Travel

Life in Bangkok

wildboom

I have officially been in Bangkok for a week. For those who don’t know I somehow managed a job as an English teacher of sorts in Bangkok for a month. The work is for a Thai online learning platform and they are adding an English curriculum. Somehow I landed the job of filming about 120 small video lessons to supplement the curriculum. Can’t talk much about since I signed a non-disclosure agreement, not that the info is useful to any of my readers…

Either way I got flow in for free by the company and I am up at a decent apartment for a month. I finally have Thai TV. I make sure to tune in for the Muay Thai fights which is like the equivalent of football in America. I also have a fridge here which is a nice step up. I live on the sixth floor and have some nice skyscrapers out the window. I’m apparently in the downtown area. The picture above shows the apartment cat who likes to chill at the bottom of the stairs, so don’t go flying down the stairs to fast! They also have two small dogs who chill in the lobby.

It took me a while to find my local “spots,” but I found this nice food market place. You can get great meals during lunch for 40 baht ($1.27), and their is a lady who has an unreal amount of choice of meats and she is open late. I can chose 3 portions of meats from the picture above for take out and it costs me about a $1.60. With the rice back at the apartment, I am living good. However, I have run into some extra spicy dishes, but I like the challenge.

Outside of work I like going to the park. Perks of being in the “downtown” mean I am close to Bangkok’s equivalent of central park. I’ve seen some hilarious fitness classes were there are probably 300-500 Thais doing some Zumba moves. They also have some pretty awesome outdoor gyms with nice rusty free weights and dumb bells. I’m definitely excited to give that a go. To start I’ve been running around the park and doing a lot of body weight exercises at a pull up station. There are always a group of people there and today there was a guy doing one armed pull ups. Some of these guys are pretty serious about their body weight fitness and gymnastics moves.

On Sunday I happened to be in the park while a random Bangkok Royal Symphony concert was starting. So I stuck around for a couple songs of that. Apparently it is Italy and Thailand’s 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations, so the Italian ambassador was there to give a short speech. Then we stood for the Thai and Italian national anthems. A song sample is posted below.

And that is the life I have been living… I will try and snap some pictures at work so you can see what the environment is like. My plans for Bangkok still are getting my Russian visa. It is going to be a tough one, but I did succeed with my Chinese visa. The hopes for the trans Siberian railroad are still on! I ended up with a 10 year multi entry Chinese visa since its the same price as a 30 day single entry visa. So I can always go back if friends are planning a trip to China.

Other than that they do have a big stadium that hosts televised Muay Thai fights and admission is free. That is in the plans since the other premium stadiums cost 1000 baht (close to $32). I also think I found a neat free skyscraper look out spot that I will get to in my free time. I still have to crush my taxes, that Russian visa, and I have another gig proofreading some Thai medical students English research paper. Between working and doing that I’ve kept pretty busy.

Until next time where hopefully I do some fun stuff instead of just sitting in my apartment…

Life in Bangkok

Post Fight

wildboom

So I was going to do a post going over my stitches and everything, but even though so many people took pictures of the stitches getting put in I didn’t manage to get any. I wanted matching picture with my first hospital visit.

Instead there is a picture of me with one of my trainers. He is wearing a Boy Scout’s uniform because he is the leader for his son’s  group and he was heading there after class. I just thought it looked hilarious. Either way, in this picture you can see my nice eye patch and I still have my cornrows in!

There you can see what the stitched look like without a bandage on. 7 in total.

There you can see what it looked like during the fight when it first opened.

In later rounds my corner kept it well covered in vasoline.

There are two more of the pictures that I got a little later from one of my trainers photographer friend at the stadium.

Overall, I think that fight might be one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Stepping into a ring forces you to be in the moment like nothing else can. It was truly an incredible experience. Honestly, the adrenaline rush and the high you get from doing it makes it kind of addicting. I know I don’t want to do it professionally and sustain long term brain damage, but I can’t help wondering “what if.”

I am now moved on to Bangkok where I am working for an online learning startup doing some English videos. It’s only been two days since I left Chiang Mai, the church, and the gym and I miss it so much already. I want to continue training. There it was so easy to have purpose and push myself. I guess I just have to buckle down and make these English videos the best they can be.

While that fight is something I will never forget and it has created memories that will last forever, I still have this feeling that my involvement in fighting and combat sports isn’t quite over. Maybe I’ll just join a class when I get back home or maybe more. Who knows?

Post Fight