Joey Trombino

Blog entry numero uno.

I start this blog on the second day of my month long Thailand stint. The rain is steady outside of my peaceful room at 3:35 in the morning. I managed to snag a few hours of solid sleep on this night however, not complaining. The time adjustment has been extreme (12 hour difference). I am staying in a quaint apartment complex in a remote village in Northern Thailand outside of Chiang Mai. So remote in fact, that when I Ubered (Yes, they have Uber here), the local driver was significantly lost for a while. Before we go any further, I'd like to know a little bit about who you are. That's impossible. I'm kidding. Before we go further, I want to explain what I am doing here. I sing on Cruise ships from time to time ( I know, I know, it's sort of a big deal...humor) and worked for many months with a chap by the name of Steve Brisley. Steve is a fine musician and dear friend and an avid traveler / adventurer. He plotted a particularly wild scheme a while back to live in a remote part of Thailand and train at a Muay Thai Kickboxing gym for a month. I said, OK. And... now we are caught up.  Grand.

So, after a 13 hour flight from JFK to Beijing, China, and a 5 hour flight to Chiang Mai, my Muay Thai journey was underway.  I had to stay at a motel since I arrived too late to get picked up by the gym and decided to Uber it at 5 am in order to start training immediately. I call this Rocky mode.  I sort of pride myself in looking like a distant, thinner, cousin of Rocky Balboa. That's my issue to confront though. Anyway,  after a 40 minute ride of missed turns, and backtracking, my brave Uber driver located the gym, and soon I was in my room, changing into my Muay Thai shorts not knowing what in the hell my body was about to endure. Muay Thai shorts might I add, are the coolest shorts ever by the way. Part flashy boxer, part professional wrestling, swagtastic, and just... mad shiny.

The training started at 6 am with a 5k run. Thankfully it was an over cast morning and the rain held up. The run was quite pleasant. We ran through the village, which is surprisingly vast, and passed by many local merchants out in front of their abodes, making food on a grill, or manning a bodega of sorts. I really appreciated the simplicity and general peace when I wasn't struggling to breathe and keep pace with the others. There were many stray dogs that seemed harmless. However, I caught wind of a fighter from our gym getting cornered by a pack of dogs recently. Sweet. In all honesty, danger seems to loom here in general. Warnings of poisonous snakes, spiders as big as your hand, etc. But what is life worth without the risk of eminent danger? A whole lot of nothing, that's what.

Following the run, we did some pad work with a trainer, which means you get in the ring and a trainer tells you what kicks, punches, elbows, knees they want you to throw. They then absorb your hits, and remind you how little you know about anything. Bag work followed, which is doing those same punches and kicks, but to a bag, with a trainer coming around every five minutes to hit you with a stick, and show you how wrong you are doing everything. There is no avoiding bruising just about every part of your foot and shin during this process. Actually, aches and pains I used to pay mind to have legitimately lost their political power ( in the court system of my min..nevermind). After ab work, push ups, and stretching I had survived my first morning session. Hip-Hop Hooraaayyy Hoooo.

We ate a hearty breakfast which was cooked by the fine owners of the apartment we are staying in. Cost of the meal came out to roughly $3. I ate with Steve, and my other buddy who is a tall German fellow who used to play pro soccer. He has been fight training for a couple of years. Great vibe to him. I will share his name soon, let's call him Chris. The three of us had an energy that makes me think we would have been good buddies at 12 years old. You know that feeling. It's a positive one. A nap and music listening session with Steve later, we tried out a local eatery. By local eatery I mean a front yard where a grandma makes you pad thai for 30 Baht (Thai currency). That's like $2. The Pad Thai was bangin. Bangin means good. The roach that nestled inside a crevasse in the table munching on a food fragment with only his long antennae swinging in the breeze, not so bangin. That was a challenge to get over. But we covered him up with a napkin holder and proceeded to love our lives.

A couple of hours later had me back in the gym for the three hour evening session. Where arses truly get handed out. We jump roped for a while to start it off and I was feeling like the distant cousin of Rocky so I grabbed a thick wired heavy tube rope to start. I can't begin to explain how amazing the sting of a heavy tube rope slamming the tips of your toes is. It is unique and almost humorous in its agony. I switched to a fluorescent thin rope soon thereafter. I was called first to do pad work with the main trainer and it was sort of amazing. He used mostly grunts to express his disdain or support for my fighting. Overall, I think he respected my focus and I certainly got better as each round progressed (4 rounds total). The only other gruesome aspect of the session was clinching. That's when you grab the back of a partner's head and proceed to place knees into each other's ribs. I became quite familiar with this random dude over the 20 minutes of us exchanging knees. It took a decent amount of soap to move on from that encounter.

After push ups, stretching, ab work, and bag work, I had completed my first full day of training. As I write this I am an hour and a half away from starting my second. Gulp. Although my body is already sore and aching, I am pumped to show up and stay in the present moment.

This trip is already challenging me in ways I didn't foresee. I've had an inclination to panic at times with things crawling over me as I lay in bed, and potential for snakes and dog attacks, and insects everywhere. But then I stopped myself and realized it is simply my limited life parameters being stretched. There can be no better way to do it. I am simply a product of my past living experiences and this is simply another way to exist. This was day one. It was intense.  Thanks for reading. Keep on keeping on my beautiful humans. Much love from Thailand. Pray for my little legs. Kidding, they are ripped and extremely sexy ( also sort of little though).