Rawai is at the South of Phuket and the cheapest place to go drinking for a big night out.
Compared to a night out in Patong, Rawai is smaller but still has some very good bars.
The regular bar I go to in Rawai is the Freedom bar which has a large outdoor bar and several pool tables inside.
The clubs in the area don’t open till midnight but are free to get in and the drinks are cheaper than other clubs in Phuket.
The two main clubs are Icon and Laguna and stay open till late (normally 6am).
First half of my 3 month training complete, the last 6 weeks still to go.
So far I have concentrated on the Muay Thai and tried a few of the other classes. The classes that I plan to try over the next month and a half will be the western boxing and the MMA. The boxing will help improve my stand up game when fighting in Muay Thai and the MMA will just be me attempting the full cage fighting experience 🙂
We have a special guest here at tiger on November 18th, Royce Gracie the UFC legend, so am looking forward to going to his seminar and meeting him in person.
T
he Muay Thai classes are as always hard with the instructors pushing you as much as possible. The hardest part is always the pad work with the trainers. You do 3 rounds on the pads and there is no chance to rest at any point. This is the most useful part of the training as they correct your form if needed, otherwise they just push you to keep punching and kicking throughout all 3 rounds. I plan to take a few private lessons over the coming weeks to tidy up my fighting and form. I’ve heard from others that it really makes a difference to your improvement but it is a bit expensive with each session priced at 600baht. This is about £12 GBP which is cheap compared to private sessions in the UK, but as I’ve spent all my money getting and training here, I’m not the richest person at the moment. You can by a batch of 10 private lessons cheaper if you have the cash though. Now the decision is which trainer do I want the private sessions with?
Patong during the day has 3 parts.
One is the beach. A nice well kept beach really close to hotels and the other amenities. Plenty to do and fun for the family.
The Second are the street shops that are available. Anything you can think of is sold here like designer cloths to weapons. All prices you can haggle and it is well worth doing. Start your haggling low. Half price is not enough. If they say 1000baht, try 300baht. Its amazing how low you can get the price if you haggle well.
There is also a shopping center up the road though you cant really haggle here as these stores are the larger brands like JJB and only sell at the price shown. If you have any luck here let me know, but it is unlikely.
Third are the bars which are in full swing even early in the day. There will likely be ladies sitting in these bars on the main stretch so if you have family with you, you will likely be more comfortable closer to the beach for a drink or some food.
Patong is a good distance from Tiger and usually costs about 400/500baht to get there by taxi.
No matter how long your stay in Phuket, you will likely go to Patong at least once either during the day or during the night (when it really gets interesting).
Week 6 was focused on just the Muay Thai classes. The weather is getting warmer so these classes seem like they are getting harder. I believe it is more the humidity rather than the heat though as some of the other lads come from hot climates and were struggling too. In the class is the normal quick warmup followed by sparing or clinching (depending on what day of the week it is) followed by some crazy fitness training like 200 kicks or a run etc.
Near the end of the week I woke up with a skin rash on my arm unfortunately. Skin rashes come from sweat from others which is unavoidable when training in Muay Thai and in such a hot climate. I shower straight after all my classes but this time I still caught a rash. Rashes are contagious so if I turned up to the classes with it, everyone else would catch it too easily. So for the rest of the week I trained by running or doing weights out of the way from others. Bit of a pain but after 4 days it was all cleared up again and I was back to training.
Finished the week with a night out in Rawai which is allot cheaper than Patong for drinks.
Half way through my training and only 6 weeks to go. The time is passing fast.
The Phuket Shooting Range is only a short distance from the Tiger Muay Thai Camp.
If you head south on the main road and turn right at the roundabout the range is only about 200m up the road.
The range is very well managed with you getting assigned to a instructor as soon as you turn up. You select the weapons that you want to fire from the list they have available. The prices are expensive but that is typical when firing guns.
The cheapest is 690baht for 10 bullets for the .22 and go up to 1200baht for 10 shotgun cartridges. All the other guns range between these two prices.
You purchase the bullets that you want to fire and the instructor walks you through to the firing range. You have to wear safety glasses and ear protectors when handling the gun and they walk you through a few safety tips.
For the hand guns you are seated on a chair and are provided with a paper target that is pushed back to the distance that you wish to shoot to.
Target for Shotgun
For the shotguns you are taken to a wider shooting range and shoot at metal statues that fall over once hit.
My shooting success rate was 50% I believe but I’m sure it was higher. Don’t know how they measure that so I’ll just accept the mark. So if I shoot at you I will need at least 2 bullets it seems 🙂
Worth having a go if you get the chance.