Alive and (Muay Thai) kicking in Phuket

Doing really well and am alive and kicking (literally) here in Phuket. Haven't had much of a chance to get to a half decent computer as the power kept cutting out, computers didn't work...the usual, so this could be a long one catching up on over 2 weeks.

Arrived at my camp over 2 weeks ago in a 'fun' taxi journey from the airport, checked into my sauna of a room at around midnight and got a bit of sleep before starting my fitness regime the next day. Phuket is roasting hot - 38 degrees with humidity to add to that. So what do I do? Well, everyday, bar Sunday, I train 5 hours a day in this sweatbox. The mornings will start with Bodyfit. One day, participants could be running on a beach with tyres on their shoulders, throwing the tyre, sprinting from flag to flag, crawling around in the sand doing exercises for core strength & stability, running 6km up a hill to the Buddah (who sits up there grinning at us all like idiots as we die trying to get to the top)with a tyre on your shoulder, squatting in between flags, climbing up 50 steps backwards; running up and down steps with that tyre again (I've never taken a dislike to a round, black bit of rubber in my life as it bruises your shoulders/head as you run)...you get my drift I'm sure. This is just touching on the surface.  Yesterday as we all ran up and down hills with these tyres, a bus full of Japanese toursits got out and took lots of pictures. People look at us like we are completely insane, doing all these things in this heat. Or you'll have people relaxing on the beach in their loungers as teams of us run past, tyre in mid-air, telling us we are nuts.

Here at the fitness camp you can do all sorts - Western Boxing, Krabi Krabong, weights, spin, Muay Thai, yoga, Cross-fit and if someone was really nuts, they could start training at 6 am and finish at 8pm that night doing different exercises, but I've yet to meet that mental patient. I will either run, spin, lift weights and also do Muay Thai along with Bodyfit.  Enjoying the Muay Thai and think I could defend myself ok if someone tried to hit me.  Muay Thai is a form of kick-boxing and most of the kicking comes from your shins and not the foot. My shins have hardened (after 2 weeks of bruising kicking bags, trainers and classmates) - don't think I'll need shinguards the next time I play soccer.

At Muay Thai we all spend 2 and a half hours doing cardio, kicking, punching, sparring with each other and we all share a common bond...salty bodily fluid in the form of sweat and lots of it. The phrase 'Women glow' doesn't exactly fit in here. Within 5 minutes, everyone is saturated with sweat right through their clothes. We all end up running in each others sweat puddles that have landed on the floor, slipping off each other - it's so bad that my knees have started to sweat. Never in my life have my knees sweated.  After lessons, we all look like we've just been put through a washing machine, with the 'spin' bit broken - pure saturation.  But it's great - everyone gets on so well with each other and I've met so many people from every part of the globe (who like me, have also paid to torture themselves - so it's fantastic meeting like-minded/mental people).

I've enjoyed it so much, that instead of just staying here for 2 weeks, I've extended it for an extra month (and could go further after this). I did decide that my concentration camp of a room was nearly killing me and had to move out after 2 weeks. It was usually cooler outside my room at night; the fan that was constantly on to cool me down sounded like a jet engine starting up; most nights I lay in a pool of my own sweat trying to sleep; the TV had BBC News 24 all day long; a gekko (lizard) made a home in my room and croaked all night when I tried to sleep; the toilet was a walk outside to the end of the block and when you used it and threw toilet paper in the bin, about 60 mozzies flew out and tried to feast on you. All this led to a bit of sleep deprivation, which isn't good in this heat/for exercise so I found myself a new apartment not far from camp. In my new pad, I've 2 beds, a TV with loads of channels (even ITV is there), air conditioning, a bathroom etc. On site, is a restaurant, pool and massage...aahhh, the massages are bliss - Costs the equivalent of 2-3 pounds for a massage. Got a Thai massage with a friend and the wee Thai lady was jumping all over me, pulling my arms/legs in the strangest of places. An oil massage is much nicer/more relaxing.

Spent my first weekend away with 10 other people from the camp and went to Phi Phi Island and Maya Bay (where 'The Beach' was filmed). We caught a boat to the island, snorkelled in the turquoise waters, ate food and sang songs around the campfire, drank out of buckets (!), watched the sunset/sunrise, swam in the water with plankton that glowed around you, slept out under the stars - pure paradise on earth - apart from the fact that my legs/ass had been a feast for the local sandflies/mozzies.  It's hard to believe that these places were destroyed in the tsunami, but there are remiders everywhere and the Thai people are so resilient and have been building their lives back up.

The following week (last weekend) was St Patrick's Day. A crowd of us painted bits of our body in green (all we could find was green eye-liner) and I made a crap attempt at drawing shamrocks on peoples faces and we headed into the madness of Patong.  Patong is a bit of a sleazy but very fun tourist strip.  Here you'll bump into the lady-boys, women pole dancing on bars that open out onto the street, games of all sorts being played on the streets, food vendors selling food (that could probably food poison the unsuspecting drunk tourist falling out of a bar at stupid o'clock who is desperate to eat), bars of every nationality, offers of ping-pong shows being shoved in your face!  We all had a great night, quite literally drowned the shamrock (as no-one drinks during weekly training) and made it back to Chalong in a tuk-tuk singing lots of songs, in the wee small hours of the morning.

It's great here - everyone is so similar and are here to train, get fit, detox, ...whatever and we tend to bond easily because of that. People just hook up after training, jump on the back of some of their scooters (which can be hired for 4 pounds a day, without a licence or any prior motorbike experience), head to the beach, go for dinner, sightsee or check out the night markets (yes, I ate some fried witchety grubs/larvae along with Tina, a Norweigan friend - it was nice).  So all is good right now. Thailand is surpassing NZ and Oz - even after all the torture I'm putting myself through!

Wat Po, Bangkok

Phi Phi Island

Maya Bay - 'The Beach' was filmed here

My group sleeping out in Maya Bay

St Patrick's Day festivities

Bangkok - The City of Angels (?)

Arrived in Suvarnabhumi Airport safe and sound; followed the Thai/English signs to immigration/baggage collection (or what I thought it was). Ended up walking through the wrong entrance only to find myself being scanned and shipped up to departures to fly out of the airport that I just arrived into. My understanding of Thai just isn't quite what it used to be. Was able to get myself back down to immigration; joined the shortest queue (which took forever to move) and at this stage the passengers from my plane had long gone and I was eventually re-united with my pink duffel bag lying all on its lonesome on the floor by the carousel.

Staying in a place called Lat Krabang which is about 15 minutes taxi or 4 minutes in the Airport skytrain in a cheap, but really lovely family owned hotel who are just adorable. Big double bed, cable TV and a fridge stocked with free water, coke, noodles and coffee - what more could a girl ask for! And they have a free computer in the lobby, so decided to make use of it as I may not often get a chance to in the camp in Phuket.

This morning I decided to get up early and take a tour of Bangkok (known as the 'City of Angels/Siam City' or 'City of Scammers' more like) myself instead of taking a tour from these tour companies that charge a fortune for the same thing. Armed with a map and the following words of wisdom from Ritvic (the lovely owner of the hotel) in his broken English with a Thai accent which went something like this: "You take Skytrain/airport link purple line or Lad Krabang, change at Makkasan Road, walk 200 meteeerrr to MRT route, go to Siam...shopping, shopping, shopping...you like shopping? Then go to Hua Lamphong - China Town...wery big, nice bird nest soup - you like bird nest soup - you eat Thai? Afta you go to Templeee - lots of Templeee here - big Buddahhh, Grand Palace - you cross a rivaaaa - go to Pier 5...no ova pier...wery expensive - pirate people here, they charge 300 Baht..Pier 5 only 14 baht...much betta for tourist. Bless him, but I was getting confused at this stage so decided to figure it out myself.

So I caught a taxi up to the airport, jumped on the Airport Link to take me to Phyai Thai which is near the shopping area, but miles away from the toursity spots/temples I was looking for. Had several goes at getting a taxi for the right price cos here in Bangkok city, most taxi/tuk-tuk drivers just see you as a wallet/purse on legs and will try their best to screw you for a few extra Baht (don't blame them to be honest, I would probably do the same if I earned as little as they do).  Wanted to go to the Rattanakosin area near the Chao Phraya River where the Wat Po, Grand Palace and Big Buddah are (main tourist spots). First taxi driver in his 80's (thinkin an aul guy would be nice/honest) picked me up...got in, spoke a bit of Thai, told him where I wanted to go and aksed how much - he was chargin an arm and a leg and I asked him in Thai to turn on the meter (if they don't turn on the meter here, they charge whatever they like). The wee shite  came up with every excuse under the sun like 'big traffic jam, it costs more'. So I said no way, jumped out and caught another one. Got to Wat Po Temple - really stunning, took a few pictures and walked round to the Grand Palace.

Having visited Vietnam before and all the temples there, I totally forgot about the 'acceptable dress code' for the places around the Grand Palace and I rocked up in short, demin shorts with flip flops and a singlet. Realising my stupidity, I didn't even try to get into the Palace (as my nakedness would have offended the entire sacred ground and the Emerald Buddah would have cursed me) and saved myself the embarrassment of being turned away by some Thai soldier, feeling like a complete prostitute.

So off I wandered to the little market stalls across the street, opposite the Palace. Had done a tiny bit of research of Bangkok and a line in one of my notes read 'Never take a tuk-tuk from Grand Palace or Wat Po'. Obviously, I completely forgot about this and took a tuk-tuk right outside the Palace with the driver, who was a young lad, who spoke good English/very friendly said he'd take me to some temples that I told him I wanted to go to. It was really cheap - going for 40 Baht - which is the equivalent of 75p. Jumped into the tuk-tuk (which was one of my to-do things anyway) and whizzed round the streets and backstreets of Bangkok. Saw the temples that I wanted to go to and then the driver was going on about some price of petrol somewhere and that I could get cheap clothes/jewellery some place.

Rocked up to this 'gem store' and then remembered the little note to myself telling me not to get a tuk-tuk from Grand Palace came back to me!  Read that these guys around this area can bring you to these so called 'gem stores' and stupid foreigners go in and buy fake gems and get ripped off. Also, I read that they get a commission from these shops, so if tourists just walk in, they get a nice wee wage. So, remembering what I had read, I decided to play him at his own game and was like,  'Nah, I'm not into gems, don't like them, so you can take me back to the Grand Palace now...and oh by the way, you're not going to rip me off/scam me cos I know what you get out of this place, thanks very much!'. He was like, 'Oh please, just go in and look, please'... I never budged..think he was raging - I could just see him nearly cry cos he wasn't getting his commission or petrol voucher or whatever it was. Apparently it's a big scam over here.

Anyway, he was nice and took me back. I got the cheapest ever ride around Bangkok (well over an hour), saw the things that I wanted all for 75p; so I think it was 1-0 to me, versus the scammers. Instead of paying 9 - 15 thousand Baht for an organised tour, I spent less than 1000 Baht; about the equivalent of a tenner for transport, entrance into the places and some lunch.

Bangkok isn't the shithole that some people had said to me before. I quite like the city. It reminds me a bit of Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam - westernised and more wealthier, with more cars than mopheads, but still the poverty in the side-streets. There are skyscrapers across the city with golden temples and images of the King everywhere. There are lots of market stalls with people selling everything from used shoes, old cassettes, to food, to Buddhist monks roaming the streets - you name it, it's all here (have yet to see the lady-boys yet, but think it was a bit too early in the day). There's lots to keep your senses busy.  People are very friendly here and if you try and speak Thai, you'll be greeted with more smiles, an answer in English and less chance of being scammed, as you show them you are trying.

I got to see a few things, but this place is so vast, I've only touched the surface. Fly out to Phuket tomorrow evening to my camp, so hope to go into town in the morning and see another couple of things and maybe take a wee visit and get a Thai massage - here's hoping it's not one of those other 'massage' places, knowing my luck! ;)