Calm Your Mind

Came across this piece of wisdom. Felt like sharing. Here you go. 

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.

Rainy Restday

Yesterday was a sunday again and sunday's always are a little different due to the fact that there's no training. The whole time schedule of a day gets mixed up. People sleep in, go get breakfast somewhere else or go on a small trip. So instead of the normal breakfast at 10.15 like during the week, Mama now just prepares something and puts it out for you to serve yourself. Normally it's just sitting out there in the kitchen somewhere and you have to get it yourself but yesterday I walked out to get breakfast and found a little fancy buffet. Seems like Sitmonchai is upgrading! It was still the average meal witch chicken, baked eggs and veggies but still. Good start of the day. A lazy day that is. The gym was really quiet (more than usual..). The boys went out to party the night before in Kanchanaburi so they weren't really around and there are not that many other people right now so I just spent most of my day studying my Thai and sleeping. Oh and I got a massage do try and fix my legs. Helped a bit but it's still shit. 

Now that we're in June the hot season changed into the rainy season. Which doesn't mean it's any less hot during the day. It only means that we have torrential downpour almost every afternoon. Tourists are bummed about it (rain doesn't give you a tan and if you go to Thailand you want/demand sun) but I'm actually pretty excited about it. The rain makes training in the afternoon just that much cooler and in the evening it cools off really nicely. I get to wear sweatpants almost every night and I sleep really well because of the rain (guess that's what living in Holland does to you). The Thai really don't like the rain though. If they have an appointment somewhere and it starts raining, they just don't go. It's an accepted excuse; 'oh it rained, no problem'. Wish we could say that in Holland! The Thai are also dead terrified of getting their hair wet. They don't care about getting wet, as long as the hair stays dry. I have no idea why that is but it's always fun to see them try to keep their head dry. Scroll down for some pictures!

Our fancy Sunday Morning Buffet

The rain is good for multiple things. It makes the temperature nice and cool, you get a free car wash and even a quick shower for the lazy ones. When it starts raining, immediatly, all the boys are summed to drive out the motorbikes to give them a good wash to make them nice and shiny again. And Ley (middle) and Jimme found these fancy hats somewhere around the gym. Very useful for keeping your head dry, as where Pan (right) just doesn't care and takes a shower. Deat is cleaning Pnae's motorbike, and yes, he has a plastig bag wrapped around his head. He was soaked when he was finished, but at least his hear was dry!

Kongfah made good use of the rain and even got the soap out for a big shower

Deat (right) and Jimme (left) cleaning Deat's motorbike

Moira wanted to try a hairstyle she saw online on my hair so I let her. Turned out pretty sweet! Even though we are living in a muay thai camp and turning into boys slowly, we are still girls! We still like to get pretty, wear make-up, paint our nails and do our hair every once in a while. It's not always easy being a girl in a muay thai camp where there's mainly guys but we're doing a pretty good job. And this hairdo looked really pretty. And my hair is getting so long. I actually like it like this, so no need for a haircut just yet..

Fight at MBK BKK

 I lost my fight on points yesterday but it was a good fight. Everyone was really proud of the way I handled the fight and I learned a lot. I was really relaxed and compared to last year's fight I actually felt like I knew what I was doing. My left leg is completely busted and my nose hurts like fuck but I feel happy. Pain is just temporary. I got a couple of rest days coming up before getting back to training. May 2nd I'll go to Koh Samui for about two weeks to relax and after that, back to training and hopefully some more fights.
My fight was recorded but internet is being a bitch lately so uploading is going to take a while. I'll post a link as soon as it's online. For now, here are some pictures that were take last night.

Pee A wrapped my hands, rock solid. This man is a master at doing so. 

All dressed and ready to go

 Little warming up right before the fight

I never knew I could be this relaxed three minutes before entering the ring

With Yoshi, one of my cornerman

 Gametime

Wai Kru

During the fight I didn't really feel any pain. But as soon as the fight was over and I stepped out of the ring the reality started kicking in and I could feel my left leg shutting down. I'd didn't really check her lowkicks so I took quite a few of them. I couldn't really walk properly yesterday and the bruise is starting to come out. Other than that I'm not really hurt. Like I said, I'm happy with the result, I gave it my best and I learned a lot. On to the next one.

Still smiling after my fight! Proud to have fought for Sitmonchai.

Tigers and Temples

This sunday we took a little trip to Tiger Temple. I'd never been here before and I wasn't really planning on going here at all but I needed to get out of camp so I decided to join the group as they were going anyway. It was pretty cool to see all the tigers from up close and being able to touch them and take pictures with them but at the same time it's sad to see them all chained up. These are wild animals and you can't help but think of the fact that they should be free instead of being chained up all day. It still was a really fun day though. We got to take some nice photos, the whole atmosphere at the Temple was really relaxing and even though the temperature was insane today we had a blast.I was definitely able to clear my head today. Just one more day of training left tomorrow and then it's on. Gametime.

Heeeere, kitty kitty!

 

Just walking the dog on a lazy sunday afternoon, LIKE A BOSS.

After we were finished at Tiger Temple Kruu Juab took us to another temple. It was so beautiful and calming. I don't know what it is. Everytime I visit a temple I just get so calm and relaxed. I could literally stay there all day. There's something there that just makes me so calm and that's pretty rare for me knowing I've got ADHD and am pretty busy and chaotic like, all the time. Temples are good for me. That's one thing I know for sure. They do me really well. We got there at around 15.00 in the afternoon which still made it really really hot but the lighting was amazing. All the colours came out so nice and bright. You just had to take pictures of everything. 

This morning they told me; 'today, no training'. Yeah, let's just go visit a temple and climb over 150 steps of stairs.

And the view.. bwoah. Just amazing. I've seen much of Thailand and sometimes I think I can't be stunned anymore by things here. But every once in a while I stumble upon something that just takes my breath away. Today, this view took my breath away. I love Thailand, every day a little more.

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