Stench! Smell! Stench! Stench! Stench! Stench!
My friend invited me to try Muay Lao, and I agreed. It was an eye-opening experience. Although I probably wouldn’t enter a boxing club in my life again, I don’t regret about sojourning in one of the most famous fighting clubs in Laos.
When I arrived in the club, the place had already been jam-packed with people. Most of were sitting on the mats, stretching their arms, legs and waists accordingly. Even though the real training hadn’t begun yet, all of them were drenched in sweat. Their forehead and exposed skin were shinning under the light, as if they had covered themselves with the greasiest oil in the town. Meanwhile, the trainers were stretching with the participants. All trainers were topless, but some of them were wearing a thick and big belt on their waist. They were all very lean and shredded. Boxing is a great exercise if you want to reduce your body fat.
Dropping down our personal belongings on the chairs, we joined the crowd and jogged around the ring. This warm-up session reminded me of the physical test that nearly all Hong Kong local school students have to undergo. The only difference between the two was the absence of my socks and sneakers. Since this exercise was not new to me, it was easy. As long as I could control my pace, I wouldn’t feel exhausted.
However, when my feet landed on the mat, I was disgusted by the dampness on the floor. Strange. Whenever I passed the corner, I felt like I was stepping on a dirty water puddle. It was disgusting. All the electronic fans were on, but the air remained turbid.
Now the warm-up session was over. The first thing we had to do was covering our hands and wrists with long strips. My friend’s supervisor said they did it for safety reason. Next to us was a mountain of heavily-When one of the trainers came to cover up our hands with strips, I was shocked by his body odor. I couldn’t blame him since he merely did not have the privileges to train at a boxing club with good cleansing equipment and showers.
Everything thing was ready, so we stood up and told the trainers that we were beginners. One of them came to us and demonstrated the basic fight moves in Muay Lao. His movement was very quick and clean, creating the illusion that it was just a simple move. When we tried to imitate his movements, we either mixed up the directions of our limbs, or we lost our balance. After a few times, he seemed to lose his patient. He told us to rest and waited for the next round of practice.
Around five minutes later, each of us was picked by a trainer in different corners of the club. My trainer was from China. Realizing that I couldn’t understand Laos, he asked,
“Are you Chinese?”.
“I am from Hong Kong.”
This answer had already provided sufficient information for him. He went on instructing me in Mandarin. He raised his hand pads and gestured me to hit the target with my right hand. But my brain worked against his order; my left arm punched forward, and he shook his head.
“No, use your right hand.”
This time, I controlled my arm to hit the target. But I failed to hit the target in the right direction in most of the time. I found that I had difficulties to react to the opposite directions of my limbs. Interesting. Boxing isn’t only about strength and endurance, but also body coordination.
When our session was over, he said I could take a rest. I sat down and found my friends, who just ended their training session as well. While we were sitting on the stairs, we saw other participants hitting the sandbags frantically. Each punch or kick was followed by a clear “popping sound”. We were shocked since we couldn’t do it.
At the end of the session, a trainer led us to do stretching together. All of us followed his instructions to stretch our back, waist and legs. But each set lasted for less than 30 seconds only, which made me ponder its effectiveness. However, it is not a big problem since we can stretch our body at home.
Recommend? Yes if you want to try Muay Boxing in Lao PDR.
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