Living in Thailand ???

[Soreshins]

I stayed there for 5 and a half months around 2 years ago.

Blew about 15 grand (GBP)

Lived in a relatively decent place (i'm not a young bloke who can share a room) which cost about 200 GBP a month. Also, spent some time in Bangkok, and had some flights back and forward to Phuket.

I trained really hard and had a few fights. However, I also enjoyed myself and made some trips to Phi Phi and had some fun nights out (!!!).

My biggest FAIL was having a thai "girlfriend" for most of my time and then having my uk "girlfriend" join me for the last month. Recipe for financial and emotional disaster.

DO.....NOT......REPEAT.....MY......MISTAKE

I think you can stay over there on a tight budget if you are VERY disciplined. Thailand can be problematic if you are even slightly interested in asian girls. I definitely believe that your financial capacity is inversely proportional to your interest in thai women.

Anyway - I have now recovered and am happily married to my british wife.

(still cant help a sneeky peek at thai girls tho....:-/)

[Soreshins]

Also if your out on your moped if you go anywhere near Chalong Circle wear a helmet as the cops are always there to slap you with a 500baht fine.

Good advice. I got caught and fined at Chalong twice. However, they are actually doing a public service even if they ARE corrupt as hell.

PLEASE wear a helmet if you do go to thailand and ride a bike. I got totally wiped out by a drunk russian guy driving on the wrong side of the road and I wasnt wearing a helmet. Was only pure luck that I managed to avoid serious injury/death.

Too many muay thai students die on bikes in thailand. Such a waste.

Money is one concern but safety is paramount. If you go - wear a helmet.

[Shaun.R.]

My biggest FAIL was having a thai "girlfriend" for most of my time and then having my uk "girlfriend" join me for the last month. Recipe for financial and emotional disaster.

DO.....NOT......REPEAT.....MY......MISTAKE

lol +1 (for the thai gf part)

unless she has a "real" decent job. or, unless you dont mind her going out at night getting rammed by everyone to get by.

thais seem to think your an endless money pit, thats all thais not just the women

[ferret]

Looking at going myself and found these three places which seem a fairly decent price to stay and train but I haven't heard many people mention them. Does anyone have any info or experience on the following

Suwit Muay Thai http://www.muaythai-camp-thailand.com/

Patong Boxing Gym http://thailandmuaythaigym.com/

Phromthep Muay Thai http://www.thailandmuaythai.com/

[Soreshins]

Suwit is a solid, no nonsense gym in Chalong which gets a decent reputation. I haven't been there to train but have attended some fights there (as they convert the gym into a stadium for fights). Personally, I don't like the location and prefer Rawai down the road but the gym itself gets a good rep.

Patong MT I would avoid purely because you are in Patong. Probably the worst place to be in terms of "distractions". Good for a night out but would hate to stay there.

Promthep Muay Thai is run by an australian guy who used to be a partner in Rawai Muay Thai gym. Some of the old rawai trainers are there now. Its a brand new gym in a decent part of Rawai. No idea what the training is like but Rawai MT had a reputation as being more a "fitness" gym than a pure fight training gym and I think Promthep is a bit of the same. I wouldn't go there personally but lots of people seem to like it so it must be doing something right.

However, there are other options in Rawai - I've already mentioned Sinbi (as this is my second home) but i've heard decent things about Lion Muay Thai which is also located in Rawai.

Hope that helps

[ferret]

Cheers for the advice mate. Deffinately don't want to go to a fat camp as I more a less run them myself as a job on a daily basis. I know there is an element of this at all camps but looking to go to a camp to work on technique, sparring and chill during downtime. Is sinbi near to beaches etc?

[Shaun.R.]

patong boxing gym is alright but its in patong, word is tho its moving!

i think its moving to kata or karon. it will be better if it does.

training is good there as in you will get alot of padwork but some days they get lazy but i find this at nearly all camps you go to.

there is loads of gyms down rawai and chalong way, check them all out till you find the one you like

[syngon]

Tiger MT is a great facility but it is also very commercial. The BJJ is good but the MMA in general is a little lacking. The only real coaching there in my time was BJJ. After that it was just put on the gloves and bang away for MMA. There was virtually no wrestling training at all which was disappointing. Still, the training was tough and you will get fit training there.

Mamas (Forrest Bungalows) is a pretty cool place to stay, reasonably priced too.

[Soreshins]

nothing against tiger MT but just dont understand why someone wanting mma would go to thailand for it? Be better saving and trying to go to vegas or something similar. The blokes at tiger were nice enough when i visited but so cant say anything bad about the place but if you are going purely for muay thai then i'd say there are better options out there.....

[syngon]

nothing against tiger MT but just dont understand why someone wanting mma would go to thailand for it? Be better saving and trying to go to vegas or something similar. The blokes at tiger were nice enough when i visited but so cant say anything bad about the place but if you are going purely for muay thai then i'd say there are better options out there.....

For sure. Why go to Thailand for MMA? Why not! Training MT twice a day every day can get fairly monotonous, doing some MMA as well if I good way to break that up. Of course there are better places in the world to go if money was no obstacle but it's a lot more manageable to leave in Thailand for a few months than in Vegas I would imagine.