Cami and I Get Into the Ring, Then Find Some Sharks!!!

So there was a Muay Thai training facility near our hotel in Ko Tao and the day before we scouted out how much it might cost to do some training ourselves so we could be the Muay Thai Masters. It looked pretty intense and it was nice because most of it was one on one training with a trainer. So I signed us up for two sessions one at 8:00 and then another at 4:00. 

Cami's favorite movie, The Toothfairy, was on. K well it's not her favorite movie because she's a dental Hygienist, but it has great lines like "big boy pound for not talking about puberty"among others. I fell asleep five minutes after we sat down to watch it and slept until it was time to get up and TRAIN!!! 

We had a small Museli and yogurt breakfast, one of the few free breakfasts that was actually enjoyable, and we were off to the gym. 

The gym is all outside, with a little covered area where there are interlocking foam mats, punching bags, mirrors and a full size Thai Boxing Ring.

We started with ten minutes of jump rope to warm up, then on to some stretching, then we got gloved up for our work with the trainer. Our trainer was wearing shin pads, a waist pad, and two blockers, whereas we had our hands wrapped and then had on boxing gloves. We looked pretty hard core, with pictures to prove it.

 

Cami after getting all taped up

Gloved and ready to rock

In Muay Thai they have the basic boxing punches like the Jab - which our trainer called "Yib Ma" and then Power Punch which was "Pad Maaa" and then Kicks, but he didn't say anything different for kicks. He worked on our footwork with us and had us shuffling kicking and punching for a good half an hour. I think we both did really well for our first time and the trainers were really encouraging. It was a little difficult getting the timing on the left kicks because you have to jump to your right foot forward, then kick and then jump back to the initial stance. It was also weird because I'm used to going back to a very knee bent low position after doing everything and in this the trainer wanted me to stand up super tall, even after kicking and punching. 

After we were done working with the trainer we practiced our front kicks against the bag, he told me to do a hundred and I lost count and did too many probably, but they only told Cami to do fifty, which she was mildly insulted about because she doesn't like it when people take it easy on her just because she is a girl.

We then finished it off with a session of sit ups. Afterwards we were both pretty spent. 

Kicking the bag over a hundred times

Getting my butt kicked, literally

ELBOW to the face

After Thai Boxing, it was time to get ready to go on a self made snorkeling trip to Shark Bay, we got some food together and hopped on our scooter and we were off. Driving the scooters is a lot of fun, but it's crazy to see how fast and crazy some people drive and I don't think we saw one other driver or passenger wearing helmets. There are whole families on these scooters too with the dad driving, the toddler holding onto the handlebars between dad's legs and the mother holding an infant sitting on the back. - and Cami pointed out that western society thinks that Britney Spears is a bad mother- 

So we drove to the South east side of the island and walked down a bunch of stairs to Shark Bay. The Coral in Shark bay wasn't anything to write home about, but it definitely lived up to its name. Cami lounged out on a rock and read her book for a bit while I went on a hourish snorkeling adventure. I saw another large trigger fish, but kept my distance this time, and lots of other cool fish. 

Trigger fish! Almost half as big as the one that chased after me while diving!!!

While I was taking a close up picture of a very camaflouged reef fish, all of a sudden I saw a white blur cruise past my periphery. It kind of freaked me out at first and then I was like, holy crap that's a SHARK!!! I quickly zoomed out on my camera and shot as many pictures and video as I could as I swam after him. I was pretty excited, but when I couldn't see it anymore it was kind of scary that there are these huge fish that can come up behind you with no warning at all. From then on I was looking all around me to make sure I didn't get spooked by another one and to ensure that if there was another one to see, I would see it. The first shark I saw, and the others that I saw after, were all reef sharks. The biggest was probably 3-4 feet long and a foot and a half to two feet thick. I don't think that reef sharks have teeth, but I don't know for sure and they moved so fast, anyway it was exciting and a little scary all at once. It didn't help matters that I was by myself a good half km away from where Cami was laying out. So after I saw my fist shark I though I should get back and try to get Cami to see one as well. But then as I was swimming back I saw another one, slightly smaller, but just as cool. 

SHARK!!!

Cami and I then hopped in the water together. I spotted one more and got her attention in time to show her and then she spotted another one, and then right before we got out we saw a witter baby one. Lot's of fun. 

Side note apparently they don't frequently attack humans, but they can, have and do have teeth - oh well- 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacktip_reef_shark

Oh and also there are A LOT of French people on Ko Tao and while we thought the French were super nice when we were in France, there were some really rude french people in Ko Tao. 

While eating breakfast before we went to the gym, this French group couldn't give the waitress their room number to get their breakfast paid for and the French leader guy after yelling that he had paid for 23 breakfasts, threw down his utensils on the glass table and stormed off to reception muttering to himself in French. Then the woman that he was with started going off on the little thai waitress again and I had to say something, I told her to settle down, and then she muttered at me in French. The Thai people are so nice, we haven't seen anyone ever take that kind of attitude with them. Seioursly brutal. Sorry for this tangent, but it reminded me of when we got back from snorkeling and a French Family had moved our stuff from where Cami was laying and had basically taken over the entire rock where all of our things were. They just folded back our towel and set up camp and when we came back there was no offer to move or suggestion of apology or anything, but whatever I guess. Viva la France. 

After snorkeling we drove down to pay for our trip back to Phuket, which is what we are doing right now while I am writing - traveling from ko tao to Phuket-, and then we were off to another session of Muay Thai. This session we warmed up the same, but the trainers taught us how to do hooks, upper cuts, elbows and knees. He also started moving us around a lot more like sparing. We would shift when he shifted and punch/kick/knee/elbow and everything on command. It was a lot of fun. It was also a lot harder and quicker, not to mention hotter, so I was even more exhausted afterwards and dripping with sweat. We definitely would recommend it though and you can't go wrong when you get two sessions of personal training for four hundred baht each, so 26 bucks for the both of us. 

Cami kneeing her trainer

After the second session we were ready for some dinner and we tried some Sushi, which was decent and the girl serving us was really nice, but it's hard to beat Midori, in Kalispell. For some reason most sushi places don't focus on the detail of their rolls as much as Midori does. If you are in Kalispell you should go. Get the Passion roll and the sashimi platter or the tuna special. 

We finished off the night with a coconut ice cream banana split and went home to pack. 

All in all it was a pretty awesome day!!!

- Stay tuned for the trip to Bali and more exciting adventures -