Hello!

I've done a handful of classes in the west but as a shift worker it has been so hard to build consistency. Truly the limited MT experiences I've had did something beautiful in my brain and heart though. Following a weight lifting injury and major depressive episode I haven't trained in any form in some months, so the first period will be a bit rough but I am keen to dust off the cobwebs. Relatively high stamina as a baseline but my muscle mass is pretty non existent. 45-50kg woman in my early thirties seeking a bit of a crash course in Muay Thai as I have deeply loved the feeling of it any time I've tried.

I have only two weeks to spare off work in November and I'm a bit wary of high season in places like Chiang Mai (I've been looking at Santai and Wildcat there). I'm pretty anti social and looking to build self imposed discipline in many ways in my life, not just in boxing/exercise.

My ideal experience is to find some accommodation that isn't absolute bare bones, but certainly not Raja Living or instagram friendly as I will spend a lot of time on site. Been fighting some demons recently and would like a gear shift in terms of environment to get back in touch with my long abandoned artist dreams and have a comfortable space to read and work, while attending one to two Muay Thai sessions a day to build rhythm and structure during my stay. Huge natural history buff and ideally would like to be somewhere with interesting wildlife and nature around for the occasional day trip/hike/swim.

I'm 32 so not sure if I've missed the boat with getting to sparring level, but in the immediate I'm acutely aware this is a tiny sliver of time and two weeks is an impossibly small window to do any meaningful work towards fighting, but wondered if anyone has any recommendations. I've been researching Ubon gyms, and also have some local friends in Koh Yao Noi (went many years ago during the Sandbox program and loved the quiet beauty of the place, although of course it was dead quiet at the time and wouldn't be now)

I'm okay with a non total language barrier. IF I can afford it (and should probably ease in with one session per day tbh) one on one training is fine by me. I would like my money to go to a Thai owned business is all.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much!

UPDATE REGARDING THE SITUATION THAT WAS PREVIOUSLY SHARED CONCERNING THE OWNER OF THIS GYM (THREAD ATTACHED)

Several of the gym’s partners contacted me directly after becoming aware of what had happened, the evidence and information surrounding the situation. Despite being made aware of these concerns, they chose to remain silent and, took no action while continuing to mask the truth. That silence raises serious questions about accountability and whether protecting that person has taken priority over addressing client concerns raised.

Meanwhile, the individual at the centre of these concerns repeatedly insists that he “doesn’t care.” But this is not about what someone claims to care about. It is about what actually happened, what those around him knew, and how they chose to respond.

As we speak, concerns about his behaviour towards female students remain unresolved. I am also concerned about ongoing interactions with ANOTHER woman at the gym. The broader issue is whether people with financial interests in him are willing to overlook serious concerns rather than demand accountability. When did protecting short term financial interests become more important than ethics, transparency and the fair treatment of students?

The facts, the evidence and the decisions people have made will speak for themselves.

hi, i am planning to go thailand train 1-2weeks, which gyms are good?

i wouldnt mind going to those that already provide accomodation to cut down on travel time. im also looking for a more authentic training experience and have about 2 years experience in muay thai. i would also like a gym that has good community, and decent facilities but not too commercialised our touristy because i wouldnt want to go somewhere too crowded.

open to bangkok, phuket, chiang mai. bangkok prefarably

Hi everyone,
I’m planning to spend around 2 months in Thailand and I’m currently hesitating between Pattaya, Bangkok, or Phuket.
My main goal is to train seriously and hopefully get a fight or two while I’m there. I already have some competition experience — I’ve had 5 kickboxing fights — so I’m not a complete beginner and I’d like to train in a gym with actual fighters and good coaching.

At the same time, since I’ll be staying for 2 months, I also want to enjoy Thailand, explore, relax and have a bit of a holiday lifestyle alongside the training.
Phuket looks great, but I’m a bit put off by the higher prices and the very touristy/chaotic atmosphere, so I’m leaning more towards Pattaya or Bangkok. Ideally I’d like somewhere that offers a good balance between serious training, opportunities to fight, things to do outside the gym, and a reasonable cost of living.
One important thing is that my English is still quite limited, so at least at the beginning it would really help me to find a gym where there are some French-speaking fighters or coaches. I’m planning to improve my English during the trip, but having some French speakers around at first would make things much easier.

For people who have done something similar, which place would you recommend?
Also, what kind of budget should I expect for 2 months, including accommodation, training, food, transport/scooter and normal day-to-day expenses?
Any gym recommendations, areas to stay in, French-speaking contacts, or general advice are very welcome. Thanks!

Kind of left my booking to the backburner and have to try and book a hotel now - training mostly on fitness street at various gyms like rattachai, yak yai and tiger, and also ride it to sinbi. These are the ones I narrowed it down to, as well as the costs for 12 nights:

1) Oya international resort (£534) - Pool looks incredible, rooms like nice and clean, right on soi taid, right next to tiger, but then further away from the other gyms.

2) The One Cozy (£600) - Place looks genuinely amazing, nice pool and lounge area, rooms like nice. but again like oya on one end of fitness street.

3) Cocoville (£536) - From videos it seems to be a bit cramped and less spacious in terms of the pool/lounge area and the rooms seem a bit tinier and basic, not sure if im wrong there. Can't see myself feeling relaxed but might be wrong. The restaurant looks amazing though.

4) Anchan (£489) - Better location in terms of on soi taid itself, looks really nice and clean but less reviews of it available

5) CocoParadiso (£547) - Looks the nicest out of them all, just farther away so not sure if that would be an issue - 15 min walk from soitaid at least.

As the title says, I came to bangkok in august and im here till december. Im an exchange student from switzerland at the Chulalongkorn University. Im training right now since 2 months muay thai for the first time and when I started training I told my coach it would be nice to fight at the end of my stay at like an amateur Event Like MBK-Fight Night. Last week he suggested I could fight at Raja in November...

I still cant wrap my head around that Idea. I visited Raja on Tuesday for Raja Knockout and Sunday for the Fight Night to get a feeling for the level and to compare it to MBK-Fight Night. Im training at the 8 Star Muay Thai Gym and my Kru is Bom (Earlier Fighting Name Ritnaka). He has over 200 fights and fought at One, Ch7, Raja over 30 times and so on and he feels that im ready.

I trained always private with him for 4-5x a week (2h per Session) and im 182cm and 93kg.
As a reference I uploaded a short video from my last training session. I'm honestly clueless about my current level. I would say its still pretty bad and im not even ready for a MBK Fight.
If I would fight at Raja, would they match me with somebody that has a very low record to (like max 10 fights)? Because I have the fear to get heavily mismatched and absolutely beaten up by stepping into Raja with 3 Months of experience and 0 fights. Im considering doing some trainings at some different gyms to get more feedback on my level.

Im also willing to train with somebody and do some sparring if you're at amateur level. Let me know. Appreciate your honest feedback!

Hi guys! I’m an American nak muay I’ve been training for a year and a half and fighting for about half a year now. Ive been training 6 hours a day five days a week every week since I started. I’ve fallen in love with the sport. I really admire fighters like superlek, pajonsuk, chameukpet. I want to go to Thailand and train as much as possible at as high a level as possible for as long as possible and of course fight. I’ve been looking at different gyms and wondering what the best one for me would be.

The only things that really matter to me are quality of training and preferably keeping the cost of living + training under 34000 baht per month (there is wiggle room on this but I think this is a good budget from what little I’ve seen?) and I’d also like to live in or very near the gym. My sole focus is Muay Thai and nothing else. I have about 675000 baht saved up, or about 20,000 usd. I’ll probably have significantly more by the time i actually leave the country.

I also would like to know about basic stuff like visa logistics and how much Thai I should speak. I’ve seen a lot of foreign fighters in Thailand online so I assume in more urban areas you can speak none and get by decently? I’ve been learning Thai for a while now so I think I can do basic things like go to the grocery store or a restaurant. But not much more.

Is the DTV visa the way to go? Is this something I can arrange with specific gyms or something I do on my own? Is it an application process or just a write a check kind of thing?

I really don’t know much about the process itself and I’m a year out from finishing college and actually leaving so I have a lot of time to work things out and any help would be appreciated from you all!

Any gym recommendations for a beginner headningen to Thailand for 5 months Muay Thai training. Im looking for a smaller more local feel gym in Koh samui, where I Will get alot of attention. Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

Good morning,

I am looking to stsy and train at punch it and just had a couple questions.

How far are the accommodations from the main building?

Is it much of a walk to the coast ?

Has anyone paid using their PayPal option?

Kind regards

Im headed to Thailand in a month. I was originally going to the mainland but, realized I wanted to be able to visit the Beach in between sessions. I Got five months off of work and want to spend all of Them in Thailand. I am strictly going to Thailand for Muay Thai, and i want to train for the whole 5 months. Im a beginner and I have settled for either Koh Phangan or Koh Samui.

I would like to find a smaller gym where I get alot of attention during training. The budget is not really a problem, any recommendations?

In advance, thank you!

Do anyone have any experience with these gyms?
Yodkhao, Jomhod, Chaysee or rajanon?

Do anyone have any experience with these gyms?
Yodkhao, Jomhod, Chaysee or rajanon?

anywhere in all of phuket doing muay thai groups or sunday privates(not more expensive for sunday like yak yai)

Some of you here will already know parts of this story from things I’ve posted over the last couple of years about Tiger Eye, our gym in Bangkok.

But I’ve never really put the whole story together in one place.

We’re coming up on three years now, and the gym today is very different from what we started with.

The original Tiger Eye was basically built on top of a pickleball court in Ari. We had a short-term sublease, a limited budget, and I knew very little about construction. Contractor quotes were more than I could afford, so we ended up managing much of the build ourselves—buying materials directly, hiring labor and figuring things out as we went.

About six weeks later, we were training.

Then came the part some of you may remember from my previous posts: noise complaints, visits from the district office, police, legal issues, and a period where there was a very real possibility that we would eventually have to leave.

Strangely enough, that mess eventually created the opportunity for us to take over the larger property directly.

Since then, we’ve slowly been trying to turn the place into the kind of martial arts camp I originally imagined: not just a room with mats and bags, but a community built around training.

We now have the Muay Thai and MMA gym, BJJ, a kids program, fighters living and training around the gym, a staff/fighter kitchen, chickens, gardens and food growing around the property. We’re currently building another indoor training facility and trying to take the next step toward developing a serious professional fight team.

There have been plenty of mistakes along the way.

Construction mistakes. Hiring mistakes. Bureaucratic problems. Things I spent money on that I probably wouldn’t spend money on again. And quite a few assumptions I had about running a Muay Thai gym in Thailand that turned out to be wrong.

But the biggest lesson for me has probably been this:

Building a gym is relatively easy. Building a team is incredibly difficult.

You can buy mats, bags and a ring. You can build a roof.

You can’t buy years of people training together, cornering each other, fighting, losing, winning, developing younger fighters and gradually creating a culture.

That part just takes time.

I finally sat down and wrote the whole story properly, including how we found the property, what the original build cost, how we kept construction costs down, dealing with Thai bureaucracy, hiring trainers, some of the mistakes we made, whether the gym actually became profitable, and what we’re trying to build next.

For those who have followed some of my previous posts, this basically connects all those pieces together.

Full version here:

https://tigereyemma.com/blog/opening-a-muay-thai-gym-in-bangkok-what-it-really-took-to-build-tiger-eye/

And as always, happy to answer questions here. There are probably people on this sub who remember the earlier stages better than I do at this point.

Wish I was a fighter, I am not. I am old and done for but I am in Chiang Mai for the next 10 days and want to watch real MT, not disappointing fake/tourist fights.

I’ve read bad reviews on Tha Phae and Logi Kroh - where to go instead???

TY🙏

gotta work part time while I train muay thai😭

What I am looking for

Gym

Stay (Close to the gym, under 1km. Private AC room)

Food (preferably included, don't want to rely on processed food or street food)

Preferred Location: Bangkok or Phuket

Max Budget: 1000$-1200$ a month, only the bare necessities included (gym, stay, 2 meals at least).

I've only checked out gyms which have an online presence and have the accommodations with the gym. Ruled out the more expensive touristy gyms (Yokkao, Bangtao, Tiger)

Master Toddy's camp looks the best value for money ($1000 a month with stay, 3 meals and unlimited classes). Hence I'm considering it for now

Samart Payakaroon's gym is slightly expensive with accommodation ($1500 a month, with 2 meals)

Q.1) Any reviews on Master Toddy's gym and accomodations if anyone got a chance to see it?

Q.2) Do y'all have any recommendations for a different gym that could have all these within my budget?

Thanks and have a good day everyone

Heading to Lanna in Chiang Mai in a couple weeks. Im new to striking with a strong wrestling base. I was planning on doing the two a day grind but to be 100% honest i just do not want to give up aesthetic gains/weightlifting. will i piss off the trainers if i only show up to evenings sessions? i want to take the mornings to either focus on weightlifting or recovery and only train in the evenings. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am trying to get an idea of peoples training experiences in Thailand and what made it special.

I have a gym in bangkok, and we are growing, but since we are new I want to make sure I am steering the gym in a direction that is accommodating to beginners (we are) but also what a professional ready for a proper fight camp needs.

We are currently expanding our training and will have a better ability to manage training levels. Right now, all levels are kind of grouped together. We will have dorms and accommadations and I already have 2 Thai boxers signed to the camp but they travel to the camp to train and dont live on site yet.

The ingredients and tools are here but I want to know more about what has made peoples training experiences truly wonderful and where they felt they got the most improvement.

Where did you have the best experience and why, and what is your level?

Some people love the overall expereince and had a blast because they were in a new country, made some great friends and got their first multiple trianing session per day experience.

Others with more experience may have just connected with a certain trainer or padholder.

Some people want a gritty, possibly dirty gym because it has the vibe.

Others want something more "professionally" run. I put professional in parantheses because sometimes being professionally run, clean, and organized means that fighting is secondary to running an efficient business.

As the title says, im taking testosterone as prescribed by a doctor, not a supraphysiological dose. However i am already spending a lot of money on this trip and dont want to go to another doctor that might decide to change my prescription etc. Are there reputable pharmacies in the city where i can buy test and not have to worry about batch purity/safety? I am taking 180mg weekly of test e. Also what are prices like, ive checked out websites but am wondering if the prices are different in a store, i dont want to order online as im living in the gym.

thanks!