Sand in My Converse

Mike and I got to the Ekkamai station around 1:15pm. The Ekkamai bus terminal located on Sukumwit takes passengers to destinations east of Bangkok. We bought our tickets for Pattaya and sat down to wait for Joy and our departure. While lounging on the comfortable blue plastic seats we enjoyed a bout of the national pastime. The match was in its third round, and the two fighters were viciously kneeing each other with no clear lead. In the fourth round one of the young fighters pooped out and the referee called the match as fighter was unable to defend himself. I grimaced in pain for the poor lad.

The trip to Pattaya took about 3 hours. From the Pattaya bus terminal we rode in a songthaew (a pick up truck/local bus) to the Ambassador Hotel. The hotel complex is huge with three wings and a gigantic pool. Around the chlorinated waters were big Russians that looked like beached whales. They hung about the waters, lounging on chairs while baking themselves and their grotesquely tiny speedos. My sense of cultural relativity always goes out the window when I'm in Pattaya.

We rode down the beach, and spoke of whoring instead of going to the rock festival. The Thailand Rock Festival held on a military base outside of Jomtien (a town south of Pattaya) would be a two day event. The festival would have a number of popular bands, of whom I particularly wanted to see "Slur," and "Modern Dog."

We arrived at the festival around 6pm and hung about the Channel V tent for a bit gourging ourselves on free food and liquor. The generous people of Channel V had given Mike extra tickets, and Joy and I libations and nourishment. Along with vegetables and rice I also ate some french fries, and som tum acquired in the "food court." One of the great things about thailand is that where there are Thai people there is food. We hung about then checked out the Rock Stage. The stage was large and had several big screens to watch the action on stage. We sat on the sand for a while then went over to the beach stage which was smaller and had reggae/ska bands playing. The first band we took in was called T-Bone and no, it was not a rap band. Instead it was a second wave ska band whom the Thai kids really seemed to enjoy. We watched the band play and danced a little bit then went over to see Slur.

Slur is one of my favorite Thai rock bands. They're hip, they sound good, and the bassist opened up with a riff to a Joy Division song which automatically gets my approval. Before we got to see Slur we had to sit through and awful band called Crescendo who Mike labeled as "Trashy southern california 90s grunge rock with metal influences," or something akin. I hated them and the awful MCs who presided during the down times. The MCs screeched into the microphones and kept yelping out "nnnaaaaaggggggllllllluuuuuaaaa!!!!! (frightening)

At some point in the evening Mike and I demonstrated some hardcore dance moves for Joy (she's a brit). My recent haircut and dress have made me look like a 90s hardcore kid and so we wanted to show her "The lawnmower," "The floor punch," "The spinning windmill," and "Picking up change." I was able to do the dances awkwardly never practicing them much on the dancefloor. Wong was a bit better but more pensive about engaging in embarassing American antics.

Slur came on and played for about 45 minutes. They were a good stage presence and blasted through their songs.

After Slur we went over to the beach stage where we caught some of Groove Rider, a disco funk band. They were so so and killed some time before we got to see Modern Dog. Modern Dog's lead singer had a great stage presence and made the crowd scream with glee despite the late hour (it was almost 2am by the time they played). They played all their hits and ended their set with "Gon" one of my favorite songs and something that will garner the envy of my peers in Thai language school back at the Wat in Berkeley.

WE got back to the hotel around 4 am and I washed off my dirt tanline. I think that I'll have sand in my shoes for a while.

Models and Falang

I got up at 6:10am feeling a bit better from the cold that's kept me from the gym the last few days. I ate a bowl of cereal. The soy milk here is fresh so it tastes real beany. To make it a little more palatable a coconut milk was added. Originally my morning breakfast consisted solely of coconut milk until Wong told me how much saturated fat my body was taking in. The water wasn't running for some reason, not that it mattered, and ten minutes later I was on my way to Tesco Lotus.

Every morning a visa run service takes off from Tesco Lotus bringing foreigners to the Cambodian border for a 30 day renewal. The trip takes most of the day and 2,000 baht, about 60 dollars. When I got there at 6:30 there was already a decent amount of filipinos hanging out on the sidewalk waiting for the german who manages the business to show. The German, Claudio showed up half an hour later with four, 10 passenger, mini vans. The mini vans have air conditioning (which can make the ride quite chilly) and a tv/dvd player. The ride to the border takes about 3 hours and we stopped once en route. The driver, a lao looking guy bought us bottled water. I slept through the majority of the morning trip through eastern thailand to the Cambodian border but woke up when the movie Deja Vu came on. Deja Vu stars Denzel Washington as a Federal Tobacco Fire Arms agent in New Orleans attempting to stop a deranged "patriotic" terriorist from blowing up a ferry full of navy sailors. It really warmed the heart.

The border that I went to is in the middle of nowhere. We arrived at noon and handed the thailand exit people our papers. Our passports were stamped and then walked across the border where agents of our company waited to take our passports and paperwork. They took our papers and spent an hour or so processing them. In the mean time we went to lunch. Lunch was held in a small casino. The casino offers blackjack, slot machines, and some sort of gambling game that I don't understand. The casino has a small buffet. Lacking any vegan fodder I asked the chef (like last time) to make some fried vegetables for me. I ate lunch with an english guy who originally came out here on vacation. He had extended his vacation by two months and was staying with his thai girlfriend. It was a pleasant enough conversation. The rest of my time was rather pondering my options when I go home.

The return trip had us finish Deja Vu and watching Master and Commander, a historical fiction starring Russel Crowe (not worth watching). We stopped by a gas station. The young man who sat in front of me kept getting his photo taken. The women at the gas station giggled a lot. He laughed and told me about how he had recently become a model out here in thailand. He'd been working here for five months and has done two magazines, a fashion show, and three commercials. He has a bit of trouble going much further as he can't speak thai. He was rather average looking, pale, dark haired, tall, and half thai half german. Evidently young women everywhere are starting to recongize him.

My visa is extended to Febuary 18th. My return flight is for the 29th. I can either make a trip to Laos and get a new tourist visa or pay a 500 baht fine for every day I overstay in thailand. The visa laws here in thailand prevent me from going to Cambodia for another thirty day extension.

Yesterday the majority of my day was spent in the backpacker's ghetto of khao san road. An ex coworker of mine came into town and I let her stay at my place. She needed a mobile phone sim card which we acquired at the large, centrally located, MBK mall. Then we met her friend of a friend in the khao san area. Her sort of friend, Matt Noble, trains occassionally at Sor Vorapin muay thai gym. The gym is located at the end of the ghetto and costs 500 baht for one session. You can buy packages of up to 30 sessions for 4500 baht. It works out to be about $15 an hour. For the location the gym was okay. I was surprised by the trainers attention level and the low participant to trainer ratio. I didn't participate as I was still feeling a bit sick. Noble told me later that he constantly was bribing the trainerby buying them beer and food in order to get extra technical advice.

The Khao San area is pretty repulsive and a place that should be seen once then avoided like conversations about feelings with therapists. The road is about 5 blocks long and attached to it are a swarm of guest houses, pubs, restaraunts, internet cafes, and travel agencies. Tons of foreigners walk the streets, many of the men bare chested (which is extremely offensive in this modestly dressed society). The falang are busy getting their hair braided, buying cheap henna tattoos, or soaking up suds while ogling other each other. While a good place for white people to meet other white people the khao san area has the cultural sensitivity of a KKK Grand Dragon leader robed up at a Black Panther Party meeting.

Ingrams

Ingram's gym is located a short distance away from the Asok BTS (sky strain) stop. After walking east past the sukumvit hospital with its advertisements for liposuction and the usual street side food venders you'll turn left down a short side street. The large metallic gate will be open and at 3 o'clock Bokpuu will be sweeping up the mats while Nine will be rolling the handwraps. To the immediate right is a mid sized raised ring. In front of me is three ring size sections. The first section is for heavy bag work. Three worn down bags hang off of a blue contraption. The frame for the heavy bags looks like it was homemade. Its base is made of a tire with concrete inside of it. The next area is bordered by shin pads and gloves. To the left of the 2nd area is a large mirror used to inspect facial blemishes and for shadow boxing. The third area has another set of heavy bags and more matted space. To the right of the three areas is the main building. There are several bedrooms, a washing machine, a kitchen area, a bathroom (with both thai and western facilities) and an office. My exploration of the building was pretty limited, as I thought it would be pretty impolite to go searching around. The initial entry area is lobby like and has pictures of the various Ingram star fighters. While Samkor, Buakaw, and Neungsiam have all been there I didn't see their pictures (but I also didn't really look). There is a small glass case that has a few different styles of Ingram shorts. The gym has an introductory cost of 900 baht, individual sessions after that are 300 baht (about $28, and about $9). A short form is filled out and then you're told to start jumping rope.

Since I didn't bring my running shoes I ended up skipping rope for twenty minutes. The rope is thai style, a little thicker and heavier than american boxing ropes that I'm used to at Pacific Ring Sports. Skipping rope for that long is tiring and boring. The rope weighs down the biceps. On monday I trained at both Ingram's and a falang camp called Jitti. Doing both trainings made my calves really sore so I walked funny for a few days. After twenty minutes of jumping rope I put on handwraps and shadow box for one round. The rounds are longer than in the states, four minutes instead of three. There is a one minute break between the rounds.

Bokpuu and I do three or four rounds of muay thai pad work and then one round of boxing/elbow work. The round will start off with ten alternating kicks, first a right kick (1), and then a left kick (2). All kicks and knees are down twice. So if Bokpuu holds the pads up for me to kick I kick twice, if he holds for the right knee I right knee twice. A common combination was: jab, cross, right knee, right knee, left knee, left knee, right elbow, right kick, right kick. The pad work felt similiar to doing pad work with Coke, or with another fighter at Pacific Ring Sports so I liked it. Interspersed with the combinations would be more singular activites. Four straight punches, left uppercut elbow, right elbow, jab followed by a spinning back elbow. Knowing a little thai helped when Bokpuu made corrections, knowing muay thai pretty well helped a lot. I was able to follow his body movements and do the corrections myself. In order to demonstrate my understanding I would usually do what I was doing wrong and say "mai tham" then do what I was supposed to followed by "tham dii." Like Coke Bokpuu told me to keep my chin down, unlike coke he seemed to want me to widen my stance and to point my foot downwards when blocking. The round would end with ten right kicks, and ten left kicks. During the one minute break I would drink water, pour a little on my head (which would make me shiver) and spit a mouthful of water all over my torso. The last round which was boxing orientated was a welcome relief. I'm a bit fat from a month of eating a lot, drinking a lot, and not training so I consider myself to be out of shape. We didn't do a lot of hooks, or uppercuts, mainly straight punches and elbows.

After the pad work was complete I would do three or four rounds of bag work. Bag work is the same everywhere. Kick, punch, kick, blah blah blah. Next came sparring. Unlike in the states sparring in thailand is done very lightly. The point isn't to bang but to work on timing, technique, and accuracy. I assume that a lot of the reason for the hard sparring in the states is the egos of many of the people who train out there. That or they just don't know. I've sparred with a handful of people. I sparred with Nine once. It was both fun and fustrating. He toyed with me a lot. He would hold out his glove for me to knock it and then would kick me right away, pretty dirty. It reminded me of Coke sparring with Kenyan at the gym. I sparred with three or four novice falang. All of them were bigger than me, and less skilled, so it was light hearted fun. Sparring with the two young thai guys was more of a learning experience. Both of them were younger than me by 9 or 10 years but weren't out of sight better than me. They also took sparring a little more seriously than Nine. After sparring would be four rounds of knee sparring. Again knee sparring with the falang was fun, although usually they would just use their weight to out muscle me while knee sparring with the thai guys was more of a learning experience. Their technique was better than mine. They also used slightly different locks which was both interesting and fustrating.

Immediately after sparring would be twenty right kicks and twenty left kicks then some calethenstics. I only had to do 50 sit ups and 20 push ups, light fare. I was lazy so I acquiesced to the low repetitions. The whole training from start to finish would take a little over two hours, sometimes two and a half hours. After training I would go behind the building to shower. The shower was ghetto thai style. There was a bug waste bucket full of water. A hose would go into the bucket to put more water in it. A large bowl was used to dump water on oneself then you would use a bar of soap to clean yourself off.

I like going to ingram's the three times I did. If I was staying in bangkok I would consider going to Ingrams. I'd probably get a place off the BTS somewhere down the line and would go there twice a day. I'm going to pattaya tomorrow to check out sityodtong. Its the camp that Mike Regnier went to and he recommended it. I'm excited to go there and settle down into a pattern of life. Bangkok can be pretty distracting. There are bars, and friends. I suppose that's just like anywhere else. Its up to me to stay focused. I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to.