Thanks for the info bro. I will look into it. I just can’t make up my mind now. Your second Drive By was great. Keep up the good job brother. I’m looking forward to reading about the Fairtex RCA gym. Not much info about that gym online. Take care, be safe.

@Josh. I hear what you are saying! I guess my main point is if you are coming to BKK and not going to be training 2 x’s per day every day, there is another type of gym popping up. Its not about who is more hardcore. It’s more of what you actually have time for and can you still learn something dropping in at places.

And its also not really about indoors and aircon. I personally do not like indoors either. But super rank pads and ripping the skin off your feet when you are not training for a month straight will make a short holiday trip to Bangkok less than ideal as well. And trainers that could care less kind of suck too.

How is Lanna if you only have a few days to train because your girlfriend or boyfriend want you to go elephant riding up in the hills and visiting Hill tribes etc etc.. ? Sounds like they still take care of you, which is great. Some gyms want your 500-900 baht and for you to move on.

It is nice to hear about hidden gems and I am sure Nop will welcome others to contribute gym reviews. Just message him directly. I found a nice gem and you guys can hear read about it in the next post.

great topic and always relevant ! i hope somebody talks about jitti gym (bangkok) and siam number one (chiang mai), i know laura trained there and it’s really a hidden gem…if not i’d be happy to, also have pics…btw, muaythailand.com has tons of camp reviews and a bulletin board for feedback…

I don’t know, I rather like training outdoors and on concrete. It seems more “real” that way. I trained at Lanna up in Chiang Mai (which is very foreigner friendly) but at the same time it was outdoors, on concrete, hard training, and I thought all of the trainers there were very helpful and knew their business.
To each their own of course. Some people would rather train indoors on mats in air conditioning, which is fine.

Either way, great post, can’t wait for more.

Evolve in Singapore, which is a Sityodtong affiliate, is EXTREMELY nice. And alot of the Sityodtong trainers are going between Thailand and Singapore. One would think the Sityodtong facility in Pattaya would improve over time. Ahh.. but this is Thailand ;-)

Well, Fairtex Pattaya is another example of catering to foreigners but still a good gym.

Chakrit had one trainer that seemed the be the guy everyone liked to hold pads. First time I was there he asked me if I wanted to fight.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember his name (Nueng…something.. oops.. I guess I know too many Nuengs..) and he left Chakrit to go be a bodyguard in Macau!

“Recommended especially on tuesdays as you can walk across to Bourbon street and hit their Mexican buffet afterwards.”

Hahahaha, were we separated at birth?

Agreed awesome post, looking forward to reading about the other gyms. Keep em’ coming!

I only trained with one trainer and I thought he was really good, sparred about 10 minutes aswell, cant remember his name but a big guy who said he used to fight in Japan. Good fun

My first experience training in Thailand was at Tiger, and that’s about as foreigner friendly as they come.

The next year I went back and stayed with some friends near Pattaya, so I had the chance to train at Sityodtong. That place is fairly small, with a few farang but not many. I still had to dump water over my head to shower, and there were tons of “Yung” around (mosquitoes) around to make it even more crazy.

Every time you go to a gym, they ask you if you want to fight. It’s obvious you will get far better training if you tell them you want to fight. It’s not something a guy really wants to bring up, but the question remains: are the fights rigged? I’ve seen farang get killed in the ring, I’ve seen some really close matches, and I’ve seen some obviously thrown fights…what’s your take?