What now seems like an alternate reality or a surreal dream, my time spent in Hua Hin training at Sitjaopho this past winter almost feels like it never happened.
Although, whenever I play the music I was listening to while abroad I get transported back to that place:
The long train ride from Bangkok to Hua Hin, the lonely hotel room, the uneasiness walking to my first training session, not knowing what to expect.
the morning runs, the hard training, the friendships, food, good memories and that Thai HEAT.
what POWER music can have on one’s mind.
I digress, anyways.
What can I say that a simple google search of ’Sitjaopho’ won’t say:
The camps reputation speaks for itself.
If I recall correctly, I believe it was instagram where I was first exposed to the camp.
I’m sure many of you have seen either the twins sparring each other or any numerous videos of one of the twins sparring with countless foreign nak mauy whom travel from across the globe to train at Sitjaopho.
It was the beauty of their technique that caught my eye.
The flow, how fluid and seamlessly they transition from one technique to the other; out thinking whoever they were working with into defensive submission.
‘Damn… that’s sick asf. I gotta go…’ I said to myself.
Fast forward to a winter 2019.
No stranger to travel, having visited several dozen cities, countries and continents, but I always had my reservations about traveling to Southeast Asian, particularly Thailand.
Long flight times and the compromise of spending precious ‘Vacation Hours’ in transit rather than on a turquoise beach somewhere in Latin America sipping on a coconut, and even moreso, the time away from work lended to my apprehension and thus deterred any aspirations of ever traveling to Thailand, but something told me 2019 was my year. BOY WAS I RIGHT! ¿QUE NO?
I felt it was now or never. /nervous laughter
And like that, I was gone for 3 weeks. The longest I ever took off in the 8 years of owning the gym.
Sure, I’ve had vacations here and there…. A few days, a holiday weekend, maybe a week.. week and a half? But this.. This was a test to see if the place wouldn’t collapse in my absence.
Alright. So after my few days in BKK I head south to Hua Hin to train at sitjapho for the next 2.5 weeks.
Now, Hua Hin is the main center of the city, the camp was about a 10-15 minute highway ride up the mountain to an area called ‘Hua Hin Lek Fai’.
And let me tell you something.. There is NOTHING in the area.
Enter, The martial art troupe of the journey to the master. The ’10,000 Steps’.
From where I was, to the camp was like a 1 mile walk and I did that maybe for the first week?
My advice: Learn to ride a scooter or have the Grab app cos my ass was walking everywhere for that first week.
Trying to find dinner after a hard ass training session at night? Fuuuuuuuuu.
Anyways. WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY?
It was a great time, the training was technical, learned a lot from a student and as well as a coaching perspective.
Much respect to all the trainers there. They work SO hard. It was very admirable and inspiring.
And what a friendly group of training partners I met while I was there. People from all around the globe, of all ages, genders, creeds and skill levels.
The learning was immense. Highly recommend it.
Check out the video, let me know what you think?
If you’ve been to sitjapho drop a comment would love to hear what you have to say.
Thanks y’all!