Thailand!!

Kyle and I flew from Brisbane to Thailand last Sunday. We flew to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand for a week long camp of Muay Thai boxing. There are two 3-hour sessions per day and it is one heck of a workout!! It is very hot (30-35 deg C) and ridiculously humid here so water intake is very important! We have been attending only 1 of the 2 sessions per day and this feels like plenty!! A typical session looks something like this:
30-40 mins running
10-20 mins skipping
Then you put on your wraps (cloth wraps for your hands and wrists) for about 15-20 mins of floorwork. Floorwork is basically air punching, air kicking because you simply practice the motion(s) you go through for each move or combination of moves.
Next you put on boxing gloves over your wraps and practice punching, kicking and kneeing against punching bags. By this time you are absolutely soaked with sweat, shirt and shorts, and ready to move into the ring for padwork. Padwork is where the trainers hold the pads for you to punch, kick, knee and elbow. You go for 3 rounds of 3-5 minutes which is completely exhausting, not to mention painful on your shins and feet from contacting the pads!
After the padwork and s bit of recovery time, there is usually more rounds with the punching bag, before finishing off with core exercises and push-ups etc.

To sum it up, it is a sweat-fest and an insane workout, but a lot of fun!

The Thai people in general are wonderful - really laid back and friendly. We are trying to learn Thai phrases to get by but our mouths don't necessarily make the sounds they need to so sometimes it becomes a game of charades.

The food here is unreal! My mouth waters at the thought of the next meal...so delicious. Pad Thai is one of my new favourite meals!! I'd had it before in Calgary and wasn't a big fan but it is delicious here!

Ok, here are some photos of the Muay Thai training. Sorry for the lower quality photos...these are iPhone pics only!