#67 Travel to Thailand

Very large Buddha inside a Wat in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Getting the chance to visit Thailand was a life changing and soulful experience for me. It's something I never thought that I would have the opportunity to experience. This trips good fortune found me through a dear friend of mine, Sylvie Von Duuglas-Ittu who is currently living and fighting Muay Thai professionally in Chiang Mai. Before Sylvie embarked on her journey a little over a year ago we had played with the idea of me making the 9,000 mile trip to visit her. But it was through my mother's support and persistence I found the courage to buy a plane ticket and make the trip solo.

Buddhist prayer bells at Wat Prathat Doi Suthop

Young girl at Wat Prathat Doi Suthop

Wat Prathat Doi Suthop

The purpose of the trip was to spend time with my friend Sylvie and also to immerse myself in training Muay Thai. I am an amateur Muay Thai fighter in the United States and getting to train on Thai soil is comparable to visiting Mecca. It's one of the holiest places for a fighter. While there I trained at Lanna Muay Thai camp for upwards of 7 hours a day through two daily sessions. The sessions where intense but enlightening. The amount of knowledge I received was like drinking water from a fire hose.

My Ugly Mug during training

Spinning Elbows with Den

Sylvie and I in the ring after training - Batman and Robyn

To cap off of the training experience, towards the end of my trip I took a full rules Muay Thai fight with a tough and savvy fighter. The girl I fought was a former channel 7 champ and had over 40+ fights. I won the fight in the 5th round with an elbow knockout. It was a sincere highlight of my trip not only because I won but because the entire experience was challenging and as pure as they come. To see additional photographs and read more about my experience of fighting in Thailand follow this link: #114 Fight in Another Country.

Some photos from my fight

Sylvie cornering me right before the 5th round. Photo credit Kevin Von Duuglas-Ittu.

Sylvie and I trained almost everyday of my trip but for a few hours in the middle of the day when we would take a break from training we would jet around town on her scooter exploring the sites and soaking up the culture. Thailand is an amazing place. Time moves epically slow there yet incredibly fast at the same time creating this Never Never Land vortex. Things are sabai sabai (thai for relaxed) and the people are overtly friendly. I spent the last week of my trip trying to find a way for me to prolong my trip. I'm not sure anyone is really ever ready to leave Thailand which would explain the large number of expats. Those expats and other visitors really do make Chiang Mai a cultural melting pot. At any given time while training at the gym or walking through the night market there are people from all over world...Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Korea, Singapore, India, Belgium, Canada, France ect. I met so many interesting and good hearted people.

                                        Street Market                                        Khao Soi

Ganesha                                                Rotee

Delicious dinners                               Ancient Statue

Sylvie made sure I got to get out and experience as much as I could when we were not training. We visited a handful of Wats (temples) and we managed to get blessed by a monk which was beyond awesome. She took me to the jungle so we could ride an elephant! See our awesome pictures and read about that here. We also snuggled with full size Bengal tigers and fed some cubs! Follow this link to read about that and see the pictures. And the food was exotic and intoxicating. I'm not sure how I will ever live with out Khao Soi (a curry dish that is served in Northern Thailand) or Rotee which is basically a fried dough filled with bananas and drizzled with condensed milk, magic and unicorn dust. My favorite breakfast spot was the Cafe Mong Pearl and my favorite dinner spot was Lemongrass. But all the places I ate were amazing and Sylvie and Kevin did an awesome job exposing me to as much culinary gluttony I could handle.



Wat Lok Mali

Buddha at Wat Lok Mali

Wat Morn Thean

Fasting Buddha at Wat Umong

Thailand was the first place that I have traveled to in years that I wasn't ready to leave when I did and I don't mean physically.....I mean spiritually. I never thought in my life I would get the opportunity to go to Thailand and now I know that I'll never not go back. On my next trip I'd really like to make it up to Chiang Rai, I'd like to go fishing and maybe even make it down to the beaches in Phuket. All new goals for the ever growing bucket list!!

Check out my other adventures in Thailand at the links below:

#111 Blow into the Trunk of an Elephant

#139 Pet a Lion or Tiger and not get Mauled

#114 Fight in Another Country