Phuket Thailand: Living on Fight Street!

Greetings from Phuket Thailand (23-28 Sept 2017)!

After a great first stop in Asia I flew from Yangon Myanmar to Phuket Thailand quite uneventfully. The flight was later in the day and by the time I hailed a taxi and got to my villa it was already late and the villa owner was in bed. There wasn't a front office to check into and if not for the taxi driver I would have been locked out and in a bad situation. Luckily I saved the contact information for the villa to my phone and the taxi driver called her. After about 10 minutes she showed up, walking down the street in her night gown, and briskly showed me to my villa and told me to settle up the next day. I apologized profusely for not informing her that I was showing up late and kicked myself for not planning ahead and assuming there was a front office open 24 hours.

To rewind this back a bit let's start when I first began planing this visit. I had always planned on visiting Thailand from the start. The mystique of the tropical jungle setting and ruthlessness of the training in Muay Thai gyms make Thailand a very intriguing spot to see, whether it's for training or just sightseeing. Vara is a BJJ Globetrotter and lives in Bangkok, she knows all there is to know about visiting and training in Thailand and happily helps out everyone. In fact she's so good at this she now helps run BJJ Globetrotters for Christian and has her own #askvara Instagram account where I'm pretty sure any time of the day or night you'll get a response within an hour. Anyways, with Vara's help both my stops in Phuket and Bangkok were put together quite easily. For Phuket Vara practically planned the entire visit, I did initially have reservations and questions but she easily answered and shot down every one of them and I eventually went with her suggestions.

Villa pool, sorry I forgot to take pics of the villas.

The villa I rented was a bit out of my usual price range but when looking at the price and time to travel throughout Phuket from the cheap hostels in the tourist area, and really how nice a place I was getting to relax in (I had my own place with air conditioning and the property had a pool!) I was actually saving money by taking the more expensive place that was closer. I only had to walk a few minutes to each gym and there were tons of choices for cheap, or not so cheap, restaurants nearby. As for getting around to sight see I could rent a scooter and pay for a day a fraction what each trip would cost with the taxi mafia in Phuket.

Love the food in Thailand, cheap chicken and rice and coconuts, yes please!

Back to getting settled in at the villa. I was let into my villa, dropped off my bags and headed to the 7-eleven just around the corner to grab some food. Once back in the villa I decided I would take advantage of the TV and check out what Thai television had to offer while I relaxed. I was not disappointed. I found a game show that had a number a people involved, all sitting or standing around blocks used as chairs. They were all talking and after someone would say something some of them would either stand up or sit down. I have no idea what the purpose or rules of the game but it was quite entertaining and made for good time wasting while relaxing and figuring out my game plan for training during the week.     

A post shared by Bob F'N Barker (@pandasodyssey) on Sep 23, 2017 at 10:02am PDT

The Sights

I didn't get out to see many sights in Phuket as Fight Street isn't too close to town or the tourist attractions. I was also paranoid about being stopped by the police and made to pay a hefty 'fine'. There are places like Monkey Hill and Rang Hill that are right in the downtown area that I figured would be a problem trying to drive to there and back. There are also several night markets around Phuket but I didn't like the idea of driving a scooter to a heavily crowded area let alone going at night. That just means I have more reason to go back there one day.

However I did one day get out to the Big Buddha Phuket statue which is on the top of a mountain. I rented a scooter and set out, I was scared of running into a police barricade during my drive out to the statue. I did see one at right the mouth of the street to Big Buddha after the roundabout, which is a usual tourist trap I'm told. As soon as I saw them as I came up to the roundabout my heart skipped a beat and jumped into my throat. The police had already pulled over a group of tourists and were talking to them, most likely asking for them to pay a 'fine'. As my mind raced figuring out how I would address the situation and attempt to make it out without paying too much I made sure not to be driving too fast and blend in with the flow of traffic. I also made the decision I would stare straight ahead without looking at the Police shaking down the tourists on either side of the road. I continued forward, looking forward, saying to myself 'I don't hear anything, don't stop, no one is jumping out in front of me, don't stop, just keep going!' So I just drove right through the trap without ever stopping or looking to see if I was clear. No one chased me so I assumed I was good.

I continued down the road and up the mountain to the statue which I felt was testing the full power of the scooter, moving my 110 kgs up the steep slopes. I felt uneasy on some parts but I made it up without any accidents. There were some great views along the way and at a few spots there were elephant rings where you could feed and ride an elephant around the field or forest paths. I didn't stop for them as I was on a mission to make it to the statue and on the way back I skipped them to save my money for gas and didn't see any ATM's since leaving Fight Street. I got to the top of the Big Buddha and the whole trek was instantly worth it. What a view! And what an impressive statue to be in the presence of as well! From the stairs to the Big Buddha and the railings all around it you can see down to the coastline and far into the tropical forests around us. The temple, souvenir shop and different stores around the statue sold every kind of Buddhist trinket as well as food and drink. It's quite the trek to get up there, might as well take a rest break in the shade and re-hydrate.

All around the Big Buddha on the top of the stairs are the different gods that Buddhists pray to each day. As well as the impressive statues were other stands selling mala bracelets necklaces which were said to be blessed by the monks, all sorts of elephant and Buddha statues and carvings, and a number of other souvenirs. As the statue was still being built you could buy a brick and have your name printed on it for a price to help build it. I would love to visit the place again once it's fully built and see all the names of who helped. Once I was done wandering the grounds, taking pictures, taking in the view and relaxing I was ready to start my trek back to the villa. As I starting walking to the scooter an all too familiar feeling came over. The wind picked up, the air had that humid dew smell and the sky became dark. The afternoon torrential downpour was about to drop on us. Every afternoon for about 30 minutes came in a storm with such power it was like a power hose sprayed on the whole city, and then it would leave and within 5 minutes you would never know it happened. People quickly found cover and waited for the storm to hit and leave. Once it passed I was on my way, now testing my luck going down the steep slopes of the mountain on the scooter while they were soaked wet and pooled with rainwater at some parts. It made for an interesting ride back but luckily no wipe outs or accidents. I decided I had used up my luck getting by the Police and making it safely up and down the mountain, trying my luck to make it into to the city to see Monkey hill was just asking for problems. I passed on pressing my luck and returned the scooter early.

As always you can see more of my pictures of this visit and from all my other adventures over on my Flickr Account.

Fight Street

As Vara laid out in her advise for my visit I found an affordable villa on Soi Ta-iad, or Fight Street as it's affectionately nicknamed. This street is an athlete's dream vacation. On one end is Tiger Muay Thai and on the other end is Phuket Top Team. All in between is everything you could need, restaurants that have meal plans to keep you healthy while you stay and train, massage places to roll out your arms and legs from hitting the pads all day, pharmacies in case you get sick (or more often in Thailand, get an infection) and of course equipment stores for new training gear and scooters to rent. There's a few other Muay Thai gyms across the street as well. A complete athlete's training camp paradise.

I wish I would have jumped in and taken some of the Muay Thai classes at the gyms there but I needed gloves and I wasn't about to spend a bunch of money on bulky gear I can't bring with me for one or two classes. I did however make a video of wandering the street to show you how awesome the place is to visit.

If you can't see the video above or it doesn't load you can view it and all my other videos other on the Panda's Odyssey YouTube Channel. While you're there please show some love by liking, sharing commenting and subscribing.

Tiger Muay Thai & MMA

Of all the conversations I've had about traveling the world and training at different gyms Tiger Muay Thai & MMA came up quite a lot, probably the most named gym in all my conversations. Once I got to the gym and walked around its property I could easily see why it is lots of people talk of visiting and why lots of MMA fighters have training camps there. The front of the compound holds the office and grill restaurant with three different rings and matted areas for kickboxing behind them. Further behind those was an area for fitness classes and off to the side was the matted for BJJ and MMA. It was an impressive place to walk around and watch all the classes being run.The whole place is open with no gates or fences to pass, one can wander the grounds and watch the classes quite openly, although you may be approached by one of the instructors to sign up for classes.

Once I had planned my schedule and picked a day to train at Tiger Muay Thai I set out to sign up for the day and get my pass. It's quite simple to sign up for classes you just go to the front office and pay for either the class, the day or the week. You get a paper to show the instructors or staff coming to take attendance. I made my way to the back mat area where class would be, as I was a bit early so I just sat in the shade and watched the other classes going on. I was actually a bit turned around and thought the fitness mats was where the BJJ classes were held but then ran into some other people also early for class and followed them to the far back building where the mats for BJJ and MMA where. In the far end there is an MMA cage and by the entrance there was an air conditioned weight room, the rest was open mat space for classes under a roof with no walls, just posts holding it up and letting the tropic breeze in.

I introduced myself to the instructor Alex, a brown belt from USA who loves meeting all the visitors that come to Tiger Muay Thai from all over the world. He had heard a little of BJJ Globetrotters before from past visitors so when I told him of my travel plans he was interested in my adventures and learning more about the affiliation and how I used it to get around. When we added each other on social media I saw we had a bunch of friends in common, all active Globetrotters of course. It would be awesome teaching at such a place as Tiger where so many people visit to train as they're traveling, hearing all their stories would be so inspiring. One day I hope to have a job in a place like that.

Anyways, classes are great at Tiger Muay Thai with Alex and everyone but they were also really hot. Thailand is so extremely humid and even with the fans on and hitting the morning or evening classes I was dying in the heat. On the flip side I always felt limber and loose even after classes or waking up in the morning so I guess the constant heat wasn't all bad. The warm up drills weren't as bad as I had feared and drilling techniques was fun with some active resistance and troubleshooting to make it your own or see where it fits in your game. Rolling with the people there widely ranged from inexperienced new guys to top performers with a lot stiff athletic matches. One match in particular during one class was with a very fit blue belt I drilled with, he was fast and aggressive and at one point almost had me in a reverse wrist lock, which mostly was just bending my fingers back way more than they could go. I later saw him online, in a poster for a Bellator pay per view. I didn't feel so bad get my fingers bent considering what he could've done if it were an MMA class.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time training at Tiger Muay Thai and I will definitely return, hopefully for a longer time to really enjoy training there with everyone. Thanks Alex for the fun chats after classes and the great training.

Phuket Top Team

I messed up on scheduling and didn't get to Phuket Top Team until my last night on Fight Street. PTT is another gym I really wanted to go to, especially when I had recently learned that several MMA stars, like Chris 'Cyborg' Justino frequent there. The place is similar to Tiger with a front office and the outside rings under a giant roof, but with PTT the BJJ classes are inside in a matted room that is much cooler than training outside. Being able to train in a temperature controlled room was a welcomed change, even though I had an air conditioner in my villa I didn't keep it on too much in fear of getting a sinus cold. The front office also is where all the gear they sell is and they must have gotten in a big supply as the room was full of gloves and shin pads they ere going through re-stocking. looking at the gear made me re-think about picking something up, but again I passed on it, but now I wish I picked up something from both places to have as a souvenir, perhaps next time I visit Fight street I will try the kickboxing classes and buy some gear from the gyms.

Where as I trained in both gi and no gi with Tiger MMA I only attended a gi class at PTT, the attendance there was much bigger than the gi classes at Tiger. The class was mostly lower belts, I think I was at a beginners class, and I didn't get to talk to many before class but there seemed to be a large portion of them being locals and not just visitors like of the Tiger Muay Thai classes. Warm up was thorough and there were a few movement drills I was completely lost at but in the cooler temperature I was able to survive it and was ready for drilling. We were working a technique from guard, with my partner working the technique, when I see a man walk into the room and make his way over to the instructor where a few black belts were sitting and talking. I knew instantly who he was but my partner saw my gaze and felt it necessary to point out who it was "You know Carlson Gracie? Well that's his son, Carlson Gracie Jr!" Which I thought was a funny way to point him out.

There were a few rolls after class but with the size of the class only half were on the mats to roll each round. The matches were fun, although I'm sure if there were more higher belts I would have been destroyed instead of faring as well as I did. Again I was surprised how even though some matches were aggressive no one was trying to 'test' the new big guy like so many gyms I had been to in Europe. Maybe it's the open welcome culture on Fight Street that changes the overall view of testing the new guys and instead just training and having fun but either way I really enjoyed myself training at Phuket Top Team. Of course after class I asked the instructor if it was OK to say hi to Carlson Gracie Jr and get a picture with him. I wish I had my patches on hand with me to give them but at least I got a picture with a BJJ icon.

Never did I think I'd run randomly into Legend Carlson Gracie Jr on this Odyssey!

After an amazing week living, training and eating on Fight Street in Phuket it was time to leave for my next stop in Thailand: the paradise island of Koh Tao. Catching the bus and ferry to get there was quite an adventure, but that's for next time. 

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
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Yangon, Myanmar: My First Stop in Asia!

Greetings from Yangon, Myanmar! (17-23 Sept 2017)

As I detailed in the last post my traveling experience to get from Albania to Myanmar through the United Arab Emirates was long, ill fated and left me completely drained and exhausted after the back to back over night flights to get to Yangon. By the time I had landed all I wanted to do was find an ATM, pick up some water as I was feeling greatly dehydrated from the flights and get my ass to the hostel to rest. The problem with the Yangon airport and the transit options from there is that there's all sorts of 'taxi drivers' hanging out at the airport pestering anyone who walks through the arrivals door while the bus stop is a few blocks away. This creates quite the tourist trap for paying for overpriced taxi's that's really hard to get through to the cheap taxis or buses. One 'taxi driver' followed me asking me if I needed a ride and telling me to come to his car, over and over. I told him 'No' many times and even stopped in the overpriced cafe for some food and to use the shitty airport WiFi. After being there for some time I was sure the taxi driver had left or found a new victim, no luck. As soon as I stepped foot outside the cafe area he appeared begging and trying to coax me to his car again.

Flying into Yangon.

I wandered around, taking my time in the overpriced airport convenience store to pick up some bottled water and hope he maybe listened to me saying No for the 50th time. No avail, he just waited. I had read that grabbing a taxi down the street would be cheaper or that the bus into town was really cheap but once I stepped outside and felt to the heat and humidity I couldn't stand searching for a cheap taxi or taking a 90 minute sweltering hot and crowded bus to the city. I was worn out and done with fighting. I needed to rest more than I needed to save $10. I caved in and followed the beggar to his car. It had AC and was clean, so it at least enjoyable, although he tried several times to get me to go see some sights for employ him as my driver for my stay. Hard to tell if the AC was worth it. All in all it only cost me about $20 which is a fraction of what it would have costed back home or anywhere in Europe, but it's also about twice the price it costed me to take a city taxi back to the airport when I left.

After waking up from the first day nap I took an evening stroll around town.

19th st, where everyone goes to eat. Very cheap too.

Sole Pagoda at night.

I arrived at the hostel and after checking in and being shown around the place I immediately crawled into my cubical, downed a bunch of water and passed out for the afternoon. I didn't mean to sleep for over 4 hours, I remember wanting to lay down and try using to hostel's shitty internet but it happened and I woke up at 10pm wondering what happened to the day. It messed up my internal clock for a few days afterwards where I never woke up before noon and never fell asleep until after 3am. Yangon was too hot for me during the day so I wouldn't be exploring until the later afternoon or evening anyways. Resting, re-hydrating and acclimatizing was best until I found my bearings and was able to go to the gym again.

The Sights

Yangon has its downfalls, it's a dirty city with shitty internet and its share of bugs everywhere, but that's most south Asian cities. It's something you get used to after a while. The redeeming qualities far outweigh the downfalls. Throughout my exploring I saw a city that just seemed like it couldn't maintain it's past economic boom and judging from how busy the city and the sprawling harbour that borders it was Yangon is probably hitting another economic growth.

The Secretariat Office, under some heavy renovations.

The train tracks going through town don't look like they're used often.

Independence Monument in Maha Bandula Park.

There was a protest in the park, I think about the actions in northern Myanmar. 

The temples, pagodas, that are throughout the city are quite beautiful, especially the main temple grounds Shwedagon Pagoda. I spent a day walking the grounds looking at all the statues and prayer temples to their gods. The giant Bodhi trees were magnificent to be in the presence of and the overall spiritual sense of peace I felt while walking the grounds was intense. I seemed to also be on display while walking the grounds or just on my everyday exploring. I was stopped by a few people at Shwedagon Pagoda to take a picture with, including a group of kids who ran across the street to meet me when I left the place. Apparently my tattoos and red beard seemed to be quite the hit with the locals.

In the mall that the gym is in there was a ramen shop, Monster Ramen, and it had a 'Monster Ramen Challenge' that is a giant bowl of ramen. Basically it consists of enough noodles for 5 bowls and enough toppings for 3 bowls and the challenge is to eat it all within 20 minutes and you get it for free (not actually for free, you pay then when you eat it all you get a gift certificate for that amount). The trick is that the broth is boiling hot so trying to eat it all fast will just burn your mouth and tongue. I accepted the challenge and made fast work of the eggs, pork and sprouts, the noodles and boiling hot broth was a bit harder. I had to use the spoon and chopsticks so that I could pull the noodles out of the broth and let them hang to cool while eating previously grabbed noodles. Like a conveyor belt of ramen from the bowl to my mouth. I still brunt my lips and tongue and even the roof of my mouth but I finished the bowl in 17 minutes. I was sweating profusely from dealing with all that boiling hot broth and they gave me some iced tea after my triumph to cool me down. A picture with the winning certificate and empty bowl was taken and put up on their wall. I hope one day a friend ends up there and sends me a picture of my ginger face on that wall of local winners. No longer feeling like eating ramen during this visit I gave the the certificate to the gym.

As always you can see more of my pictures over on my Flickr account.

Transcend Fitness - BJJ Myanmar

I first started talking to the BJJ Globetrotter contact for Yangon, Tammi, months before heading to Myanmar. I knew nothing of the area and was curious to see about maybe traveling and seeing more of it than just the one city. Also I was trying to figure out how I would spend my holidays at the time and had the idea of staying there longer and perhaps working temporarily at a hostel. I later made different plans but Tammi was very helpful on filling me in about the area and connecting me with the gym, unfortunately she wasn't around during my visit and we never got to meet. I talked to BJJ Myanmar before showing up to find out the schedule and once I was rested and feeling up for training I made my way over to finally meet them. The gym was only a 10 minute walk from where I was staying, on the top floor in the Yangon Junction Mawtin Mall, about the only modern building in the city center. It was a bit awkward to get to at first because the stairs and main elevator don't go up to the top floor. I walked around and searched for the entire top floor, and even went back the the main floor and entrance to look for a floor map, before finally finding another elevator hidden in a back corner. 

Once I found my way to the gym I introduced myself at the front desk and the owner Joey, a very friendly and welcoming guy who is also quite built and intimidating to watch kick the pads. The gym itself is small and completely open to the rest for the mall floor for all to watch, separated from the concourse of the floor only by a fence. The wall across from the fence is done up in a big street art style mural of the gym name 'Transcend Fitness' with the area in between a matted floor and where the BJJ class is usually held. Off to the right was the front desk and behind it a lower floor area with a heavy bag where the Muay Thai kickboxing was held. The change rooms were off from the gym, across from the outdoor pool and spa also on the top floor but not apart of the gym. Once I changed I headed to the BJJ area and started stretching out before class.

Joey runs the kickboxing classes but a purple belt from Australia was teaching the BJJ classes when I was there. Other than the instructor everyone else was a white belt at the time. I believe there has been some belt gradings since I visited, I know that a few of them, like Joey, were well deserving of a blue belt back then. The students were all happy to have a visitor to train with and even learn from as they asked me all sorts of questions before and after class. We went over a cool entry into a single leg takedown using the gi and lapel for control and guard pass sequence for class and worked on adding to it the next day. It was fun stuff with a few details I really enjoyed adding to my set. Single legs aren't my thing, I've never been good at them, of course I've also never drilled them continuously until they worked, but the details of the angle the purple belt used to attack the leg and the grip controls he used for the technique make it seem much more easier for me.

One day I was asked to fill in and teach, with some asking for some no gi techniques. With the recent series in mind I decided to expand on it as a "what if?" class to work other options if you lose the grips to control your opponent. This way with a simple option we could work using both gi or no gi. I brought back the low single leg takedown Kamen showed me in Bulgaria and added that as the second option for shooting in for the single but losing the grips in the process. They all seemed to love it which I was happy for as I was really working out my own ideas of what I could do for my own game while teaching them the sequence. I also taught my guard break and passing series I had been working and showing all through this Odyssey, it's a staple for me in my game so fine tuning it any time I can is a bonus and teaching it goes over great lower belts learning the basics. The higher belts like seeing it to try and pick it apart and break my pressure game down as well since I seem to be a good candidate to work on defending against a top pressure game.

The Death Match

The gym was awesome to train with and I had a great time there, I felt very welcome and would love to visit them again sometime. I did however have an usual situation during one of the classes. I was training with one of the white belts during class and he seemed like a nice shy individual who was very open to getting help during our time drilling techniques together. In fact he was really good at taking the notes that both the purple belt and myself were giving him to fix any problems with drilling the techniques and correcting it. Then came time to roll. Once we bumped fists he became a whole other person, overly aggressive, doing anything to attack while not willing to tap himself. He came at me like a bat out of hell but quite quickly ended up in my guard on the receiving end of a cross collar choke. There was no way out but he refused and fought it with all his might, choking and sputtering, eyes going red and glossed over as he used all the strength to fight the choke and try and tear my grips off. I just sat there holding the grips and told him "Just tap, there's no problem with tapping and resetting. It's not worth going out for" but he persisted. I was stuck with the decision to teach him a hard lesson by putting him to sleep or letting it go. Not wanting my first time putting a training partner to sleep to be in a gym I'm visiting, and on the first night too. I let go.

I stopped the match and gave the white belt a lecture about how unnecessary and dangerous it is to have a 'fight to the death' mentality and not wanting to tap at his early stage in his Jiu-Jitsu journey. I'm all for training hard at times for a number of reasons, like preparing for competition or wanting to get a good work out, be the hammer that night, or for work situations but this type of training of just going all out fighting everything until you're either broken or put out is going to get him or his partners hurt and likely end their Jiu-Jitsu journey early. The key about it all is at this young stage 99% of the people rolling like this really do not mean to or understand what it is they're doing or what situation they were in. It takes a lot for some people to finally see that, for me it was realizing that if I trained with less energy to work on technique instead always focused on 'winning' that, although I would tap and 'lose' more I wouldn't end up hurt as much and be able to train more. Then along the way you realize that tapping is part of training and there's no winning or losing, just learning. I made him sit there and think about it for the rest of the round to have it sink in. I'm sure there's lots of people out there that think it's Ok to roll like this kid was because they "always train like you fight and always fight to win" or think I should have put him to sleep and moved on and let him learn on his own. To each their own but in my opinion at his stage of learning the basics of Jiu-Jitsu, unless he's getting ready for a competition, he should be solely focusing on defending and using less power to get out of the spastic white belt style we all started at. This, luckily has been the only time I've had such a situation and hopefully the student has learned from it and will change before getting hurt or hurting another student.   

Even with the death match I had a great time training at BJJ Myanmar and making new friends (the guy was a really friendly, good natured person who had no hard feelings and I was bound to have this event happen at some point in the Odyssey). I also enjoyed exploring the city and I hear going north into Myanmar more is really beautiful, maybe I'll return for a visit to travel around more to really explore the country next time. In fact, without giving away my future posts I really loved this area of the world and would gladly return to explore more of it. Maybe with friends next time. Maybe I should look into creating a group of BJJ South East Asian Jungle Globetrotters where we hike all over the area and set up impromptu classes in the forests and on mountains. Whatever the future holds I look forward to seeing how BJJ Myanmar progresses. Thanks Joey and the gang for all the good times!

I was off to my next stop, one I had been really looking forward to since the start: Fight Street in Phuket Thailand! Spoiler warning: It's a combat athletes' vacation spot paradise! But that's another story.

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.
Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

Tirana, Albania: Training in Albania &...The Abu Dhabi Experience...

Greetings From Tirana, Albania (10-14 Sept 2017)

The bus ride to Tirana was a peaceful beautiful ride through the mountains, watching the sun shine down on the vast green fields and rocky landscapes. Leaving Ohrid and catching this bus was a bit sketchy at first. Men in plain clothes, who were apparently bus drivers and loading staff at the bus station, asked people where they were going and directed them to the according bus. Three men directed myself and an American to an unmarked and quite worn out white van which was going to be our ride to outside of town where we would catch the real bus. I knew this beforehand but I don’t think the American did as he was quite uneasy the entire time. The whole thing made me a bit uneasy and on guard as well but I’m glad I knew of this set up beforehand or I probably would have asked many questions and not been OK with it, just like the American.

After we switched to the main bus it was a scenic ride the rest of the way, in fact it was one of the most beautiful treks I’ve been on. Driving a bus through the mountains, especially an old beat up one, doesn’t sound too amazing but when you’re cresting the mountain ranges and see the sun shining down on the countryside it’s by far the best rides I’ve had. It’s even completely worth the scare of driving along a narrow road we could roll off down the mountain side with one bad turn just to see the view. The bus station in Tirana was only 10 minutes away from the hostel I was staying at so that was a bonus of not having to deal with taxis or transit there. In fact the whole time in Tirana I was able to walk around the city, although I hear there are some great sights to see outside the city limits.

Driving through Macedonia and Albania.

The Sights

As I was staying pretty central to Tirana all the big sights to see were quite close and easy to get to. I don’t remember if there was a walking tour or not but the path I created on Google maps to see everything could easy had been a 2 hour walking tour that covers the whole city.

The Pyramid of Tirana, once a museum to Enver Hoxha now graffiti covered landmark people love climbing to the top of to take pictures.

The former residence of Enver Hoxha, a leader that kept Albania as a separate country from Communist rule but also left Albania isolated economically as the poorest country in Europe. 

I passed a park with the strangest park equipment, spray painted domes raised just enough above the ground for kids to jump off of and crawl under. I was very perplexed by these so I took a closer look. It was just as I had thought, they weren’t park play toys at all, they were painted up concrete pill boxes from the wars of years past, maybe at far back as WWII. This playground was covered with kids and families having fun on a sunny day used to be a battlefield, filled with armies killing each other. Crazy to think of that.

This is actually a monument to political prisoners but throughout the park were painted pill boxes. 

There's also Skanderbeg Square, which is Tirana's main square surrounded by museums. There was a huge party there at night during my stay, but I was way too tired after training and went to bed instead of checking it out, party animal I am.

There's a huge parade square in front the Tirana Polytechnic University named after Saint Mother Theresa, after all her life's work to the area. I've read several articles about this from different stand points as it's quite the controversial subject. No matter where you stand on her sainthood or work it's easy to see the place has quickly caught up in the medical and technological fields in recent years.

Tirana MMA Center

The only BJJ gym that came up in Tirana was the Tirana MMA Center. There is another gym outside of town that I never saw anyone in the Globetrotter network review and I can’t remember if they just never replied to me or if I wasn’t able to make it out to class logistically but the Tirana MMA Center was the only gym I visited. I contacted the gym through e-mail to make sure I was welcome and once I made it into to town I figured out when in the schedule I could attend a class. While walking to class I was wondering how training there would be, talking to most people while traveling there’s always some sort of stereotype of Albanians being hardcore brutes. Then again I’ve heard the same thing for Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and pretty much all of eastern Europe and western Asia. As the saying goes, hard times forge hard men. In reality the gym was pretty welcoming and although I didn’t talk much with most the people no one seemed to have a grudge with having visitors at their gym.

The gym is easy enough to find off a main road, once you pass the front desk it opens up into a big square matted area with the changing rooms on the left. I changed and got on the mats to stretch and introduce myself to a few people around me. There was a general shyness, I’m guessing due to language barrier. There was an American visiting at the same time I and feel bad for completely forgetting his story, but we did talk about traveling before class. I also introduced myself to the coach, a brown belt, thinking he was the guy I was talking to online, as it happens the head instructor, a black belt, was who I talked to but he was running late. I didn’t talk with the head instructor much when he did show up other than welcoming me and wishing me to have a good time training at his gym. The brown belt ran us through a thorough warm up and I had to sit a few exercises out. It was quite the fitness class before training and I was still dealing with congested sinuses. That and my fitness sucks.

There was a Judo black belt at the gym as well and class started with working different Judo throws from takedown attempts for BJJ. As these throws and takedowns were a bit different for me I had several questions, mostly about leg or arm placement as I always seem to be landing on one of my limbs. In true classical Judo form the Judo black belt didn’t seem to understand my questions for moving the limbs out of the way or maybe placing them differently while the BJJ instructor understood and agreed I could get the same result. It’s no insult to the Judo instructor but I find a lot of classically trained Judo players only train each throw for the one grip or body placement with very little variation meanwhile the very thing that has propelled BJJ to succeed is the openness to variation and modification so that everyone can make the technique work. Then again it could be just that these movements were new to me and I was moving very clunky and stepping over myself. With more training perhaps I could get used to them and work these techniques just as the Judo instructor showed.

The students were quite keen for rolling when it became time, I remember having a few rolls, one with the American, and I forget who else, I think it was a higher belt (I really should have kept notes on this to give you better stories, something I’m doing now actually.) and I mostly just tried to survive the matches. One younger guy, a fellow blue belt I think I remember, who was quite athletic and energetic wanted to roll with me and I could see he wanted to really test himself against me. I had to decline as it was the end of the class and I was quite worn out already. I wouldn’t mind tapping to him, it was more the danger of being hurt while trying to defend against his youthful exuberance hunting for a submission. I did however enjoy watching him fight the higher belts and give them a hard time. I’m sure he’ll be making it somewhere in this sport if he keeps it up.

All and all it was a fun time training there, a few of the guys opened up to me after class as we were changing, a few even got pictures with me. Just another case of a gym being shy because of language barriers and Jiu-Jitsu closing that gap. To be honest I don’t know if they were more impressed by my stories of traveling and training all over the world or my tattoos all over my body, as I got equal amounts of questions for either. After all of this I ended up no pictures (I don't know what happened, I remember taking some, but they must've gotten deleted or corrupted or something. Anyways, no pictures of this training experience, sorry) to post with this story but I can mark Tirana MMA Center as another place I stopped off along this Odyssey and made new friends.

The Abu Dhabi Experience...(14-16 Sept 2017)

Before I knew it my time to leave had come and I was on to my next adventure. My next stop was Yangon, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and that was going to be a long flight to get to. I found if I stopped off along the way I could find cheaper tickets, even including hotel stay. So with that information I booked a one night stay over in Abu Dhabi, with intent on getting a class in at non other than the ADCC HQ itself. My plans were I would fly in, get a nap, get out and maybe see a bit of the city before training, have a nice rest and catch my flight the next evening on my way to Yangon. Plans did not work out like that. In any way. At all. I did not get any training in and it ended up costing me way more money…

My flight heading out of Tirana was in the evening, an overnight flight to Abu Dhabi. I got not near as much sleep as I wanted and was dead tired when I get into the airport. Luckily I booked a cheap room at the airport hotel, unluckily I arrived at 5am and I couldn’t check in until 11 and had to wait until 7 before I could even check and see if, at an extra fee, I could check in early. There was a coffee shop next to the hotel lobby so I used the free wifi and grabbed a tea and waited. Finally it was 7 and I was was allowed to check in early, it was not a cheap extra fee but I desperately needed rest or I wouldn’t be able to train later. I paid the fee, got to my room and passed out for a few hours.

Flying out of Tirana, on my way to another adventure.

As soon as I woke up I began looking for class schedules or contacts and couldn’t find either. The United Arab Eremites Jiu-Jitsu Federation, or UAEJJF site, the main and as far as I can tell only site for the gyms in Abu Dhabi, is great for latest news in the federation and has a list of all the clubs in Abu Dhabi. But they don’t have any address or class schedule information, with only a name and phone number at most. My friend Aaron from Tokyo was helping me out to find a class and set me up with a contact in Abu Dhabi, but as it happens I had the misfortune of showing up on a Friday, which is their religious rest day, a day of prayer, not training. All this planning and I made the misstep of not even thinking about the gyms not having classes on religious days. I actually can't believe I never thought to look into religious days of places I was visiting, especially a place like the UAE. After talking with the contact back and forth we found there was one gym open that day, but it was in Dubai, which is a 4 hr bus trip away that I would have to catch it in the next 20 mins. That was just not feasible. So I wrote and rested and although I was down that I would be missing training while in Abu Dhabi I at least got to relax in a nice hotel room for 24 hrs. I also had the joy of trying the McDonald’s chicken Big Mac, it was delicious and almost made up for everything. Almost.

The next morning I woke up rested and left the hotel ready to get going to Yangon. I went to check in for my flight and was stopped by the flight attendant. She asked me my final destination and e-mails for those tickets. Then she asked me for a Visa for my next connection. I was flying into Bombay and did not have a Visa for it. I wouldn’t need a Visa had I not had checked luggage but since I did and had to re-check in with a different airline there I would need a Visa to pick up my bag and check it in. This is something I did not account for as I had read different accounts that a transit Visa was available on arrival for making international connections without problem. The airline company did not have this information and could not let me board without a Visa. This was a big problem.

Flying into Istanbul for a quick connection.

The flight attendants made as many calls as they could to try and get me on the flight and even tried calling the flight company that booked my flights to see if they could help, but to no avail. I would like to say that Quantas, although in my opinion messed up on this and should have let me on my flight have great customer service for trying to help me out and making many calls to make sure they weren't making a mistake, although I really don't think anyone looked it up and just gave their opinions. kiwi.com on the other hand is a shit service whose only customer service is starting and ending every sentence with “it’s not our responsibility” without attempting to help in any way. I have had the unfortunate experience of booking 2 flights with Kiwi.com and after those experiences I will say it is the by far the worse company out there to get cheap tickets. It’s like they intentionally make it an unpleasant flight for you that will most likely end in your paying extra for things they missed. I personally will never use them again and hope no one reading this uses them either.

So I was stuck in Abu Dhabi airport with no other choice but to buy a new ticket that included not stopping in India or any place I needed a Visa and which costed me an additional $700. I was no longer saving $300 in this stop and with no Jiu-Jitsu or even any sight seeing this was a very upsetting and disappointing stopover. Later, when I was making plans to head back to Europe from Asia I thought of stopping in Dubai to get in some training and make up for this stop over, but decided I’m better off not bothering with this hassle again, my budget was stretched thin and I wouldn’t be able to afford another expensive surprise like this again. One day I will return and see the United Arab Eremites and it’s beautifully constructed cites and top notch BJJ gyms, but not during this Odyssey.

Happy to be in Abu Dhabi, little did I know what 'fun' awaited...

And after all the adventures of traveling through Adu Dhabi I was done visiting Europe, for now, and on my way to my first stop in Asia: Yangon, Myanmar.

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

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