Well this is it guys, the final blog from this amazing trip. It's going to be a super long one too. It's been great writing these and it's been even better knowing that people have been reading them. It starts from 2 weeks Thursday gone. Now, to the action....

Thursday day I thought it would be good to just go and shadow box to stay loose and focus on some things I have been taught over the last 2 weeks. After that I decided to head down to the local spa for a herbal sauna and a massage to help me relax. The thing with this massage was that I had to be butt naked and just a towel to cover my man piece. Now that's ok I thought as she would move the towel accordingly to where she was working...well....I was half right. When she got to my inner thigh I don't think she covered me up very well. She was a mature women and very professional and I'm sure she has seen a lot of parts in her time, but that still did not make it comfortable knowing that my stuff was just there hanging around in plain sight. I thought to myself if I can relax during this, then relaxing during a fight would be no problem. As soon as i took that route of thinking I actually passed out and was woken up by her to turn to my back. After that I felt so relaxed  and loose. Ready to fight. In my mind I was cool and calm, just one issue I was worried about, my shin still being sore from the first fight. We all headed down to a resturant and enjoyed some chicken in pita goodness and then a good old swensons after. The amazing thing was that James did not even have an ice cream, he resisted. It's his own test to see if he can do it, and he did. Good man!

Friday had arrived and time for my 2nd fight here. The nerves were flowing a bit more during the morning as I was thinking about my shin and how it might effect me in the fight. I tried thinking of other things I could do to try and not bring my right leg into the fight, trouble is that I love to use my kicks. After some lunch I just headed up to the fighters ring to do some stretching and some more light shadow boxing, just to stay focused, loose and to stop being bored of just sitting around. Ritt then told me who I would be fighting so that made me relax a bit more. For some reason you have a mental shift when you know or see who you are fighting, it just makes it a bit more real. That afteroon went very slow. Tom had lent us his laptop as he is a very nice young man. I ended up just watching muay thai fights on YouTube and just trying to stay relaxed. 7pm came, time for the prefight dinner at Baan Suan. I sat with the boys and Peter (Thai Hulk from the gym) and enjoyed a nice carb filled dinner as I knew I would be fighting late. Said bye to the boys and headed over to the camp to catch the minibus over to the stadium. As soon as you see the place all lit up and all the big posters around with your face on along with the loud speakers shouting out the same thing for 30 mins "tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, super big fight, biggest fight of the month, bangla stadium tonight, tonight......tonight at bangla stadium, best fighters, tonight" you get the idea, everything starts to slip into place...you know it's game face time. I had a good corner team that night. Guys that I knew and that had trained me. Dom, Ritt and the head trainer from the Intermediate class. I felt very comfortable knowing that I had those 3 in my corner. Also another young lad from Tiger was fighting on the same card. We headed up to the fighters warm up area and I waited around until hand wrap time. I knew i was fight number 7 so I had some time to watch a couple of fights and try to relax. I felt very calm and peaceful. Hand wrap time. Whilst sitting there getting my wraps done I asked Ritt if the guy I was sitting next to was the guy I was fighting, he said yes. As soon as I saw him I instantly went into fight mode, put my fight face on....I don't think a smiling guy with glasses is a very scary fight face but that's just me. We kept looking at each other trying to size each other up. Was quite funny at times as I would look round and catch him staring at me. I kept focused in my mind and the shin issue became a distant thought. I got nasty thoughts about how I wanted to win. I'm normally quite a relaxed, layed back guy who actually hates fighting and conflict, but come competition time....it's a different story, I want to hurt someone. I then was sat down by the ring watching the fight before me. I could feel eyes starring at me from all over the place, wanting to know if I was any good. My heart rate started to pick up, I could feel the nerves again. As soon as the fight had finished and I got called up for my fight I felt really quite calm. When I stepped over the ropes into the ring and heard random strangers shouting my name and cheering for me, I knew it was fight time again. I felt all the nerves and worries go, I just felt like it was my purpose to be in that ring to win and to inflict more damage to the guy than he was going to try and inflict on me. Insted of doing the Wai Khru this fight I just opted for bowing to each corner, I felt as though I didn't feel right performing it that night. 

Fight time. All I can remember about the fight was seeing just his face and his shoulders and hearing the Thai pipes going off in the background. I use them to keep me relaxed and cool, otherwise I might try rushing in and then have the risk of getting caught with a silly shot. I throw a light combo at him straight away and in retaliation he throws a hard body kick straight away to my left rib area.....what a wake up call that was. It hit hard and fast and if I'm honest...it hurt, but I've learnt over the years is that if you show pain in a fight then your oppenent will jump all over you and go for the kill. So I kept a straight face and kept moving forward.......boom....another body shot. I thought to myself 'this guy can kick a frikkin house down, I should really block' but I didn't and i felt it annoying me. I kept calm and relaxed and just kept moving forward. Towards the end of the first round I could feel I was breaking him down slowly. I almost could feel his heart fading. I felt strong and I felt like I could take his shots now. The second round starts and I see he is a bit tired so I just keep the pressure on him the whole time until he cracks. I remember throwing a left/right hand combo then a hard left leg body kick. I threw it with the intention to hurt....it did, both him and me. It knocked him down to win the fight but it also killed my left ankle. A small price to pay for winning I guess. I remember standing at him whilst he was down and thinking "get up, I haven't had a good fight yet". I knew I had won but I was not happy with how I did. I know we are our own worst critics and worst enemy but sometimes we can be our own teacher, you just have to be concious of your mistakes that's all. I was very concious of mine on that fight. A hand raised is a hand raised though. Went home on the bus feeling a bit tender from the guys kicks and got some much needed rest.

Saturday night there was a big party organised by Tiger at a very exclusive hotel down on the beach front. Myself, Tommy and Woody headed down to check it out. We felt like we should have been on a movie set or at some rich guys house party. This hotel was amazing and the view was inane. Although it was a bit of a sausage soup (full of blokes) it was still nice just to do something different and get out of the training/fighting mindset.   

On Sunday both Woody and James had fights so the day was spent relaxing. It was Woodys second fight and James's first. We had a pre-fight meal at Baan Suan as usual and then the boys headed off to the the stadium. I felt nerves building in me for the both of them. We all headed down in the taxi and as soon as I saw the stadium I just wanted to fight again. It's addictive. The guys seemed relaxed but you could tell that the fight nerves were there. Makes you feel really alive and a little scared. Scared of the unknown. It's a wired feeling but one that becomes likeable. James was first up. The guy he was fighting was a lot shorter than him so he could use his range to keep him away. The guy did have some very strong leg kicks and kept hitting James on the lead leg. One to many of those and I think James would have really felt it and might of changed the outcome of the fight. Once Jimbo felt comfortable he threw a nice quick head kick and it caught the guy sweet in the old noggin and dropped him and the ref dived on the guy as he fell to floor. Was a good finish to his fight and was nice to see he had pushed through his own boundries and finish the trip with a victory under his belt. Woody was next up and he was fighting someone with quite a bit more experience than him. He was getting caught with some shots and good combos. Woody threw some hard kicks and I think the guy could feel his power. The second round Woodstink came out stronger. He managed to back the guy into a corner and delivered a strong elbow to the guys skull.....he didn't like that very much and Woodastorus Rex had his hand raised to go 2-0 as a Thai boxer. So after both boys had won we headed into Patong for what ended up being a very messy night. 

The last few days were spent eating, training and enjoying the tropical wet weather that Phuket was offering. Started packing up my bags and it felt very surreal. This place had become my new home, my day to day life and the people around me had become my family. I knew saying goodbye was going to be real hard. On the Tuesday I was due to have my new tatoo on my ribs. It just happened to be on the side where I had taken most of the kicks in my fight. As soon as he put his needle to my skin I realised that this was going to be too painful until my bruising and swelling had gone down. So I'm left with 2 tiny black lines on my hip line until I can save up and go and get it done in the UK sometime. I was feeling quite gutted about not getting the tatoo so Woody and his girlfriend decided that we should go and see the little elephant to cheer me up. The little lelefant made me smile and also he gave me a big sloppy kiss on the neck. I felt complete now. I had accomplished what I came to Thailand for, to be kissed on the neck by a small elephant. Wednesday had arrived...time to leave. It happened to be the hottest day for about a month on that day, typical. We did our last bits and pieces and said some hard goodbyes to the trainers and other guys around camp, we then went over to Baan Suan for our final goodbye meal. The taxi arrived and this was it. Saying goodbye to those guys was insanely hard, especially to Woody, Tonmy and Danny. Those 3 are top blokes all for there different reasons. I hope that when they all return to the UK we can all meet up again and get the group back together including Captain Jack. As we drove off in the taxi I could not help but feel a bit emotional. 3 months had come to an end. I just soaked up the last few sights of Phuket on the way to the airport and reminded myself of the amazing journey I had just been on. Goodbye Thailand, you have been special.

I've been back home now for 5 days. It was so nice seeing my family and friends again. You notice the difference in culture straight away though. I know that's a very obvious statement but not as obvious in the difference between the 2 countries and people in them. They call Thailand the land of smiles and after being home for a few days I can now see why they call it that. That country was beautiful in a lot of ways, from the landscape to the people. They are an awesome bunch of people, even when they are trying to destroy you in a lesson or on the pads...they want the best out of you and they want you to push yourself, to me that's a good thing. I would not change anything about my trip. We both have overcome individual things on this trip. I have trained harder than I ever thought I could, James pushed through when he would normally give up, we both helped each other battle threw and I know we both appreciate each others support and friendship. It's been fun bro. 

So a final message to say thanks to those who have been reading these blogs. Thanks to all of you who have left messages and emailed me. I really hope you have felt like you could be part of the journey with us both. To any of you that now want to go to Thailand....do it, you won't regret it. We have both learnt so much, not just about a martial art, but a way of life, about things that actually matter and also about friendship. I have learnt that no matter how much you think you have nothing left, you always have that little bit extra, it's just damn hard to get it out...but you can. Peace out people, it's been fun. Much love. Stu.