Eat Train Write : A Chapter In My Bangkok Travel Diary

Eat. Shop. Laugh.

The 2 long weekends recently spent in Bangkok could not have  been more different as far as experiences were concerned.   The previous weekend was a girly trip jam-packed full of shopping, gourmet adventure and endless girly chatter and belly-hugging laughter around the clock.  We busted our shopping budget hopping from mall to mall which resulted in my  coming home with 2 extra bags and absolutely no more space in my wardrobe.  We had a foot massage everyday to salve our aching feet from all that marathon shopping spree.  We indulged in exotic Thai street food and sinfully decadent desserts that did not sit well with my personal trainers and boxing coach when I sluggishly pulled myself into the gym for a couple of training sessions before leaving Singapore for Bangkok again.

Eat. Train. Write. 

When I returned to Bangkok this recent weekend, the trip saw a schedule packed with boxing training, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training for the hubby, and plenty of Mixed Martial Arts action.  We were on a fight journalism assignment to cover Full Metal Dojo, Thailand's largest MMA event.  So the weekend saw us hauling camera equipment across town for some exciting fight photography work, worked through the night selecting and editing photos, conducted interviews with the fighters,  and did a couple of writeups to cover the weigh-in results as well as the play-by-play account of the event during fight night. 

As I was booked for  boxing training at the Bangkok Fight Lab this weekend, I was also careful about keeping my diet clean.  I hardly indulged in decadent food and did not have a drop of alcohol nor did I have any dessert simply because I wanted to get back on track with my fitness regime. I watched everything I ate, got as much rest as I could and kept my activity levels up.

 At his BJJ training sessions with Morgan at the Bangkok Fight Lab, David picked up new skills which was a big deal for an eager newbie like him, who often felt much slower as he rolled inflexibly behind the other younger, more agile, or more advanced  team members during his BJJ classes back home.  At my boxing training sessions with Kru Songkram, I often felt that similar intensity that I get during my boxing training sessions in Singapore simply because like my own coach, Kru Songkram is finicky about technique. His sessions were mainly drills which I would grumble about but knew deep in my heart that they were critical.  

Our only indulgences during this trip was a luxurious spa treatment which I bought David as a birthday present.  We also indulged in a scrumptious Teppanyaki dinner at Benihana restaurant, at the Anantara Resort where we had an early  14th wedding anniversary cum David's 51st birthday celebration.  The team at Benihana was flawless when it came to service and did everything to make David's 51st birthday celebration a memorable one.  

When all that writing and photo editing for Full Metal Dojo were completed, we took the camera out onto the streets of Bangkok and walked everywhere, off the beaten track, to capture some  Bangkok street scenes.

Bangkok Fuels My Soul

While both long weekends were as different as chalk and cheese, for me, my experiences in Bangkok fed my soul. Whether it was the food, the shopping, the massages, the people, their smiles, my boxing training, doing all that frantic writing before and  during fight night, staying up to edit photos or simply watching the amazing transition of Thai fighters from traditional Muay Thai experts to excellent MMA fighters, Bangkok truly fueled my soul.  

I love this city,  I love spending time with my girl friends or the hubby doing totally different things in this city. I love the friends I had made in this city.  I absolutely love being in this city.   I love the smells, sights and sounds of this city.  Every moment spent in Bangkok for me in the past 2 weekends, was somewhat like Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love.   For me, it was Eat, Train, Write.  

Even as I walked through the gate at the airport in Bangkok to board my flight back to Singapore, I was already making plans for my next trip back.

About The Writer

The writer of this blog post is a Marketing and PR professional for over 20 years.  Due to her love for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), she is also a freelance sports writer on the side, contributing MMA-related articles to several sports media.  She works in partnership with her husband, David Ash, who is an avid sports photographer from www.singaporemaven.com.  She is passionate about Boxing and nurtures a dream to fight competitively one day when her coach stops making fun of her.  She is also a psychic intuitive by birth and runs a consultancy that does tarot and numerology readings under her brand, Sun Goddess Tarot.  This blog is affectionately called "The Crazy AngMo" as she is married to one, although she has not yet explained to THE Ang Mo that when translated, he has been labeled  “the bloke with ginger hair”.  

Kamikaze Tuk Tuk Driver Failed To Spoil Our Selfie Fun

Trained With Kru Songkram At The Bangkok Fight Lab

Morgan Perkins Showing David Some New BJJ Moves

Some MMA Action At Full Metal Dojo 5. (courtesy of David Ash www.singaporemaven.com)

The Main Event At Full Metal Dojo 5 Was Fought Between Show Promoter Jon Nutt And The Referee Dana Blouin.  Thankfully They Are Still Good Friends, Dana's Black Eye Notwithstanding.

River Life (courtesy of David Ash www.singaporemaven.com)

Sunset At Chao Phraya River (courtesy of David Ash www.singaporemaven.com)

A Busking Schoolboy Captured On The Streets Of Bangkok. His Dancing Doll Bears An Uncanny Resemblance To Him.

David And I Enjoyed An Early Wedding Anniversary And Birthday Celebration At Benihana Restaurant, Anantara Hotel

The Benihana Team Surprised David With A Birthday Cake And A Song

I Watched My Diet And Only Had A Pot Of Green Tea At Mr Jones' Orphanage Cafe

A 16 Year Old Amateur MMA Fighter Can Teach Us So Much About Sportsmanship

I recently filed a story about one of ours, a 16 year old Singaporean schoolboy who is fast making a name for himself in the world of amateur Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).  I am truly proud of him obviously because I am a Singaporean, and I want to give the boy some recognition even when MMA as a sport is sadly lacking much- needed  support and funding from the establishment.

Sim Kai Xiong is fairly new to the amateur MMA scene.  He fought on the amateur card  at Full Metal Dojo 2 on Saturday, 23^rd August in Phuket.  Full Metal Dojo is Phuket's first professional mixed martial arts (MMA) event, put together by its CEO Jon Nutt, to build awareness for the sport in Thailand and provide a platform for an exchange of mixed martial arts skills and experiences amongst professional MMA fighters from all over the world.

Kai Xiong, is a 16 year old Nanyang Junior College student, who is an MMA and boxing protégé currently being trained by head coach Arvind Lalwani and Emalo Urratia at Juggernaut Fight Club in Singapore.    He is a national youth champion, and an amateur MMA prospect who had been training at Juggernaut Fight Club only for the last 7 months.

His last fight was at Rebel Fighting Championship in Singapore where he impressively dominated his opponent and beat him through a submission by an armbar.  At Full Metal Dojo 2, Kai Xiong was the only foreign fighter on the amateur card and his was a difficult fight as his 22 year old Thai opponent put up a series of vicious attacks with his round house kicks.  The fight had to be stopped a few times when the amateur fighters violated the amateur rules with some elbow shots.  Kai Xiong clearly dominated the cage with a very strong ground game though, a strategic move knowing that Muay Thai could potentially be his achilles' heel against his Thai opponent.   He finally won in the 3rd round by the judges' unanimous decision.  

Having watched the young protégé train during my kickboxing training sessions at Juggernaut Fight Club, I had observed this boy's strengths in boxing and grappling. However, beyond his skills, I felt an air of quiet maturity about him.   His maturity as a fighter in spite of his youth, is an edge as he approaches his fights with a lot of composure, determined to always be in control by timing his chances.  When he had to face an older and significantly more experienced Muay Thai expert, I did not see any hint of fear in his eyes.  Although he was cornered by his very experienced coach Emalo Urratia who had won his fight against Seiha Pich at Full Metal Dojo 1 in June this year, Kai Xiong did not display any hint of over-confidence.  In fact, at the Full Metal Dojo 2 weigh-in event, it was obvious that he just wanted to get the show on the road, win this, and then fly back home in time to make it for school on Monday.  When I asked him if he was ready for his fight, he said very confidently, “The team at Juggernaut Fight Club had been working on my overall game. Thanks to them, I am ready for anything."

I liked his quiet confidence founded on his training mantra of No Ego.  While I have come across true sportsmen in professional sports, I wished more athletes and even some professional MMA fighters could have that same quiet confidence and humility as this boy.  

Kai Xiong told me that he detests arrogance in sports.  Like Kai Xiong, I detest arrogance and inauthenticity in sportsmanship.  I have absolutely no respect for "Manufactured Sportsmanship". 

I know of sports organizations which "manufacture" top-tier athletes who obviously turn an event into a biggest pay-per-view just because they manipulate decisions from who should be on the judging panel to who the opponents should be.   

I get annoyed when I hear of sports organizations who pre-select a weaker opponent to be fed to a stronger fighter just because they want to garner positive media interest around the latter.   

I dislike athletes who spent a long time nurturing a base of young fans who watched everything they had said or done in awe, promising to inspire a genuine love for fitness, respect for discipline and determination in sports, only to turn around to tell the world that they want to be the biggest box office hit in Hollywood.   

Most of all, I dislike professional MMA fighters who  talk about the sport of MMA being one that is not about the glitz and glamour, yet turn up at the cage with  pomp and pageantry of a Mardi Gras.

So yes, I am extremely proud of Sim Kai Xiong.  At his tender age of 16, he had started off on the right foot with the right training and the right attitude worthy of a sportsman.  Singapore should indeed be proud of him.  

I have  immense respect for true sportsmanship and an ardent love for MMA, so  I would definitely have my eyes glued on Sim Kai Xiong whom I know will be making it as an excellent MMA fighter in the professional circuit in no time.

The photo accompanying this blog post was taken by David Ash, www.singaporemaven.com

About The Writer

The writer of this blog post is a Marketing and PR professional for over 20 years.  Due to her love for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), she is also a freelance sports writer on the side, contributing MMA-related articles to several sports media.  She works in partnership with her husband, David Ash, who is an avid sports photographer from www.singaporemaven.com.  She is passionate about Muay Thai and nurtures a dream to fight competitively one day when her coach stops making fun of her.  She is also a psychic intuitive by birth and runs a consultancy that does tarot and numerology readings under her brand, Sun Goddess Tarot.  This blog is affectionately called "The Crazy AngMo" as she is married to one, although she has not yet explained to THE Ang Mo that when translated, he has been labeled  “the bloke with ginger hair”.  

No Barriers, No Fear, No Ego - The Juggernaut Fight Club Way

Falling In Love With Kickboxing

If you have been following my blog, you would know that health and fitness ranked very high on my list of priorities.  Many have told me that time constraints and conflicting priorities prevent them from doing more to get healthier and fitter.  I felt otherwise.  Having to juggle a very fast-paced life as a marketeer at a financial MNC, running a business in between, and managing the demands of family,  were the very reasons I gave 200% to my health and fitness.  I had to be fit and healthy enough to juggle these priorities as effectively as possible.

A big part of my fitness regime was kickboxing which I had fallen in love with when I was introduced to the sport a few months ago after my knee made full recovery post surgery.    I was so fuelled with passion for the sport that I even enrolled at a Muay Thai gym in Phuket to undergo training with a pro-fighter and Muay Thai coach in June this year.  I have also lined up plans to go visit my Thai coach for intensive training sessions  in Phuket every 2 months.  Having survived my first training in Phuket, with nothing more than a bruised elbow and a sprained foot, I fell irretrievably in  love with the sport enough to want to be better at it.  I came back to Singapore with a conviction to lift my fitness level with a 5-day-a-week work-out routine that combined strength conditioning, cardio-fitness and kickboxing training, and I briefed my personal trainers to design a regime that focused on helping me become a better kickboxer.

Juggernaut Fight Club

David and I talked a lot about my interest in kickboxing and the support I needed to sustain my interest and better myself in the sport. He was naturally worried and his concern centered on the fact that I was older. I developed my interest in the sport at an age when most were careful about long term impact to their bodies. Having had numerous health issues and a knee surgery 2 years ago did not help my cause.  So he called his contacts in the industry for whom he did a lot of sports photography work to get advice while I did my research to find out more about some of the specialized gyms in Singapore that offered functional training in kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).  That was when I chanced upon Juggernaut Fight Club. If I had the courage to walk into a Muay Thai training regime in Phuket with my eyes opened,   I was not going to allow the more intensive training and the younger, fitter folks who had pro-fight experience under their belts at Juggernaut Fight Club intimidate me.
  
Before signing up with Juggernaut Fight Club, I read the reviews on it and checked out their videos on YouTube.  What was important for me, was that I picked a coach who was focused on my interest, my development and my safety.  That was why I picked Arvind Lalwani.  Okay, I could not lie but his instagram profile was reassuring too.  It described him as “ Head coach at the best fight gym in Singapore…national wrestler, loves cake and produce fighters.”  That won me over.   I then contacted Arvind to prepare him for the  heart attack of potentially having in his hands, a much older and crazy woman with a plastic knee who wanted to be trained to fight like Ronda Rousey in one year.  I swore, when Arvind met me for the first time, my psychic mind saw a huge question mark in his head that read, “How did I end up with this fruitcake?”  However, he was so reassuring and took the time to understand what my fitness goals were and what I had been doing so far to get there.

Arvind The Juggernaut

Through my research, I found out that Arvind was a highly decorated fighter. He was the first Singaporean to snag a gold medal  in an international wrestling competition, and he competed in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) as well as the MMA arenas. He fought professionally in 2010 in the Mettle games and had also headed the national boxing team. When he established Juggernaut Fight Club, he produced winning fighters who represented club and country at the One Fighting Championships  (OneFC) and Pacific X-treme Combat (PXC). He was constantly training his fighters for competitions.  As I wrote this, one of his fighters just returned from the OneFC fight in Taipei and more were getting trained for the upcoming Rebel Fighting Championship on 1 August.

His list of achievements was enough to make me sprint out of that door, the very first day I visited his gym. To make matters worse, when I glanced around the gym for the first time, I realized this was for real.  It was a serious fighters’ gym.  Training was in session then. The young blokes who were rolling around the floor, while throwing punches at each other, were all in “fight-prep” mode.  I wanted to turn and run but Arvind’s frame was blocking the doorway.   A little voice of in-confidence within me crept up to whisper a disconcerting question, “What are you doing here, Jo?  This place is not for you.  You are old, unfit, soft and completely not suited for the sport. Go downstairs for a beer.”

I looked around for girls, hoping that maybe with another female nearby who looked equally like a deer in the headlights, I might have felt quite at home.  However, everyone there at that time were blokes and the gym was not a regular gym with “pussy stationery bikes and half-assed cross- trainers”,  it was a functional training gym focused on fight training and well-equipped with everything that a pro-fighter needed to get fight-ready. 

After speaking to Arvind, I connected enough with him to understand his training style, and I caught a glimpse of his rapport with the guys he had been training at the gym.  That was the rapport and trust I was looking for.  And he said to me very firmly, "At Juggernaut, there are no Egos."   So, I summoned the nerve to commit myself to serious kickboxing training at Juggernaut Fight Club and I have not looked back since.

Training with Arvind had been such a breath of fresh air.  Every minute of it was about perfecting the technique, right from the start of getting me into the right fight stance.  We went back to the basics of every kickboxing move in spite of the fact that I had been training for a few months prior.  He made me re-learn everything ...his way.  He explained each move with precision and stressed that the importance of getting the technique right was to prevent the potential of my getting injured while delivering a powerful blow. He was unrelenting.  When I was near frustration or thoroughly exhausted in between drills, he continued to egg me on and challenged me to push past my pain barriers.  He would not accept anything less than full commitment to a training session and he made it very clear that he was with me all the way no matter how difficult it got.

My Fitness Goals

"So what are my fitness goals?", Arvind and everyone who mattered asked me.  

When I started out playing rugby in my younger days, everyone told me that a prop forward could never and should never attempt to score a try.  I should stick to my role as a prop forward and clear the way for the back row to score that try.   I proved them wrong and I did score tries after all at tournaments.

When I came out of a knee surgery with everyone telling me that I would never be able to run again, I proved them wrong and completed my half marathon last year.  When my knee made full recovery and everyone told me that I should just stick to doing safe exercises like swimming and basic gym work, I proved them wrong and picked up kickboxing.  

When I picked up kickboxing, everyone told me I was crazy as I had a less than perfect knee, and I was too old and not fit or fast enough.  I know for a fact that I am too old for amateur boxing competitions perhaps but I told Arvind that he had to get me into a ring one day, no matter what it took, even if it was just white collar boxing or exhibition fights.  I wanted to prove to everyone that nobody should be limited by barriers, by fear or by ego.  I am not afraid of pain, I am not afraid of taking hits from anyone, I am not afraid of falling and I am definitely not afraid of working hard towards my goals.

I felt the Universe had  guided me into Juggernaut Fight Club, smacked me with a bit of a shock when I realized what I was in for, and then salved me with the assurance that Arvind was the man who was going to get me to my goal.  I believed that I could not have picked a better coach.  Arvind produced fighters.  He ran a serious fight gym.  Yet, he gave me his time and commitment, and he made me feel that I deserved to be a good  kickboxer one day.   I truly respected Arvind for what he had done for the sport and was proud to have him as my coach.  However, the biggest reason that I committed myself to Juggernaut Fight Club and his training was that like me, he had so much determination, a never-say-never attitude, and was always ready for a challenge no matter how big or small it was.  If he could commit his time and effort to me as someone so new to the sport who was completely way past her prime, then I was committed to ensuring I gave 200% to my training with him.

I am a firm believer that in life, there are definitely NO BARRIERS.

I will leave you with an article I read that inspired me to follow my dreams and work towards my goal regardless of age, fitness level, injury and other limitations: http://news.distractify.com/people/17-important-life-lessons-that-martial-arts-will-teach-you/?v=1

You can find out more about Arvind Lalwani and Juggernaut Fight Club at http://juggernautfightclub.com/

The photos accompanying this blog post was taken by my very talented best friend, husband and sports photographer extraordinaire, David Ash.  You can find out more about his photography work at  www.singaporemaven.com

About The Writer

The writer of this blog post is a 44 year old mother of one, who spreads her time between her day job as a marketing professional at a financial institution, her hobby as a certified professional tarot reader and numerologist, her passion for kickboxing and her family which includes a 20 year old son and 3 dogs with personality disorders.  She's married to a Scot who has been affectionately called "The Crazy AngMo" which when translated, has labeled him one with “ginger hair”.  And you know what we all thought of gingers right?  He thinks he is blonde, but in a certain light, I think he is more a ginger.  Together, we create a home made up with more nuts than a fruitcake but filled with plenty of love.

I hate push-ups but I was told they were good for me.

Trying to avoid dislodging my coach's nipple.

My coach Arvind, and I.  Today, he is in a good mood.

Training with that nuisance of a band on.

Making that elbow work harder