Thailand

Beautiful Thailand, never fails to impress. I arrived in Bangkok late Thursday afternoon, by Friday having made a 4.5 k walk around Lumpini Park I am in car heading down to Pra Nam Prak, by the time we leave on Sunday I have climbed a rocky out crop , made beach walks and attempted somewhat poorly to ( stand up ) paddle board. The stand up part did not fare too well and my feet were cut up and bruised.

Pra Nam Prak is beautiful and Craig and Siri have created a wonderful home there with a special ability to take care of people while wrapping them up in their own boundless enthusiasm for life and each other. Sharing Craig's birthday with them was a lot of fun, laughter and ludicrousness ...

Back to Bangkok for a sleep and after a 5.5 k walk on the running machine, Monday morning Nima and I board a plane to Phuket where we spend three days working on our lap tops and enjoying the environment of the Banyan Tree, Laguna Beach. I do also get to try out various CSR activities so I ride a bicycle for two hours and attend an English class. The Banyan Tree also has a great gym and I manage a good 5.5 k walk on the last day. We were pampered and sumptuously accommodated, the Banyan Tree is located in an area that was once an old tin mine and the area it takes up is entirely reclaimed and rejuvenated. Birds have returned and there is a lot to be said for luxury when it works with nature not against it.

Wednesday sees us headed back to the city amidst dire predictions of bad bad weather, this proves to be unfounded and we arrive in Bangkok to relatively clear skies and an evening for me in my own company testing out the delivery service of the local Chinese. Thursday I am up early to attend an appointment at the Bangkok Genreal Hospital where I find out I am in good health and ready to take on the rigors of Muay Thai.I go to the school to check it out, and sign up for four days of intensive training, two sessions per day. Muay Thai @ Chakrit The day of my first session I wake early and full of anticipation, of what I am not sure but fear of pain figures highly in my mind. I walk down the Soi to the BTS, up the stairs onto the train headed to Om Nut and beyond. Nana and then Asok, down the stairs and along Soi 39 to the gym. The 'gym' is not really a gym, gym..it's more like a shed next to a parking lot. A corrugated iron roof protects a ring and a carpeted length of floor that holds a number of hanging punching bags that hide a few open lockers, everything here is rudimentary, the emphasis is on the work not the surroundings I assume. My trainer greets me with a friendly smile and in a mix of physical gestures and broken English he begins to tease out of me the correct stance, the initial pose and the first movement. "Ha" he says with a smile "You ol'" I smile politely, and try to think what else he could have meant bar the obvious. "You ol'" he repeats as he smacks down my arm and then pins it to my shoulder. A few rounds of basic positioning take place where I am encouraged to 'jab' and 'cut' and protect my face. I What I cannot comprehend through verbal instruction I am made to do by force, my arm is extended, pulled and pushed back, my feet are shifted until I get the right angle of approach. It is quick work, right brain-left brain thinking, the ability to switch from right to left in quick succession, to switch it up on command is pretty challenging for someone who has to look at their foot to figure which is left and which is right. My brain was taking more of a beating than my body at this stage and the depth of my inadequacy at spatial reasoning, another signal of dyslexia, was becoming really frustrating. Why can I not just know which is left and which is right. I am accustomed to not knowing how to spell certain words no matter how hard I try to remember them but the fundamental skill of automatically knowing left from right should be ingrained in me and it is not. "lef' riii..lef... rii. lef..lef.." I was sweating but happy when my trainer told me to take a break and it was during this break I was able to see how the gym worked and how too the poses I had been attempting looked like when properly done. Clients showed up at regular intervals and each trainer took their turn on the carpet dancing back and forth to deflect and call out moves as their clients snapped forward,lunged and kicked and snapped back to position. Lesson one: the movement returns to the same spot, the extension is not the movement it is the point of impact but the movement returns, snap back to place. I saw this and attempted, when my turn came again to implement it. It was a far steadier pace now that I had figured this part out, the balance was better and my trainer seemed pleased. "Not so ol...but lazy" he said with a glittery smile. "Not so old" I agreed "But not lazy, just learning.." He sent me away for lunch even though I did not want to leave. I wobbled a little and made my way to Asok Station where I sat at an outdoor lunch stand and ordered Pad Thai.I was shaking with the effort of the workout and exhilarated I wanted to go straight back but they had told me to return at two. I found a reflexology place not far up the alley and took a foot treatment for an hour as I read more of JOhn Burdett's Bangkok Tattoo. Sitting in a massage parlor, associated so it said with Wat Pho, in Soi 39 was putting me in the same location as the action of the book. I looked around the street from inside the massage parlor, and yes, there were a number of Japanese businesses and restaurants...mmm the Yakusa could well be close by, operating behind the closed doors of the offices that took up the spaces above the shop-houses. The foot reflexology was a great idea and I bounded ack for my afternoon session with renewed enthusiasm. I bound my wrists and slipped on my gloves and pads ready to go. He was faster this time, harsher and demanded more of my physical strength and in doing so allowed me to develop a less thought about routine that came from rapid repetitive movements. He didn't switch it up too much which allowed me to establish a little of my own knowledge until I felt confident on my feet..at which point he literally swept me off them. Now I was to learn the kicks that really make the sport so beautiful. Knee jabs to elbow height, snap back, step forward with left, twist hip, elevate with right knee bent then flick the shin at the opponents side, foot flat, ankle taut, foot loose... wow, LITERALLY WHAT A FEELING.. The insipid power of my untrained leg amazed me. With balance and weight in the right place it could become a weapon. Not a very effective one this first day but I could see how it might get there, the shin bone contact on my trainers shield was like a thwack of bamboo and I felt the power..and then I felt the trainer's power as he grabbed my leg, pulled me towards him and literally kicked my butt. "Enough now" he said.. "Floor" he indicated I lie down on the floor. I did and he punched me joyfully and gently in the stomach to indicate I must now do sit ups. At the end of our session my trainer stroked my hair and told me I was "OK". Praise indeed..I was euphoric, although I am not sure my fellow commuters would have said that about me on the journey home...I was emitting the most amazing amount of heat from my body. Each fibre . each muscle was singing out like strings that have been tightened and played..it was a wonderful feeling but definitely a sweaty one. I could not walk up the Soi and hopped on a motorbike only stopping to pick up supplies of Diet Coke for Nima who was back working to deadline after our trip to Phuket.