Tuk Tuk's, Shopping Malls and the home of Professional Muay Thai...

Tuk Tuk's - They'd make a fun GTA/Saint's Row 2 side mission!



I wonder if Tuk Tuk travel is covered by travel insurance? for the uninitiated they didn't go that fast, but the only thing between you and the bitumen was air and the drivers own sense of control.

MBK Shopping Mall Bangkok



MBK Shopping mall in Bangkok. I was told that the King's Birthday weekend was the biggest shopping weekend in the world. It was busy compared to an average day in a Melbourne shopping centre, but it was relatively quiet. When this photo was taken Bangkok airport had only just opened, and they were working around the clock to get the backlog of travelers home safe. Lucky for us while the last Bangkok International Airport blockade started while we were over there, by the time we got there, the airport was a ghost town, we checked in, ate, shopped and boarded with time to spare and the flight arrived half an hour early in Melbourne.

Lumpinee Stadium Bangkok



This is a video of a couple of knockouts that we witnessed in Lumpinee Stadium. Unfortunately we weren't there for one of the big fights when Lumpinee is packed to the rafters and the place goes wild. The first fight in the video was probably the most fun. There were two girls behind us barracking in true Thai fashion for the fighter in the red trunks. I could only imagine what it would be like when the whole stadium is alive.

The second fight was between a Thai and an English guy. The Westerner started really strong, probably too strong. After 2 weeks of watching fights you notice when two Thais fight they take the first round to just test their opponents. It's sometimes kick for kick, while they see what each other are made of. Anyway, I guess for westerners it's a case of trying to knock the Thais out before they can wear you down. Because their bodies are so conditioned they can take a thrashing like a rent-a-car. In any case, this westerner got winded at the end of the second round, and the Thai fighter exploited this in round three with devastating consequences!

Big Buddha

I spent one morning after breakfast at the hilltop Buddhist temple in Pattaya. A friend from the hotel let me ride her scooter through the inner city traffic onto the mountain road. It was just a little bit daunting considering i was wearing an ice cream container for a helmet.

The following are a bunch of photos i took at the temple. Without trying to make it sound like an atypical western spiritual experience, it was extremely peaceful up there, and making the offerings to Buddha, was a nice opportunity to take a step back from all the craziness of the trip and reflect somewhere extremely respectful and calm. In practicing muay thai you do experience a limited amount of Buddhist ceremony, so it was nice to see the grassroots of the religion especially having a local take me up there and show me the ropes.

When you donate at the temple you get a candle, incense and a bunch of flowers. The candle represents enlightenment. The incense when lit consumes you, and surrounds you, you breathe it in, like the teachings, and the flowers, which are usually lilies represent something beautiful growing from the mud and dirt. This is what Buddhist strive to be like. Just a word of advice, don't smell the flowers! I admit i did commit a faux pas! (i hope i used that word correctly!)

ISS and Counter-Terrorism Police

Here are some photos of the gym we did most of our training at. It is owned and run by Sifu Robert McInnes and is an impressive place. While being a gym it is also the World Kumite Organization Headquarters and the training ground for Pattaya SWAT Counter -Terrorism Police.

We spent a short session training on the police course with Sifu and it was much harder than it looks. SWAT police are required to complete the course carrying their equipment and a person of equal body weight. I managed to scrape through three runs carrying myself alone.

Lifting weights is one thing, but putting strength to practical use is much more challenging and infinitely more useful.



Looking down from the top level of the gym onto the SWAT Police Training Ground



Our first visit to the gym, I didn't quite know what to expect the following week



Neck-strengthening with Sifu



Myself pad-training

sityodtong & multimedia

The other week I had the privilege of training for one day at Camp Sityodtong in Pattaya Thailand. Trying to explain it would not do it justice. Been the spiritual home of Muay Thai in Thailand it has a certain electricity about it. I had concluded it was the sound of the place, but that would deny the sight, smell and the people. Before we got there I had no intention of training. I had seen Sityodtong in documentaries and I knew it's reputation around Pattaya. But walking in was a whole different story. People call it basic, but when your training muay thai fighters you don't need much. A couple of rings, a whole lot of bags, a good number of trainers and 20 or 30 students training. It was lucky i had brought my gear with me because once i drank that place in i couldn't resist becoming part of it...

The camp is instrumental in changing lives. Adopting young orphans who have nothing but a bleak existence to look forward too the camp teaches them what it is to be cared for, respected and how to respect themselves and each other.

One 2 hour training session was not enough at Sityodtong, I hope to return there in the future for a longer period of time.









A side note about the Sidebar
I've set up the sidebar with a slideshow from my picasa web albums and my personal youtube channel. I'll try and keep these updated with new pictures and videos next year. There are no videos showing because i think it displays a minimum of 4 clips. Seeing i have only uploaded one, none appear.

killing time...

Being the last week of term four with Christmas just around the corner the school is a ghost town. Leaving teachers with the opportunity to wrap up this year and start preparing for the next. I've spent the time between meetings and supervising student activities packing up my desk. It's been as therapeutical as it has been sad, and not to forget a bit daunting. I've got a few more things to do before the end of the week, but not enough to occupy another 3 days, so instead I'll make use of this renewed webpage.

I was thinking about the title of this page. Why i named it this, what i meant when i did and what it was to be "out of context". At the time I created this blog I had this romanticized idea that when you put yourself in new surroundings with new people you learn more about who you are (At the moment I'm happy with the title, since it offers me a lose excuse when what I've written is taken "out of context"). To an extent i still think that this is true. Your always in control of how you act and what you do, but i feel that traveling is a good opportunity to see how I adapt to a change in environment.

Context is overrated, and the more i think about it the less i think we are ever in context. I started reflecting on what it was to be out of context, which was a question i found hard to address. Instead i started to think about existing IN context. Again an idea that was extremely hard to get my mind around. I've always felt the need to 'flee' my current 'context' when things started getting too much, I was getting bored or i had that constant underlying feeling of dread that i will die with regrets. Suddenly it dawned on me that maybe i was never in context, and perhaps we never are. Life isn't set out like that. As soon as we developed consciousness and the ability to make our own minds up context flew out the window. We go where we want, we do what we want, we are who we want. Obviously some people are products of their environment and that has it's own library of literature and ideas, but on this forum i only speak from my own personal position where i have the freedom (and support) to put all aspects of my life under my direct control.

So here i am, flawed titles and all, in context, out of context, it doesn't matter. The idea now is to experience as many contexts as i can, and see what I can learn from them.


This is a photo of me two weeks ago at the Buddhist Temple in Pattaya Thailand. Am I out of context? You decide...