How To Properly Clean Boxing Gloves

by rus

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.

Unseen Academicals

by rus

When Unseen Academicals first came out, I remember seeing it in the book shop, sighing and thinking Terry had completely jumped the shark. At the time the last thing I wanted to read was a book about a game of football, even if it was set on the Discworld. Five years later, oh what a mistake I made!! This book is amazing.

Focusing on the nuances of both the beautiful game and the team work that goes in to it, Unseen Academicals features the wizard, Ponder Stibbons, reinventing the game of foot-the-ball whilst the Unseen University try to put a team together!

Terry introduces some fantastic new characters, Trevor Likely, who promised his mam he would never play a game of football; Glenda Sugarbean, maker of the famous Ploughman’s Pie; Juliet Stollop, Ankh Morpork’s first fashion model; and the mysterious Mr Nutt from Uberworld.

One of the things that makes this book standout is how Terry placed as much focus on the character interaction as the plot. As Mr Nutt starts to build the Unseen Academicals in to an actual team it’s fantastic to watch everyone’s fears and weaknesses come to light and see how all the characters deal with the problems that they face.

Hopefully we’ll see the characters again in later books, as well as get the recipe for the Ploughman’s Pie!

Getting Work Done

by rus

One of the complications with this digital nomad experience is dealing with the UK. Not just time zone differences, that can be mitigated quite easily as the UK’s 9-5 is 4pm – midnight in Thailand. But lack of office infrastructure. I have to send some paperwork to my bank in the UK in order to make some account amendments, back at home this would have been as simple as print, sign, fax or maybe even print, sign, post. Out here though, working in a hotel room I’m stuck at the first hurdle ..

Fortunately just opposite Tiger Muay Thai there is a small internet cafe where everything is 10 BHT (20 pence). 10 BHT for 15 minutes of Internet time, 10 BHT to print 1 sheet of paper, 10 BHT to scan 1 piece of paper.

I copied my PDF to my USB stick and headed over there, only to find the PC didn’t detect the USB stick. That was ok as I had the URL of the document I needed to print on my phone. 10 minutes later I had a print out!

After filling the form in, scanning it was next, which was easy, and I logged in to my throw away email account and emailed myself the scanned PDF. Now I’m back in the hotel, I’ve changed the password on my throw away email account and created another one. I then deleted the PDF from the desktop and emptied the recycle bin.

Securing Yourself In An Internet Cafe

You cannot trust Internet cafes, anywhere. You have to expect key loggers to be installed as well as other monitoring tools, so bare that in mind when ever you use one.

I never log in to anything important in an Internet Cafe, never online banking, never my real email account.

Create throw away email accounts, if you need to send yourself a document or a web page, you can then use the throw away email account to email your real email account. Of course make sure you use different passwords on your throw away accounts!

Big Buddha Run #1

by rus

Every Tuesday morning Tiger Muay Thai organises a run to the Big Buddha in Phuket. The run is 4.2 km / 2.6 miles long and up hill all the way. You actually climb 1207 feet / 367 meters during the run, it’s hard. The record is something like 24 minutes!

I did it in just over 44 minutes, so in 2 weeks time when I try this again I will see if I can get a sub 40 minute time. This will involve running at some point, rather than just walking..

For anyone thinking about doing the Buddha run, all you need to take is yourself, trainers, a bottle of water if you wish and if you like some music to listen to. For 100 BHT Tiger Muay Thai handle the rest. I saw some people on Trip Advisor griping about the 100 BHT price but I don’t see why. You get taken to the start of the run by bus, driven back down from the top and someone is there with a first aid kit etc. Not to mention the comradery of a bunch of you all in the same boat.

Private Training With Pong

After the run I chilled out in the pool for a while before heading back to TMT for another Muay Thai private lesson with Pong. Normally when I do a private, that’s all I do for the day. But I want to start doubling up with one normal class in the morning and then a private in the afternoon, leaving me the evening free for work. This was the first of those days!

We spent most of the time doing pad work and I can feel I’m improving. Pong rarely corrects my form now and I can blaze through the sit ups like they’re nothing. Even the running feels easier!

Tomorrow should be a fun, with a 2 1/2 hour beginner class at 8am and then another private at 1:30 pm 😀

Taled Kaset Phuket Night Market

by rus

The Taled Kaset Phuket Night Market is the largest night market in Phuket, loaded with food from different cultures as well as hilariously cheap knock off goods.

The first part of the market was rows and rows of little stalls and cubby holes selling either cheap Thai or tourist clothing, or cheap knock off sunglasses or other random things. e.g. the Beats by Dre Pill is £170 or you can buy something that looks exactly the same for about £17. For some reason Beats by Dre is HUGE over here and fake/cheap stuff is everywhere, even in the normal more expensive shopping malls. You can even buy fake Beats branded speakers in styles that even Beats by Dre don’t make!

There was also lots of art work, images of famous people with quotes, the usual cheap sunglasses (and they WERE cheap!), fishing equipment (that made me feel quite nostalgic!), knock off DVDs, etc.

Market Street Food

When you get out of the clothes stalls the rest of the market is dedicated to food, all the food! Walking around in a group of 7, our pace was slow, as someone always wanted something from one of the stalls. Whether it was fish balls, meat on a stick, spicy papaya salad, ice cream, pancakes, bubble tea, sushi, omelettes, anything, it was all available and all eaten as we went!

Eating Insects In Thailand

As well as normal Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Muslim cuisine, the market also features stalls that sell insects. Grasshopper, crickets, silkworms, beetles, frogs, all manner of creepy crawlies, although I didn’t spy any spiders or scorpions.

After approaching the stall I rapidly lost my bottle, but then I saw a small Thai girl ask her dad for a bag of crickets as a snack. I’ve had crickets covered in chocolate before so thought why not and ordered a bag. For 30 Baht (£0.60) the lady ladled a handful of crickets in to some boiling sesame oil for about 5 seconds, drained the oil from them, funnelled them in to a bag then poured some spice mix on top before handing them to me.

It was kind of weird having to look in to the bag to fish one out with the chopsticks as all the crickets had faces. The texture was definitely crunchy, and I got a leg stuck between my teeth. It was like eating dry bran flakes with a salty, sesame and chilli kick I guess.

Remove Skin And Bones And Return Meat To Pot

Incredible Ice Cream

There is a stall in the market that sells the most incredible ice cream, made in front of your eyes, out of condensed milk, fruits and chocolates. After you choose your ingredients the milk and fruits get diced up in front of your eyes on an ice cold plate which slowly turns it in to ice cream, see for yourself 😀

September BBQ Beatdown

by rus

The last Saturday of every month, Tiger Muay Thai hosts a BBQ Beatdown. 500 THB in advance, or 700 THB on the door, it’s a pretty cool party with free BBQ, beers and fights!

Due to the preparations the only class is Muay Thai on the beach, at 8am. This felt like more fun than training as we were taken down to the local beach, riding in the back of pickup trucks, or a bus, then did some Muay Thai practice on the sand before heading in to the sea for a swim.

There were 8 fights last night, 6 Muay Thai and 2 MMA although I didn’t see all of them as I was super tired due to having a routine of getting up at 6am and going to bed at 10pm. Also the first beer in a month went straight to my head!

The fights were ‘smoker’ fights, i.e. amateurs who need experience of being punched in the face, rather than pro fights, but they were still really good and congratulations are in order to everyone that stepped in the ring. I’m going to have a word with my trainer next week and see if I can participate at the end of November as I think the fights are open to anyone of any level, even complete beginners!

Completed A Muay Thai Class

by rus

Ok it doesn’t sound that impressive, but yesterday I completed the entire 2 1/2 hour Muay Thai class for the first time after a week of training. I’m really pleased as it was a hot day and by the first hour mark I was still feeling fresh. Now I know what to expect in order to pace myself better for the future so that I can work harder!

Today I had another 1-2-1 private Muay Thai less with my personal trainer, Pong, as pictured, which was awesome. It’s only an hour but that means I can train with more intensity as my technique is continually refined. Tomorrow I hope to do the complete 2 1/2 hours of the 8am morning class and then at 3pm have another 1-2-1.

One of the things I’ve noticed about the trainers and some of the more competitive fighters is they all have HUGE buckets of ice water that they drink out of. I’ve been taking 1 1/2 liter bottles of water with me and it’s not really enough, I’m going to have to start taking twice as much with me now I’m actually able to complete the class.

The full 2 1/2 hour Muay Thai class format is roughly

Stretching
20 – 30 minutes of running
Stretching
Combination Muay Thai drills in front of the mirror
Partner work, practicing clinching or punching techniques
Pad work with one of the trainers
Punching bag work
Clinching or punching sparring in the ring
Short 5 minute sit down where we all introduce ourselves
Punching bag work with a focus on technique/repetition, e.g. 100 x front kick
Running
300 sit ups followed by 100 press ups

On a side note, I am absolutely loving my [amazon text=Kindle&asin=B00JG8GYAW]. I take it with me whenever I go to eat, as usually I eat alone, and just read whilst I’m there. It’s also replaced watching movies on the TV for a large part of my day now. I’ve read 4 books since I’ve arrived and if I’d have bought them with me there would have been no room in my bag for clothes. The tiny size of the [amazon text=Kindle&asin=B00JG8GYAW] and the fact that everything is digital is incredible. I remember being a technical luddite 5 years ago and saying I would never trade a paper book for an e-reader, how wrong I have been!

Ali’s BBQ

Now I’ve stopped being sick and am able to train I’ve started meeting some of the other guys here as well as exploring both ends of the street. Yesterday we all went down to Ali’s BBQ which is an amazing Persian grill. One of the guys we were with was Persian too so we got to meet the owner, Ali, who was pretty awesome.

I’d hung out too late by the pool after training with out eating so was starving when I got there. I ate a lot, but it was healthy, double skewers of both chicken and pork then grilled vegetables on the side. The entire lot came to around 600 THB or £12, which is a little cheaper than English prices. Now I’ve had the opportunity to look over the menu properly, it’s only 120 THB (£2.40) for grilled chicken breast and grilled vegetables, which is awesome.

Koko’s

My other favourite place to eat is Koko’s but they are currently closed as I think they are on holiday. They do amazing wholemeal pizza and really spicy Thai food.

Thai Building Site

This is mostly for my Dad who’s a retired civil engineer and has worked on awesome projects like the British Library and Heathrow Terminal 5. There’s a Thai building site on the way to Tiger Muay Thai which I thought was going to be a series of bamboo holiday huts. It turned out that the bamboo is the Thai version of scaffolding!

Businessy Business Stuff

I’ve just got off the phone with China (well Skype..) after looking to source some new products. This is going to be pretty exciting as we’re going to be importing a product from China in to America to sell on Amazon, completely new territory and probably a land mine of hidden fees and taxes. Not to mention the language barrier.

We’ve also been running an aggressive advertising campaign which has massively increased our sales, we hit an all time high of 33 units sold yesterday, which with respect to profit is about the same amount as I’d earn in the UK in one day, but I’m here, in Thailand, putting most of my effort in to Muay Thai and living a lot simpler and cheaper than I used to! It’s incredible to be honest.

At this rate I’d love it if we can sell 1000 units a month, or more. We’ve a second product out now that’s made no sales, and an ebook as well that’s made no sales, so there’s still a lot of marketing to be done.

First Thai Massage

by rus

I had my first private, 1-2-1 Muay Thai lesson today which was really awesome. Tiger Muay Thai charge 5500 THB for a bundle of 10 private lessons, which works out to 550 THB a lesson, or roughly £10.50, which is great value as it costs that much to join a class back in the UK!

The lesson consisted of pad work, interspaced with sit-ups and massages and lasted an hour. Obviously when you’ve got a personal trainer the format of the class will be based on your own individual needs, I’m starting at the beginning so it’s mostly about technique and cardio for me.

After learning to stand up straight, yet also to have my chin down, the class became a lot easier, as I was able to breath! By the end of it I was able to actually duck and dodge strikes, rather than take them in the face. I was still exhausted though!

Thai Massage

Yesterday I was reading Sylvie’s latest blog post on 8 Limbs about the benefits of a sauna and a massage after training. (I thoroughly recommend her blog by the way, as it covers her training up in Chiang Mai and is very detailed!) After what I went through today, and having spent the last 3 weeks walking past dozens of massage parlours each day I decided to get one.

For 400 THB, roughly £8, I got a Thai sports massage at Bamboo Massage, that lasted 90 minutes and would have cost £80 back home. I’d smelled it whilst walking around the camp a lot, and put it down to people getting injured, but it seems that the main difference between a Thai Massage and a Thai Sports Massage is the liberal application of Deep Heat, everywhere.

Due to all the squats and deadlifts I’ve done in the past my legs hold a lot of tension and the muscles are very right, so I spent most of the time screaming as my IT band and calves were massaged, but it was well worth it. I don’t know about going every week but at that price I can definitely see monthly visits in my future!

Life Changes Quick

by rus

Johnny’s last book, 12 Weeks In Thailand is one of the reasons I’m currently here, living it up in Phuket. I flew out almost 12 months after reading it, so when I learned he was launching a new book, Life. Changes. Quick. I bought it as soon as it was out.

I read the book, cover to cover, in just one sitting. It’s only 126 pages long, so not quite Lord Of The Rings, but every page was gripping and inspiring. Documenting Johnny’s journey from living it up in Thailand with no money, no budget and no responsibilities, to creating his own business, losing weight and falling in love, very inspiring.

Starting out with no money, Johnny discovered Chiang Mai, the Punspace and Anton’s Drop Ship Lifestyle method and over the course of a year now generates around $5k in profit a month, easily enough to not just cover his cost of living in Chiang Mai, but to also save money for the future!

Johnny then discovered Crossfit, the paleo diet and bullet proof coffee and explains how combing these things can help you lose weight and also achieve visible abs of your own! As someone who’s done Crossfit, eaten paleo and done bullet proof coffee back in the UK, it was good to see Johnny repeating the same experience I have had. These 3 measures can certainly get you ripped!

Live Changes Quick is motivational and inspirational. Johnny lays out what he did to get where he is and how, if you want, you too can follow in his footsteps. That’s one of the things I like about Johnny, he loves to share how he’s doing and what he’s doing.

I definitely recommend this book if you’re interested in breaking out and making a new life for yourself. Chiang Mai has a fantastic entrepreneurial scene and I will be heading up there in 2 weeks to meet Johnny, the Punspace Drop Ship Lifestyle crew and Anton and get some solid work in at the Drop Ship Lifestyle Thailand Retreat!

Around the world in 80 Girls: The epic 3 year trip of a backpacking Casanova

by rus

Around The World In 80 Girls was half good, half boring, a bit of a grind to read but at the same time quite informative. Neil decided to spend 2 1/2 years backpacking around the world, started sleeping with lots of girls then decided to blog and write a book about it as he travelled. Starting in Russia, heading through Asia, down to Australia, through South America then ending in New York before back home to Holland, quite the adventure!

As a travel book, it was really good, sharing anecdotes and titbits about getting around in countries I haven’t even heard of before, dos and don’ts and how to do it all on a budget. Neil visited every country in South America which is quite the achievement and that was the part of the book I found most interesting, especially how he dealt with a lot of the poorer areas where no one spoke a word of English, or Dutch!

I slowly read this over the 3 weeks I’ve been in Thailand, whilst by the pool, or eating or waiting for something and for some reason it felt like a huge grind. The subject matter was interesting but it just wasn’t a thrilling or exciting read.

The biggest takeaways I got were learn Spanish and a bit of Portuguese, especially if heading to South America, be prepared to throw up a lot if eating street food and don’t waste your money on drinking.