come | Ramblintraveler

I’m too cheap to pay for the upgrade to allow enough media space for video clips, so instead of simply uploading a video of some of my recent Muay Thai training from the beautiful island of Koh Tao, I thought I’d simply write out what a typical training round “sounds” like. Plus, I also thought it may also be a bit more entertaining this way 😉

After stretching, several minutes of jumping rope, shadow boxing, 100 front kicks on the bag and my hands wrapped and gloved up it’s time for training.

Before getting into it, I gotta admit a funny on my part. I would hear throughout the training that the trainers would say “ma” quite a bit. “Ma” in Thai has several meanings (dog, horse, come) and since I was most familiar with “ma” meaning “dog” from working at the animal shelter, I kept wondering why the trainers were calling us dogs, lol!! But then I recalled it also means “come” so that made more sense!

Round 1 (written as I hear it from the trainers with accompanying translations and/or my inner thoughts as the round goes along…)

Ma, Ma (come, come)
Jeb, pap (left front jab, right front jab)
Pap (right front jab)
Ook ma (left hook punch)
Pow-wer again! (more power needed in the punch, again!)
Ook ma (left hook punch)
Jeb (left front jab)
Ubber cut, ma (right upper cut, come)
Ook ma (left hook punch, come)
Pap (right front punch)
One two, pap-pap (front punches, left first then right)
Oh-oi! (trainer is taking a swing at my head that I must lean back to dodge quickly or get hit)
Jeb jeb (left front double punch)
Again ma!
Jeb jeb (left front double punch… again!)
Pow-wer!
Jeb jeb, ma (Ugh, punch harder!)
Yees, goud (yes, good!!! Happy day! 🙂 )
Ubber cut ma (right upper cut punch)
Four ma: one, two, three, foor (4 alternating front jabs)
Pap (right front punch)
Oh-oi! (whoa, I almost got hit that time!)
Pap (right front punch)
Oh-oi! (hee hee, missed it!!)
Knee! One, two (thrust right knee twice into the stomach pad)
Knee! One, two (thrust left knee twice into the stomach pad)
Elbow (step forward, smack right elbow in the pad)
Elbow (remember to step forward first!)
Up Elbow (step forward, thrust elbow upward into face)
Ehy-uup (trainer is holding pads at his head signaling for a swing kick: right leg)
Oh-ehh! or Oi-ish-she depending on trainer (heard if the kick was powerful or good enough)
Ehy-uup (another right leg swing kick)
Oh-ehh!/Oi-ish-she (yay-yaah!!)
Jeb (you get it)
Pap (more punches)
One-two, pap-pap (pretty much with every hit on the pads the trainer makes an accompanying noise, hence the pap-pap)
Block! (trainer is trying to kick my side, so I block his kick with my shin and fore arm)
Ehy-uup (swing kick again… Man this is getting exhausting!)
Oh-ehh!/Oi-ish-she
Sweech keek (this means to avoid his low kick to my left leg by changing my stance of left foot forward, right back to right foot forward, left back so I can then easily kick the pads at his head with my left leg)
Oh-ehh!/oi-ish-she (oh man I’m really getting exhausted… Just gotta breathe!!)
Ma, ma ( really it isn’t break time yet?!?!?)
Jeb
Pap
Foor: one two three foor (4 alternating front punches)
Elbow ma (strike with elbow)
Elbow ma
Ehy-uup (oh God another swing kick, BREATHE!!)
Oh-ehh!/Oi-ish-she (happy day!!!)
Ehy-uup (I can make it, I can make it!!)
Oh-ehh!/Oi-ish-she (happy day again!)
Front keek, ma (front kick right, come)
Oh-ehh!/Oi-ish-she (seriously is he just trying to make me feel better about my dwindling energy?!)
Front keek, ma (front kick left, front kicks aren’t so hard really)
Oh-ehh!/Oi-ish-she
Jeb, elbow ma (left front punch, swing behind with right elbow and strike, then back to original position)
Pow-wer, again ma (not forceful enough, more power, dang-it!!! come)
Jeb, elbow (Ugh, that powerful enough??)
Yees, good (yay!! Happy day!!)
Ten: one, two, three, foor, five, seeks, seven, eight, nine, ten (10 alternating front punches at rapid speed… Energy, energy!!)
Again! (Phew, breathe, ok, again…)
Yees, again! (Seriously?!?!?! UGH!!! Breathe, I can do this!)
Yeeah-pap! (final right front punch… Thank goodness!!!!)
Five ma ehy-uup (ok, ok, breathe, just 5 right swing kicks)
Five ma Ehy-uup (OMG now the left leg… I may vomit…Breathe, breathe, BREATHE!!!!)
Break! (Thank.Goodness!!!!! Can I go die now?)

Nope… 4 more rounds to go….

On to Koh Tao Fight Nights

Back to Thailand

For those who personally know me, the next sentence won’t come as a surprise, but for everyone else… I am fortunate to have been born and raised (for the first 7 years or so) just outside of Florence. My dad has been living here for several years now, and since it has been 4 years since I’ve been back to Italy, why not #1 spend some time with my dad, #2 use our home in Italy as a base to explore other European countries and #3 make the eventual trip to Thailand not such a painful one from a flight perspective:)

I know, I know, I sound totally spoiled. But I can’t help where I was born, I can only recognize how fortunate I am in many ways and most importantly to be thankful for what I am able to do and to have such an international family!!

Now that that is cleared up, I am currently still in Italy writing furiously to catch up on this blog from the years past travels so that I can write about more recent adventures and ones that are still to come:) I arrived here in Italy at the end of August (2014- I know, I’m really almost caught up with blogging about my travels to present day!!!) at the Florence airport and was greeted by my dad at the airport with one of his famous “daddy” pick-ups, as we call it in my family. That is simply where he insists on parking the car so he can go into the airport and greet the new arrival from the gate, instead of waiting outside in the car for the new arrival to walk out of the airport:)

We had a lovely dinner at a pizzeria near where my dad grew up and has been going for over 40 years!! Let me just say, for the record that, in my opinion, there is no better pizza IN THE WORLD than the pizza in Italy, and more specifically the pizza in Tuscany!!! The thin crust is to die for!! Now the further South you go in Italy, the thicker the crust gets… Just a warning for those going South wondering why I’ve described the pizzas as being thin-crusted:) Oh and the ham too… I’ve never tasted better ham either (on my pizza of course!!) than in Italy!! Ok, I better stop talking about food for now… I’m making myself hungry!!

We headed to the house (about 40 Km outside of Florence) after dinner and turned in for the night. The next few months were spent catching up, hanging out, hiking in the National Park that we back onto, exploring several surrounding cities, reconnecting with Florence, a trip to the Island of Elba, going to Salzburg, Austria for a few days together (then I left to explore more of Europe on my own), entertaining some friends from Scotland, blogging (for me:)) and now we are getting ready to head out on a cruise that the family organized for my dad’s 75th birthday present!!

It’s been a busy few months for sure!! Not to mention that while I’ve been here I’ve been making sure that my dad has stayed busy making me homemade lasagna, limoncello, meat sauce, arista, crostate di more, pasta with the favorite sauce (can’t tell you the recipe it’s a family secret:)) focaccia, pasta fagioli, and on and on!! It’s a miracle I’m not obese!! Lol!! Actually, it’s not a miracle… I workout vigorously everyday to counter the calories I indulge in while here:)

On to SpanItalish

Back to Europe

Oh… I should mention I’ve cheated a teeny bit on the pictures… All are current except for the Florence pictures… They are ones from winter 2010… But in coming posts of Florence I will have pictures from this trip, I promise!! Just wanted to give you a little teaser to start;)