Hello once again readers. I hope you enjoyed the last update and that it was not to painful on your eyes with jibber jabber and grammer mistakes. It's been just under a week since the last blog and not a huge deal has happened in regards to sight seeing and all that lovely stuff we will doing further down the line. We are getting use to the flow of things now and starting to find our feet. So this last week has been all about dipping our toes into new territory and trying to knuckle down with training. So I will start were I left off.

The sun burn was still very much apart of my day to day routine last week but it did not stop me training. We went along to the evening muay thai lesson where we were greeted by Dang and his evil looking stick. The style of muay thai is very different to what I have been training the last 5 years. It's alot more about destruction of the guy your fighting, it's very savage and brutal but effective. The trainers can tell that James and I have trained before and keep asking us "how long you train muay thai" and our response is normally "3 days". Now I know that's a bit of a porky but it's true, we have never done this style before. They know I train in kickboxing back home and are trying to adjust my style to the Thai style. It's quite a difficult transaction for me as it's cemented in my head the way I do things, so trying to start as a blank canvas is tough. I'm really enjoying it though as it's a new challenge and adds to my knowledge and another tool in the box come crunch time. We learnt about clinch work which is a huge part of the Thais game. Doing the clinch work is hard and is almost a grappling match for the best position. This is not a nice experience whilst your neck and shoulders are red raw from the sun. None the less, it was a great lesson. The blisters where getting worse, now on my right foot also. I showed one of the trainers as he asked me why I was wincing, he then winced too when I showed him. The trainer who James was doing pads with kept telling him that he was a champion for sure. We were waiting for the cool down beasting we were getting use to when Dang shouted for us to put our trainers on as Tuesday is running day. So we had to run to our place and grab our trainers and get back there before being beaten with the big White stick. As we returned Dang said wait out front for him, so we did. As we got out the front the group had already ran off in the wrong direction as they did not wait for him. Dang then pulls up front and asks where everyone is, so we told him that they had already ran off. He was slightly annoyed I think and told us to go back to the matts and run there instead. I feared for their lifes when they returned to camp. Sure as anything when they returned, Dang lined them up and did the deed. He smacked the back of their thighs twice with his horrid stick then made them do some gruelling looking exercises. One lady decided to leave her lunch in the plants as a fertiliser. So we have learnt once again, listen to the man with the stick!

The following evening we went to the boxing class again, it was a lot quiter this time so we had some more private time with the trainers. It was nice to work on footwork and combinations. My body is slowly getting use to the training at this stage apart from my feet, it's like I have baby soft skin again. That evening I did my usual and got lubed up (after sun before you get worried, or excited) and sat under the air con to heal my precious Casper White skin. Inbetween sessions we are saving money and relaxing by watching films and Asian telly. Crazy bunch I tell ya!

James has introduced me to Red Bull Thai style. It's a small bottle and it's only 20p. The taste can only be described as sickely, strong and sugary. It tasted like flat Red Bull but with a stronger kick to it. I've only had the one so far and that was enough. We had our first rainy morning that actually left a mini flood outside our place. I was worried about our blue wonder bike. But luckily he survived the storm just fine. The rain clears up within an hour here. We got talking about English grub and instantly I had my gravings for chocolate and a bottle of yazoo. I think James wanted a cup of tea or two, he has a tea problem! After this talk I needed to take my mind English grub so I went to the weights room and then went for a swim, but we both where still graving some home goodness. So we sourced a Tescos store. I bought a chocolate milk shake and a box of cereal and James bought tea bags. Small problem for me though as we don't have bowls so i'm using a glass cup instead. Does the job. We have both been bitten quite alot so we asked our good friend Tiny Tony where to buy some lotion. He gave us a mystery jar of brown stuff that smelt just like vix. We have been using this mystery lotion and it seems to work. I'm not sure if I want to know what's in it.

Saturday morning had arrived once again. We decided to hit the weights for an hour then hop on the bikes for 10 mins as cool down. The cage was empty. I said to James about having a little roll around. It ended up being a 15 min mini scrap. There is one thing I can tell you about being in a cage, if you bang your head against the mesh, you know about it! We both found out the hard way. It's pretty unforgiving. I remember our instructor from back home (Chris that's you by the way) telling me about his fight he had. He said the most painful thing about his fight was the fact he scraped his head against the cage, now I know why mate. It sucks. We both enjoyed a protein shake and decided to go see a new beach. This time we headed for Nai Harn beach right in the south of Phuket. Was a lovely beach once again. That evening we went to find the Night Market. We got lost and ended up going through Phuket town. We found the Market and it was an experience for sure. Straight away I could tell this was Mystery Meat City. We walked around the crowded, narrow and silly hot Market for about 2 hours. I wanted to just buy a vest just to replace my sweat soaked tshirt. It shouldn't be that warm at 8pm in the evening, they shoul make it illegal. We headed back to the food section......yummy. All sorts of random meats, sweets and james's favourite, cakes! His eyes lit up like a little excited puppy dog. Temptation got the better of him, he gave in. We moved further along to find Quail eggs invaded in a mystery substance. We both bought some and the gentleman put nice sauce with them. We both ate them and it felt like my mouth was on fire and a thousand angry midgiys doing a fire dance on my lips. Was not a nice feeling. The egg on the other hand tasted nice, but the next day it was not so nice and the thought of it made me turn instantly. Mystery Meat 1-0 Stu.

Sunday morning we decided to go hit the party central of Phuket, Patong. This is known as the place where most people go for "fun times" or "boom boom" as I heard one trainer say. It's also known as Mystery Meat Town, and I don't mean the food type. I'm on about the gender confused kind. First reaction to the place is it's seedy, dirty and a bit smelly in some places. We walked around and got every shop owner. I even tried saying I was from Germany in the hope they wouldn't talk to me, but no, the one guy speaks perfect german. Joy! One guy asked James if he wanted to buy diamonds. Mystery diamonds let's say. The amount of people that ask you if you want to buy a suit is funny, can't you see I'm sweating in a tshirt, let alone a fake Armarni suit. This one guy told us the 3 main things you can get from Patong, Taxi, Sexy and Pepsi. A taxi to go and take you to get sexy and after sexy she wants a pepsi. Brilliant. The heavens opened so we hid outside a 7/11, then came the most manly looking he she I had seen yet. Broader shoulders than Heman, but probably wears the little pink shorts though like Heman did. He clearly thought he was a she though. Mad. By this point my arms where burnt red raw. It was overcast and windy most of the day so I didn't notice at all, it's most impressive. We found a Scruphy Murphays and enjoyed a bit of British food and James enjoyed a pint. We then headed for home where I would then begin my lubeing process again. Silly me.

I don't know how I end up saying so much when actually so little has happened, but I hope you enjoy reading these and finding some humour in them too. Thanks for all the comments so far, it's nice to hear from people. There are pictures up also on this blog so have a look if you have not already. Take care. Stu