Day 11

Opted for MMA instructor Daniel's beach workout this morning. Everyone asked if I had eaten already and told me I would be seeing it again. We drove into Kata Noi just south of Kata and this beach was great. A few surfers out, surfing is much better here in the low season. From the street down to the beach there are about 90 steep steps and thus this was the location for the workout. It was just Dave and I doing the workout and we started out with a beach jog and then did the stairs. At the top of the stairs Dan held pads while we threw 20 combinations. Some of the combinations were 7 or 8 punches and with fatigue it becomes a mental challenge as well. I swam for a bit after that and it felt great. We then went to this vegetarian restaurant and ate for about 20 baht each. I'm not sure what I ate, it was pretty spicy but good. Over conversation Daniel said he grew up in the bush in Australia and was home schooled. He left home about 14 and had a graphic design degree and his own company by 16 and has been wandering the globe since then. Dave said he has had 3 pro fights and lots of amatuer fights. I told him the only British fighters I knew were Ross Pointon and Mike Bisping because of The Ultimate Fighter. He said he was friends with Bisping and he was a really good guy. After that I went to the Chalong Gym to buy some whey. The gym was rocking out to Husker Du and seemed pretty nice, I may come back for some heavy lifting on Sundays. Trained muay thai in the afternoon and did okay. Lobert was my pad man for most of it and helped me alot correcting stance and form. After training everybody cleaned up and met back at camp to go watch the fights in Patong. Two of the trainers and Cesar from L.A. were fighting. Most people took a taxi but Julian and his girlfriend, U.K. Adam and his wife, and I rode bikes with me in the rear. Was a little bit too much fun ducking in and out of traffic trying to keep up. Crossing the hills into Patong Adam's front brakes seized up on a downhill and the bike went up and they fell off to the side. I slammed on my brakes and prepared for liftoff... luckily they weren't hurt and I stopped in time and it wasn't anyone's dead end. He had to walk it through the hills but was able to drive it once we got into Patong. We had to ask around for directions to stadium but eventually we made it and met up with everybody. Cesar was pumped for his fight. The whole boxing stadium smelled like my linament cream and there were a few hundred people there. A few fans but no air conditioning. Em the trainer had a really good fight and won, the other trainer whose name I forget knocked his opponent out. Cesar's fight was really good too and he pretty much manhandled the guy. He ended up knocking him out cold in the 2nd. After that most of us went to the Tiger Bar which is really a huge two story complex of bars and is the most popular nightlife spot in Patong. If you are in a group you don't get harrassed by the women so much, but if you have to go to the bathroom or something they will try and grab you. I was moving like Emmitt so its all good. We ended up going upstairs to the discotheque to dance awhile. Some of us got tired of dancing and sat outside and talked awhile. Elly (short for Eliza) and I went across the street to get some pizza. She is from Poland but has been living in London studying psychology. She said she will be an official shrink in 3 years. She doesn't like Poland or London and doesn't know where she is going to go. Gary, Luke and Maddox showed up and took the party up a notch. I had just met Maddox a.k.a. MadDog a little earlier that night, he is from Australia and has two more weeks here, after that he is joining the french foreign legion. We were getting a little rowdy and then out of nowhere he threw a fork across the restaurant. It flew right by this guy's head so he was escorted out. None of us knew why he did it and we were as surprised as anyone. The guy kept talking but we told him to simmer down and it was all good and we had a good time eating pizza. Elly and I shared a prawn and squid pizza which doesn't sound good but was quite tasty. After that we found everybody else outside having a good time... Aussie Adam said that Maddox had just broken his beer bottle and held it up to this guy's throat. I think the guy had just met one of the girl's from the camp. They didn't really know why he had done this either, Maddox said he was telling him not to rip off his friend. I like this guy. Everybody took a tuk tuk except for Em who hopped on my hog with me. Fighting for these Thai guys is just another day in the office. At the camp before the fight you wouldn't even be able to tell they were going to fight if you didn't know already. Em looks like he is in his early 20s and said he has had about 175 fights. He gets one day off after a fight but after that it is back to work.