Mr Miagi and his words of wisdom always seem to ring true. No matter the circumstances.
Well after all the hype that I put into this trip, it seems I've failed.
It is no secret that I said I would be here for 6 months doing Thai Boxing. Many people wondered if I would be able to hack it or not. They doubted that I would be able to last for that long. Some thought it was a flight of fancy and another one of my crackpot ideas that would never take off.
Well those people were right. I've been here about three weeks now and the idealistic holiday that I had in mind when I planned this trip has yet to come true. There have been moments of fun, but on the whole these first three weeks have been a let down. From the first day when the camp tried to rip me off, it has been a trip of broken dreams and disappointment.
All the parts that I thought would help to make my trip memorable and exciting have turned around and become the main focus of my frustration and anguish. What I am experiencing now is a million miles away from what I thought I would when I played this holiday over time after time in my head before I left.
And so it brings me to this. To all the doubters, you were right. I failed. I'm moving out of the camp. I know there are some of you out there thinking that I didn't give it a fair go and that I should stick it out, I've wondered about that myself over these past few days. I've tried to convince myself to stick it out and see if it gets any better, but I just don't have a good feeling about this place anymore. First impressions last, they are hard to break. It's not one big thing that's getting to me, it's lots of little things. These things build and I'm now in a position where I don't feel like this is where I should be spending my money and more importantly, my time and energy.
So I'm off. My big Muay Thai adventure comes to a bitter end.
I failed.
But . . .
And come on people, you knew there had to be one.
But . . . . I do have a new plan.
You see, I failed at my Muay Thai adventure. There will be mockery, people will take the piss out of my about this for years, and they have every right to. I suppose all I can say about it is; at least I tried.
So where am I off to I hear you ask. Have to I decided to see sense and go and get myself a bungalow next to the beach, pick up a Thai girlfriend and spend all my money on drink? Have I decided to travel round and see if I can 'find myself' after this fiasco? Have I decided to go to New Zealand snowboarding with Dave?
Well no, although I did think about the snowboarding thing long and hard. Instead I have decided to pick myself up, brush myself off and move on.
And so move on I have. To another camp. Only this time I'm not just doing Muay Thai. The main focus of my new camp will be MMA. That's Mixed Martial Arts. You know, the Octagon and all that. Cage fighting.
Yes, you heard me right.
Cage fighting.
(sorry mum!!)
If you've ever watched the Ultimate Fighting Championship you know what I'm on about.
I found a guy who's opening a camp, which along side Muay Thai also teaches MMA, which heavily incorporates Vale Tudo, a form of Brazilian Ju Jitsu that I so fleetingly did at university and absolutely loved.
So it's out of the frying pan and into the fire. I thought I'd thrown myself in as deep as I could when I joined a Muay Thai camp, it would now seem I have further to fall before I can start digging myself out again.
Yes, I failed at my original plan. Good. Otherwise I would have never had this new opportunity open up to me. I'm a failure it's true, but I'm that kind of happy failure that finds himself falling even deeper and is just happy for the breeze.
I was over at the new camp today looking at the accommodation. The camp is still being built so until my bungalow is finished I'm going to be staying in one room and using the separate shared toilet block. There was a snake in there today, a poisonous one. I've never seen a poisonous snake 'live' before, now I've got one as a kind of uncomfortable pet!
But hey, as the tag line says . . . "This is what I do."