Thailand Day 13, Friday:

Tonight I went to the fights in Patong, Bangla Stadium. The place is cramped, hot, and poorly ventilated. Ideal for Thailand. There were 8 fights on the night ranging from what appeared to be 8 year olds all the way up to serious pros. Included in the card was Mo Sul and Pates. Mo Sul is an Iranian who now lives in Norway and Pates is one of the trainers at Tiger Muay Thai. Mo Sul was able to pull out a fourth round victory. It was a little unclear what happened. The two of them went down and when they came back to their feet the opponent was unable to continue. Pates lost the fight in decision. It is truly amazing to see the little kids out fighting for glory. They are also fighting for money. The true pros have fight totals in the hundreds accumulating from the time they are tiny.
Training over the last couple of days:
Tuesday was painful. It wasn’t the training but I finally got sick. I thought it was bound to happen at some point, especially because I accidentally rinsed my toothbrush in the sink. Rather than anything fun I got the flu. Trained for a couple hours Tuesday morning and then I was done. I spent the whole day in bed sleeping. When I finally went to get dinner I was wearing a jacket. That was a real sign that something was wrong. In a country where the temperature doesn’t drop below 80 degrees wearing a heavy jacket just doesn’t feel right. After dinner it was right back to bed. That night I woke up drenched in sweat. There was so much water that I had to change blankets and get a towel to dry myself off. Despite an odd night the next morning I felt great.
Wednesday was a day off. After a hard day of feeling like crap on Tuesday one more day off seemed wise to make sure I had overcome everything. Thursday was back to training in earnest. MMA in the morning and Muay Thai in the afternoon. Friday was another hard with the fights tonight was well. Its been a long day and I’m off to bed. One more week of training to go. Then it’s a move to China.