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Day 40

It was a short flight to Singapore and then a much longer flight to Germany. I had a few hundred baht leftover so I handed the teller at the currency exchange a stack and asked how many euro I could get. She shrugged and said "not much". I asked if it was enough for something at the coffee shop and she said probably and handed me 5 euro and some change. The meals and movie selections were all different on this flight and I was still impressed with Singapore Air. I watched some of The Office, Scrubs, Arrested Development and also saw X-men 3 (the diplomat turned fighter in The Beast reminded me of Cro Cop), Davinci Code, Godfather II and a little of Nacho Libre. We touched down a little late at 11:00 am at JFK and I was pretty sure I was going to miss my 1:00 pm flight from LaGuardia. Somehow I was able to get my bags, get through customs, get a taxi, get to LGA, get my bags checked in, get through security and to my terminal by a little after 12. I got to Atlanta with about an hour and a half to kill so I walked around a little bit and read some magazines in the bookstores. I realized it had been about 11 hours since I'd eaten so I stopped at Moe's and got a big burrito. They were playing Ray Charles and I was having a pretty decent time when they paged me to the gate my flight was departing from. The terminal was empty when I got there and I was smiling when I walked up to the desk. She said "Are you Nicholas Thomas?" I just kept smiling and winked at her. She said "Honey get on this plane so we can get out of here - we're just waiting on you!" The front half of the plane (where my seat was) was pretty full. However the back half of the plane was basically empty so I took a row to myself near the back. As we took off Willy Nelson's XM radio station was playing Lorretta, Waylon and Hank Jr. and I was almost home.

So thats it, my family picked me up and we ate at Los Lupes and its back to reality.

There were a few stories I forgot to tell:

One night I was walking into Greenwich Village from Tribeca as the sun was setting and I heard organ music and church bells. The music echoed off the walls and throughout the neighborhood and I followed the sound to find a church having an evening service.

I forgot to mention the time I stopped at an internet cafe and they weren't open but they said I could go ahead and come in. The owner was farang and his daughter kept checking on me and eventually she said she was going to sleep but I could pay her dad when I left. I found him in a room that looked like it could be in NORAD. He sat at a desk in a middle of the room facing a wall with three enormous hi-def flat screen computer monitors with scrolling stock information on them. There were dozens of other flatscreens that covered every wall in the room except the one behind him. It was probably 10 or 11 at night and I'm not even sure which markets he was trading in. As Gordon Gekko said, the market never sleeps.

I forgot to mention the time I went to visit Wat Chalong (the temple) at night, and got chased out by a pack of dogs.

One morning I put on my shoes and I had a frog in each one. Both lived. While I was packing up I noticed another frog amidst my clothes, inside my bag. That could have been a problem at customs.

Day 39

I walked over to the camp and talked to some people that were doing the morning training. I setup a time with Chanman to do my last private for late on in the afternoon. From there I went to the supermarket to return some shoes I had bought that were in two different sizes, and then I went back to hell in Patong for some specific items I had in mind for gifts. I was shopping in Patong almost all day which was more of a beating than anything at the camp. I got a ticket for going the wrong way down Bangla road which is closed off at night and has little traffic and no indication that its a one way street in the daytime. If I was going fast enough sometimes I would blow past the police checkpoints on the roads but this cop jumped right in front of me and I thought all he wanted was to check my license so I stopped. Turned out he took my license and gave me a ticket that I had to go find the police station to pay and then bring him back the receipt to get the license back. I told him I was about to miss my flight and tried to pay him off but he wouldn't take it. There was a little wait at the police station and then I had to go find this cop again so I ended up being late for the private. With no sleep and shopping all day I was wiped out but I slammed an energy drink and started jumping rope. We mostly sparred and it was mostly a beating and I was mostly happy about that. I was getting used to blocking my head properly - especially when he would do the straight blasts like Vitor Belfort did vs. Wanderlei Silva. My shoulder and elbow were feeling better and the pushups between rounds were alot easier. I had to finish with the usual 200 knees and this time 200 situps with a 17lb medicine ball. Afternoon training was starting by the end and I said my goodbyes and went to pack. The taxi came to pick me up and we passed a couple accidents on the way to the airport due to heavy rain. My lights had flickered a couple times while packing and I was a little worried about having to pack in the dark. I gave the airline my confirmation number and checked in my bag and she said one was too heavy so I would have to pay extra. So I had to go to a different part of the airport and pay, get a slip and then come back after I had paid. When I came back she gave me my ticket to Singapore and luckily I asked how I was getting to NYC from Singapore and turns out she had screwed up royally and didn't even know I was going to NYC. Three or four other employees had to come help sort it out and I ended up not having to pay extra for the luggage but they did make me rearrange some stuff between bags b/c of the weights. Finally I was done with the airline but it turned out I had overstayed my visa by 3 days and not 1 like I thought. I ended up having to pay 500 baht per day fine plus 500 baht airport tax. So I had to go find an atm and then pay the airport at one place and then pay the rest at a different place and sign a bunch of papers that I had no idea what they meant. When I got to customs I had to wait at a counter and stand behind a line and get my picture taken just like when I first entered the country. The people behind the counter spent a good five minutes looking between me and the computer screen and I finally asked what was going on. They let me come behind the counter and I stared laughing out loud when I saw the screen. They were looking at the picture of me just now and the picture that had been taken when I first entered the country. When I arrived I had alot of hair and a goatee and now I was clean shaven with a Travis Bickle mohawk and they were trying to decide if it was the same person. My passport picture looked completely different too so that didn't help things. I showed them that I had the same pair of sunglasses hanging on my shirt in both pics and then they let me through. Finally I was allowed to go through security and board my flight. I related this fairly quickly compared to how it really felt going through it. In reality it was an arduous, confusing and depleting process. I was the last person to board but right before I got on the plane there was another bag check. The guards did not share my sense of urgency. I was helping one open my laptop bag when I looked up and two of the guards had taken one boxing glove each and were laughing and hitting each other in the face. I cracked up and pictured them doing this at JFK. The one checking my laptop said he had used to fight in Patong Stadium when he was a kid. I was the last person on the flight and we took off.

Day 38

I woke up and remembered that the Penn vs. Hughes fight was about to happen in America and I went to the internet cafe to get the results. I ended up getting live results for the fight I just had to keep refreshing the page and it would update what was happening in the fight. "Penn takes Hughes back" "Penn working for rear naked choke" "Penn now has triangle from the back" "Fight almost over" and thats all it said for like 5 minutes. I felt sick. Hughes went on to win and I went to get some breakfast. At the Anchor Inn I met up with Freddie from San Antonio, Piers from Australia, Matt and Kristoffer from Sweden and told them the fight results. As we were leaving J.D. from Atlanta showed up so I stayed to talk to him. His old friends and roomates Rory Singer and Forrest Griffin are in the UFC now. Caleb, Chris and Guy from Wisconsin came in and we all ate and talked and I ended up being at the Anchor like 4 hours. We all left and I went to Kata to do some shopping. On the way back to the gym I stopped at the open air market by the camp, which is open most days of the week but busier on Sundays. I picked up some dinner there and ate in the bungalow. After that I went into Patong and passed a big accident in the mountains on the way there. It was a flatbed truck that looked like his brakes went out and he had gone offroad on a downhill and driven up the side of the hill and toppled over. The cargo he was carrying was all over the place. Shopping in Patong was good for souvenir shopping... but it would pretty much be the lowest level of hell for me. The shop owners are relentless trying to get you into their shops and if you just look at something for too long or ask about the price of something they assume you want it. So if you start to walk away they assume you just want to haggle so they start getting loud and aggressive asking you what price you want to pay and sometimes pretty much begging you to stay in the shop. I remembered when I was walking around Patong for the first time, how friendly I was with the shop owners and the suit guys. By the end of this night of shopping I was barely acknowledging them. I was shopping in Patong until after midnight and this was my last night on the island and I did not sleep a wink. Ended up just lying in bed listening to music all night and just got of bed when I saw the sun coming up.

Day 37

It started to dawn on me how little time I had left on the island earlier in the week and I decided to take the weekend off from training and see some more of the island. On my map I saw a little island with a road from my island going to it, so I thought I'd go check it out. I had to go up through Phuket Town to get there and I got lost there forever. Its basically like a 3rd world version of Chinatown in NYC. Lots of buildings and congested traffic and honking. I got out of Phuket Town but then I got lost in some slums closer to the water. They were mostly bordered by these canals with semi standing water and old rat infested boats rotting in them. I finally found the road out to the island and went to explore a bit. It seemed mostly residential and I followed some of the roads around the coast. Off the side of one road was a road with what looked to be an unmanned guardshack and enough room between barriers to fit my bike through, so I decided to pursue it. It ended up going right to the top of one of the tallest hills on this little island. The incline of the road was really steep and I was glad my bike was able to make it up. The view was really nice with almost 360 degree of nothing but ocean and islands. I walked around in the woods up there for awhile, and then I sat for a long time and watched the fishing boats coming in. The sun was starting to set behind the clouds when I finally decided to take off. As I was starting to leave I looked down and saw a mother with a teenage daughter behind her and toddler in front of her on a motorbike heading up the hill. On the way down however I only saw the mother and the toddler on the bike. A couple of minutes later I saw the other daughter walking and laughing, the incline had been too steep to carry them all up. I got back on the road and explored in a different direction and ended up in this little fishing village. I passed a big Habitat for Humanity construction project sign and reason that all the little shacks were new since the tsunami. The village was mostly people hanging out in their shacks, cooking, doing laundry. Dogs, chickens, kids and ducks were all running around outside. One shack was playing music and there were people dancing inside. I was getting alot of wtf looks from the people watching me roll through. I don't think in an aggressive way... just shock and confusion as to what I was doing there. I didn't stop to take any pictures though. I headed out of there back on the road and was on my way off the island when I noticed a dirt road off the main road with arches over it, like the entrances to a temple, except I didn't see any temples around. I thought about this for a second while I was driving and decided to turn around and try the road out. I came up to a little group of bungalows with monks out sweeping and pushing wheelbarrows around. There were some buddha statues so I stopped and took a couple of pictures and one of the monks told me to drive around the corner and follow this road up to the top of the hill and there was a temple at the top. At one point the road split with a no left turn sign so I bore right and kept heading up. The road curved around the hill at the top and there were statues built into the mountain all the way around the curve. I went all the way around the circle and came back to where I had just turned right. I backed up a little and saw some stairs so I headed up. It was a little ways up to the very top and when I got there the temple was closed. I was at the very top now and wanted to see the view from the other side of the temple. There was a ledge big enough to stand on going around the side so I scaled the building around to the other side where there was a large covered area with a great view. I hungout up there for a bit and it was dark by the time I got off the island and I had absolutely no clue where I was or if I had enough gas to make it to a station. I started going in the direction I thought the camp was and came upon a lively outdoor market. They looked like they had alot of stuff I hadn't seen in other parts of the island so I stopped to eat and look around. I was pretty hungry and it was really cheap here and there was alot of different food for sale here so I just kind of grazed between booths. First I had a kebab with big meatballs on it that looked so good. It wasn't good at all and I don't even think it was meat. Then I had a sausage on a stick which was different and decent. Then I tried out some of the bakeries for dessert. I was one of only a handful of farangs that I saw the whole night there so it was obviously not really a tourist destination. This did mean that shopping was much more laid back here without the people trying to grab you or barter with you non stop. There were more second hand clothes here than I've ever seen (probably our donations.) There were some artists selling their goods and lots of arts and crafts stuff. There was a guy with leather goods, lots of seashell jewelry booths, a guy with intricately carved wooden canes and boxes. A few booths had these little buddha carvings with guys looking at them with magnifying glasses like they were checking out diamonds. I stopped and looked at a few of them and befriended one guy who explained it to me. The monks used to do these little carvings and would sell them to make money. Or sometimes a temple will find a bunch of them in an old pot or something and then sell them to raise funds. Now there are collectors out there and like art historians they can tell when a carving was made and which temple, etc... So people began making counterfeits. Its kinda like antiques roadshow I guess for them to sort through all these and find a good one. Turns out I was talking to the son of the owner of this booth and he said I could come pick one out for free from the cheap bin. His dad came over and started to explain to me how to find one that was genuine. He then helped me dig through the cheap bin and find one carved out of wood. He said it was from a temple in Bangkok from the 1920s. There were some other ones I saw that I liked and I asked if he had any of those that were genuine. He disappeared for about 10 minutes looking through all them (there were hundreds of little carvings) and came back with one. Then he told me to wait and he went behind the counter and was looking through newspapers for another 5 or 10 minutes while I talked to his son. The newspapers had lots of pictures of different carvings and were probably trade papers. He finally came back and showed me this picture that looked exactly like the one I was holding. He said it was from a temple in central Thailand, I forget the name. Due to the length of time he took looking for a real one I gather most of the ones he was selling were fake. Before he showed me how to spot the fakes they had me completely fooled. I guess he was okay giving away the secrets since I had befriended his son and I was leaving on Monday. So I asked him how old this one was and he said 17th century. I headed out of there and ended up going down enough dead end streets that I didn't even know what direction home was. I finally found a road I recognized and made it back to the camp too late to do anything but put in a movie and passout.

Day 36

Went straight to the doctor after waking up to have him work on my shoulder and elbow some more. I left feeling pretty good and headed back to camp for another private lesson. Twenty minutes of jump rope, then more bagwork and then padwork. Doing a few rounds on the bag means you are more fatigued by the time you get to the padwork. This is a pretty good method because its when you are fatigued that you lose form and forget to block or cover up. I felt like I was holding my own though and still improving. We finished with the usual 200 knee/200 crunch exercises and then right after that it was time for afternoon training so I went into cage for grappling. It was just open mat with the instructors. A few of us went to dinner in Patong at a pretty nice place. Gaz and I went and did some shopping at this marketplace. He started talking to a guy about a suit so we got stuck in there for a little while. I spent most of the time playing peekaboo with the owner's daughter while they talked. I was supposed to meet back up with Eric but due to the suit guy I was late and couldn't find him at the designated meeting point. I figured I'd walk around a little and maybe see if Marco was in the area and sure enough he was. We went to a couple bars and then I bought Garden State and The Weatherman and went back to my room to watch.

Day 35

Woke up and went to do a private with Chanman. This time only had to jump rope 20 minutes, then a couple of rounds of shadowboxing and three rounds of bagwork. After that it was padwork and I felt like I was improving. We finished up with the usual exercises and as usual I was totally spent. I went back for advanced MMA with Gaz in the afternoon and after the usual warmup we left the cage for buddy drills in the yard. The first one you hold your buddy in your arms in front of you, walk the length of the yard and then turn around and then your buddy goes. The second one you hold your buddy over one shoulder, the third one behind the head over both shoulders. Then we did some drills where you hold your buddies foot and he has to hop backward the length of the yard and then forward, then switch feet. Then we did some wheelbarrow type races where both your ankles are held and you walk on your hands. Training hard with Chanman was really taking a toll and my legs were cramping badly during the exercises and my elbow and shoulder were killing me. We went back into the cage and learned some ankle pick takedowns, into sidemount into cradle control. We started sparring and in the first match Kristoffer's eyelid got cut open and Dan took him to the hospital to get stitched up. We tried to go a few more rounds of sparring but we were losing people to injuries... I was out myself icing my shoulder and elbow which were both hurting worse than ever before. So class was pretty much over and we all got cleaned up and met back to take a taxi into Patong to watch Elly fight. Ngoo had also taken a fight on a couple days notice. Ngoo had a good fight and won by decision. Elly's forehead got split open by an elbow and if it had been UFC they probably would have at least paused the fight to take care of the cut due to blood in the eyes. It was Patong though so she had to wait till the end of the round to get cleaned up. The cut pretty much stayed close the rest of the fight and she lost by decision. She got 18 stitches after the fight and had them redone the next day with 30 stitches.

Day 34

Woke up and headed to private with Chanman. This time had to jump rope for 30 minutes before we started. We started doing padwork and maybe my technique and movement are improving because he started wanting more power and speed. I was still exhausted from yesterday but he said I had good power. We did a few rounds on the big pads then moved on to the smaller hand pads. After that he put on the gloves and we played around with some light sparring for a few rounds. He was really happy with my head movement. Getting beat about the head, neck, face and torso can teach a person pretty quick about range. I wasn't as timid as the first time and we were able to turn it up a little. We were probably playing too rough when I caught an elbow to the head that shook me. I didn't see black or anything but I did drop to my knees to recover. Would have just been a standing count in boxing, no big deal. I was still kinda shaky though and I think he felt bad and we were past the time anyway so that was the end of the session. I finished up with the usual 200 knees and 200 crunches. He also makes me do pushups and crunches after every round so by the end of a session I'm completely obliterated. I laid on the canvas in a mid snow angel position for about 10 minutes and stared at the ceiling. Mac came by and tried to convince me to take a muay thai fight this weekend. I said I'd fight him mma but not muay thai. I went back to the bungalow and slept until afternoon training. I passed out before I could drink anything after the morning session and woke up dehydrated and hurting. You lose alot of water training here and its really important to stay hydrated. I skipped training and stayed in and watched Bas and drank alot. After a couple hours I was feeling better and headed to the internet cafe and read about the coup. I found out about it while I was training with Chanman but I forgot about it until I saw the front page of Yahoo News. I called home and then slept hard.

Day 33

Woke up and did my private with Chanman. He told me to jump rope for 40 minutes before we started, and then we did a few rounds of shadow boxing and moved on to padwork. He was up to his normal tricks but I was a little quicker and felt better at blocking and moving. After the big pads he put on the smaller hand pads which meant he could hit quicker but could also give me a target to throw combos on. This was alot more tiring than just sparring as I was moving, blocking, and throwing alot of strikes. After training I had to throw 200 knees on the ring post and do 200 crunches and peel myself off the canvas. I studied some Bas and ran some errands and got back to camp in time for the advanced mma class. We started warmup and I was hurting... still exhausted from the private earlier. This time we started class with sparring so that Gaz could see what we all needed to work on. We each did two five minute rounds starting from standing. Punches, takedowns and submissions allowed. We cleared the cage and did one round at a time with everyone watching. I was so drained I did terrible. Oh asked me what was wrong and said my performance was alot different. After that we learned a new way to guillotine, a guillotine defense and then we learned, drilled and sparred mount escapes forever. A few of us went to dinner and then I slept like the dead.

Day 32

Woke up and wasn't feeling 100% so skipped morning training. Lana and Elly stopped by and they weren't training either. After they left I alternated between reading and staring at the ceiling and then Lana came by again. She was waiting on her taxi to take her back to London and cold weather. We talked about her work in personal training and one of her clients is the architect of one of the buildings which will replace the world trade center. We exchanged info and said goodbye and after that Linda came by and we went to lunch at Jimmy's. We both had appointments with the Doc so we headed to Kata for some full contact healing. Elly came by too. She fights on Thursday and has a tear or something in her arm. I just did acupuncture today. I don't think it yielded the same results as when he brings out his torture devices and I will probably be going back to him a few more times before I leave. Got back in time for afternoon Muay Thai. No MMA today as Gaz and Dan both went on a visa run. There was a new trainer today - Chanman, a Fairtex trainer/fighter. After warmup he offered to wrap my hands and this meant he would be my trainer for the day. We did a few rounds of padwork and I was starting to like his style. Right away I was getting hit in the head for keeping my hands too low. If I stayed too close after throwing a combo his punches and kicks would remind me. He kept me on my toes constantly. Once he called out "1,2" which means a jab and a cross. I threw the jab and while throwing the cross realized the target was gone and was actually at that moment hitting me in the head. At the end of the last round I had to do five kicks with my right leg. I think I was too slow because on kick five he kicked my left leg out from under me and I ate canvas. He sent me to do bagwork for three rounds while he held pads for someone else. When he called me back in the ring he was putting his gloves on and I didn't know what to think. When the bell rung I found out we were sparring. The next few rounds were a barrage of head shots, body shots, getting my legs kicked out from under me and getting front kicked against the ropes. By the end I felt like my head movement had improved alot and I was ducking and weaving past alot of punches. As I said, different trainers have different styles in their technique and their training styles are also varied. Some focus alot on combinations and cardio, some on correcting technique. I feel like Chanman will really me help me alot on blocking, movement, and speed. This was the first time I almost threw up... although I think it was the strikes and not the workout. Brutal. I love it. I prepaid for 5 privates and start tomorrow. I will remember to bring my mouthpiece in the future though. After class I went to the internet cafe and used the road that is under construction. I started passing a car and was suddenly headed straight for the business end of a steamroller which was heading towards me. I didn't think I had enough time to brake without getting squished so I went ahead and gunned it and luckily made it past the car before the steamroller made it to me. I thought it was hilarious and had to laugh because it was like something out of a cartoon.

Day 31

Slept in until Gary came to say goodbye, he was on his way to the taxi and then Bangkok for a couple days and then Ireland. I went out to lunch with the guys and we shared some stories and pictures from the night before. After lunch I stopped by Aussie Adam's place and he was listening to August and Everything After and packing. We said our goodbyes and then his taxi came and I went to the internet cafe and then to sleep.

Day 30

Woke and did freestyle wrestling with Gaz. We learned double leg takedowns, a 2nd takedown off of the opponents defense, a 3rd takedown off the defense for the 2nd, and a 4th takedown off the defense for the 3rd. After that I slept a little and met up with some of the guys for lunch. Casey from Canada is having an oil painting done of his face on a bodybuilder's body wrestling a bull by the horns like the one in Dodgeball. Wish I'd thought of that. I went to the internet cafe and saw British Adam and his wife Jodi. Adam said our pictures were finally up on Tigermuaythai.com. I did the afternoon muay thai mostly with Mac and he continued showing me some clinch knee defenses and takedowns. We all went to dinner and Gary and I almost had a head on collision with another bike. Driving here is pretty much anything goes and I have had at least one close call everytime I have driven. This was definitely the closest. Motorbikes sometimes drive on the wrong side of the road here but usually they stay far enough to the left that you have time to stay out of the way. For some reason out of nowhere this guy was heading straight for us in the middle of the lane. I was going about 50km/h and he must have been flying because it was about two seconds from when we saw him to when we passed him. Gary said he was probably 5 or 6 feet in front of us when I got out of the way. The other driver didn't even move. This was the last weekend for alot of the people at the camp so after dinner we had a little party back at the camp and then took taxis to the Tiger Bar.

Day 29

Woke up, did Muay Thai, studied Bas, lifted weights, studied Bas. Afternoon submission wrestling with Gaz started by practicing triangles and armbars from the guard. After that we practiced an armbar, if opponent defends by pulling arm out you turn it into triangle, if triangle is broken turn it into armbar on the other arm. After class British Adam and Dan and I sat around talking a bit. Evidently Adam and his wife sold their house and belongings in Britain and everything they now own they have with them. They are going to see Australia for a month after Thailand where he has a couple job offers. If they like it they are just going to stay. Dan trained with mma fighter Elvis Sinosic in Australia and came to Thailand to train for a pro fight. He was better at jiu jitsu than the previous instructor and took the job offer to teach here. A few of us went to dinner at The Green Man Tavern, an authentic looking British style pub and restaurant. This place was really cool and also had a live band. Their english was mostly on point and they were playing stuff like The Beatles and James Blunt.

Day 28

I decided to cut out afternoon red bulls and use my ear plugs and was finally able to get a good nights sleep. Felt good. Did jiu jitsu in the morning with Dan and learned some cool half guard breaks and sweeps. After class Oh told us some Krabi Krabong stories. They have Thai vs Burmese fights on the border with no mouthguards and no gloves. Oh said when he used to fight they would tie the ropes around their hands and then treat the ropes to harden them. They no longer do this, but they do only use handwraps, and he said there are many fatalities from these fights. Oh said he had to lose one of his fights or he would have been killed. He said they showed him the gun. After breakfast we watched a dvd Oh had of one of these fights. The fights take place outside and the ring is as primitive as it gets. The ropes are actually ropes. The ring posts are actually wooden posts. There are no bleachers or seating, just a bunch of guys crowded around cheering. The fighters are wearing handwraps and are not exactly what I'd call technical. Pretty much its a Burmese version of the Agg-town fight videos. Gaz and I went to his place and his roomate, Tom from Australia was there. Tom recently purchased some black market BB guns and we did some target practice with his pump action BB shotgun and the M16 replica battery powered fully automatic. After that Gaz and I went to lift weights and then it was time for afternoon training. I did muay thai with Phet. Phet pretty much demands perfection from every punch, kick or elbow and is really vocal about it when you get it wrong. All of the trainers have come from different camps and have differences in their stances, striking, movements, etc. I like Phet's stance the best. Its the least like a western boxing stance and the most practical for mma in my opinion. After class we all went out to dinner and after dinner a couple of us headed to Gaz's house to watch Team America, play chess and shoot guns.

Day 27

Skipped morning training and made some phone calls home. Hit the grocery store, headed back to camp and studied Bas. It started raining pretty heavily and I hadn't been able to sleep at all the night before and I passed out. I woke up late for afternoon training and just stayed in the bungalow and studied the dvds, read, and made it an early night.

Day 26

Although I still couldn't fall or stay asleep the night before, I made it to morning training and did mma takedowns with Gaz. We learned single leg takedown from a jab, passing the guard to sidemount, and then from standing clinch to taking the back to takedown. We sparred the techniques for awhile and after class I showed Oh some more jiu jitsu. After that I took care of laundry and met up with with Aussie Adam, Gaz, Lana and Linda in Kata. We all had massages at the place I had gone to before. Everyone else got full body oil massages but I just got foot because I had some specific kinks that needed to be worked out. After that we did a little shopping and we ended up in another back room DVD warehouse. Adam got about 40 for around 2 bucks each. He tested them on their player while the rest of us walked around outside occasionally meeting each other in shops. Once while I was passing a bar this Thai girl ran out and wouldn't let me pass and kept trying to hug me. She stank of booze and I kept saying "No touch!" and jumping back. After that I went back to my bike and put my shirt on and stayed with the group. It rained a bit on the way back but not terribly, and I hit the open air market by our place for some bananas and shorts. It rained really heavily during class and we were lucky to have made it back in time. Tonight was ground and pound and its still as fun as the name implies. Alot more technique than you would think though. We learned side control to knee on stomach to full mount with punching combos the whole way through. We then sparred with our partner from both the top and bottom positions and then had a tournament. I won my first match with a side mount to scarf hold to an armbar with my legs. Not sure what the official name for this armbar is. I won my second match from the guard with a punch deflection into side choke which I had just shown Oh earlier. I forgot to ask if he recognized it. As long as you don't panic or get knocked out its alot of fun working submissions and strikes at the same time. Striking can open up opportunities for submissions, but can also be capitalized on, such as that side choke. In the championship match I almost had an armbar but got mounted and couldn't escape. He had a head and 60 lbs of muscle on me though so it was a good workout. I had been planning on getting a 2 week membership to the gym and lifting weights after class but decided just to hit the internet cafe and make it an early night and so I can make sure I train tomorrow.

Day 25

So. I can't sleep without melatonin. I couldn't sleep before I started taking it either. The doctor said its good and safe and everyone is happy. But I didn't bring enough. So I looked everywhere to replace it. Ended up with some pills that the pharmacist said were similar to ambien and would only last 6-8 hours. Sounds good to me. So Sunday night I take one and put in a dvd. End up watching the whole dvd and still not falling asleep for another hour or so. However, once I do fall asleep, I wake up at the crack of 1:30 pm. Great. I could have been sleeping off the rest of the 24 hour malaria though. So I just watched some Bas and hit the internet cafe where I found Gaz, Dan and Jason. Found out about Cro Cop winning Pride's open-weight Grand Prix and watched the video of his KO on Wanderlei - whose swollen right eye couldn't see the textbook left high kick coming. Cro Cop is a senator in Croatia, and its funny to picture his political opponents watching him fight. Afternoon grappling was open mat with time to ask questions of Dan and Gaz. After class Gary and I spent some more time rolling. Everybody met at Jimmy's where I was still sweating like crazy and possibly still battling a touch of the typhoid. After dinner everyone took a taxi to Patong to do shopping except for Gaz and I who took the choppers. Patong seems filthier and seedier everytime I go. Sometimes in the movies when there has been an armageddon there is a Sodom and Gomorrorah type of apocolyptic wild west saloon town where you can buy or see anything you can concieve of. Every now and then Patong seems kinda like that. But good times. There is one main road following the beach, and off this road there are other roads with little shops and bars. We were on one of the ones which closes off to traffic at night and everyone can walk in the street. Off this street there are other hallways and corridors with shops. We were loosely following the group down one corridor when everyone kinda disappeared. Then this guy stinking of liquor walks by and tells me "be careful or you could spend all of your money in there" and points to a wall at the back of a shop. This is pretty much the same line as in "Hostel" and really creepy. Turns out one of the mirrors was a door and behind it a supply closet and around the corner a room with a billion bootleg DVDs and everybody in the group. Gaz and Marco and I went to walk around some more and I stopped at a table with 15 or 20 dvds. Then this guy says he has more for 40 baht cheaper than the other place. We follow him down some hallways, and then he pushed on the wall which was a hidden door and behind it another holy grail of dvd collections. I had really just been in the mood to see Garden State which he didn't have so we took off. We went back and were waiting for everyone when across the street and through the crowd I saw a tv with Matt Hughes pacing and staring down his opponent. I said "Matt Hughes" and pointed. We wordlessly and instantaneously proceeded like moths to a flame. We didn't know how long everyone was going to be so Gaz and I had a couple cold ones and watched the fights. This was the fight where BJ Penn takes his back for the rear naked choke. Gaz, who is a wrestler, said they all have a tendency to give up their back. Everyone stopped by and then took off to their taxi and eventually we took off too.

Day 24

Woke up feeling quite a bit better but not 100%. Luckily there is no training today so I relaxed in the bungalow. Something was telling me to eat something greasy and soak up the evil forces in my body. I was really craving Mickey D's or pizza and went to return Adam's dvds and found out they were just heading out for lunch and the beach. The guys had a good time at Tiger Bar last night and I got to see some of his pictures and wished I could've gone. Adam's friend Jason had just arrived from Australia and most everybody was still asleep so Adam, Jason, Lana and myself headed out. We had some lunch in Kata and I had a burger and it was decent but different. We took the coastal rode south to Nai Harn Beach and it was gorgeous and sunny. The waves were pretty big today. They were having the Phuket surfing contest in Kata this weekend but we didn't stop to watch. We rented some beach chairs and it was pretty nice just chilling out there after swimming. I still had the big mac itch so I headed to Tesco where they have a Mickey D's. It was pretty nasty and I couldn't eat it. In all fairness it was pretty much how I remembered them in America. I thought maybe some ice cream would help my stomach if I fell ill again so I headed to the freezer. I was browsing through the flavors and I saw corn flavor. This shook my ice cream belief systrem to the core. Maybe I was still ill or maybe it was having my dessert foundation destroyed, but I felt dizzy and sick and left.

I was chilling in the bungalow and Gary and Ric stopped by. A couple minutes late Maddox and Gaz too. Maddox was waiting on his cab to take him to his flight to take him to the French Foreign Legion. They took off and I went to loan Adam a Tsunami dvd he wanted. I talked to Jason, from L.A. who had the same symptoms as me yesterday. He was also craving Mickey Ds and pizza but I told him I felt worse after my Big Mac.

Theres been a strange coincidence of the music I'm listening to popping up in the movies I watched while bed ridden. "Invincible" and "My Super Ex Girlfriend" both had covers of The Velvet Underground & Nico's "These Days". The Old 97s were featured prominently in "The Breakup" and they opened up their concert with "TimeBomb" which I've been somewhat obssessing over. Also "The Beach" had a reggae version of "Police and Thieves" which at first I thought was a cover but was probably the original.

Day 23

Woke up terribly sick. Had a fever, body aches and a throbbing headache. I spent the entire day in bed alternating between having the chills, burning up, and cold sweats. Aussie Adam came by that night and said they were having a bbq so I went ahead showered up and headed over. I was still very dizzy when standing or walking and I was the only one at the bbq sweating like a stuck pig so I didn't stick around that long. I borrowed a couple of Adam's Dvds and headed back to the bungalow to hopefully sleep it off.

Day 22

After Muay Thai in the morning I watched some Bas Dvds and hit the internet cafe where I saw Gaz, Dan, and Jason. I did submission wrestling with Dan in the evening. He trained with Elvis Sinosic in Australia and has some good pointers. We learned armbars and triangles and defenses and escapes for those. It was good to focus on the basics for a change. There are always little things that are easy to forget but make a big difference in getting the submission right. After that we rolled, which went well... I was able to pull off guillotines, side chokes and blood chokes. I'm getting used to rolling soaking wet, but it does make the cage slippery. I did have to tap one time b/c Gary had me in side control and his shirt was covering my mouth and nose. This was like trying to breath through a wet rag and I couldn't get oxygen and was forced to submit. After class I rolled some more with Tom, who has his own kickboxing/mma school in Germany. He wanted to know the defenses for my guillotines and side chokes, and Eddie and Iman took some pictures for his school's website. I went to go get my camera to show Gaz some videos of his fight and when I came back there was a full fledged chick fight going on. One of the girls works at the camp and one I hadn't seen before. A few trainers and a couple students jumped in but it took a good 5 minutes of hard work to unpry their fingers from each others hair. I showed Gaz the videos and I got a few good ones. One of them he baits the guy by crouching for a second. When the guy approaches he jumps up and kicks him in the head. They fall to the ground and Gaz would've pulled guard but, being Muay Thai they were stood up. Gaz then hits him with a flying elbow to the face. Its only a 15 second video so I'll put it on YouTube eventually. After that we just went to dinner.

Day 21

I was feeling pretty ill so skipped morning training. It was raining and pretty nice to stay in the bungalow and watch the Bas Rutten DVDs. When I was feeling better I went into Patong to do a little shopping. After that I went to the huge grocery store and ate lunch at a sushi place in the food court upstairs. Got back to the bungalow and watched "Tom Yum Goong", Tony Jaa's follow up to Ong Bak. I found it on the front page of IMDB and it is called "The Protector" in the states. I liked this film more than Ong Bak. The production level was higher with bigger chase sequences (i.e. a helicopter vs a speedboat), bigger stunts (Tony doing a flying double knee off a skycraper) and the fight scenes were unreal. The cinematography, acting and storyline are on a whole different level than western action movies.

Did Muay Thai in the afternoon. Mac, the head Thai instructor showed me some really good stuff from the clinch. Really applicable to MMA and in reality could be traditional jiujitsu or aikido moves. He's a head shorter and I probably outweigh him by 50 lbs but he was throwing me to the ground with ease when I clinched him. I will probably do some privates with him while I'm here.

After class everyone loaded up in a taxi and headed to the fights. I went on my bike b/c it was a nice night for riding and I didn't feel like waiting on the taxi afterwards. I went to Kata first and took the coastal rode north to Patong. The road is through the hills and has alot of turns and curves in it and is alot of fun on the hog. The ocean view was great and I was having fun weaving in and out of cars when suddenly I was passing three elephants and riders walking next to the road. It was pretty dark and luckily I was paying attention. They were enormous.

Gaz was pumped up for his first Muay Thai fight which he took on 3 days notice. This was the greatest night of fights I have seen since I've been here. All the fights were action packed and there were a couple grudge and rubber matches on the card. The place was packed and going crazy for a couple of the fights. Gaz's fight was the headliner and the guy he was fighting was an American who trains and fights Muay Thai at a different gym. He was a head taller and probably had 40 or 50 lbs on Gaz. This fight was the best fight of the night. Gaz clinched him a couple times early on and picked him up and put him on his back. Evidently in Muay Thai it is illegal to twist your hips on a throw, which eliminated Gaz's strength of wrestling throws. Gaz hit him with punches and elbows which you could hear from the crowd and bloodied up his face and the guy looked like he was gassing. After one punch in the mouth the American acted like he had gotten kicked in his charlie browns but it looked like he wanted a break and he was spitting up blood. Groin shots are legal here anyway. I was kind of worried about this because Gaz had borrowed my plastic cup for the fight because the Thai ones, although steel, were too small. In the 4th round he clinched Gaz and started throwing knees and the ref stopped it. It was a good fight and Gaz really came close to knocking him out with punches and elbows. I've never seen anyone eat that many elbows to the face. You could hear them from the crowd and see the sweat fly from the guy's head. Maddox thought he might've taken some painkillers or drugs before the fight.

Day 20

Stayed up too late blogging at the internet cafe the night before and woke up late. I didn't want to be late for training so I just stayed in and studied the big DVDs of combat. I drove into Kata for my last appointment with the doctor and things are looking really good with the elbow and shoulder. I've been given the all clear for hardcore training. He put a homemade magnetic thing on my elbow and shoulder and left it for awhile and said it would help. He explained to me how he made it and it sounds like it might be capable of time travel. He says he is a mad scientist and has all sorts of stuff like that.

I walked around some of the shops in Kata for a bit and headed back towards the gym. I ate at a little vegetarian place close to the camp in Chalong. You get to taste test the food which is pretty cool and good for western stomachs. The Germans from camp came in right after I ordered and we ate together. Iman has a fight coming up on Monday. After that I hit the internet cafe and headed back to camp for Muay Thai.

After Muay Thai I had wanted to go to the market to get some eggs but it was closed. Everyone advised against me getting eggs from the market. Julian's girlfriend, who is from Thailand was the only person who said it was okay. Until she found out I was drinking them then I had no one in my corner. After that we all went to the Anchor Inn in Chalong. Apologies if this blog is getting a little mundane as I settle into the routine of training and day to day activities.

Day 19

Woke up late due to being out late for the fights and skipped morning training. I studied some of my Bas Rutten dvds though so I felt productive. Aussie Adam knocked on my door about noon and he and Lana and I headed out. Lana is from Croatia living in London and is a personal trainer. We went to drop off some laundry and as I was pulling the clothes out of my bag and handing them to the cleaner a frog jumped from the bunch in my hand and hit the cleaner in the face. We ate lunch in Chalong and hit an internet cafe there and then headed to the grocery store in the mall. The grocery store there is kinda like a Central Market or Whole Foods compared to the Super Walmart style I had been going to. The prices are similar though on most items.

We headed back to camp and got back just in time for training. Tonight was ground and pound with Gaz. We learned side control to punching to full mount, side control punching combinations to americana, and full mount punching combos. After that we sparred using these techniques with the person on bottom trying to get to their feet and the person on top trying to maintain side control and punch to a submission, or just punch and maintain. After that we had a little mma tournament. My first match was against Oh and I won. When we were practicing the combos from the full mount he politely asked me to hit him harder. Since he has a fight coming up he wants some realistic training. I got him in a full mount while sparring and turned up the heat a bit and somebody yelled 'Nik Hughes'. I was doing okay in my second match, working for a full guard when I ate one to the eye/temple that rocked me and before I could recover I ate another on the chin/nose and saw black... my hands dropped to the floor and my mouthpiece fell out. When I opened my eyes they were putting my mouthpiece back in but I went ahead and bowed out of that round. I still had some cobwebs in my head and the next round was pretty much a draw. After class Brave Dave and I worked on some submissions a little more. I still had some energy so I did some bagwork for about an hour after that. Prathet, one of the trainers is going to start learning mma and probably competing so I spent awhile showing him some groundwork. Will, the owner of the camp has connections with a Rumble on the Rock affiliate in Guam and they are looking for fighters to compete there and then possibly move up to the ROTR in Hawaii.

After that everybody went to Jimmy's and we had some good times. Other new people at camp are Wade from South Africa and Marko from Finland. Maddox got sick and hasn't been able to eat or train so he pulled out of the fight this Thursday night. Gaz took the fight instead... with 3 days notice. I watched Ong Bak and I want to be Tony Jaa when I grow up. There are some pretty insane stunts and fight sequences. Since he was a stuntman he doesn't use any, and this is a selling point in his movies. I might trade Oh some Krabi Krabong lessons for submissions.

Day 18

Went for the beach run and stair workout on account of taking it easy on the elbow. I got the chance to talk to Oh after the stairs, this was his first day training at the camp. Oh is a Thai stuntman and personal trainer preparing for an MMA fight in Guam in October. He hasn't fought in a few years but is trained in Krabi Krabong which is the art of hand to hand combat and is the origin of Muay Thai. They learn weapons and punch coconuts and kick banana trees. Their non-weapon competitions are similar to Muay Thai but there are differences. For instance they tie rope around their fists instead of using gloves. I think some of this may be highlighted in the movie Ong Bak starring Tony Jaa. Oh said he knows Tony and they trained at the same camp. Oh doesn't know any groundfighting and is going to be learning mma and teaching at the camp before the fight. He said he may have some work coming up in Ong Bak sequels. He told us a story where he was supposed to flip off of one platform, land on another platform and do another flip onto a bamboo platform. The platform broke and he got pretty messed up.

The stairs completely obliterated me and the water felt great to jump in. Aussie Adam and I grabbed some lunch in Kata afterwards and I headed to the good doctor. The metal blade scraping made less crunching noise and the doc was surprised. the Russian remote control sewing machine gave a readout that said things were greatly improved. You don't feel the shock from this device unless there is an injury so I could tell there was alot of improvement too. He gave me the go ahead to workout and recommended I really bang on it, so that if it hurts again we can isolate the injury. I was really pumped at this news and looking forward to training. I took a new road which follows the coast south to Nai Harn beach. This beach is on the southern tip of the island and is in a bay enclosed by Cliffs and green hills. There were a couple shops and one hotel but few tourists and this was the most serene beach I've been too. I saw some cool cliffs at one end I wanted to climb so I walked the length of the beach and got to climbing. I didn't go all the way to the top but I found a nice little sitting spot for awhile. After that I attempted some body surfing and swam a bit and headed back to camp.

Opted for MMA training in the afternoon with Dan. We learned side control to Americana, the defense for that into a side choke, and side control to Kimura. After that we did a king of the mat to practice the techniques. I volunteered and started first from my back. The person on top's goal was to maintain control and get a submission, the person on bottom's goal was to get to knees or pull guard. I ended up winning all 7 or 8 rounds so I had to stay on my back the whole time. After that we had a grappling tournament. I lost my first match but won my second. I had a dramatic Greco/Judo takedown on a bigger opponent which entertained the crowd. After class I showed Oh some more MMA and submissions. He has only a few weeks to learn for his fight but he seems like a quick learner.

After that everybody went into Patong to watch a couple of the trainers fight. Ngoo was knocked out by an elbow and needed 10 stitches above his eye. Yak's fight was the headliner and everyone had been looking forward to it. The guy he was fighting was a K1 fighter who was taller and outweighed him by 40 lbs. Everyone warned him not to take the fight, but he took it and bet his earnings on himself as he does every fight. He ended up getting knocked out in the first round. After the fight one of his teeth was broken and bleeding. It was raining and kind of depressing so no Tiger Bar tonight.

Day 17

Woke up relived some of the shenanigans from the night before and checked out. There was a sign in the bathroom that said "Do not flush any toilet paper or plastic bottles." I forgot to get a picture of this but it gave us a good laugh. We had some breakfast and shopped on the island while waiting for the ferry to come. We got back to the island and chilled out and went to dinner after awhile. At dinner Gaz told a story of one of his friends who was in Cambodia. Evidently in the Cambodian countryside there is a farm you can go to and fire a rocket launcher at a cow for a hundred bucks. Well his buddy missed. The farmer made him take the cow anyway. He walked and gave the cow to the first kid he saw.

Day 16

Woke up and headed to Phi Phi island with Brave Dave, Gary, Kevin, Jason, Ric, Elly and Linda. The ferry ride was pretty cool and we rode on top of the boat. It was only about an hour and a half and cool to get out on the water and see all of the outlying islands. Pulling up into the island we got close to some nice National Geographicesque scenery. There wasn't much to the left of the pier and it turns out everything to the left was wiped out by the tsunami. The island has only a small part that is developed. There are no roads just brick sidewalks crammed with restaurants, stores, and hotels. We had some lunch and checked into a hotel and walked around a little. Very nice eating in the seaside restaurants watching the boats and scenery. After that I hit the beach with Elly and Linda and the guys went to a pub. We swam in a bay surrounded on both sides by green cliffs. The water was like a warm bath and very blue. There were very little waves and 100 meters out we were still knee deep and 200 meters out just up to our waists. We met up with the guys just as they were finishing dinner so they headed back to the hotel and we sat to eat. This restaurant was pretty far from the rest of the stuff on the island. Fairly dark except for the lantern they put on the table and quiet except for the waves. For clarification we didn't actually eat inside the restaurant but at a table they had next to the beach. We met up with the guys and headed out for some of the islands' night life. There are a few bars and mostly tourists on the island so it is a pretty good time. They filmed The Beach here and there are alot of westerners who live here just for the snorkeling and diving and solitude. We didn't have time for any snorkeling but I might like to go back for some. There are tons of outlying islands that you can get dropped off at by a water taxi and spend the day by yourself and then they can come pick you up.

Day 15

Woke up and headed straight for the acupuncturist. There were no clouds in the sky and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. I stopped by the side of the road a few times on the way to Kata just to take pictures of the hills or the ocean. I pulled up to find the doctor outside talking to the phone guys and he told me his phone lines had been down for four days. He asked what the problem was and said he would have me fixed up in no time. Basically its just tendonitis but recently I started to feel pain and tightness in the bicep and shoulder. Gaz tried working on it yesterday and said the bicep was so tight he couldn't feel both heads of the muscle, which he found to be unusual. Anyway the good doctor was confident he could get me feeling better after the first visit and basically back to functionality after two more visits. He started out by gelling up the elbow and pulled out this metal shoe horn looking device. Basically he just dug into the arm as if he was smoothing it out under the skin. It was making a kind of crunching sound and he said that was the fascia bunched up and he was making it right again. Occasionally he would ask if it hurt and I told him I could feel it. He said this was the most painful procedure and most people screamed and winced and this helped him find out what areas he needed to work on. He found my lack of reaction curious but I assured him I could feel it and showed him where. After that he put some ointments on it and said it was for racehorses but it wasn't roids.

Next he pulled out what looked like a remote control with a digital read out and said it was made by the Russians. He rubbed one end on the skin and it would basically send a shock through the skin. I asked if it was similar to the battery powered electrical stimulator I had and he said it was totally different. When he hit a nerve my hand or fingers would twitch though. The rest of the time it just felt like he was using a sewing machine on the skin. He said this was the 2nd most painful procedure. When he would rub it on an area that was damaged or inflamed it would literally stick to it, and this helped him know where the injury was. My bicep really wasn't a problem but the elbow and shoulder were pretty messed up. He said the body probably started compensating for the hurt elbow and that messed up the shoulder.

Next was what he called the jackhammer. That's pretty much what it was: a motorized dull hammer that he used on the elbow, bicep and shoulder. After that he adjusted the elbow and the shoulder, and said the shoulder wasn't really out of alignment and that was good. We talked quite a bit through all the procedures and I dig this guy. He has hair like Oscar Bluthe and is about 60 but he could probably pass for 40s. He's fit and does a triathlon every month. He grew up in Hawaii and I presume got his degrees in the states. He learned acupuncture in China and worked in a clinic in Sri Lanka but said he has been in Thailand since 91 and that location since 94. He started playing rugby when he was 49 but quit when he was 51. Now he's pretty much the guerilla terrorist of holistic health on the island.

He was confident in the first 3 procedures and said that acupuncture probably wasn't even necessary. I had heard good things about it and wanted to try it so we went into another room. He put a needle into my foot, knee, the top of my head, and elbow and shoulder. I asked if it was supposed to hurt more in the injured areas and he said definitely. I didn't feel the others but the elbow and shoulder ones might as well have been nails. Next he pulled out what looked like a miniature jump start kit and hooked them up to the needles in the shoulder and elbow and cranked up the power. I normally like a lot of juice but he didn't like my arm flopping around so he turned it down. So after all that I was feeling pretty good. I'll see him once Monday and once Wednesday and then he's off to Malaysia for a triathlon. He told me to take it easy on the training and I may take his advice. I will probably just run on the beach and do those stairs in Kata Noi.

After that I drove into Patong to get a haircut and shop. I hadn't taken this highway before and it was nice. It went through the hills a bit but followed the coast and was fun on the crotch rocket. I had to stop a few times to take pictures of the coast and the islands. It was such a nice day I had my shirt off on the bike and just kept it off while walking around in Patong. All of the suit guys and massage girls were yelling out stuff like "Hey nice body!" and "Hey, Body Man!" If you are walking on the beach side its mostly okay, they still yell at you but its easier to get away. If you are walking on the shops side its pretty relentless. You can hardly walk a few steps without someone trying to shake your hand and get you to come inside and by a suit or bootleg dvds or board shorts or whatever. If you shake their hands they won't let go though. Most of the time I just shake my head and keep my hands away from them. If they get really close with an open hand I will make a fist and touch it to their fist. Respect. Since they can't grab on you can tell this throws them off. They are nice, just relentless. Part of me admires the hustle but when you are bombarded for long enough it gets to be stressful. I found a place and got my head shaved. On a side note I shaved off of my goatee pretty soon after I got here. Too hot.

I ate lunch on the beach, (my table was literally on the sand) and watched the people and the parasailers in the water. I had a crab, squid and shrimp cocktail for an appetizer. Served with a dressing over a salad. Everything was good except the squid. Then I had stir fried beef "hong kong" with mushrooms and green onions. Heading back to my bike I saw a kid in a wheelchair having a tough time. It was really hot by this point and actually he looked like he had given up and the crowd was just moving all around him. I'm not sure what his condition was but he was hunched over, really slight and could talk a little but no English. I asked where he was headed but I didn't know what he was saying so he just pointed. I started pushing him and would check in occasionally and he just kept pointing. It was the opposite direction of my bike and I didn't really know how far I was going to push him, but good times. He ended up just wanting to go into a convenience store so I pushed him in and the clerks were able to talk to him.

After that I felt like seeing Phromthep Cape, the southernmost tip of the island. Its actually on a hill and you can see ocean forever. There weren't any clouds today and looking south everything was bright blue, except for the green of the outlying islands. It was really quiet except for the sounds of the waves crashing below. I climbed down a little ways and found a cliff to sit on. I just sat there awhile and thought.

After that I wanted to walk the Pier in Chalong. It was a good ten minute walk to the end of the pier. I hung out there a little while but didn't really think about anything. Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits. After that I saw a vendor with stuff I hadn't seen before. I got four little fried things on a skewer. She poured some sweet sauce on top and it looked like they were going to be crab rangoons but inside were little eggs.

I got back to camp and training was finishing and everyone was going out to dinner. We went to this place called the Anchor Inn near the water and it was really good. Per Rick's recommendation I had the stir fried chicken with garlic and peppers. Really filling. There was about 15 of us there and we got a little rowdy and had a good time. Maddox, Gaz and Dave showed up and had already eaten somewhere else. Dave hadn't heard about the throwing of the dinnerware and the broken bottle so we had some fun reliving those stories. Maddox agreed yesterday to fight another farang this Thursday so he's got less than a week to train for the fight. Now I'm at Jimmy's on the wifi. I'm getting to know the waitresses and they all said I look a lot younger. Tomorrow Gary, Kevin, Dave, Elly, Linda and myself are all going to Phi Phi island. Its an hour and a half ferry and we will get rooms there tomorrow night for about 500 baht. Again it is about 40 baht for a buck so sweet. Supposed to be a lot of nice beaches and resorts and no hookers on the island, just tourists and a really good time.