Full Contact Travel: Muay Thai Training In Thailand (VIDEO)

Muay Thai is always tough, but the martial art is at it's toughest in Thailand, where the sport was invented. Doug "Sticky Rice" Czajka, a Raleigh, North Carolina native had been training in his home town for years when he decided to make some full contact travel plans.

He signed up with MMT Tours in association with My Muay Thai, a new travel company with a focus on exploring Thailand's fight culture.

Despite his nickname, Doug had never traveled outside of the United States, but any apprehension was put aside at the thought of getting into the ring with the world's best Muay Thai fighters like Champion Kem Sitsongpeenong.

The idea of travel fighting isn't new, but providing aspiring Muay Thai fighters with the chance to tour and visit multiple camps in one organized trip is. Sort of a "try before you buy" format that MMT Tours had to convince the camps was a good idea.

Learning about the origins of a mixed martial art goes beyond hitting up multiple camps and has to entail learning about the culture and people. Think of Discovery Channel's show Fight Quest.

Some of the locations seen in the video are the ancient capitol of Siam Ayutthya, Wat Pho the "Temple of the reclining Buddha", Wat Arun the "Temple of the Dawn" and a pad thai food joint called Thip Samai, aka the "Ghost Door" Pad Thai.

1 of 18

Doug "Sticky Rice" Czajka

1 of 19

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

NPR Cruise To Set Sail On Regent's Seven Seas Voyager (PHOTOS)

8 Obscure National Parks Worth The Visit (PHOTOS)

Nude Beaches: Which Country's Citizens Are Most Likely To Sunbathe Nude? (PHOTOS)

Rosario Dawson Talks About Why She Loves Riding The Train (VIDEO)

The New Major Players In The Short-Term Peer-To-Peer Property Rental Game

5 Reasons Turks And Caicos Is The Perfect Place For A Best Beach Vacation (PHOTOS)

comments(62)

Total comments: 62 | Post a Comment

1 of 19

Interested in getting your ass kicked overseas? Check out MMT Tours or any of the below Muay Thai training camps for more info.

Sitmonchai, Kanchanaburi provinice

Sitsongpeenong, Bangkok

Kiatphontip, Bangkok

Tuff Muay Thai, North of Bangkok

Check out more Asia Travel on HuffPost Travel HERE.

Photos: Nopadan/flickr

Comments

[prafulla1234]

05:19 AM on 10/20/2011

It is really an amazing video.A muay thai training shows in this video is really outstanding.So thanks for sharing this video.

muay thai workout routine

[sheoples]

01:51 AM on 08/26/2011

that is badass! :-)

[Alan Dugger]

12:30 AM on 08/26/2011

I've been going to Thailand for a few years now to train Muay Thai. There are "tourist gyms" and there are real Thai gyms. The above is the former. Real gyms have everybody up at the crack of dawn for 10k runs, followed by 3 hours of training in the heat. The whole process repeats come 4pm. The only food we get is a bit of rice, some steamed veg, and maybe a bit of pork or chicken (if you kill it yourself.)

My most recent time there was also when two active duty Marines were on leave and decided to come in for a week. 3 hours in the both collapsed and we had to hose them off with water to get them to wake up. They said even the toughest days at boot camp didn't come anywhere close to how real Thai gyms train.

[Nopadon Wongpakdee]

03:09 AM on 08/26/2011

These guys hit 6 camps in 7 days. As you are aware, each camp is different, so the goal is to give them a feeling of what training is like at that particular camp. The participants only train once a day, the rest of the day is site seeing. That being said Sitmonchai, Sitsongpeenong, Kaewsamrit are far from "Tourist' gyms. Each of these camps has a stable of champion fighters... a stable of active fighters. Yes they take foreign fighters to live and train there. but to class them as tourist gyms is inaccurate.

Where did you train?

[Blarg]

08:12 PM on 08/28/2011

It's true that most people underestimate how hard martial arts training is, especially IMO under the hard-core traditionalists.

Still, I think most healthy, in-shape people would be in trouble just from the heat and incredible humidity of Southeast Asia alone. Top it off with a low-protein, low-calorie diet, and you're talking about something that would take a long time to adapt to comfortably, regardless of what shape you're in. I wouldn't even want to play tiddly-winks for three hours in the noonday Thai or Vietnamese or Micronesian sun. Growing up on Guam myself, I know just how draining and piercing the tropical heat can be.

[clivechristy]

12:26 AM on 08/26/2011

The idea of going all the way to Thailand to be kicked repeatedly under a hot tin roof seems to me, to the be the very antithesis of the word "vacation"

[DOHC Holiday]

01:14 AM on 08/28/2011

Yoda: That is why you fail!

[Drect]

12:17 AM on 08/26/2011

The leg kicks from the dude in the white shorts would chop any normal man HALF. Gooooood Lord.

[Axekick]

12:46 AM on 08/26/2011

You aren't kidding. If you're not familiar with these Muay Thai fighters, the best of them frequently kick baseball bats in half with their shins(literally)

[Drect]

02:23 AM on 08/26/2011

Oh I've seen it first hand. I'm a TKD fighter I thought my shins were hard as stone...apparently I have a long way to go.

[dandan1]

12:13 AM on 08/26/2011

I said it before I will say it again- some of those small dudes can bring it.

[HotheadPaisen]

09:23 AM on 08/26/2011

that's why they're training in Thailand as you while away the day typing in your mothers basement.

[dandan1]

08:04 PM on 08/26/2011

If you were in an athletic competition and you train hard you may win- but if -as you suggest- it were a street fight I would bet on the Thai- growing up in the ghettos of Bangkok would give him a distinct advantage

[ColoradoBrad]

12:06 AM on 08/26/2011

I do not want to take a kick from that guy, ouch!

[nomoredead]

11:21 PM on 08/25/2011

I stayed a month on my last and third visit. Amazing, plus a first class hospital system if you need any service while there. The truly wonderful people really make the country special.

Will be back soon _/\_

[Axekick]

06:16 PM on 08/26/2011

I recon a couple of those Muay Thai classes and I would be needing that "first class hospital" !

[ConfuciusSay-]

10:46 PM on 08/25/2011

Perhaps you should visit Thailand, and teach them how to fight.

(/sarcasm off)

[Spiggy]

11:25 PM on 08/25/2011

Yes for we all know you must be a one of those computer monitor karate experts who show up every now and then to teach others the discipline of Karate.

Oh wait, from your posts I see that you are failing in respect, discipline and humility.

What A fine instructor you must of had for your 3 sessions at the Y

[ponyloco]

09:48 PM on 08/25/2011

i've wanted to do this for years!

From the experiences I've had from muay thai instructors travelling to the US - you learn so much more from them than from American instructors...

[dhertzfe]

10:03 PM on 08/25/2011

You learn as much as an instructor is willing to teach. Whether they are American or not.

[Blarg]

10:35 PM on 08/25/2011

Not all Asian teachers are traditional teachers, but the ones that are don't start teaching until they've been training a long time. Teaching in America can be a huge racket, with people teaching after just a couple of years, signing up for one-year blackbelt courses and teaching afterwards, or even making up their own art after little training.

Then again, some Asians withhold anything but the basics for a very long time, or never teach beyond the basics at all.

Martial art is far from an untainted arena.