So I’ve been harping on about how the past 4 weeks have been all head down/bum up work, we have no life, etc, but that’s not completely true… We have managed to schedule in our first and second Muay Thai boxing class on Sunday mornings for the past 2 weekends… I tell you, nothing wakes you up quite like sweating from every pore whilst getting the life beat out of you at 8am! And boy do you feel like a million bucks afterwards.

We first met Mr Kru Pong, our cheeky Thai trainer, as we wandered through the Sunday afternoon walking markets in our lovely city of Chiang-Mai. As we passed a row of touts handing out flyers for watching boxing fights, Mr Kru Pong offered his flyer and both Brett & I reflectively said no and then released he was saying “learn” Muay Thai… Actually yes, give me that flyer! We’d been talking about how we wanted to give Muay Thai a go for some time, but it’s not cheap and we just haven’t had time to look into it properly. After a quick chat with Mr Kru Pong, however, we were interested enough to give him a call on Saturday night to schedule a session for the next morning.

We arrived at the worn out old boxing stadium early on Sunday morning and realized we were the only ones doing the class today – score! I was abit apprehensive about how “full on” this 3-hour slaughter session would be, especially as my right ankle (which I’ve since been told I may have actually broken when I rolled it 3 months ago, because it still gives me grief) was still not very strong, but I strapped it up nice and tight, donned my first pair of super sexy Muay Thai boxing shorts and hopped into the ring – after a full body tiger balm rubdown of course!

Turns out I had nothing to worry about – my natural talent for being able to kick higher than my head with ease impressed Mr Kru Pong immediately, and Brett & I took turns showing him our roundhouse kicks and did some one-on-one sparring. Tourists stopped and asked to take photos as cheeky Mr Kru Pong went through a few rounds with us both, and I was pretty proud to see that he was clearly quite impressed with my boxing. He said “Australian lady STRONG! One month, you have first fight.” He then switched to Thai and turned to his wife, and I could hear them discussing numbers and baht (Thai currency), as they both watched me train, speculating as to how much they’d get for me in a fight (against some super scary huge Thai chick no doubt!). He grilled me for my itinerary for the next month, telling – rather than asking – me that as soon as I finish at SEE TEFL tomorrow and every day for the next month, I would be coming straight to him to train. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted, but it’s just not on the cards right now. My plate is full enough!

I thought I’d struggled through 3 hours but in truth the time flew by – and the only injury I copped was a big egg on my shin when I kicked too low and smacked Mr Kru Pong in the elbow. At the end of class he painfully massaged the egg until it dissolved and then bought us a big of street vendor treats – banana and sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf, roasted over coals. Ahhhhmazing.

We liked it so much we went back for seconds, and he’s still pestering me to fight for him. Perhaps a career change is in order? I’m open to trying anything the universe throws at me lately!

- Belle