I'm fairly surprised this is the first time I have attempted to train in Muay Thai (Thai boxing) in Thailand. Considering my slight obsession with martial arts a few years back combined with my love of Thailand, well it was going to happen eventually! I booked to train at Rawai Supa Muay Thai in Phuket. They had good reviews and if I'm honest, they appeared to be the cheapest nearby. I booked for 6 days thinking this was a reasonable amount of time, until I arrived and found that most people were staying for months on end! Right, so already a bit of a part timer and I haven't even started!

I arrived at 12 midday and was immediately welcomed in by Chris in the office. Everyone was very friendly and helpful and I was shown to my room (shared bungalow) and asked if I was training that day! I decided I might as well get stuck in already.

The session started at 4pm but I went across early to see where everything was. What an error, if you get there early you have to grab a skipping rope and skip until it starts! So 30 minutes of skipping later and the warm up starts! Let's just say that after just the warm up I did think I was going to faint!
Pulling myself together I then was put with the other 'beginner' who was an 8 year old child - not embarrassing for me at all! Luckily we were both put with a great trainer who showed us the basics. I'd only done an hour and I don't think I've ever sweated so much in my life! And it was only day 1!
Day 2 I again took the afternoon session, luckily this time there were 2 other beginners closer to my age! We were paired off with trainers and again practising the basics. I managed to see the 2 hour session through this time.
Day 3 is when the pain starts to set in. Aching in every muscle and nearly falling over when getting out of bed as everything had seized up! I decided to make the 7.30am morning session and this was much harder than the afternoon one! After an hour of going over the moves in the ring with the trainer, occasional 'breaks' involved sit ups and push ups, we moved onto bag work. Again a few 'breaks' of sit ups and push ups. With everyone knackered, sweat dripping onto the mats we are called over for a warm down. The trainer smiles and shouts up! 50 kicks 50 knee! It's back to the bag. And yes, once again there's sit ups and push ups!
I've reached the half way mark, and despite the pain and effort and muscle cramps and walking like I've pissed myself I can honestly say I'm enjoying it. I'm looking forward to the next few days and yes, I'm sure I will be coming back!