Sweet Victory

This list right here confirmed that I passed the first semester of Uni. This feels like victory, it feels so good. Not to get ahead of myself, we're only halfway there. But we also are already halfway there. Hard work pays off. That's what I discovered. So just going to keep doing what I am doing and I should have no problems conquering this second semester. 

My Instagram-account is more up to date than my blog so if you want to get more updates you better go follow me on there as well. Username: hannahdevet

Scorpions, Chickens and Saiyok

I thought it would be about time to make another blog post.. It's been about three weeks since the last one. Not that much has happend since my last post. Just the daily life I'm living here. My going-home-date is coming closer every day and it makes me think about things. I love living here but I'm also ready to start a new chapter in my life. How much I love training every single day, my leg injury is getting out of hand and I really just want to get home to fix that shit. I was supposed to fight one more time before going back home. It would be July 27th on Koh Samui again but this might or might not happen anymore. Guess that's what fighting in Thailand is all about. You're never sure of anything. I would be really bummed if I didn't get to fight one more time before going home so I am really hoping to get that last fight. On the 27th five boys from this camp are fighting as well on Koh Samui so we got another road trip down south. If I'm not fighting 27th, I might be fighting 30th on Samui but that as well is something to not be sure about. I'm just happy to be able to go to Koh Samui one more time. I get to meet up with my friends once again and my close friend from Brazil is making his way down to the island 28th so that should be great fun. My Thai adventure is almost coming to an end (again) and this time it's definite. Going to University in September and who knows where that will bring me. Living abroad will be put on hold for a couple of years but as soon as I get the opportunity to get out again, I will. Enough with the talking, here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks and the stories to go with them, enjoy!

I thought I had seen it all. Snakes, rats, cockroaches, etc. But no. I was doing my homework when I felt something on my foot. Thinking it was just an ant or something I just waved my foot to shake it off. It didn't go away so I looked down to see what it was. Got the scare of my life. Smacked it with my sandal and took a picture before praying I would never see such thing again.  

We all know Kongfah is a little off sometimes, but he always knows to light up the gym with his appearance.

Kongfah and Hayden

We had Dam Chalamkow training at Sitmonchai for about ten days. He was preparing for his fight in Lumpini tonight (July 19th). Best of luck to him!

Monday July 15th we had three birthdays at Sitmonchai. Ikkyu (Pee A's son), Kongfah and Stephen. Good reason for some candles and cake!

I'm getting used to seeing things that would upset most other people. Just a morning where Kongfah killed three of the chickens and chopped them up in pieces before cooking them into that evening's meal. The Thai life I'm part of right now.

P'Nae and Kru Dam both have chicken they train for chickenfights. Taking care of the chicken's is an every day job. Wash them, train them, feed them, and if they lose; eat them. They made them fight at the gym. P'Nae's chicken won and Kru Dam's chicken needs to learn some more skills. They didn't get eaten. Just yet.

A little night out with the people from camp. Free food, some muay thai and a weird thai cabaret. Guess the night was alright.

Kru Pan and Kru Yod

And about three seconds later Juab and Kongfah decided to join the picture as well.

P'Nae is friends with a lot of people and one of his friends happends to be Saiyok. To non-muaythai-people this might not sounds like someone or something big. But meeting Saiyok is like, a pretty big deal. He came by the camp twice. He fought the day before, won by K.O. Just like it's his everyday job (which it kind of is of course, but still). This picture right here is a precious one.

Sitmonchai vs Samui

Last thursday we left camp for a trip to Koh Samui because we had a couple of fighters lined up to fight there that saturday. We left at 15.00 in the afternoon and drove to Surat Thani to catch the boat to Samui. We had a minivan that was quite comfortable but 11 hours is still a really really long time. We got to the pier in Surat Thani at around 5.30 and the boat took off at 6.00. After arriving on the island friday morning we had to go to the stadium straight away to  meet up with the promoter. Because my fight wasn't happening anymore they asked Kongfah to fight instead of me. Like everyone expected he took the fight so that problem was solved as well. We were dead tired after travelling for so many hours so we couldn't wait to get to the hotel, take a shower and get some sleep. Here are some photos of this weekend and the stories that go with it;

(note; because of the big amount of pictures I didn't enlarge them. If you click on the picture you will get a slideshow with the picture in a bigger format)

On our way, 11 people in a minivan - for 11 hours

 We had to wait at the pier for about 30 minutes before leaving to Koh Samui

 Finally on the boat and the sun was coming up already

 Sleeping in a minivan is close to impossible so after being awake for about 15 hours the trainers that came along (Pan and Kongfah) decided to make some good use of the empty VIP-room on the boat

Bye bye Mainland

 Hello Koh Samui!

We arrived at the pier in Nathon on Koh Samui so we had do drive for about 30 minutes to get to Chaweng.   After some quick business with the promoter, we finally got some food and got to go to the hotel

The good thing about travelling with Thais is that they know everything and everyone. We ate at this place two times a day and the food was really good and really cheap as well. Doing Koh Samui on a Thai budget is not easy but we made it work. 

Back to the hotel, relaxing and sleeping. The hotel was really good, the promoter did a great job about setting this up. We were all so pleased to arrive in this hotel after the many hours spent in the minivan wondering in what kind of hotel we would end up. Nothing to complain about. 

Saturday night was fight night. We had three boys of the camp fighting and Kongfah of course. Hayden, Willy and Nakano were up against some fierce opponents. Hayden and Willy both fought a Thai and both knocked their opponent out in the first round. Nakano had to fight a hard falang and got K.O'd two or three rounds in but it was a good experience. Kongfah had to fight a Thai that was about 10 kilos heavier but he managed to win on points after a hard fight. Nobody got injured really bad so it was all a good result. And a good night in general. I was just bummed out about the fact that I couldn't fight that night. Being in and around the stadium brought back all the great memories of last year. The promoter asked if I wanted to fight again on Koh Samui in about 4 weeks, so I might have the chance to go back there one more time before I go home. Really happy about that. I just hope my foot will be alright and training will go well. We'll see about that in the next week. 

Nakano, Hayden and Willy - ready for war

 Kongfah -ready and relaxed as always

Being on Koh Samui gave me the chance to hang out with some of the friends I got on the island. I spent the whole saturday with Maria, touring around on her motorbike and we went to visit the 'famous' rocks in Lamai. A day well spent. 

The event was a pretty big one and because of that the advertising for it was pretty big. My face was on posters and billboards all around the island. It's really weird seeing your face everywhere and people recognizing you and wanting to take photos with you because 'you're that girl'. You don't get used to that. It was weird last year, it's was weird this time and it will be weird next time. 

The boys all went to the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan on sunday evening but I didn't feel like going and just stayed at the hotel. We had to go back to Bangkok on monday. We took off around 15.00 again. Drove to the pier, had to wait for a bit, got on the boat (which was actually a bit bigger and nicer than the one that took us to Koh Samui), and after 90 minutes we were back on the Mainland. Bye Koh Samui, I will always miss you. Hopefully I can be back soon. 

There's something about that pose..

That's it for now, hope you guys enjoyed the pictures and I will keep you guys updated about upcoming events and all. Take care!