthy, 160 (72kg). I just hope that this doesn’t take as long as it did last time.

Koh Chang

So we were offered a chance to go train at a resort on Koh Chang, and island just south of the Bangkok area. We said sure and the next day everyone told us that we were leaving at six in the morning. Woah hows that for getting things going!

It's an amazing island and we were treated like VIPs and only had to pay about 1/4 of the price. We ate with the owner of the resort for our meals and didn't have to spend another baht after we got there. We found out that the catch was being interviewed by a television station for promotion of the resort. Not bad really.

Here are a few pics of the island.

View from the Dock.


Coconut Tree, do not sleep under these, as a falling coconut will open your head.


Across the beach to the small Elephant island.


Somewhat better view of the Elephant island.


Master Boyd being silly with a flower.


Finally a picture of my training for you guys. The guy with hair is Francisco and he is from Spain.


Master Noi.


Ah yes the staris, pretty to look at, hell to run up and down.

The top ten things that no one tells you about Thailand.

Well after a month of living in Thailand, or Bangkok really, here’s a list of things that I wish I had known about before coming here so I could have prepared for my trip better.

1. Thai people do not believe in hot water. You will probably find hot and cold taps in a high star hotel geared towards foreigners and tourists, and that’s it. If you are going to live in a dorm style place or cheaper housing, then get used to cold showers in a bathroom that has no barrier from toilet to shower to sink.

2. Many people speak English, just about as much as you do Thai. So study some Thai real well. Most locals know a few words or phrases and the people in the service sector are a bit better, but not by much. So what it comes down to is that Thai is the language that you need to communicate. Start with numbers as Thai numbers are easy to learn. Also body language is a great skill, and a smile and a nod will get you pretty far. Do not point or wave with your hand up. Just keep your palm down and motion for help if you want something.

3. Tell the taxi drivers to use their meter. Just say “bert meter” and if they refuse get out. Otherwise you might get charged hell knows what for the trip. This only happened to us once and the guy charged us what we usually need to pay plus our usual tip so it wasn’t that bad. But still, meter is good.

4. Speaking of taxis, be careful which taxi you flag down and enter. If the car sounds like it is about to fall apart, then it probably is. For their credit most drivers keep their cars pretty well tuned, but the lower end drivers might break down and you could be stuck flagging another taxi halfway to your destination on a busy highway. This actually happened to us tonight.

5. Another thing about taxis. Carry a card of the place that you are staying at that has the address in Thai. If all else fails in asking where to go pull out the business card and show it to the driver. It is also helpful to remember any hotspots close to your destination such as nightclubs, shopping centers, and the like, and you can just tell them to take you there and walk the rest of the way.

6. Sometimes there are two prices. If you learn to read Thai numerals this will be apparent to you as one price is in Thai numerals and is different than the price in Arabic (regular) numerals. Most modernized places don’t have this but many tourist destinations do. So don’t be surprised. Also when bargaining you can’t go down to what you just saw a Thai person buy something for, usually you have to pay much more. Other people and I call this the farang tax.

7. A smile is always a smile in the west but here it can mean different things. I still haven’t figured this entire one out but it definitely comes in awkward moments where we would not smile sometimes. Still you should smile more often in Thailand as Thai people seem to like it. Body language people, use it, it’s a tourist’s best friend.

8. There are no dryers. I’ve seen washing machines on sale but never a dryer. You are going to hang your clothes out to dry. So buy a lint roller and what not as the lint that a dryer usually catches will still be there when you air dry something. Sports tape works pretty well and I used half a roll on my split knuckles and the other half on my clothes. I suggest a lint roller though.

9. Everything that you do will be noticed by Thai people. As a foreigner you stick out like a sore thumb, and you will be noticed even more. The way you smell, dress, walk, look around, and act. It may seem shallow to a western point of view but over here class distinctions rule the day. So dress nice, smell nice, act nice, and whatever you do if something is wrong keep your cool. As I said body language goes pretty far, so use it to your advantage, not disadvantage, and keep your self awareness high.

10. Respect H.M. the King. The Thai people love him, they stand up in movie theaters for the national anthem, and so should you. Basically follow the lead of the Thai people around you on how to act and what to do for etiquette about the King. The King is also on every single piece of money that is floating around right now. So if your drop some coins, then you should pick them up and dust them off as if they were important to you, even if it is less than 1 baht.

Rain

The first time that I saw it rain here I thought to myself "if it rained like this back home there would be flood warnings", well yesterday back in Fort Collins I hear that there were flood warnings.

Here are some stats on how much it rains in Thailand:

Overall the southern parts of Thailand get by far the most rain with around 2,400 millimetres (~94 inches) every year, compared with the central and northern regions of Thailand, both of which get around 1,400 millimetres (~55 inches).
Source: Travelfish

Here's what caused flood warnings back home:

DayWeather Inc. of Cheyenne, using a city of Fort Collins automated rain gauge network installed after the 1997 Spring Creek flood, reported 4.92 inches (124 mm) on Taft Hill Road near Harmony that fell in 90 minutes to two hours.

The storm dumped more than 3 inches (76 mm) of rain on west Harmony Road in 45 minutes, according to the weather service.

The source is a News repost from a friend's LJ and I'll keep her URL private.

It rains just less than every other day right now and I hear that it's only the begining of the rainy season. The other day it was raining and the drops came down huge, more like puddles falling from the sky. It was very surreal to watch this happen outside my window.

Now I'm not saying that the flood warnings weren't justified. What was dumped in the span of an hour back home is a lot even for Thailand. Also the terrain back home is not like the terrain here, and with what happened in 97 I'm sure everyone is scared of a flood even an entire decade later. It's just interesting to note how large the difference is concerning what is normal and abnormal weather.

If it rained that much that quickly here, people would think that it was September or October, and wonder what happened to August.