Phuket Travelogue
I took my first lesson in Thai kick boxing during a two night stay at Indigo Pearl in Phuket, a resort island in Southern Thailand. Becoming addicted to the sport, I started taking lessons when I got back home.
As much as I enjoyed learning to punch, jab, hook, and kick, the highlight of the one hour session came when my trainer, Jittranuch Ketsrirak, noticed the 6 inch scar on my left shoulder.
“Wow!” he exclaimed, his face lighting up.
“Did you get that in a fight?”
Jittranuch went on the innumerate the various injuries that he had suffered over the years as a kick boxer.
Which left me wondering, why on earth would anyone willingly engage in an activity in which painful injuries were not only possible, they were practically inevitable?
World’s Deadliest Martial Art
By some stunning coincidence, the BBC, was airing a documentary on martial arts that very same night, and I stumbled upon it purely by accident in my hotel room.
Some researchers at an American university were using computer simulation to determine what was required a knock someone out.
As it turns out, of all the world’s martial arts, Thai kick boxing was found to be the most lethal. Not only was it the most likely to send someone to the mat for the 10 count, it was also the most likely to cause serious bodily harm, sometimes resulting in death.
Upon my return to Hong Kong, I checked the schedule at my gym to see if any kick boxing classes were offered.
They were, but they were done to music as a form of aerobics. I have been a regular in these classes ever since.