Thursday the 22nd into Friday afternoon......

Thursday I really kicked the training into high gear and visited the camp next door to Cocoville, Dragon Muay Thai. It was tough, but awesome. We had an amazing breakfast at Cocoville after training.....tofu with egg whites and brown rice! And of course Thai spices!! Yum! Then to add insult to injury I went to Tiger for my weight training PT with Peter The Hulk, and he completely kicked my butt. So needless to say I was exhausted on Thursday. We laid out by the pool for a bit, and then met friends for dinner to "celebrate" Thanksgiving. We have met some great people out here, including, but not limited to.....Ash, the New Zealand girl on a personal spiritual quest; Aaron, the Coloradan guy here to get inspiration for screenplays he intends to write; Va, the Australian mother of three looking to relax and recharge her batteries; and Zoe, the Canadian from Toronto who is lucky enough to be coming back to Thailand next year for a span of 6 months. Pretty cool. Everyone is here for such unique reasons, it really is a melting pot. And a nonjudgmental melting pot, at that.

Friday morning was rough! We woke up late and were totally exhausted. Sleep eludes us. Then it started to pour! But it was ok, we would not be discouraged. We decided to visit the Big Buddha statue, the one that sits high up on the mountaintop about 8km from our bungalow. The views from Big Buddha were absolutely stunning. (Pics) Not to mention the surrounding area of the statue. There is an actual Buddhist monastery there, and the statue is a work in progress, all being built from donations given to the monks. Pretty amazing. We made a donation and were able to leave our message on a nice piece of jade outside the statue. Bells adorn the trees as symbols of good luck, blessings, etc. I also really enjoyed the Thai cat sitting on the visitors book inside the statue, as if to say, Sign at your Own Risk!!!!! (Pics)

Just down the mountain were elephants that you could ride! It was too wet and rainy, but I at least wanted to get their pictures. (Pics) All in all, this trip has been everything and more that I had it made out to be in my mind. I return to the States in 9 days, with a different perspective on so many things.......from training, to the image that America carries in the minds of Southeast Asians, to food and portion sizes, to the value of taking time to categorize the important things in life on a daily basis, and not to let stress and the daily grind take over. Tonight, as long as we aren't zombies, we will be going to see some fights. And tomorrow brings more training and more fights at the camp Tiger Muay Thai. I will be taking a lot of pics of Muay Thai training life in the upcoming week, as I really want to capture the essence of what that is like here......

Monday the 19th through Wednesday the 21st.....

One thing has become clear to me in the short time I have been in Thailand....it is very difficult to train and sightsee at the same time! I have managed to do a decent job of it, but there is still so much to see and do it's ridiculous. And clearly the Vietnam side trip will not be happening because we only have 9 more days. So it has become apparent that I will need to come back soon. So in between Muay Thai training, on Monday we visited Old Town Phuket in Phuket Town. (pic) This is a very cool area and the architecture and buildings are amazing. It screams of French Colonialism, and you almost feel like you are in New Orleans in some sections. We ate lunch at a somewhat sketchy restaurant but lived to tell about it. Then we walked around and took pictures literally for the rest of the afternoon. Ann got a foot massage at an interesting little shop and I watched on in horror as this lady manhandled her feet. I would've died as I can't stand people touching my feet! Pedicures are the most I can handle. We ran across a very cool Buddhist Temple (pic) and encountered some very nice Buddhist monks. I took pictures, but with the fancy camera, and those will be uploaded when we get back to the States. We were pretty exhausted by evening and thought of eating in Old Town Phuket but figured we would just go back to Cocoville for a nice meal. We collapsed and went to bed :)

Tuesday brought more sightseeing, as we went to Patong, which is considered a pretty touristy, and in our minds, seedy, area. (pic) It is a bad mixture of Vegas and Cabo. But it houses a very popular Muay Thai stadium (Bangla) and we thought we should visit at least once since we are in Thailand! We had lunch and did some damage at a cool bookstore. I visited a popular Muay Thai store and did more damage, and may actually go back next week to do still even more damage. The views from Patong were amazing since it sits pretty high up on a mountain/hillside. Pretty amazing. We got back to Cocoville fairly early and did some more souvenir shopping, and met a friend for dinner at a nice restaurant down the road called Floraville. There was a CRAZY thunderstorm Tuesday night and we got ZERO sleep because of this. In fact, we don't know why, but this whole week has really sucked for sleep. It just isn't happening!

Wednesday was sort of a catch up day...catch up on sleep, catch up on shopping.....we were bound and determined to finish our shopping for peeps back home so we went back to Central Festival to pick up a few things. We had amazing Korean barbecue for dinner (pic), and Ann tried eating corn with chopsticks...it didn't turn out well...

Crazy Sunday Boat Tour....

Because I thought it would be fun to get this day from another perspective, this blog entry is from guest author Ann Marie Anandappa aka my traveling companion.......pics to follow!!! I cannot condone or approve of the following entry:


Hello all! I'm Jen's friend Ann who is her faithful companion on this trip to Wonderland, aka Phuket, Thailand. She was kind enough to let me do this blog entry based upon my observations of the day. So here goes. Caveat- I hope I don't offend anyone, but if you're friends with Jen, you must be used to some emotional abuse. :) Ok, here goes:

We started off our day at 8am- I ran to the currency exchange because I ran out of money (see previous entry). I was back to Cocoville by 8:12 just as our bus pulled up. There are some more boring details about waiting for people, and driving like a bat out of hell, but I'll skip that and move along. We arrive at Ao Po Pier. Everything is great at this time. We make it onto the boat and then, THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS, or simply, the weirdest booze and cruise experience ever!
Ok. Cast of characters: a slew of very basic Euro-trash (half-naked elderly Germans, attractive and blond Ukranians, some annoying Frenchies); a bunch of Israeli frat boys (I kept asking Jen if she saw the movie "Don't Mess with the Zohan" but she hadn't seen it. If you've seen it, you'll understand what I'm saying!); and a pack of Indian men who were acting like they were on a bachelor party. Ugh. I told Jen if the boat went down we weren't going to save anybody. She agreed. Oh, except a nice Korean family- father, mother, grandmother, little toddler boy. They get to live. It was agreed.

The boat and crew: Jesus bloody Christ. Our Tour was called the Amazing Canoeing tour. There was nothing "amazing" about it. Our tour guide was a Laotian trans-sexual, who explained NOTHING of what we were doing or where we were going or doing. She told us that she switched genders a few years ago, lost her boyfriend a few years ago, and was in the seminary a few years ago. She also said she spoke a myriad of languages- which is funny, cause her English was terrible and I couldn't understand a word she said. Ok. Fine. Well, the whole cruise, which was about 6 hours long, had LOUD THUMPING TOP 40 MUSIC going the WHOLE TIME. You know the kind, BOOM BOOM, GUSH GUSH, BOOM BOOM, BABY. It was like going to a tacky European discoteque and NOT BEING ABLE TO LEAVE. EVER.

Add in sun, wind, and movement and that was our environment.

We got to the first island, Panak Island. Jen and I got in a canoe with this sweet guy who had to paddle us both to the caves. I felt super bad for him cause we were heavy Americans- but remember the slew of Eurotrash? Yeah, they were used to the hefty cargo. Caves- cool. Great. Bats- yikes. Monkeys cute. Beautiful blah blah. We have pics we will post. Then back on the boat.

We then stopped at Hong Island. That dumb bitch tour guide kept explaining it was a Honeymoon island- and how she wanted a boyfriend to honeymoon with. Ugh. Same guy took us around. We tipped him ahead of time and had a GREAT time going around the island and through nooks and crannies. That was enjoyable and fun.

Then we got back on the barge from hell, and went to FINALLY James Bond Island. Here it gets nuts. We had to get off the boat onto long boats- I can't even go into the liablity of slipping and falling between the boats, which NO ONE gave a shit about. Then the long boats took us to James Bond Island- which was a huge tourist trap for Muslim Thai women to hawk their wares of pearls and sea shell teddy bears. Oh, and the bathrooms were squatting toilets. Needless to say- Jen and I held it for about 8 hours that day. We took some pics. Pics to follow.

No we did not duel- neither of us saw that part of the movie until AFTER we got home. We got back on the boat. Then we had lunch- otherwise known as- "Free for all from hell" of uncouth Eurotrash and annoyingly thuggish Indian men who pushed and shoved their way to to the small table. Jen ate hardly anything cause she wasn't aggressive enough- I pushed my way in, but was thwarted mid-way. The food was palpable- but we were starving and held captive, so eating a shoe would have been sufficient.

Ok. Then- god help me, we traveled to Lawa Island for some fools to jump off the boat and swim in the water. Our tour guide at this point has completely taken off all her clothes and is parading around in a black bikini. Dear god- Jen was about to lose her SHIT. All the damn Israeli frat boys jumped in the water, including the stupid Germans and some ugly Indian men. I just kept falling asleep and going to my happy place.

Fast forward an unimaginable about of time- we left there.

I fell asleep and was awoken to the pounding beats of the radio and a bizarre cabaret show put on by our tour guide and her "boyfriend" who was her assistant. At this point, he/she was wearing nylons, a thong, a push-up bra that was filled with stuff, and too much tacky Kabuki makeup. Then they were rubbing themselves up against the men on the boat- to the sheer JOY AND ENTERTAINMENT OF THE EUROTRASH. Jen and I and the Koreans, were unamused. And frankly disgusted and grossed out. Then- adding insult to all the injuries, we had to tip them.

Dear god- I would've paid a kings ransom to just get off that boat ride from hell.
We disembarked- I went to the "Amazing Toilets"- which had no seats and toilet paper (I cannot go into what I did, it's been blocked from my memory). We got home and thanked god that we were able to do so without having killed ourselves or anyone else on that damn boat. (Except the Koreans, of course.)

A few more quick pics.....

A nice pic of the front of Central Festival. That mall is huge!!! Also a lovely jasmine bush outside our bungalow with an amazing fragrance. And the final three pics are of the entrance to where we are staying, Cocoville. It is an amazing place and run by amazing people. The owner is a woman (Thai) named Kat, and her boyfriend Phillip helps her run the place. They have truly taken the sometimes difficult art of hospitality to a whole new level. I will get shots of all the staff before we leave. Lovely people!!!!!

Wednesday through now.......

Sawadeeka!!!!! Hello!!!!! It is now Saturday evening and I am just having some time to sit down and write about the last couple of days........Wednesday was a bit of a bust. We were both exhausted for some reason and didn't do a whole lot. I had my first PT (personal training) with Peter "The Hulk" at Tiger Muay Thai, which was awesome. He is their weight and strength/conditioning guru. Awesome guy, and a great session. Thursday brought more Muay Thai training and we were definitely feeling more energetic!! I just think it's a huge learning curve when it comes to getting used to the weather and everything out here. Thursday it also rained like crazy during the day, which was interesting, as it had been pretty dry since we arrived.

Friday brought more Muay Thai training, and another PT with Peter "The Hulk". Ann was also convinced to try a PT with him and enjoyed it I believe, albeit amidst some good-natured complaining :) We went for dinner at a new spot called Mama's, (pic), and I had some awesome fish tacos, and Ann had pad thai. Sort of off the beaten path, but since I had heard good things, we gave it a shot. Very good. The pic below is of a vegetable called Morning Glories. Not the flower, but an actual green veggie. Very tasty. We decided after dinner to run to the large grocery store, Tesco, to get some more supplies: water, coffee, tea, seaweed Lays potato chips, and this very interesting Thai rum shown below. It was pretty good. Tesco freaked us out because there were holiday items everywhere and holiday music playing in the background. (Pic) It's just a very strange juxtaposition to be in 90+ degree weather and to look at santas. To get home we took a fear-inducing tuk-tuk, basically an open air cab. Fun times!!!!! Friday night stormed like hell and the frogs are so loud that we almost can't even sleep! Ann will be posting a video of the frogs so everyone can experience the noise for themselves :)

Saturday morning (today) I trained in the morning Muay Thai from 8-10:30am. Training isn't getting easier, but I feel less like death after I'm done. Today I felt great actually. And I'm getting to know all the trainers and other people at the camp so it feels more like home. Next week I plan to kill it with a mix of pt's, Muay Thai classes and Muay Thai pt's. We are noticing our clothes fitting much looser. Even if someone comes here just to train, it's inevitable that you will lose some amount of weight between the heat and the intense training and the healthy food. I dread the thought of having to leave in 2 weeks :(

So in the afternoon we ventured to the huge mall in the area called Central Festival. So cool. They had a Starbucks (pic). We got manicures and pedicures which made us feel more human! Got some cool gifts and had a great late lunch at Zen Restaurant. We sped home and then left immediately to this crazy thing called Night Market, basically a flea market on steroids. The point is to haggle with the vendor to get the best price. I didn't go too crazy, but mainly wanted to scope it out. I got a cool necklace, a couple gifts and some Muay Thai shorts. If the shorts hold up in training this week, I will see if I can get a good price on 2 dozen or so and bring them back to the gym to sell. Authentic Muay Thai shorts :) Ann however, thought that Night Market may be her last chance on earth to buy anything and went nuts. She ran out of money by 7:30pm and we had to leave. We'll be back though. So now we are home and planning on a busy day tomorrow to see James Bond island which I will definitely be blogging about! Full day on tap for Sunday!!!!

Pics!

These pics are of a very interesting, though somewhat sad looking, Buddha alter along the path to a store we were walking to. The whole spot needs some landscaping tlc. I captured the pic of Big Buddha statue on the way home during the sunset. Beautiful. We will be going there sometime in the next week. The soda is a diabetes inducing melon flavor which was so sweet we had to split. And Ann enjoying a fresh coconut :-) Which goes for about 80 baht/$2.00......

More pics....

These pics are all of this amazing restaurant we went to at Chalong Bay, Kan Eang. We will definitely have to go back once before we leave here to try the lobster and take more pics.....

Late Sunday through Tuesday night.....

Wow, so much to say!!! Sunday night we had a nice chill dinner at Cocoville, just in time for a crazy thunderstorm to come through that lasted for several hours. What was hysterical was when we came back to the bungalow the geckos outside must've also been frightened as we had one in the kitchen on the floor!!!! After much wrangling, we managed to scoop him up with a plate and put him back outside with his mates. I don't think he was there to sell us any insurance. Sunday night we were still super exhausted and went to bed early. Again :)

Monday morning came and so did the first day of training!! It felt like the first day of school! Ann went to yoga at 7am, and I went to the first Muay Thai class of the day from 8am-10:30. Whoa. Total wake up call that I was no longer at a nice climate controlled gym in Chicago. Heat, humidity, smoke coming from somewhere, all combined to make me almost not finish that first class. It was brutal. What was not brutal however, was my newfound appreciation for the past few Muay Thai instructors I have had over the years, including but not limited to Marko Damiani, Brad Hatfield, and Steve Kinnison. If I hadn't been working with these guys, I would've been totally in the dark. So I at least knew the moves, even the crazy clinches (thanks Steve :) ) So that was a huge bonus. I also can't stress enough what an out of body experience it was walking to that first class. In Thailand. In Phuket. Hot and sultry at 7:30am. Roosters crowing. The smack of thai bags already filling the air even at that hour. Magical and surreal, and something I have dreamed about for years. It will be very tough to leave, but I have to focus on getting back within the next year or so, it's too amazing of an area to not return to frequently.

So training on Monday was rough. Nothing happened in the afternoon because I felt like I had been beaten. Which, I guess I had! Though I will say sparring again felt amazing. We had dinner at the restaurant next door to us....I had spaghetti bolognese, Ann had an interesting omelet with thai noodles and prawns. It was pretty good. We slept like the dead for the first time since being in Phuket on Monday.

Tuesday morning, same scenario. Yoga for Ann, 8am Muay Thai class for me. Today was a MUCH better day. Likely getting accustomed to the weather, learning how to hydrate properly, etc. Tough class, but made it through all drills fairly well!! Conditioning seems to be getting better already. Tomorrow I have two one-on-ones, with the strength training guy in the morning, and then a Muay Thai pt in the afternoon, which should be fun considering he speaks zero English and my thai continues to suck! But it's all good. One of the trainers is offering to do a bamboo tattoo for me also, so that's on the To Do list. Again sadly, there is so much to do before we leave certain things just won't get done. Sucks. On the way back from class, picked up some amazing fruit from a mobile fruit stand, mangoes sliced to order, fresh bananas, etc. Awesome.

So spirits were high in the afternoon so we decided to visit Chalong Bay for dinner. This place is known for their fresh seafood, and we treated ourselves to one of the nicest restaurants out there. Some of the pics are not converting to the ipad, but as soon as they do, I will upload them. The biggest tiger prawns ever, fresh crab and squid, fresh soup....and oh, this was all sitting alongside 10 feet from Chalong Bay. Pretty amazing. Pics to follow. We passed some cool neighborhoods too, with additional things to add to our to do list. So tomorrow should be a good day. More training, and maybe another grocery store run to Tesco. This is paradise and I don't want to wake up......

Quick stuff....

This will be a fairly quick entry, as its more about the photos.....went for a very nice swim yesterday afternoon in our pool. I can't tell you the last time I've been in a pool, so it was awesome!!! We had a nice dinner at a place down the road from us, and had dogs roaming all around us as we were eating. They were the owners' dogs, and super cute. Ann wasn't too sure about that. I had an amazing piece of salmon and Ann had seafood panang curry. The pic of the salmon is below. We also had fried squid, spring rolls, and banana fritters for dessert. Nice!!!!!!

Not gonna lie, had a bit of a wine headache in the morning, but nothing like a nice breakfast in the room won't fix!! Took some great shots in the afternoon with the fancy camera, but those pics won't be online until I get home to upload them. Sunday seems to be a day of rest around here, which is nice since we were both really tired today and it was rainy. First day it's rained during the day. Kind of peaceful actually. There are mountains in the back drop and a huge Buddha statue that sits atop one. Very cool. People hike up to it all the time, and I hope to do this before I leave. I've come to the foregone conclusion that we're not going to have time to do all we want to do on this trip, so depressing. But I am already planning to return in 2013 so hopefully it can be for longer. I could definitely be here for awhile :-)

For lunch today we ate at a nice place called My Restaurant near Chalong. Ann got a burger!! And I got spicy chicken Tom Yum soup. Yummmmmmmm. There is a great fight gear shop down one of these roads that I will be hitting up very soon. Just around the corner really from our bungalow. They should be excited that I'm coming to visit :-)

The other pics are of the main road outside our bungalow. Streets are pretty narrow and people drive like maniacs so you have to be aware of traffic at all times. The other is of a nice Thai dog. Dogs are very plentiful here! They roam at will. Finally the last shot is of our tv, Muay Thai fights!!! All the time broadcast on tv. Totally died and gone to heaven. This place really is a tropical paradise and the people are the loveliest you'd ever want to meet. We continue to have the time of our lives......