First Hotel
I’ve been in Phuket, Thailand for nearly 3 full days now. When I arrived, I was turned away from the hotel affiliated to the Muay Thai gym where I made my booking, to this place in the picture. Not too shabby! And this wasn’t even the best part of that place. I had a beautiful room in front of the swimming pool, with a huge kingsized bed. I was actually sad that I had to leave all this!
The gym’s accomodation is actually very charming too, it’s “sculpted into a cliff facing the Andaman sea”, which means it’s much further up in the hills. From here to Patong beach, the bustling tourist center of Phuket, it takes me at least half an hour by foot, or 300 thai baht (7.50 euros) by tuk tuk. The view is really beautiful here, maybe because of it’s seclusion. The gym is right across the road, so I just have to wake up, climb up the hill and cross the road to start training.
These few days I’ve been to Patong Beach only to do things that needed to be done. Patong’s beaches are so packed that finding a free spot to sit down and work on my “Thai for Beginners” is nearly impossible. Of course, this is for good reason because Patong beach is after all gorgeous. At night, it resembles a huge stag night party on the streets that matter, Soi Bangla (also known as Soi Ti-ti as a thai guy told me because ti-ti is one of the thai sounds for sex), Soi Eric, and so on. These streets are filled with bargirls gyrating and pole-dancing their way into the hearts of men looking for company. These girls try to drag you into their ‘loving’ embraces around the bar, so it’s hard to find a place to have an uninterrupted beer along these parts. I’d need to make a special effort to visit these places, but I’d rather chill in the hills. I might visit Karon beach which equally beautiful but much less crowded, and Phuket town, the major town on the island.
Anyway, my days have been spent training, eating a lot, and studying Thai. I’m ashamed that after being to Thailand for 5 times, I am only beginning to get familiar with the complicated alphabet! Training’s tough but I’m learning a lot about muay thai. My shins are destroyed, my feet are VERY blistered both on the sole and the top side from practising kicks on the bags and pads, but I’m enjoying the challenge. It’s 11 pm, and I’m really exhausted from the 4 hours of training today!
I’ll make sure I’ll write more about training, but 4 hours per day is definitely making me a machine! Or at least I hope so.
