Phuket Thailand

Bryan · #1 25-07-2006, 04:44

Hey,

Just a bit of an introduction. I will come back to add more later:

I'm a 19 year old student from the West coast of Canada and I plan to travel to Phuket during my summer vacation in 2007, so about mid-April until September. I want to stay at Tiger Muay Thai and MMA in the Chalong area (I think?) to train mixed martial arts. Thailand looks like a great place to train, considering I can get hours of training from kickboxing experts for a few bucks a day. Awesome. Hopefully I'll get good enough to do an amateur fight by the end.

I don't have much money to spend so I'll have to make this a budget vacation. Luckily, food sounds cheap, and I love spicy food in general. My accomodation will be 8000b and training will be 7000b per month. How do y'all like food from street stalls and does it have enough meat in it? I have to eat alot of protein and food overall to maintain my weight.

Izzy · #2 25-07-2006, 04:52

The less soi dogs in the area the more meat in your food...

I loved the vendor food btw> made up 80% of my diet for last half of my trip.

M & M · #3 25-07-2006, 05:05

Welcome to the board Bryan...

Well assuming that you will have a Trainer, he will have the food matter and the training regime worked out...he will even tell you how many girls you can root!!!

There are many varying foods on the street stalls...plenty of noodle soups and meat skewers...if you eat lots of them maybe it will be enough...there's lots of seafood on Phuket...good source of protein...but the seafood tends to be more expensive than other foods...

You can always get a steak...Australian and NZ Steak available on the Island...but this will be a little more expensive also...can't name any restaurants for steak at the moment...but other BMs may have some ideas..

Always plenty of chicken and pork dishes in thai restaurants...mostly very cheap.

Marcia

shark1963 · #4 25-07-2006, 21:48

Welcome on board.I am sure you dont have to worry about the food in LOS.The street stalls are very cheap and the food in restaurants is also cheap.Havent tried it in phuket but on other locations, the local markets have always nice places for food, and in the superstores are "foodlands" were you can buy a voucher or a chipcard for about 100 bth and eat at the various stalls.

BTW what kind of martial arts are you doing? I am in SEA martial arts like kali,silat .....

Bryan · #5 26-07-2006, 00:06

Hey y'all,

Thanks for the welcome. Good to hear the news about the food. Oh and I'm happy to say I love seafood.

I will want to watch some muay thai fights while I'm in Phuket. I bet they're in Patong right? I checked out the MTB site and saw they play UFC/Pride fights so I'm stoked!

I train MMA (mixed martial arts) like the guys in UFC and PRIDE. Alot of the technique is derived from kickboxing, wrestling, submission grappling, and boxing. Kali is cool, Shark1963. I have free tickets to learn Arnis which is another Filipino art, but I can't fit it into my training. Wish I could.

LivinLOS · #6 26-07-2006, 00:18

Phuket town and Patong have boxing stadiums (payong has 2) but only the Sai Nam Yen one in Patong is worth going to here.. Phuket towns one is ok also.. Avoid the Bangla Rd one as its a tourist trap.

Once you are here if you do have any bar time I can tell you where the stadiumn owner drinks.. Nice guy and would be able to slot you into a fight in your skill range after you have trained to a level your happy competeing.

Bryan · #7 26-07-2006, 13:23

Thanks for the advice LLOS. I did more reading about the place I want to train at and it seems they set up most fights at Bangla Stadium

. I hear it's hard to get many fighters in the upper weight class as it is, so I'll wait and see about competing. I'm about 100kg's and pretty lean at the moment, but want to be 112 when I come to Thailand.

If I'm in Chalong do you guys think I'd need to rent a motorbike? From what I know the place is a bit far from the beach--4km or so.

I've been doing more reading about the island and saw mention of activities that really interest me--chartered fishing trips, and exploring caves by kayak. If y'all have any websites for the companies that do this, please hook me up. Thanks yall are very kind.

LivinLOS · #8 26-07-2006, 13:33

The best cave tours are run by someone (Mr) Grey.. I keep meaning to do thier hongs by starlight romantic one with spinner..

faultytowers · #9 26-07-2006, 23:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bryan

I've been doing more reading about the island and saw mention of activities that really interest me--chartered fishing trips, and exploring caves by kayak. If y'all have any websites for the companies that do this, please hook me up. Thanks yall are very kind.

A couple of companies that do this sort of thing are :

www.johngray-seacanoe.com

http://paddleasia.com

Hope this helps.

Bryan · #10 28-07-2006, 05:16

How easily things change!

I came to find out one a fighter I respect, Ole Laursen, owns a gym called Legacy Gym in Ubon. It's mostly muay thai rather than MMA, but I heard he trained BJ Penn (for anyone who watches PRIDE and UFC) and that I should come to Thailand mainly to learn striking anyway. I will probably go to Ubon now.

LivinLOS · #11 28-07-2006, 08:39

I bet you will find life etc is MUCH cheaper up there..

I have a mate who trains with the rawai gym for basics and fitness work.. I myself would love to do some training but am so out of shape right now that starting would be hell. Bash around on the heavy bag I have strung up but my speed is waayy slow..

Bryan · #12 11-08-2006, 15:51

Gonna do more of a "tour" now so I can get the most of Thailand, but it will also depend on the training I receive at the camps.

1. Spend some time at Legacy Gym in Ubon
2. Go to Lanna MT in Chiang Mai
3. Head to Phuket to train at Tiger MT

Chiang Mai also has a Thai language school for cheap which I'm really interested in going to. The downside to CM is that there are no camps with any Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or wrestling instructors, so I can't work all of my game.

I'll be in a bit of a predicament. I might find the training at Legacy very superb, but if I don't leave and train in another city, I won't know if I could be getting better training. And then what if it's worse--go back--or go on to a new place? etc. In the end, I'm sure to progress many times faster than at home so I'll be happy whatever happens.