DAY 5: Thais, Farangs And Muay Thai - Same Same But Different
Today, I didn't wake up at 6.30am. When I opened my eyes for the first time, the clock showed half past 9 and my body ached from all the drinking and partying of the previous night.
I decided to show myself at least for the last couple of minutes of the morning session and thus I braced up and dragged myself to the Gym. By the time I finally got there most of the people had already left (although I was told later that there hadn't been many of them anyway - what a surprise).
On my way back to the apartment I met Pan who was just about to allow himself an extensive breakfast at the Gym's restaurant. Pan was one of my favorite trainers. We were about the same age and his English was best because he had been studying at a university in Bangkok for a couple of years. I sat down next to him, ordered a coffee and we started talking about the previous night, Volkan's triumph and the last time he entered the ring. Pan already had fought more than a hundred fights, his first one at the age of six. A couple of years ago he was seriously injured after getting knocked out during one of them. Later at the hospital, the doctor told him that if this would happen again, he might not wake up anymore.
At that point, Pan decided to put Muay Thai behind once and for all and moved to Bangkok. He enrolled at one of the public universities and began an undergraduate program at the faculty of sports science. By the time he had finished his Bachelors he was more dissatisfied than ever before in his life: City life annoyed him and he missed the sport that had determined his everyday life as long as he could remember.
When he wasn't able to take it anymore he packed his bag and moved back to his hometown. He got the job as a trainer at Rawai and since then he has made it his business to chase Farangs through the ring which he admits is a lot of fun.
Sometimes he said he asks himself why so many westerners do Muay Thai, train really hard and then don't want to fight. For him, this was like learning how to ride a bike and then not go cycling. He didn't get why we came all the way to Thailand just to get our butts kicked.
I laughed and tried to explain to him that we Farangs are sometimes just a little different: about 90% of us have a job where we spend most of the day sitting and thus we feel we are always in need of action to not be glued to our seats. Moreover, we are constantly stressed by whatsoever and are masters in coming up with various possibilities to relieve ourselves of what we think is a really tough life.
Pan listened carefully. By the time I had finished my explanations, he stuffed the last bit of his scrambled egg in his mouth and sumed up: So altogether, all of you just need a bit more of what we would call "sabai, sabai" right?