Šalis iš šalies: Tailandas (S1E1)

To be honest, I needed to flee the country quickly.
I googled that Muay Thai in Thailand is not a gym as it is in Lithuania, rather it’s a camp
They live here, they train here, basically, it’s the same as monastery.
I was 19 when I came here for the first time.
I simply came with a backpack, went to that tiny room, to the big boss, and said ‘Hi,
can you take me in?’, and that’s all.
The best thing about Thailand is that no matter where you are, either in Chiang mai, North,
or in South, or in Pattaya, in Bangkok, the standard of fighting is equally high everywhere.
Big families, polygamy, patriarchy... lots of children who fight since an early age.
10 years old kids fight like professionals – five rounds, three minutes each, fighting
mainly with elbows and knees, all of this would be completely banned in Europe.
They get paid and they send the money to their moms or dads…
For example, in big stadiums like those of Bangkok [..] the prize is ten thousand
euros, well, it’s the maximum… Let’s say, I have Oleg, you, Ieva, and I count – Oleg weighs 56 kilos.
How much do you weigh? Ok, let’s match you two.
It’s all gambling: cards, pool, roosters, fish, birds, football – anything.
Everyone is venturesome, they bid on anything, instantly.
20 years old guys usually have already fought 200 fights, meaning, you fight professionally
3 or 4 times a month.
Definitely, at the age of 30 many of them start to fall.
Most fighters retire at 30.
Then live in their boxes, own their crazy lowered jeeps with those wheels, and a huge TV, that’s all.
All the remaining money goes to their temples and amulets – it’s cosmic amounts of money
there, especially the golden ones.
They have lots of money, try to notice – even those sloppy guys who sell sausage in markets,
they draw a huge stack of ten thousand notes.
They do have incredible amounts of money.
Always wearing the same clothes, they only appear poor.
They manage to have such wealth because everyone here helps each other.
No one here ever aims at the neighbor’s window with a rock, instead, they all get along.
It’s a big impact of the King, actually, because he is the one who re-united the country,
and that’s why they all love him so much.
He was the one who traveled through all the villages and created infrastructure, and that
had a great effect on solidarity in general.
The sincerity is very important.
It’s a pity, that we don’t have that in our country yet, but we’re a young country,
so I think it will in time (gestures the rise).
Last year I’ve travelled half the country thanks to Muay Thai and staying here in the camp.
I’ve seen places where, I think, I was the only white man.
In such places, where there’s not a single white person, things are a bit different.
Here, in this island, I’m one of the cool guys, Pa-sha, I know everything here.
I have a strong hand technique, and I hold the pads myself, teach young boys Thai, fighting with hands.
Pad holding is a kind of art as well, doing that means fully simulating the fight.
Everything’s fast, with ease, you hit – and there’s no aggression, even though they’ve
fought 200-300 fights, they protect each other very much, and you can totally feel it –
you grow faster this way, it’s simple.
Rather than if you came tensed right away, on that competitive paranoia, only watching
out not to be knocked down…
During my first weeks… well, I threw up after my first fight, it was very tensed emotionally.
When I was 16, I’ve been fighting in Lithuania, amateur boxing.
I’ve had eye traumas, so I couldn’t make it, well it’s a long story, but I had to
quit it.
And here, it’s simple – they see how you move, ok, you can fight.
Here they tape hands, your fist becomes pretty rough – it adds like 15 kilos to the punch.
Taped hands, light gloves, all covered in oil… the monks bless you before the fight.
There’s a lot of stress actually.
So it was kinda…
I won, sure, but I wasn’t thinking about clean and nice Thai, I went out with my
local boxing school, "Amber Glove", and by the second round I’ve knocked out the poor boy.
Because that’s not how they see fighting, they don’t understand this way.
I’ve never seen any casual fights or conflicts between the Thais.
Not even once.
You can really see the sincerity and mutual understanding between them.
Thai boxing is evolving now as it’s influenced by the Western world, the rules are changing,
they started making three rounds, three minutes each, to make the fight more intense.
You can rage for five rounds and go forward, and your opponent will keep you away with
his technique, and he’ll win.
It’s real important how you move, how you compete.
It’s all dynamic here, you go out, you work it, everything’s active, intense, pushing.
I respect every person who steps into the ring, it does require character.
I don’t consider myself a pro-fighter.
I do it for experience so I can train other people.
You have to feel for yourself what it’s like to be there, to fight in the ring.
And then you can share that with others.
Traumas are really frequent, especially here.
Everyone’s tiny in Thailand.
Only the mountain Thais are stockier.
Some of the Thais are well-fed... but even fat Thais are great fighters.
No names or surnames exist when they fight.
They go by nicknames, like saparrod-lek, saparrod means pineapple, lek – iron, so it’s iron
pineapple, almost like clockwork orange.
Some guys fight to collect enough money for a sex reassignment surgery.
Like, he’s got boobs, wears a bra, but is still fighting against men.
They have a little something… like, you can sometimes feel it, I mean I live with
them, so I do feel it sometimes.
Some kind of… well, when you’re an Eastern European, it bugs you a little.
Sure, some things are weird, for example the shower – well, shower here is a hose with wate
There’s an army technique – you take a shower wearing underwear, this way you’re
clean and your underwear is washed too.
And also socks.
That’s a know-how that an army guy shared with me.
Not everyone could live in these conditions.
I’m a bit on the pedantic side, so I did bargain on the order and cleanliness a little.
Mostly, people live like that.
Whatever.
I used to live in this same room with two other people.
Two guys used to sleep here, and that’s where I used to sleep.
Had my own personal space in the corner.
When you go about, you’ll see how carelessly they live, rubbish everywhere, cockroaches…
A mess, what can I say, they are piggy-wiggies.
They are.
But you get used to that.
At night, if you turn on the lights, mice run through here, but… oh well.
I get up at 6:50, usually I run 4-5 kilometers in the morning, and then the day starts.
You get four rounds of pads, three bags, actually all days are the same – huge physical exertion.
Then it gets really hot, so even if I have spare time, I try to read, work with my head
a little instead of scrolling the phone, ‘cause the internet – it consumes you.
You catch yourself scrolling pointlessly after the first month already.
There could be an app that shows how many kilometers you’ve scrolled away per day.
The key is in doing things right, not random.
If you do things right, the results come.
But you have to work a lot.
What I’ve learnt from the tiny people here, is that you have to work your ass off if you
want to achieve anything.
Laying in front of the screen or scrolling will get you nowhere.
While you’re young, the health is good, you hardcore.
It’s that simple.
And back home, there are so many opportunities, wow, when you realize that... we really have
a lot of options there.
A lot.

Šalis iš šalies: Tailandas (S1E1)

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