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Hello everyone, first post here, just joined. Just want to start a thread on my upcoming Training. This is going to be a life changing experience and im super excited/nervous. My name is Gary and I am 35 and from Chicago. On October 30th I leave for Fa Group. I will be there for 2 weeks by myself and staying at the SL residence that they set me up with. I would of stayed at the gym but they didn't have private bathrooms as an option. My wife will be coming out at the end of the 2 weeks and we will stay another 2 weeks but not in bangkok. we will be traveling to phuket, krabi, and koh samui where i will be training morning sessions only at the nearest gyms to our hotel. I have been doing only muay thai for 3 years now but have done mma since my early 20's, on and off. I always enjoyed the muay thai portion of the mma training the best as im 6'1" and skinny lol. never fought, just do it to stay in shape and because i never enjoyed lifting weights lol. I must admit i am very nervous. I have been running every day but i run about a 10min mile and haven't been able to push myself past 40min yet. I run right before my class starts at the gym. since the running i have absolutely felt gains in my training sessions at my gym. I will be running every morning and afternoon with the guys from fa group, but being 4.5 weeks out and only at 4miles, I imagine i will be left behind during the run and will have to just keep at my pace and end it when i need to. My biggest fear is pushing myself too much for the run to where I will be too exhausted for clinching and the rest of the session. Im only there 2 weeks so i want to soak in as much knowledge I possibly can. I have a couple quick questions. 1. what is the best means of transportation from the airport to the gym? taxi or their version of uber? i will be arriving very late (11pm) 2. is it best to convert my usd to baht once I am there or here in the states? i have never been anywhere near that side of the earth lol 3. tips on food in that area? things to stay away from or things that i must have? 4. tips on training in general? i do not have an ego so i will absolutely not be trying to prove anything. 5. maybe a silly question for some but i am very very white, almost ghostly lol. i must wear sunscreen when exposed and im a bit worried that it will be disrespectful to train with sunscreen on? is there rinsing stations? my main concern is being rag dolled and exhausted to the point where learning things will be too hard and i will just be in survival mode. thanks so much guys, looking forward to feedback and i am excited to share my experiences with you.

You can buy thai sim cards in every 7/11 so you can stay online during your stay. At the airport they have some spaces where you can buy them, I think it's TRUE and DTAC stands just close to the exit (either same exit as taxi or one level below). Grab is Asia's version of Uber. When I arrived end 2017 you had both but if I'm not mistaken Grab purchased Uber and now there's only Grab. It is currently being (or will be) legalised and for that reason taxidrivers have been protesting outside Ministry of Transport lately. There are reported cases on taxi drivers having beaten up grab drivers. Regular taxi is cheaper than Grab taxi. Grab motorbike cheaper than regular motorbike taxi. Obviously grab has the advantage of the customers not having to explain where to go, which can be tricky with regular taxi. I use Grab motorbike every morning to work. Home from work I use the bike taxis standing there to support them but also becauss, as almost every taxi driver, they're big muay thai fans :). I don't think you need to worry about being rag dolled or exhausted. If by this you mean being swept and thrown a bit yeah that happens (for fun but no serious) but if you are an MMA guy you already got that advantage. They will pair you up in clinch and it's either gonna be with a trainer or student and it would be a dick move to go hard on a new guy. Thai gym trainers are used to westerners being tired just having arrived. The big risk is if you say you are tired but the trainer can see you are not (they know for sure) they might not respect you. But they will see if you are super tired and really try. If you are new they not gonna try to break you. Except padrounds and to some extent clinch training pace will be up to you. Personally I'm more concerned with getting easy padrounds and not being pushed at all. It happens I get a trainer who thinks I'm not strong enough and will give me short padrounds with very few speed kicks and never tell me to do pushups or anything in between. That hurts more than being so exhausted from padrounds. If you only stay 2 weeks unfortunately there's a risk trainers won't invest in you too much to push you too hard. Just be yourself, make sure to give an effort and enjoy your time. Let me know when you're there I look for you during the morning run .