Namsaknoi & Me

My friend finally tagged me in this shot. Fun times! Can't wait to get back, more of an update soon, and tons more muay thai shots to come up, including my going away party, as soon as I have access to my *own* computer again, lol! Hope you had all had a great holiday --- I got the new AC/DC cd and dvd, so I'm a happy girl.

Hi Honeys, I'm Home!

Hey Everyone!

I'm still so jetlagged, I cannot keep my eyes open at all right now. But I'm back in Oregon, in the states, everything went safely, I have tons of muay thai pictures and even some videos to upload, but please be patient with me the next couple days while I house/couch surf and work on a plan. I have soooo much that has happened since I got home, life is beautiful but always just so unexpected and wild. Above all, it is good. I'm glad to be home, I'm looking forward to returning, blah blah blah, Happy Holidays and I'll be in touch soon.

xo
Mary

Free Hugs Campaign

Has everybody seen this? It's been around for a bit, but it's really cool and very touching. I love how it goes from black and white to color after the first hug......

SEVA Organization: Great Gift Ideas

It's gift-giving season. For most people, that means something material. But it occurred to me to write about a great organization called SEVA FOUNDATION. I've gotten gifts of service before for family members and friends, and highly recommend it.

The SEVA FOUNDATION is awesome. Through it, you can pay for tuition for sight restoration for people in places like Cambodia or Nepal, and literally pay for the procedure of restoring sight to a blind person. You can also pay for poor villages to receive clean water or for people to recieve literacy education and materials. Likewise, you can assist in building healthier Native American communities, and diabetes awareness education for them. You can also help mothers and babies in poor and developing countries.

I've paid for the education of young women in Guatemala and have purchased vision surgery for people as gifts. What happens is you are asked what you want to put in the card, and they customize it for you. Then you receive a beautiful card in the mail to give to the person you purchased it for, with their name printed in it and saying what was purchased in their honor.

It's a beautiful gift, and truly what "the season" is all about, to me. Check out their website and their vision and mission; they truly are the real deal and do profound work all over the globe!

Stand By Me: Sung From Around The World

Just watch this. It's amazing! All different musicians from around the world coming together to perform one song at the same time, via technology. One BEAUTIFUL song. And the musicians are AMAZING and the style and sheer talent in this creation makes me sorely miss the hole-in-the-wall joints I go see Joe Barr and other similar soul singers at in my hometown, "Sweet Home" Chicago. I JUST LOVE THIS. The South African music at the end, as always, gives me goosebumps. I WILL make it to Africa one day, mark my words......

Anybody who's read my AC/DC posts knows how I feel about music. I love it. All different kinds. I know it alone has even kept me alive during periods of my life. In the immortal words of Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone in the song "Man Of Golden Words":

Let's fall in love with music

The driving force in our living

The only international language

Divine glory, the expression

The knees bow, the tongue confesses

The lord of lords, the king of kings

I actually dedicate this post to two people, my dad and my friend Cheryl, a.k.a. "Shmacks".

My dad for blaring all different kinds of music throughout my childhood (some of my first memories are of listening to Blondie, Black Sabbath or The Kinks), for sharing his gift of music appreciation and knowledge of great, great music with both my brother and I, and now on to my nephew via all of us.

and Shmacks for the great and diverse love and excitement we share for music -- and for understanding that car stereos are for loud music, and that voices are for yelling over it; fingers are not for turning down stereos because you feel the need to say something during a great song. So many have it backwards, LOL! We've gone hoarse while bonding over The Doors, Madonna's B-Sides, you name it. Ah, memories.

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me"

From the Youtube post:

From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes the first of many "songs around the world" being released independently.

Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe.

This and other songs such as "One Love" will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year.

Sign up at www.playingforchange.com for updates and exclusive content available only to those who...

Join the Movement to help build schools, connect students, and inspire communities in need through music

Namsaknoi, The LEGEND, is at Rawai Gym!

2 Shots of Namsaknoi, total BAMF!

Championship Souvenirs . . . . .

Hovick, one of our fighters (and a fan) & Namsaknoi

The King of the Wai Kru . . . .

Namsaknoi & his old trainer Ronee,

who works at Rawai Gym and is EXCELLENT (obviously)!

Don't be fooled by Ronee's expression; he's ALWAYS smiling!

Namsaknoi & Pro Canadian MMA Fighter Derek Gauthier

Soooooo, I've been waiting to announce this officially on my blog until I had a copy of a cute picture of he and I that was taken 2 Saturdays ago (since of course it's all about me, lol!), but honestly, I can't wait any longer.....he's going to be gone soon! So the picture will just have to come later, folks.

Namsaknoi, hands down one of the greatest Muay Thai fighters to have ever lived, has been training at our gym last week and this week, and is even doing VIP (one-on-one) sessions. At first, we were like, "Who is this guy going around correcting us?" And then we would do what he would suggest and you'd just feel the improvement immediately, like "Whoooah!" Then Tuk announced who he was, and it made total sense.

Apparently a French photographer, Sophie Martin, who I WISH had her website up and running because she's the bomb, wanted to feature Muay Thai as her next topic of exploration, so she was in touch with Namsaknoi, and they traveled to our gym because it's such a nice facility, and full of muay thai students and fighters. What a TREAT for us!

Namsaknoi is like so many of the Muay Thai fighters I've met: totally funny and kind outside of the ring, utterly lethal inside of it. After a chat about progress and change, and learning I was American, he simply started referring to me as "Obama!" and would just yell that to me and wave when he saw me. Hilarious. Everybody's pretty happy Bush is gone, needless to say, no?

Namsak's known as the "King" of the wai kru, the ceremonial dance fighters do to honor their trainers, and what he has achieved in his Muay Thai career is unprecedented: he held the prestigious Lumpinee world title (for his division) for 6 years. Nobody could beat him, nobody at all.......

This is like Michael Jordan showing up at your basketball camp, man. We're honored! AND having a blast.

The following information is borrowed with permission from the Namsaknoi (NSN) Club MuayThai, a blog where you can keep up on his life and career.

Fighting Name: Namsaknoi Yudthagarngamtorn
Namsuk= the most mighty, Noi = Junior or little
Birth Date: October 13, 1979
Birth place: Surat Thani, Thailand
Style: Muay Thai
Height: 1,77 m
Weight: 61.5kg (135Ibs)
Titles:
Lumpinee Champion 115 lbs
Lumpinee Champion 122 lbs
Lumpinee Champion 135 lbs ( 2000-2006 )
WMC World Champion 115 lbs
PABA Boxing Champion 135 lbs
Ford Ranger Tournament winner
Champion of South of Thailand 95 lbs
Champion of South of Thailand et 126 lbs
Voted Best Fighter of the year 1996 by the Sportswriters Association of Thailand
Voted Best Fighther of the year 1999 by the Sports Authority of Thailand
Best Wai Kru/Ram Muay of the year 2001
Best Wai Kru/Ram Muay of the year 2006


Records: About 300 Fights , 280 Wins, 15 Loses , 5 Draws* (record was until 2004.)

His Story, written by Rob Cox at axkickboxing in 2004 and is shown as featured on NSN Club Muay Thai.
Born in Surat Thani province in the south of Thailand, Namsaknoi started MuayThai like a lot of his fellow countrymen at a very young age. Born to Muslim parents and given the name Mohammud Chaiyama, Namsaknoi started fighting at the age of 9 and soon started to make a name for himself in the MuayThai ring.

After making steady progress his trainer in the South took him to Kiatsingnoi camp in Bangkok where Namsaknoi also started to impress. After a short while though his trainer took him outside Bangkok, to the newly formed Kiatpramuk or Por Pramuk camp. This was around 1994 and Namsaknoi fast established a reputation as a future big name star.

Fighting originally on Sukonesongchai promotions, Namsaknoi won his first major titles when he beat Nungpichit Sityodthong to win the Lumpini and w.m.c world flyweight championship belts. After a very impressive year in 1996 Namsaknoi won the most prestigious award for boxers in Thailand, when he got the vote from the sportswriters association of Thailand for the fighter of the year.

Namsaknoi's next title came after he Knocked out Lamnamoon Sor Sumalee with an elbow in the 3rd round to take the Lumpini stadium Superfeatherweight title. Namsanoi then went on to win the Ford Ranger tournament and 3 years after winning the sportswriters award for fighter of the year, Namsaknoi was again voted fighter of the year this time by the sports authority of Thailand.

Next title for Namsaknoi was the Lumpini lightweight title which he won by beating Kaolan Kaowichit on points in June 2000 and still holds to this present day. After struggling to find credible opponents, Namsaknoi had a brief spell of fighting under International boxing rules, where he knocked out Shuki Rozenweig of Israel in round 5 to win the vacant P.A.B.A lightweight title.

Namsaknoi has shared the ring with many a top name with 3 wins over Samkor Kiatmonthep, 2 wins over Kaolan Kaowichit and 2 wins over Sanchai Sor Kingstar. Both Kaolan and Sanchai also having been former boxers of the year. He has also had the opportunity to fight abroad with fights in Korea and Japan where he stopped the dangerous and highly regarded Kobayashi in two rounds after his elbows opened up some nasty cuts.

In 2001 Namsaknoi also got given a special award for his exceptional Wai Kru. As well as all his stadium titles Namsaknoi was also champion of southern Thailand at 95 and 126 pounds. At the age of 25 Namsaknoi still has a lot of fight in him but the only problem is finding a credible opponent at Lightweight to give him a real test. This has seen him having to fight out of his weight class at Lightwelterweight where despite his obvious class it is sometimes a very difficult weight handicap to overcome.

He kept his Lumpinee belt from 2000 to 2006 remaining undefeated defending his championship. In 2006 he was destitute since he hadn't a promoter anymore. He retired in 2006, living one of the best records in Thailand, and considered one of the best Thai fighters ever. He was in a little island of koh pahngan and teach muay thai for couple of years. He currently moved to Chaweng Stadium in Samui and continue teaching there, till date.

Pro MMA Fighter Derek Gauthier Is Here

2 Pro Fighters: Derek Gauthier and Muay Thai LEGEND Namsaknoi

Norman (Derek's trainer), his son Kevin & Derek

A picture from Derek doing what MMA Fighters do, borrowed from his website.

For three weeks MMA fans might be interested in knowing that Canadian Pro MMA Fighter Derek Gauthier is training here, along with his trainer, Norman (of SparMAX) and his trainer's son, Kevin. Really nice folks, too.

He came here to work on his stand-up because his groundwork doesn't need any help, it sounds like. So he ended up at our gym, and as a bonus he gets to work privately with Namsaknoi, easily one of the greatest Muay Thai fighters who has ever lived, who just happens to be at our gym for two weeks. Derek's trainer said he has a big fight coming up, so this is ideal training for him here in the tropics.

TKO Extreme says this about Derek:

TKO Championship Fighting has officially announced that undefeated welterweights Derek Gauthier and Yannick Galipeau will meet at TKO 32: Ultimatum.

Derek Gauthier made his mixed martial arts debut at Ring Xtreme Challenge 1 on September 2007 against Joseph Paiquet (0-2). Gauthier scored a knockout victory at 2:34 of the first round.

Two months later, Gauthier appeared at Ring Xtreme Challenge 2 where he scored a TKO victory over Kris Parti (0-2) in just over one minute.

Yannick Galipeau made his respective mixed martial arts debut at TKO 31: Young Guns where he scored a TKO victory over Josh Bitner (0-1) in just under a minute.

I'd send you to his website, but it's all in French.......Still, it's at http://www.derekgauthier.com/ if that works for you, LOL! You can probably google him and find out more about him in English, I know MMA fighting is quite popular even though I don't know a ton about it -- but Derek sounds like he's off to a great career start based on his record, and I wish him the best!

Ute's Beautiful Knockout & Training

Ute

Tonight I trained with Ute, who I'm told currently holds the Lumpinee boxing title in Thailand, which means he's number one in the country.....for regular boxing, not Muay Thai, although he does Muay Thai, too. He's like twenty years old, in school, and a super, super guy. I've been recommending him to my friend Laura that is coming this summer, because she is a straight boxer. He doesn't train much of the farangs (foreigners) because he gets to the gym so late, but I knew who he was, so I knew he was the guy to go to.

I trained with Ute because of the tear in my calf (even though I have one in my shoulder, LOL), and because it didn't feel so hot doing muay thai pad work in the group training yesterday even though I can kick the bags or walk around on it. Bouncing off of it is different, you know? So I decided to work on my boxing and sparring, and asked Ute for a VIP. Because he's in school, he's only available after 5pm, so we did tonight at 6pm. I was kind of tired going into it, but........

It was EXCELLENT. He taught me some great variations of hooks, worked me totally, and showed me a variety of boxing blocks. Then we got in the ring and sparred, and the footwork is different for boxing so it was a bit different -- and I'm not that interested in learning boxing footwork, etc., anyways -- but it didn't matter, we were just going at it and messing around. It was wild because I was actually hitting him sometimes in the face and head, and I haven't really done that yet. He kept saying it was "okay", but still......?! LOL! He did ask me why I didn't fight, which was just awesome. I told him I would next year, and he was going to help me win them. :-)

He's a niiiiice guy. At least once, though, I just laughed at myself, thinking of who I was in the ring with. And I could tell he was in his happy place, teaching straight boxing (although with some elbows, when we did pads), and so it was a lot of fun as well as educational. I did just laugh outloud once and tell him -- pardon my French -- that he is is quick as shit. Because he IS. Ridiculously so! I may do another one with him before I leave, we'll see. I'd like to. He's amazing!

Seriously, check out his fight from like 2 nights ago at Bangla Stadium. At like 1:34 (I think it is) in the first round his knockout is just gorgeous. Yes, gorgeous. I never thought I'd understand the term "beautiful knockout", but everybody was like gushing about it later. And I watched it. Like 15 times. IT IS. See for yourself...............

It's Official: I'm Making Som Tam!

I DID it! At the market tonight I bought a larger mortar and pestle, the kind used for making Som Tam. And I bought the vegetable scraper (although probably should get another one since it was soooooo cheap) to make the green papaya and carrot strips with quickly and efficiently. I'm bringing it home and making Som Tam for myself alllll the time!

ALTHOUGH I may use an agave nectar versus palm sugar, and I will surely use a dash of nama shoyu, a raw I(fermented) soy sauce that is fishier in taste, for the fish sauce. And possibly germinate and season my own pine nuts for it, maybe even making them spicy tasting. Who knows? The skies the limit when you are the master of your domain, LOL! I'm STOKED! The rest is just lime juice, chili peppers, garlic, green papaya (usually at Asian markets, otherwise I'll sub that out, too, if I have to!)