This week has been pretty interesting. Now that I’m settled in to an actual routine and have made some friends I’ve been capitalising on the free time I have and making more of it. At least when we’re not in the middle of a torrential rain storm.
How To Properly Clean Boxing Gloves
The guys at the gym are pretty paranoid about Staph infections and advise cleaning everything in Dettol, including boxing gloves and shin guards. After every session I’ve been filling a sink full of water and Dettol, dumping my shorts and hand wraps in to soak and then dipping my gloves in to also soak them in the Dettol solution.
Earlier this week I noticed there was mould growing on the gloves..
Asking around it was pointed out that this is not the right way to clean gloves. The correct way is to get a cloth, soak that in the Dettol solution and then wipe the gloves clean.
After buying a replacement pair of gloves it turns out that my mouldy, waterlogged pair had roughly doubled their weight due to the water retention. I’m now finding everything a lot easier!
Phuket Botanic Gardens
On Wednesday I trained for 3 1/2 hours, the 2 1/2 hour 8am class and then a 1 hour private session after lunch, so had some time to do some exploring. I had a date so we went to the Phuket Botanic Gardens, which was 500 Baht (£10) to get in and was pretty terrible. Taking about 5 minutes to walk around the entire thing. The Botanical gardens in Sydney, Australia were huge, and free, way better.
After we went to the Promthep Cape in the South of Phuket which is supposed to have fantastic views of the sunset over the sea. In Thailand it looks like the sun sets directly in the South, so the view had the potential to be amazing, unfortunately it was very cloudy, a sign of things to come.
Bamboo Massage
On Thursday I was completely wrecked. Wednesday’s training followed by another private on Thursday had completely destroyed me and I was exhausted to decided I needed another massage and that I’d take Friday off completely.
Everywhere the woman at Bamboo Massage touched, hurt, especially my calves and inner thighs. A legacy of not stretching properly after 10 years of heavy squats!
After the massage, I just ate. And discovered the joy of Thai style pancakes. They make the pancakes super thick, about 2 cm in the middle, and slightly salty. They are like crack and I need to stop eating them.
Ko Phi Phi Island Tour
As a day off I decided to get some tourist stuff done and went on a snorkling tour of 5 of the Phi Phi islands, including Bamboo Island and Mosquito Island. It was crazy and the longest day ever, we got picked up at 8am and dropped off around 7pm. We got a reduced price, from 3000 to 2100 Baht (£42) which covered hire of snorkels, being taken from the hotel to the docks, the trip, lunch, and being returned to the hotel. Flippers were an extra 100 Baht hire.
Just before we got on the boat I bought a waterproof pouch for my iPhone so I could take pictures under water.
The first island, Khai Nai Island, was super tiny, maybe 200 meters across. The water was teaming with fish and they didn’t care about people. As I walked in to the sea I had to walk through a shoal of yellow and black striped fish that were inconveniently in my way!
As we started to island hop, the clouds drew in and it started to rain but the air was still warm and the sea even warmer. As we swam more we started to notice stinging sensations. They started off feeling like electric shocks but quickly subsided. Looking around there were no jelly fish in the area and no marks or welts on our bodies. It turns out there’s a coral in the area that is very very tiny and can sting, but is completely harmless.
The last beach we visited, featured in the first picture of this post and in the last gallery, was apparently the one featured in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Beach”. It was nice and sandy and the water was lovely, clear and warm. I definitely need to do the tour again when we’re not in the middle of the rainy season!
After a solid day of swimming the wind started to kick up and we had to make our way back. The ride was pretty bumpy, around 2 hours long and it rained the entire time. Fortunately I’d packed a disposable rain coat with me which kept the wind and the rain off.