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Exploring Isan and living the life of a Thai boxer
By Marc WMM Correspondent
World Muaythai Magazine ( Current Issue Article )
My final month in Thailand was spent in the little explored Province of “Isaan”, which is basically North East Thailand. The North East of Thailand is probably the least visited and explored by Westerners because it is so poverty stricken and has very little in terms of sights, shops and environmental wonders when compared to the rest of Thailand. However in terms of Muaythai it is far, far more advanced and respected, to name but a few Isaanie Muaythai fighters we have Yodsaenkli, Malaipet, Sanchai, Anuwat and thousands upon thousands more.
I was a bit nervous about going to Isaan on my own because I had be warned that the people I was staying with spoke no English at all and my Thai is very, very basic. Having spent time in Pai, I wasn't expecting anything too fancy, but when I arrived to “J.Chiwat Gym” in Isaan I was very surprised at how little they had for a gym, which had a stable of fighters who were gaining moderate success in Lumpinee. The gym was hard to find and it was literally just a ring with three punch bags down a back ally-way. I arrived to the stares of wonder and amazement from the young lads who trained there, all under the age of 16 and all with between 50 and 200 fights. None spoke any English, but they made me take my top off to look at my tattoo they noticed because it overlapped my t-shirt and commented on my white skin before they all began laughing in hysterics, but it was meant kindly. One boy Jack at 13 years old had over 150 fights with 120 wins and was a regular Lumpinee fighter and province title holder. There were three older fighters 21, 21 and 22 but they were all at Lumpinee in Bangkok for a fight, which I was told they all won successfully.
The gyms history is basically that J.Chiwat trained amateur boxing and was relatively successful at it, having fought in Europe, Japan and a few other countries. He eventually got injured before his time as so many great fighters do and began to coach fighters in his home city of Pai Mai. On arrival I was basically told that he pretty much adopted eight out of the ten kids who train there, they all live in a wooden two bedroom house, he buys them food and the only money he makes from the gym is 50% of the fighters winnings. He said I would be welcome to stay at the gym, but he would only accept a payment in terms of my fight earning and therefore I needed to agree to fight, which I readily did. When we arrived at the house in Pai Mai I was a bit taken back because the rooms were basically five bed covers on the floor in each room, a small front room with a fridge and rice cooker. There was no shower, just a bucket of water which you threw over yourself and the toilet was one of those old Asian squat toilets.
To be honest if you told me before I left to Thailand I'd be sharing a room with 5 people I'd never met before and that my bathroom would be a bucket and hole in the floor I'd tell you that you were crazy. This however was my sixth month in Thailand and the Thai way of life had begun to rub of on me. I'd began respecting how little people had, but also how little that meant to them, everyone in Thailand is so care free and happy all the time with the fact that they are living and anything they have on top of that is just a benefit to be appreciated.
The next morning I was woken up at 5am to go running in the local park. The local park in Pai Mai is basically a big circle and was perfect for running, each lap was 1.5km and we would do anything between three up to seven laps twice a day. Until the age of 15 the boys just do their laps in the morning and then go home to get ready for school, those over 15 have to head down to the gym for morning training. I remember every morning finishing the third lap with the boys and looking at the trainers with pleading faces of, “are we done?”, but very rarely would we get away with three, we would go around again and look at them again, usually no response and we would do another lap, this would repeat until they would say we were done.
I would go training with two other boys, only one of them lived with me “'Chio”, he was actually 22 with a kid so didn't train all the time. The other was called Tong-Chai, we was 17 and probably the best fighter from the gym other than Jack and I'd say over my time in Thailand probably one of my best friends. Tong-Chai was a rare breed of Muaythai fighter, he had more of a Western boxing – kick boxing style, he was light on his feet and loved to throw punch combinations, this made him a great sparring partner. Most mornings it would just be me, Tong-Chai and two trainers at the gym to workout, we were both training for a fight at the end of September, mine in Pai Mai's annual fair, Tong-Chai at Lumpinee.
We would start with ten minutes of skipping or tyre jumping which was surprisingly tough after the running. Then we would do 15-20 minutes of shadow boxing in front of the mirror, working on keeping light on your feet, throwing quick snappy punches and pivoting. Then came bag work, which we would aim to do 5 x 5 minute rounds, usually three kick based and two punch based. The trainers would be shouting to go harder and faster and to stop being lazy through out the whole thing. We would then be called into the ring for rounds of pads, this would be pretty typical Thai Pads, with the punches to the pads being used to set up big kicks or a clinch, where we would throw sets of ten knees and of course the Thai favourite of about three or four sets of ten round kicks on each side, just to really exhaust you. Once that was finished we would do on average five rounds of sparring (one round boxing sparring, one round kicks, three rounds full Thai) and five rounds clinching. By this time the ring floor was usually soaked with sweat and I would be dreading what was to come next. We would leave the ring and begin our sets, which consisted of 100 round kicks off each leg, 200 front kicks, 200 knees, 100 hooks, 500 straight punches, 200 sit ups and then a set of weights (usually 3 x 50 of very light bench press and bicep curls).
It was usually 9am by now and Tong-Chai would drive me home on his moped, where the house would be empty, but I would always find an omelette and rice on top of the fridge, left for me by the kids. A few times one of the boys Ling (Thai for monkey!) would leave me some kind of sweet or chocolate under my bed cover, so I would eat all of that before showering and collapsing in my bed until about 3pm. The boys would then arrive home from school and we'd go straight back to train, pretty much the same as I described for the morning.
Once training had finished we'd all jog home, which was great fun. Imagine being the only white person to have ever trained Muaythai in a town that has perhaps four or five white people visit a week! Then imagine running through that whole town shirtless in your Thai shorts past all the shops and markets and main roads. So many people smiled at me, gave me inquisitive looks, asked the kids what on earth was going on, they were all amazed when they learnt I was fighting at their fair and the boys would always tell me they say things like “No... you be killed” or “You don't look like a fighter” and all the rest of it, but mostly people would say well done and I even had some thank me for training Muaythai and coming to their country. When we got home we would eat, pretty much every day we would have rice with chicken/beef/pork in numerous varieties, it was always much needed, we would all then shower before sitting in front of the TV for a couple of hours. At 9pm every night J. Chiwat, the gym owner would come and give us “Nam De-Hol” which is basically a type of milk mixed with beans and stuff like that, he said it was good for energy At that point we would all be told to go sleep and never would anyone argue.
This was my daily schedule for about a month; my fight came about so quickly it was scary. We arrived at the fair and there were thousands of people, I was pretty nervous at this point. I asked who I was fighting and they said not sure! Shortly after about 30 children who wanted to fight were ushered gathering on top of a make shift stage. They just picked them there and then based on size, pushed them together and eventually we had 15 groups of two children. I was amazed, there were no experience based discussions, no scales, nothing like that and then once that was sorted it was my turn. I got on the stage with about 14 other guys, all pretty big, some of them bigger than me, which surprised me, I was put with a Chinese looking guy, but they changed their mind about three times putting me with a dark Thai for a bit and then a younger guy, before eventually deciding the Lao guy was the best match because he was my height and a similar build, the Chinese guy was taller but skinnier and the young guy was massively built but shorter.
The ring was placed in the middle of a main road and all the fighters were just getting changed in the middle of the street. I can not be sure how many people were there, but because it was a free event, there must have been about 1000-2000, maybe even more, I can't be sure. I felt a bit nervous, because I was the only Westerner there, let alone fighting... Everyone kept asking who I was fighting, then when I pointed him out saying 'Oh...' then looking down and saying “Good Luck”, this really didn't help my nerves I must admit. I kept hearing my name “MAK! Ferrang!” over the speakers, so I guess my fight was being hyped up a bit. My trainer called me over about 10pm to get warmed up, which in Thailand is basically laying down and being massaged with Thai oils, I love this, it was certainly not my first time and once the massage is done you feel totally relaxed and ready to go. I began shadow boxing and throwing a few kicks, before I got called to the ring.
This was probably the best moment I had in Thailand, walking to the ring as the only Westerner in the town, 1000's of Thai people applauding me and looking forward to seeing my fight. I walked in and began my Wai-Kru, the crowd went absolutely crazy and cheered the whole way through, by this time my nerves were totally gone. I was happy, excited and so incredibly thankful to the gym for everything they had done for me, I just wanted to make them proud.
The first round he kept clinching me because in the opening few seconds I flurried him with about 15 consecutive punches, so I just kept kneeing him and elbowing him. Twice I gave him a smack on the cheek with really heavy elbows and I think from there he was rocked and didn't want any part of punching with me. Then he got a few kicks in to my legs, so I kicked him in the face twice just before the round ended and won that round. I dropped him with a jab, cross, elbow in the second, but he got up on the count of seven. Third round he clinched me and I bent his head down and knee'd him in the face, his head was down and I smashed three elbows on the back of his head and pushed him against the ropes. He was dizzy, I could see that, I did a spinning back kick to the rips and winded him (crowd went crazy!) so I thought ok, lets do another, did a spinning heal kick to the head and he staggered and fell and shook his hands. I thought he meant “you didn’t hurt me” but he meant he couldn't continue (he had been winded by the spinning back kick), as he staggered back I hit him with another spinning heel kick to the face and he turned his back, fell and shook his head, they counted him anyway and they rang the bell.
The crowd went crazy and mobbed me when I got out the ring, one guy said he bet 8000 baht on me after the first round!!! That's like a month’s wages, maybe more. Everyone just kept saying how well I had done and thanking me and asking if I would fight again, introducing me to their friends, taking photos, it was one of the best nights of my life. I had done what I had wanted to do, I had come to Thailand, I had began learning the art of Muaythai and I had gone to a totally Thai town, won but most importantly gained the respect and appreciation of the towns Muaythai fan-base.
The experience in Isaan is so, so different that at say Chay Yai, True Bee, WMC, Fairtex, Kaesamrit or any of these gyms that are catered to tourists. There are almost no tourist gyms here and none of the gyms have websites. I was the first foreigner to have ever trained here and as well as that I was the first foreigner to have fought in their town, therefore all the trainers took an interest in me and really wanted me to do well. I think if you want to come out to Thailand, definitely spend a week in somewhere like Korat and try finding a gym unspoilt by foreigners. This might mean you spend two to three days visiting a few cities asking locals for Muaythai or boxing gyms, turning up to them and being turned away by Thai's unwilling to train a foreigner, but you will eventually find one willing to train you. As long as you are prepared to live at the gym and train with them exactly to their schedule they'll train you properly and you'll be made to feel like part of the family. Most importantly you'll be living the life of a Thai boxer and surely that's why most of us want to go to Thailand.
By Marc WMM Correspondent
World Muaythai Magazine ( Current Issue Article )
My final month in Thailand was spent in the little explored Province of “Isaan”, which is basically North East Thailand. The North East of Thailand is probably the least visited and explored by Westerners because it is so poverty stricken and has very little in terms of sights, shops and environmental wonders when compared to the rest of Thailand. However in terms of Muaythai it is far, far more advanced and respected, to name but a few Isaanie Muaythai fighters we have Yodsaenkli, Malaipet, Sanchai, Anuwat and thousands upon thousands more.
I was a bit nervous about going to Isaan on my own because I had be warned that the people I was staying with spoke no English at all and my Thai is very, very basic. Having spent time in Pai, I wasn't expecting anything too fancy, but when I arrived to “J.Chiwat Gym” in Isaan I was very surprised at how little they had for a gym, which had a stable of fighters who were gaining moderate success in Lumpinee. The gym was hard to find and it was literally just a ring with three punch bags down a back ally-way. I arrived to the stares of wonder and amazement from the young lads who trained there, all under the age of 16 and all with between 50 and 200 fights. None spoke any English, but they made me take my top off to look at my tattoo they noticed because it overlapped my t-shirt and commented on my white skin before they all began laughing in hysterics, but it was meant kindly. One boy Jack at 13 years old had over 150 fights with 120 wins and was a regular Lumpinee fighter and province title holder. There were three older fighters 21, 21 and 22 but they were all at Lumpinee in Bangkok for a fight, which I was told they all won successfully.
The gyms history is basically that J.Chiwat trained amateur boxing and was relatively successful at it, having fought in Europe, Japan and a few other countries. He eventually got injured before his time as so many great fighters do and began to coach fighters in his home city of Pai Mai. On arrival I was basically told that he pretty much adopted eight out of the ten kids who train there, they all live in a wooden two bedroom house, he buys them food and the only money he makes from the gym is 50% of the fighters winnings. He said I would be welcome to stay at the gym, but he would only accept a payment in terms of my fight earning and therefore I needed to agree to fight, which I readily did. When we arrived at the house in Pai Mai I was a bit taken back because the rooms were basically five bed covers on the floor in each room, a small front room with a fridge and rice cooker. There was no shower, just a bucket of water which you threw over yourself and the toilet was one of those old Asian squat toilets.
To be honest if you told me before I left to Thailand I'd be sharing a room with 5 people I'd never met before and that my bathroom would be a bucket and hole in the floor I'd tell you that you were crazy. This however was my sixth month in Thailand and the Thai way of life had begun to rub of on me. I'd began respecting how little people had, but also how little that meant to them, everyone in Thailand is so care free and happy all the time with the fact that they are living and anything they have on top of that is just a benefit to be appreciated.
The next morning I was woken up at 5am to go running in the local park. The local park in Pai Mai is basically a big circle and was perfect for running, each lap was 1.5km and we would do anything between three up to seven laps twice a day. Until the age of 15 the boys just do their laps in the morning and then go home to get ready for school, those over 15 have to head down to the gym for morning training. I remember every morning finishing the third lap with the boys and looking at the trainers with pleading faces of, “are we done?”, but very rarely would we get away with three, we would go around again and look at them again, usually no response and we would do another lap, this would repeat until they would say we were done.
I would go training with two other boys, only one of them lived with me “'Chio”, he was actually 22 with a kid so didn't train all the time. The other was called Tong-Chai, we was 17 and probably the best fighter from the gym other than Jack and I'd say over my time in Thailand probably one of my best friends. Tong-Chai was a rare breed of Muaythai fighter, he had more of a Western boxing – kick boxing style, he was light on his feet and loved to throw punch combinations, this made him a great sparring partner. Most mornings it would just be me, Tong-Chai and two trainers at the gym to workout, we were both training for a fight at the end of September, mine in Pai Mai's annual fair, Tong-Chai at Lumpinee.
We would start with ten minutes of skipping or tyre jumping which was surprisingly tough after the running. Then we would do 15-20 minutes of shadow boxing in front of the mirror, working on keeping light on your feet, throwing quick snappy punches and pivoting. Then came bag work, which we would aim to do 5 x 5 minute rounds, usually three kick based and two punch based. The trainers would be shouting to go harder and faster and to stop being lazy through out the whole thing. We would then be called into the ring for rounds of pads, this would be pretty typical Thai Pads, with the punches to the pads being used to set up big kicks or a clinch, where we would throw sets of ten knees and of course the Thai favourite of about three or four sets of ten round kicks on each side, just to really exhaust you. Once that was finished we would do on average five rounds of sparring (one round boxing sparring, one round kicks, three rounds full Thai) and five rounds clinching. By this time the ring floor was usually soaked with sweat and I would be dreading what was to come next. We would leave the ring and begin our sets, which consisted of 100 round kicks off each leg, 200 front kicks, 200 knees, 100 hooks, 500 straight punches, 200 sit ups and then a set of weights (usually 3 x 50 of very light bench press and bicep curls).
It was usually 9am by now and Tong-Chai would drive me home on his moped, where the house would be empty, but I would always find an omelette and rice on top of the fridge, left for me by the kids. A few times one of the boys Ling (Thai for monkey!) would leave me some kind of sweet or chocolate under my bed cover, so I would eat all of that before showering and collapsing in my bed until about 3pm. The boys would then arrive home from school and we'd go straight back to train, pretty much the same as I described for the morning.
Once training had finished we'd all jog home, which was great fun. Imagine being the only white person to have ever trained Muaythai in a town that has perhaps four or five white people visit a week! Then imagine running through that whole town shirtless in your Thai shorts past all the shops and markets and main roads. So many people smiled at me, gave me inquisitive looks, asked the kids what on earth was going on, they were all amazed when they learnt I was fighting at their fair and the boys would always tell me they say things like “No... you be killed” or “You don't look like a fighter” and all the rest of it, but mostly people would say well done and I even had some thank me for training Muaythai and coming to their country. When we got home we would eat, pretty much every day we would have rice with chicken/beef/pork in numerous varieties, it was always much needed, we would all then shower before sitting in front of the TV for a couple of hours. At 9pm every night J. Chiwat, the gym owner would come and give us “Nam De-Hol” which is basically a type of milk mixed with beans and stuff like that, he said it was good for energy At that point we would all be told to go sleep and never would anyone argue.
This was my daily schedule for about a month; my fight came about so quickly it was scary. We arrived at the fair and there were thousands of people, I was pretty nervous at this point. I asked who I was fighting and they said not sure! Shortly after about 30 children who wanted to fight were ushered gathering on top of a make shift stage. They just picked them there and then based on size, pushed them together and eventually we had 15 groups of two children. I was amazed, there were no experience based discussions, no scales, nothing like that and then once that was sorted it was my turn. I got on the stage with about 14 other guys, all pretty big, some of them bigger than me, which surprised me, I was put with a Chinese looking guy, but they changed their mind about three times putting me with a dark Thai for a bit and then a younger guy, before eventually deciding the Lao guy was the best match because he was my height and a similar build, the Chinese guy was taller but skinnier and the young guy was massively built but shorter.
The ring was placed in the middle of a main road and all the fighters were just getting changed in the middle of the street. I can not be sure how many people were there, but because it was a free event, there must have been about 1000-2000, maybe even more, I can't be sure. I felt a bit nervous, because I was the only Westerner there, let alone fighting... Everyone kept asking who I was fighting, then when I pointed him out saying 'Oh...' then looking down and saying “Good Luck”, this really didn't help my nerves I must admit. I kept hearing my name “MAK! Ferrang!” over the speakers, so I guess my fight was being hyped up a bit. My trainer called me over about 10pm to get warmed up, which in Thailand is basically laying down and being massaged with Thai oils, I love this, it was certainly not my first time and once the massage is done you feel totally relaxed and ready to go. I began shadow boxing and throwing a few kicks, before I got called to the ring.
This was probably the best moment I had in Thailand, walking to the ring as the only Westerner in the town, 1000's of Thai people applauding me and looking forward to seeing my fight. I walked in and began my Wai-Kru, the crowd went absolutely crazy and cheered the whole way through, by this time my nerves were totally gone. I was happy, excited and so incredibly thankful to the gym for everything they had done for me, I just wanted to make them proud.
The first round he kept clinching me because in the opening few seconds I flurried him with about 15 consecutive punches, so I just kept kneeing him and elbowing him. Twice I gave him a smack on the cheek with really heavy elbows and I think from there he was rocked and didn't want any part of punching with me. Then he got a few kicks in to my legs, so I kicked him in the face twice just before the round ended and won that round. I dropped him with a jab, cross, elbow in the second, but he got up on the count of seven. Third round he clinched me and I bent his head down and knee'd him in the face, his head was down and I smashed three elbows on the back of his head and pushed him against the ropes. He was dizzy, I could see that, I did a spinning back kick to the rips and winded him (crowd went crazy!) so I thought ok, lets do another, did a spinning heal kick to the head and he staggered and fell and shook his hands. I thought he meant “you didn’t hurt me” but he meant he couldn't continue (he had been winded by the spinning back kick), as he staggered back I hit him with another spinning heel kick to the face and he turned his back, fell and shook his head, they counted him anyway and they rang the bell.
The crowd went crazy and mobbed me when I got out the ring, one guy said he bet 8000 baht on me after the first round!!! That's like a month’s wages, maybe more. Everyone just kept saying how well I had done and thanking me and asking if I would fight again, introducing me to their friends, taking photos, it was one of the best nights of my life. I had done what I had wanted to do, I had come to Thailand, I had began learning the art of Muaythai and I had gone to a totally Thai town, won but most importantly gained the respect and appreciation of the towns Muaythai fan-base.
The experience in Isaan is so, so different that at say Chay Yai, True Bee, WMC, Fairtex, Kaesamrit or any of these gyms that are catered to tourists. There are almost no tourist gyms here and none of the gyms have websites. I was the first foreigner to have ever trained here and as well as that I was the first foreigner to have fought in their town, therefore all the trainers took an interest in me and really wanted me to do well. I think if you want to come out to Thailand, definitely spend a week in somewhere like Korat and try finding a gym unspoilt by foreigners. This might mean you spend two to three days visiting a few cities asking locals for Muaythai or boxing gyms, turning up to them and being turned away by Thai's unwilling to train a foreigner, but you will eventually find one willing to train you. As long as you are prepared to live at the gym and train with them exactly to their schedule they'll train you properly and you'll be made to feel like part of the family. Most importantly you'll be living the life of a Thai boxer and surely that's why most of us want to go to Thailand.
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