My First Day

Well I arrived in Chiang Mai at around 7:30 AM on Saturday morning (my time; it was 7:30 PM on Friday for you guys) after a very long night in Bangkok's airport. Apparently a big white guy walking around aimlessly is grounds to be stared at by all the airport security. Anyways, when I arrived at the airport I was greeted by a guy from the Payap school to take me to the dorm. He took one of my bags and started wheeling it out but to get down to the car we had to drop down from a little retaining wall. He attempted to get my bag down but I just picked it up and sent it down at the bottom and he was amazed. He kept telling me how strong I was for muay Thai. He also said he was going to talk to a few friends and get me a hook up at a gym so there was my very first contact in Chiang Mai in regards to where I can go to train.

Also on the drive back from the airport I realized how out of their minds Thai people were when it comes to driving. It was unbelievable. The lines on the road mean absolutely nothing. There would be motorcycles and mopeds weaving in and out of cars and cars would drive right in the middle of the lines. Apparently there are no laws on yielding to an ambulance either as an ambulance hauled ass up behind us with it's lights on and Jiu (the drivers name) just continued to drive at the same pace.

After arriving at the dorms I got all checked in and everything and I met my roommate. When I arrived it was still pretty early so Pek was still sleeping. He woke up momentarily but he wasn't too coherent (I found out later in the day that he had gone out with a bunch of freshman students at Payap and had gotten trashed the night before and hadn't gotten back in until 5:00 AM). I wasn't too sure what to think of him at first but after he woke up and came around I realized he was cool as hell. I easily got the best roommate that I could have gotten.

After lunch, which cost me less than $2 for 2 massive plates of food, Pek took me to a mall called Carrefour which contained a Thai version of Wal-Mart only with waaaaay cheaper prices. It really blows my mind how cheap things are here. I got a pack of Trident gum that would run over a dollar back home for about 30 cents. Red Bulls are also around 30 cents.

After getting back, Pek and I went and ate with a bunch of the other Thai students as well as some of the other American students that are in the program. Again, 2 massive plates for less than $2. After we ate, the plan was to go to the night market but I was way too wiped out. I would have gone but people were being too indecisive so I ended up falling asleep.

Anyways, my overall first impressions of the place: it is hotter than hell here and ridiculously humid, it is cool being so close to the mountains which you would think it would make it a bit cooler but no, Thai people are insane drivers, everything is unbelievably cheap here, and the food is incredible.

Tomorrow I am thinking of having Pek take me to a place to receive a tattoo that is tapped in, we'll just have to see how the day goes though. Other than that, my adviser, Jenjit, is taking me out to lunch with a few people that are going to hook me up with a good muay Thai gym (I've found that all of the Thais that find out that I am here for muay Thai love me because I am here to train their art). After that we are having some type of ceremony, greeting all of the foreign students here. Then we are being taken on a tour of the city. It should be a pretty good day.

I hope everything is going well for everyone back home. Like I said before, if anyone has any suggestions on ways to improve this, please let me know (pictures will be coming later). I miss you all (especially you Alecia). Bye bye for now.

Jake Pudenz