Well Hello There
Welcome back to the third edition Week in Review [a working title], where I look back at my previous week of living Project 30 and try my best to distill it in 5 main topics. This week’s 5 main topics include: Travels, Running & Muay Thai, the Book I am listening to, The Mind, & Current Events.
Travel
This week was my first full week of being in Thailand. Last week my friend, Akshay, and I flew into Chiang Mai in order to satisfy the “Test & Go” COVID requirement that the government of Thailand requires of tourists to visit.
“Test & Go” Thailand COVID Requirement:
Choose from one of the government recognized hotels that offers quarantine and a PCR test on two different days: Day 1 & Day 5 of arrival into Thailand
Day 1: Stay at one of the designated hotels until PCR results return, then travel freely anywhere in Thailand until Day 5
Day 5: Stay at one of the designated hotels until PCR results return, and then freely travel until the end of you trip in Thailand
We are in Thailand for at least the month in order to train Muay Thai. We found a great spot in a town called Pai, a three hour bus ride north of Chiang Mai.
Pai, Thailand
🏠The Stay
This camp offers two 2 hours of training from Monday-Saturday for a total of 24 hours of Muay Thai training a day
I am living on-site in a room that is literally just 10 paces away from the outdoor gym
My room is simple but ample, I have a queen sized bed, a wooden desk and chair, a wardrobe, a refrigerator, water heater, and a bathroom to myself
The training camp and accommodation cost a total of $460, yes you’re reading that correctly, 24 hours of training a week and a place to stay for a month and only $460!
🏍 I am also renting a scooter for the entire month for only $70!
🎪 Activity
Muay Thai and going to as many restaurants as possible took up most of the days throughout the week but we did decide to skip our Saturday afternoon session in order to do some Tipsy Tubbing!
Tipsy Tubbing
Exactly what it sounds like, we went tubbing down the Pai River with over 40 travelers
Surprisingly even though there was plenty of drinking involved no one go hurt and it was a blast
Halfway through the trip we stopped in order to party in the middle of an open field. There was a DJ, Thai BBQ and a bar to order from
I and a few other people decided to get a game of river volleyball going with a couple of local children
It was a very fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon meeting fellow travelers and locals!
🍽 Favorite Restaurants
Two Sisters- This is a great spot that offers Thai and Burmese food. The owner is a down to earth man that absolutely loves to cook and make sure everyone that sits at a table feels welcomed
Beef Curry & Banana Pancakes are ridiculously good
Cost Avg. = $1.8 an entree
☕️ Dear Your Mind- This coffee shop is special. It’s an open air building simply decorated with floor cushions and a view of a green field and mountains in the distance. The owner is a master of his craft, he gives every cup of coffee that he pours meticulous attention and care
Cost Avg.= $1.5 per coffee
Chiang Mai, Thailand
In order to complete the 5th day of the “Test & Go” requirement, Akshay and I needed to return to Chiang Mai so we, once again, took a 3 hour bus ride back down
The Stay
A massive luxurious hotel and apartment complex that only cost around $60 a night
Our room included a bathtub, separate shower, a full kitchen, and two beds
The best part of this hotel was the breakfast buffet that included a manned egg station and American, Thai, Japanese, and Chinese breakfast options
The Bus Ride:
Bad News:
There are over 760 turns, a lot of which are hairpin turns that are vomit and nausea inducing
Good News:
The views up the winding mountain are stunningly lush and beautiful
The bus ride only costs around 4.5 dollars
The bus has the modern miracle of oh so beautiful AC
Favorite Restaurant
Kind of cheating but the buffet at the hotel was just too good, and any place that let’s me stuff my face for as many rounds as I would like is a key to my heart
Run & Muay Thai
🏃Mileage
20.52 miles
I ran four days this week, I kept my runs to an average of 5 miles in order to have enough energy to train Muay Thai during the day
I woke up at 6:45am in order to be out of the door by 7:15 every morning that I ran
Temperatures are already around 70-80 degrees by the time I start running
This week was my attempt to balance out my desire to keep up my running shape and to get my body use to the new sensation of learning Muay Thai
🥊 Muay Thai
Weekly Training Schedule:
Four hours of Muay Thai broken down into two 2-hour sessions:
8:30-10:30
15:00-17:00
The first shock to my system was just how difficult it is to consistently jump rope
We start every training session with 12 straight minutes of jump rope
My calves were destroyed in the first Monday morning session. It took me until Thursday to finally recover my calves to a point where I wasn’t waking up sore
Thursday was also the fist time that I was able to hit 12 minutes straight!
Learning to kick correctly is an art form that requires a lot of flexibility in the hip flexers (hopefully the weekly 12 dollar 1.5-hour Thai messages will help that processes along)
I went to 8 of the 12 possible training session. In other words, I trained Muay Thai for 16 hours this past week
In addition to those hours, I also ran for 3.5 hours prior to the morning sessions
💪🏻 Additional Training:
I decided to add additional daily workout goals:
Pre-training 5 mile runs
500 crunches
100 pull ups
200 push ups
Of the 6 days, I was only able to complete these goals in their entirety 4 times
Book
📖 War of the Worlds
Snapshot Thoughts
H.G. Wells is the father of Science Fiction and his work has had a clear influence on future works and continuous to influence Science Fiction and pop culture today, so it’s about time that I made my way to the OG of the genre
Favorite Quote
“War fever that spreads through civilized community”
One of the strange things that I find to be true when reading history, and even nowadays, is just how tantalizing the pull of war can be to people. No matter how atrocious we know war to be, there’s still somehow leaders that are willing to push countries and even whole continents to war. Then, there are swarms of people that are willing to echo those battle cries only to look back and say what was already known beforehand, that war is atrocious.
The Mind
🧘🏼A Guru & Meditation
While being in Thailand, in addition to increasing my physical fitness through Muay Thai and running, I intend on focusing on my mental fitness through meditation and spiritual guidance
Inner Engineering
Akshay introduced me to Sadhguru Jaggi, an Indian guru that according to his website, teaches “Proven Techniques & Yogic Practices,” provides “Guided Meditations,” offers “Tools for Awareness” and helps people “Achieve Joy & Peace.”
I was at first skeptical of learning from a self proclaimed “Mystic,” but after listening and watching two of chapters from his class called Inner Engineering, I have to admit I am impressed with Sadhguru’s vast knowledge of science and his ability to articulately, and without hiding behind unexplainable mystical nonsense, explain his mental models and techniques
In a future blog post, once I have completed each chapter, I will attempt to fully write out my thoughts and reactions to his teachings and techniques
For now, I want to say that I am impressed with his teaching and I had profound and powerful reaction to one his guided meditations
Current Events
Another goal during my time in Thailand is to be on my phone for as little amount of time as possible. As such, I spent little time keeping updated on anything social media and even less time on current events
However, on my last post I laid out the main points that my friends and I discussed regarding Ukraine and Russia, and I wanted to briefly revisit that:
First off, I was and continue to be happily surprised that Ukraine is providing a strong resistance to Russia
I was also pleasantly surprised to hear that countries in Europe are standing up to the aggression to include Switzerland, the country that has classically been neutral
Finally, I am no expert in world affairs or global orders, so all I can say here definitively is that I truly hope we don't, as a collective human whole, get foolishly sucked into a conflict that creeps its way into the final war of wars, World War 3
I know none of what I said above is groundbreaking or original but I just wanted to have a follow up to my last blog post and state that as part of my time in Thailand, I will probably spend less and less time focusing on any news or current events
Gratitude & Feedback
Thank you for reading up into this point. Please share with me any thoughts or recommendations that you may have. I appreciate all of you that are continuing to follow me on this wild project as I try to live an uncharted and non-traditional life.
Keep pushing & much love!
-Dylan
Loved this one. Seems like some great food places. Jealous of the time to train to physically and mentally (read/meditate). So fun and unique. Keep it up!