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Thank you Jessy! I’ve booked everything, I’ll be there in September and I’ve texted with HONGTHONG, I think that’s the choice. I’m so sorry for your experience, hope you’ll ho back there and have what you were searching for

Hi Priscilla, I know it's a while back but this is my experience : In January 2020, I went to Chiang Mai to train for two months. Sadly, COVID arrived and forced me to come home 1 week sooner. When I arrived in Chiang Mai, I visited both gyms. I arrived at Hong Thong between sessions, I guess, because it was completely empty. I didn't train there so I can't give any advice. I ended up training at Santai. It was a particularly busy time and they had 8-10 coaches. Some of them were still fighters so they would purposfully pick women to train and just do the basics. There was 1 coach who refused to train women altogether because 'Not strong enough'. instead of mentionning that to the person in charge of pairing, he would just swap with another coach and make the women feel like crap. 1 coach was completely jaded and didn't even look at us when holding the pads. There were 4 coaches I liked because they actually cared in teaching you something. Poye and Sak were my favourite. Sak mainly trained fighters. I know quite a few have left over the last two years but I don't know what the situation is right now. Not being a fighter yet, I often felt I was put in the 'women tourists not worth training' category. My experience there was bittersweet, especially that I went to Thailand only to train. Also, this might not be an issue at all but information worth knowing 1. Being beside a temple, women are not allowed to train in a sports tops. 2. The morning sessions were at 6am. As for the accomodations, they varied depending on the building. One has a nice pool. The mattresses in the rooms were hard and plastic-covered, but I think that's common. Many washing machines available. Quite a few restaurants within walking distance.

Hi there! I've just finished my first session at Hongthong this evening so I might not be the most qualified person to comment as I haven't trained at Santai but from my perspective things were really lovely at Hongthong. I had some technical correction from my pad holder but not to the point where it seemed like I had been doing things wrong forever. In terms of fighting I've gone there expressly for the purpose of fighting and they seemed really happy and willing to let people fight (someone actually agreed to a fight at the time I was there so its not like it is a 'behind closed doors' deal). Unfortunately, I can't comment from the perspective of being a female fighter in a gym but that being said it seemed like the women who trained with us today were included. I don't feel like they were as actively included as men were. I had to offer to spar with one of the women because she was left without a partner but I'm not sure if that is just a one-off or a long-term thing. I do know that women do fight out of that gym successfully so I imagine you would have opportunities to get rounds in and all that. But, from my perspective as someone who is openly, though not too openly, queer I felt comfortable. People were respectful and didn't seem to be creepy towards the women at the gym though I don't speak Thai and can't comment on whether anything was happening that I didn't understand. From a community standpoint they were lovely I was introduced to everyone, and they made an effort to remember my name. I got good treatment and jumped right into the group really, I've even been invited to a gym drinks on the weekend. So in terms of 'community' it seemed really nice but I can't say whether that will be universal as I'm able to pass as a cis-het man. All in all, after only one day of training I plan to go back, unfortunately I'm not staying at the gym but the facilities didn't seem to bad. I think they were only built in the last 5 years or so. Sorry that I don't have all the info you need but I hope this helps! :)

Hmmm. I guess this depends on how old your son is [edit in: sorry, I missed that he was 14], and more about your own tolerance, or enjoyment of change is. Me? I like to settle down in a place. It is only after 3 days or more that I feel ok. When I know where I'm eating, the way to the gym, etc. Then maybe at 7-10 days do I really feel like I'm in something. It also depends on how heavily or often you want to train. Every day? Twice a day? Or taking days off? Just giving you my own sense, I'd say two weeks minimum for a single gym experience, once you know you like it, which means once you start moving again the next stay will feel shortened. When we first came to Thailand we committed in advance to two experiences over I think 6 weeks. I really loved our stay in Chiang Mai at Lanna at the time. Then, perfectly happy, we went down to Bangkok and Sasiprapa. The Bangkok experience wasn't bad in anyway, but we actually wished we had just stayed in Chiang Mai. It was far less gritty, the gym experience was really nice. It wasn't the worst thing to push for two, but it wasn't ideal. I would maybe make a first choice of location, and then a list of 3 gyms in that location. I'd go to each of them for a day and just feel what it is like and go by intuition. Can I picture myself here for 2 weeks? If you find a great one, one you really vibe on, then just stop there, no need to push for more. I'd give myself 10 days in that first choice gym. After about 7 of those days I'd reassessed. Do I want to change gyms? Or do I want to change cities? If you are really happy where you are, just stay. It's pretty easy, and not that expensive to just hop on a plane and be somewhere else if you suddenly get the urge to have a different experience. Don't pay for lots of days in advance, especially in the time of COVID when tourism is going to be down. Everyone will be glad to have you. Keep things flexible.