My muay thai experience

What's your new year's resolution? Maybe you're going to give up pop or eat healthier or if you're like many you're going to spend more time at the gym. That's mine. Spend more time at the gym. The muay thai gym to be exact. I know what you're thinking "muay thai's a really intense whole body workout, isn't it? Good for you Jaclyn. Thailand's really treating you well." Yep, sure is. My friend Tash and I headed to the gym for the fights around 830. We flagged what we thought was a songthaew  (standard rate of 20 baht wherever you're going) but when we got to the gym, he tried to charge us 100 baht each! (To put that in perspective, that's less than a dollar compared to more than three dollars!) He claimed he wasn't a songthaew, but a taxi. (A taxi in disguise, maybe!) But ok, if we're going to play that game, I'm really a Buddhist monk (in disguise of course!) And the songthaew taxi driver impersonator should be paying me. BOOM! I think my 'spending more time at the gym' mantra is improving mental as well as physical aspects of my life. Anyway, Tash and I try to get in the gym. We looked up prices online but the prices we were being quoted at the door were wayyy higher. What? Come on, Thailand, you're really making sticking to my resolution difficult. That's ok, I'm up for the challenge. I did some observing and saw that individuals were paying more than groups, so Tash and I headed to the street, recruited a group of randoms and tried our luck at the door once again. Sure enough, just like magic, we got in for much less than we initially bargained for. Now it was time to bring on the fighting. And damn was there a lot! There were tons of Mexican and Thai men surrounding the ring smoking, drinking and taking bets. The ring fighters were so intense. They ranged in age from 6 years old to 36 years old. Their strength was incredible. I was very impressed and awed but also taken aback. It's hard to watch young people hurt one another physically. After gearing up, I chatted with a few fighters who explained to me that the rituals that are done before fights are to honor the trainers, and that during fights, in between rounds, fighters were rubbed down with tiger balm to soothe their muscles. At the end, participants walk around the stands and collect money in their mouths from bystanders. I really enjoyed watching and learning about the fights. #andyouthoughtiwasworkingout...