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paint it black.

So, my blogs haven’t always been in any chronological order but I actually had some big news to share, I got graded to my black belt in March of this year. I know, it’s a pretty big checkpoint in anyone’s BJJ journey and I did promise myself I would do it justice with an in-depth post at some stage on the event so here it goes. In March 2019, we had my coach, Hayden Wilson, from Team Groundworx in New Zealand over to Ireland for a seminar and he surprised me with this absolute honour of a grade. Hayden is a 1st degree black belt so technically, he cannot grade me himself but it was presented to me by him but under the blessing of his instructor, 3rd degree black belt Stacey Wilson. It is a great honour to be now ranked this grade. To be fully honest, it was a big surprise, I thought it wouldn’t be until I got back to New Zealand before I would even get considered for it. Hayden dropped the news at the start of the 2nd day of our Ireland training camp, he was making a speech and I can remember thinking “why is he saying all this? We had the opening day yesterday and he made a big speech about himself and BJJ” and then it hit me, he started talking about me and how far I had come along in BJJ, then, as he started talking about how he had been talking a lot with Stacey that I thought “Foly huck” he’s going to grade me. Then I started to over think, “what do I do? Do I take off my belt? Do I make a speech? While I was doing all this internalization of the event unfolding, I realized he had stopped talking and everyone was looking at me. Hayden then pulled a new black belt from behind him! I was super stoked though, no big speech from me after all that, I was a bit dumbfounded to be honest and just smiled, Hayden tied the belt and like that, I was now a BJJ black belt.

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I was more than happy, elated would be a better word for it. It took a couple of weeks to really have it kick in, I tried to just play it off like the Fonz would but it really marks a huge step for me in this game. I put a lot of time and hours onto the mats, I have been through some great times but I have also been through some shitty health incidents that very nearly took me off the mats permanently! Once I got to blue belt, it was here that due to medical events out of my control, I was never going to be a world champion, f#ck, I was never going to compete again but I can still train, train other people and use this platform of BJJ to make friends, travel to other countries, events and just make new friends all over. I know that there are other people in the game who can most likely destroy me on the mats in a roll if we are rolling hard but I am not phased by that. I also know when to tap and am very aware there are a lot of high level people from even as low grade as blue belt up to brown and black belt that give me a big run for my money and I am constantly tapping out!  I don’t have an ego, I just want to make sure I do the best I could at the time, this is why I prefer training in the morning so I am not tired when rolling lol! As I said, I am very aware of it and I will definitely still roll with them, just I will tap whenever I need to. I have never really been about trying to submit people in a roll, even now when I do it kinda doesn’t feel right. I much prefer to roll for control, get control from the bottom, play a bit of guard, maybe sweep to the top and pass guard to control again. I really worked on my defense so that people would not be submitting me, this is what made it fun to me. People would go as hard as they could to tap me and I would try and work that little bit smarter to stop whatever they were trying! The other thing I liked to do is try and execute whatever it was that we worked on that day on people. This is what appeals most to me in BJJ, rolling in a fun and safe environment but still having the team push the pace and try to “simulate murder” on me. It makes me test my jiu jitsu as well. As I moved up in the grades I understood that it was my role to try and submit people when I rolled, I just never attacked enough. It was at brown belt in New Zealand that I started to attack a lot more but still, I should attack more. I find that especially as a coach, I am more pushing the roll to continue longer and working on control. I now push to submit again but to be brutally honest, I take Beta blockers and blood thinner medication so I can’t roll as hard as I want to! I am here for a long time AND a good time. I am smarter in the way I train, I like to drill, live action and resistance drills and then live rolling. I am fine with tapping out, I don’t care what grade the opponent is!
My wife and I have big plans to travel every year until we can’t travel anymore. Now that I have my black belt, it makes it so much more exciting (and nerve wracking) to roll in all these gyms around the world. I find so many gyms are happy to have everyone that turns up to train roll BUT to get someone that has been around the game long enough to get a black belt, this is a chance for both the gym and the players to get to roll and share their knowledge. It was also a bit scary for me first up as I said earlier,  I am not a black belt competitor nor am I a very intimidating sized dude but I know a couple of things about BJJ, I trust what I know!
Regardless of all this, I think that getting to black belt is really a great foot in the door for travelling and training. I just want to travel the world and roll in as many gyms as possible, regardless of the team banner, I just want to learn as much jiu jitsu as I can from as many different people I can so I can then in turn pay it forward and teach people for as long as I can. Jiu jitsu has helped me meet so many interesting and cool people and really, the journey has only just begun! Looking forward to meeting more and more people and writing about the experiences in here…….probably not in any order though!

Oss.

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“When it comes to battle, belts mean nothing! If a blue belt taps a black belt or a purple belt taps a brown belt, so what! Whoever gets tapped, go back to your working ground and work your moves” – Carlos Machado

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Italy – Naples and Rome

When in Rome….. Always used to use this saying and finally, I have made my way to Italy and got to say it in the city itself!
We left Galway mid afternoon with the onset of rain – standard Irish Summer you might say but it was at least warm and we have had some great weather lately, just not now! We were happy to be off on a trip to leave this behind. Italy was the plan, Rome first then finishing up the tour in Naples. We had checked the forecast and it was looking hot and dry! Perfect. We landed around 9pm and it was still about 24 degrees, beautiful weather!

The next day was just the same. Now, before I get slated for only talking about jiu jitsu, I am cultured and shit. We hit all the sights, Vatican, Colosseum, Sistine Chapel, St Peters Bascilica and a whole swag of stuff along the way in Rome. We were on a time frame so we need to head back another time to explore the rest of this amazing city – I am thinking that we are coming back without the kids next time!
Our next destination was Naples. We caught the later time train there as our accommodation was only up the road from the Napoli Centrale train station so perfect situation! Big plans again to explore Naples. Among general exploration, we had Pompeii, old Naples city and Sorrento high on our list of things to do – pizza, pasta and gelato was all my daughter was interested in though!
As our time was limited, I had to plan out when I would be able to get some mat time in. The beauty of the world these days and the internet is that we have great sites and communities like the BJJ Globetrotters which has helped me find gyms and friends on my travels so far and this one was again no different!
I threw a post up on the FaceBook page asking for suggestions for both Rome and Naples but Naples was the city where I actually found that I would have a bit of time to hit the mats. Once again, the community were great, heaps of information posted and I was shown in the direction of O-Nami Jiu Jitsu in Naples. After making initial contact, they were fantastic in helping me sort out where they were, how to get to the gym from the Napoli Centrale and I was set to train on the Monday night at 8pm! Now, time management and I always have had an awkward relationship. Sometimes I am perfect with it, other times, not so much! This day was one of the latter….
So we went nice and early on the train to Pompeii. Holy schmoly, that place is amazing. It is also humongous and we explored it as much as we could for around for around 3 hours and we saw so much. Fun fact: what I didn’t know was there were so many brothels in that place! We accidentally walked into a guided tour in English just in time to get a tour in a recreated brothel site and heard all the sordid stories of debauchery! There were even pictures on the walls that the “customers” used to select what they interested in! Anyways, after all this we needed to catch a train to Sorrento to swim in the Mediterranean sea. We caught another train to there and swam in the most amazing clear, cool sea and it was the perfect way to complete our family day of exploring. We had hoped to catch a train back to Naples that was at about 5:45pm, this would have gotten us back to Naples in time for me to make it to the Jiu Jitsu class. Well, after all the walking throughout the day, we were going a little bit slower so we missed that one and thought well, no big deal, there is another one at 6pm. This was going to mean I would be in a rush so I messaged Renato from O-Nami and he was super helpful, even offered to pick me up from the station. This was going to be perfect……except the train was delayed until about 6:30pm and it didn’t get back until just after 8pm and I still had to get my gi and then make it to the gym! Phew! I thought that after all the help and communication from Renato, I at least owed it to them to turn up. My wife and the kids walked back from the station while I sprinted back to the accommodation, quickly showered, grabbed my gi and then ran downstairs just in time as my wife and kids showed up. We said bye and I was off. Back to catch another train then walk to the gym. As I was already late, I caught the train, got off and then decided I would run the 2kms to the gym. I did not realize it would basically uphill!
I arrived at the gym, dripping with sweat as it was still 24 degrees AND it was now just after 9pm. So not the times I wanted to make but I was welcomed in, I got changed and we jumped into rolling right away.
First up I rolled with Renato, big guy with crazy good de la riva, awesome guard passing and we had a great roll. It was nice pace, which I really needed as I was already tired from the big day and the workout to get there! After Renato, I rolled with a mix of blue belts and a very high level purple belt. I also got to roll with Max – another big black belt there who was so relaxed and just had a great style of jiu jitsu. By the end of it all, I had maybe 5 rolls all up, I had to take a rest twice and in hindsight, I would have planned it all better with not such a big day before hand but hey, we play with the hand we are dealt on the day! Not all the times on the mats are we the hammer, sometimes we are the nail, on this day I felt like the piece of wood that the nail was being drive into! I had so much fun though, I just tried to not make any big mistakes! I was also pretty quick to tap when I needed! The skill level of this gym was amazing, all top level players and they were also all such good people! I got offered a lift home, I got a photo with the team and I also managed to get onto social media connections with them! All in all, this is what the BJJ journey is about to me. I made friends here, had a great adventure in getting to the gym and then got to roll with them all. I would love to come back here and roll again. I highly recommend this place to all that travel to Naples. Hopefully I will be back, and in the not too distant future!! OSS

“In the course of battle, you could find 100 different reasons to give up, but you got to find that one reason to stay in there, one reason to stay in the fire” – Chael Sonnen

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Beach Town DaNang

Reasons to go: VERY affordable, great infrastructure for tourists, small-town charm, amazing food, numerous cute cafes, extremely safe for solo female travelers, great “beginner” Asian city destination, beautiful temples, limestone caves, soft sand beaches with kilometers of coastline, bicycle and pedestrian friendly.

DaNang, Vietnam

DaNang was a wonderful city – peaceful and calm, a beautiful little laid back beach-town with temples, lush hills in the distance, and amazing food. And, it’s really quite magical at night walking along the beach with the tall buildings brightly lit up in the distance. DaNang combined very local vibe with excellent tourist infrastructure – I spent an exceptionally comfortable and relaxed month here!

This city would be an excellent choice of intro or beginner destination to SE Asia. Here, you’ll see very modern massive hotels and apartment complexes next to much smaller local homes and family owned restaurants. It has enough typical Vietnamese elements with local people going about their everyday business to make it feel like an authentic location, but enough tourism to make it convenient and easy to navigate.

People and Language

People in DaNang were friendly and welcoming – quick to smile despite language barriers, and generally happy to have the business of tourists. As in Hanoi, the level of English spoken was generally lower than in Thailand with many of the older generations speaking little/no English. But, with the help of Google Translate when needed, it’s really no problem at all.

Clean Air

Unlike the previous 3 cities I’d stayed in – DaNang had wonderfully clean air! No air masks or daily pollution checks needed this month! People did commonly wear air masks while riding scooters, but that was more to avoid directly breathing exhaust from the vehicles than because the overall air was bad.

Tourism in DaNang

Throughout DaNang you’ll see many new buildings under construction, many of them massive apartment complexes and hotels. It’s as if the DaNang just started realizing how extremely profitable and beneficial tourism can be to their economy, and is now in a rush to develop as much as possible to support it. Oddly, most of the restaurants and cafes in even the most touristic parts of town aren’t anywhere close to full capacity most of the time, which was actually really nice. DaNang seems like it could easily accommodate 20x more tourist that are currently present! While it’s not uncommon to see tourists (we’re pretty conspicuous) out and about, most of the people in the neighborhoods (even in the more touristic parts of town) are still local residents. This might be because I was visiting towards the end of the tourist season, when the summer heat was just starting to become extreme. Or, perhaps the rest of the world just simply hasn’t realized what an amazing little vacation spot this town is yet!

DaNang, Vietnam: Building under construction

SIM Cards and Phone Service

DaNang, Vietnam: Mobifone Next app, Mobifone ratesI purchased a local SIM card upon arrival for about $8 at the airport. It included 15GB of high speed data plus a local phone number (not something I needed, but included in the package anyhow) for 25 days. I needed a couple extra days of phone service beyond that so, here’s what I learned about topping up cards.

I was using Mobifone, one of the larger companies in Vietnam. To get more service on your phone after the initial plan expires (this system applies to all the companies), you need to first add money to your account, then purchase a new data plan. You can add money to your account using a handful of online websites and apps, but most of these require a Vietnamese bank account. Fortunately, you can also add money to your Mobifone account at many of the small grocery stores throughout the city (such a Viet Mart). To do this, simply tell the cashier how much money you’d like to add and which service provider you’re using, they’ll ring it up and help you add it to your plan using a code on the receipt and the keypad on your phone. 

Once you have money in your account, simply purchase a new data plan through the main provider website or through an app. I used the Mobifone NEXT app, which was in English and very easy to naviage. Mobile service in Vietnam is EXTREMELY affordable – offering such excellent rates as 8.8GB of high speed data for 30 days for $5.15, with no contracts! I still don’t understand why phone service costs so much in the US when the rest of the world can offer its citizens such cheap, no contract service.

Accommodations

My apartment in DaNang was the nicest and best-value accommodations I’ve had on the trip so far! It was a 1 bedroom apartment which I’d found through AirBnb, costing $385 (including tax and fees) for the month. The location was excellent – just a 10 minute walk from the beach, surrounded by tons of great restaurants and a handful of grocery stores, on the outskirts of the tourist area. The building was practically new, having opened just a few short months before. It included about 20 other units, most of which were rented to longer-term expat tenants.

Besides all the normal furnishing you’d expect in an apartment, it included fast wifi, free aircon, free laundry machines (with soap provided), free toiletries (normal sized bottles of shampoo, body wash, and soap), house cleaning 2x/week (and on demand), free towels (washed and replaced by cleaning staff regularly), and 24 hour security guard in the lobby downstairs. Which apparently is a pretty normal package for rentals here.

The security guard was completely unnecessary – DaNang is extremely safe. Security guards are just an added feature which most shops and apartment/hotel buildings like to include to make their establishment look fancier. The security guards here were young adults who spend most of their time on their phones and occasionally sleeping on the couch. One guard even had a fluffy pink pillow with bright cartoons for his naps, which I found absolutely adorable!

This apartment could easily have rented for $1500/month in US for location, quality and features.

DaNang, Vietnam: View from the roof of my building while hanging some laundry to dry.

Transportation and Scooter Taxis

Grab (Asian Uber) is extremely popular here. You can get rides to almost anywhere in the city for under $2.50 on a scooter taxi, and roughly 3x more with a car taxi instead (if you’re not comfortable being a passenger on a scooter). There are regular (non-Grab) taxis as well, easily found throughout all the more touristic areas, some of which are metered. There is no tram/metro. There does appear to be some kind of bus system throughout at least part of the city, and a shuttle system that goes to Hoi An (small port city to the South), though I didn’t end up trying to use either of those.

Whereas in Hanoi I avoided scooter taxis unless absolutely necessary (traffic was terrifying there!), here in DaNang they were actually quite fun and my first choice for going anywhere not easily accessible by walking or bicycle. The Grab scooter taxis in Vietnam provide their passengers with a helmet, sometimes (but rarely) a paper dust mask, are generally a little faster than cars, and cost only ⅓ the fare of a car taxi!

Coming from a motorcyclist background and being a strong proponent of protective gear, it still felt quite odd to be riding on a scooter in flip-flops, without any protective gear besides a helmet. But, I was a little reassured by the fact that in all the countries with scooters I’d stayed in during the last 4 months, I’d not seen a single road accident, which is a considerably better traffic record than your average week in Phoenix.

As in Hanoi, you’ll see as many or more scooters on the roads than cars, and all the same road rules apply… it seems fine for vehicles to go the wrong way down a road or drive on the sidewalks for short distances as shortcuts, there’s constant honking as a “heads up” to other drivers, and crossing a street involves boldly walking into oncoming traffic. Fortunately, the traffic here is much less dense than in Hanoi and streets have more crosswalks, so overall the roads are much easier to deal with in DaNang than in Hanoi.

DaNang, Vietnam: Scooter parking at the beach!

Biking in DaNang

DaNang, Vietnam: Traffic lane signI rented a bike on my first day in DaNang, which cost about $30 for the month. It didn’t have gears or a basket, but was in good condition and did include a small locking cable. I couldn’t find a bicycle rental shop close to my area but many of the scooter rental shops do have some bikes to rent as well, so if you check a couple of those (there are many), you’ll probably eventually find a bicycle to rent without too much trouble. People say it’s safe enough to leave your bike unlocked anywhere, but coming from Phoenix where if you leave your bike unattended for 5 minutes it will probably get stolen – I was pretty diligent about using the lock.

Biking in the city took a little time to get accustomed to initially. When riding a bike in DaNang, as daunting as it might initially sound, the best thing to do is just ride with the other vehicles (cars and scooters) on the roads. Many of the larger streets have intersections that are basically giant round-a-points, some with up to 5-6 lanes in each direction, some with traffic lights controlling which sides of the round-a-point are permitted to enter. The trick to crossing round-a-points is to position yourself in the correct lane before you enter the intersection. So, if you’re going straight through the round-a-point, you want to be in one of the middle lanes.

As a general rule, the left couple lanes are for larger vehicles such as cars and buses while the right couple lanes are for bikes. Except for when making a turn. Scooters are everywhere, with the faster vehicles weaving through traffic to get around the slower ones. Lane divisions are a loose suggestion though – drivers cross them frequently without warning. So, just be aware of your surroundings, use common sense, expect anything and you’ll be fine!

Uniforms of Security

You’ll see security in Vietnam wearing uniforms of many different colors, indicating their role. The three most common are tan, blue and green. Tan is for the traffic police, blue is for building security, and green is the general police.

Heat and Sun

I arrived at the beginning of summer, with highs easily reaching 40°C (105°F) and harsh sunny blue skies most days. It was a little unbearable to be outside from 11am until the sun went down, but so perfect at night once the worst of the daytime heat diminished!

Most local people (especially when riding scooters) very smartly cover up from head to toe in light long sleeve shirts and pants, sometimes with their faces wrapped in scarves. Women also have wide pieces of cloth which they’ll wrap around their legs like skirts when riding a scooter. One of the big ways you can easily distinguish the tourists apart from the locals is by the amount of skin we leave exposed to the sun while outside. It seemed very out of place at first to see so many people wearing what looks like light autumn jackets when it’s so hot out but is actually quite practical to avoid sunburn living in a place like this.

DaNang, Vietnam: Sunny days, scorching sun!

Food

I found a much broader range of food here than in the previous couple cities, including bread (mostly light French rolls) as a regular part of some of the local cuisine – a leftover influence of European occupation. There were also a handful of more western food restaurants in the tourist areas that served things such as pizza, burgers, spaghetti, German and Indian food (none of which I tried, because I wanted to take advantage of being here to eat as much Asian food as possible!). I was also able to find cheese, oatmeal, and Kellogg muesli cereal in the small grocery store down the street. Restaurant dining here is extremely affordable, ranging for $1.25 for a simple (but tasty!) bowl of noodle soup, to $5.50 for higher end restaurant meals. Food was generally made fresh, served quickly, and had a very attentive staff in all the places I visited.

I had no digestive issues with anything I ate from either street vendors or restaurants. One of my expat friends did have some food poisoning problems (and missed a handful of days of training on account of it) from eating a specialty called “balut”, which is basically a partially developed duck embryo served inside the shell of the boiled egg. But, I think we can all agree that’s a fairly questionable food choice to begin with. I realize that trying all the food specialties is part of the cultural experience of visiting a new country, but that one was just way beyond the scope of the new things I was willing to try!

DaNang, Vietnam: Food!

River and Bridges

Through the center of DaNang runs a river, crossed by a handful of bridges, illuminated at night. The most unique and memorable is of course the golden dragon bridge, though there’s a very nice cable bridge to the south as well. The ends of both bridges connect to a large sidewalk that runs along the river in either direction, with tons of vendors and restaurants in the area. A smaller pedestrian-only bridge runs parallel to the southern cable bridge entirely crossing the river, offering a nice view of the cityscape with the dragon bridge in the distance. All the bridges are illuminated with lights of changing colors at night, which is really quite beautiful, and the area just east of the dragon bridge actually becomes a giant night market in the evenings. 

Supposedly, the dragon blows fire and water for about 15 minutes starting at 9pm punctually every Saturday and Sunday. Toward the end of my stay, I biked down there to try to see it in person. That Saturday night, it was exceptionally packed with people, making for a very lively (if slightly chaotic) atmosphere. Turns out, instead of the usual dragon fire water show, there was a fireworks over the river that evening! Which was still pretty spectacular, though I didn’t get to see the dragon blowing fire.

DaNang, Vietnam: One of the cable bridges and the dragon bridge

DaNang, Vietnam: The dragon bridge illuminated at night

The Beach!

My studio was located just a 10 minute walk to the beach, which was the first time I’d ever lived close to the ocean! I spent many nice evenings walking barefoot along the waterline at sunset. The entire eastern side of DaNang is made up of kilometer after kilometer of beautiful sandy coastline. Certain areas are more specifically designated for swimming, with lifeguards keeping an eye on things. These areas get a little busy on weekends. Other areas have “no swimming” signs. I’m not sure why, as the beach there seems as good a place to swim as any other, except for perhaps the lack of lifeguard supervision. The ocean is bathwater warm, with very soft fine sand and the occasional shell or tiny transparent white crab.

One thing to note – Vietnamese swimwear for women is much more modest than the European/American version, and usually consists of tank top or t-shirt over shorts. I did see a handful of women wearing single and two piece swimsuits (usually obviously tourists) so I don’t think anyone would specifically care or be offended you went ahead and wore those on the beach – you might just stand out a bit more. Following my general “do as the locals” policy and disliking extra attention, I went ahead and wore shorts and t-shirt myself.

DaNang, Vietnam: People practicing Falun Gong at the beach

DaNang, Vietnam: Sunset beach

DaNang, Vietnam: Evening beach

Fishing on the Beach

One evening, while walking along the beach, I came across a group of 8 people on the shore pulling in a giant fishing net shaped like a “U”, with the ends on the beach and the middle far out in the ocean. The people wore thick belts, similar to what weightlifters sometimes wear not to strain their lower backs, which they’d hook into the thick rope of the net. Every time a person got far up enough on the beach, they’d unhook their belt, wade out into the water at the front of the line, hook onto the net rope again and keep pulling. This went on for about ½ hour, with more and more random people jumping in to help pull, until there was a big crowd helping the original 8 people! The center of the net was filled with fish. 

DaNang, Vietnam: Fishing on the beach

Chùa Linh Ứng – Pagoda and Lady Buddha on the Hill

DaNang, Vietnam: Giant lady Buddha!This area, located on a hill to the North of the city, consists of a GIANT lady Buddha statue, a very tall pagoda, and a handful of Buddhist temples surrounded by open spaces for walking filled with tiny trees in pots and sculptures, with really nice views of the ocean and the city in the distance. 

Getting here takes about 15 minutes from the city center. It’s in the hills away from the main city. I took a Grab scooter taxi here, which cost about $2.00. The road is wide and in great condition – it would be an easy drive up for anyone with a scooter, even with very little riding experience. One word of warning if you take a Grab taxis here – depending on how long you plan to stay, you might consider paying for the driver’s time to wait while you visit then take you back down to the city. I didn’t do this, and wasn’t able to call a Grab taxi for the return trip since there simply weren’t any drivers in the nearby vicinity. Fortunately, there are plenty of (non Grab) car taxis for the return trip, those just cost a bit more than scooter taxis (though are still very cheap).

Being the middle of the summer and the middle of the day, it was extremely hot and sunny out, which I’d smartly planned for with plenty of sunscreen and bottled water. There’s a handful of vendors at the top selling water, coconuts and snacks as well, in case you run out.

To my great surprise and delight, while wandering through one of the more empty paths in the area, I had the opportunity to see a handful of monkeys! There were about 5 sitting about and climbing statues and trees for about 10 minutes before casually strolling off into the jungle on the other side of the path.

I visited on a Thursday. While there were other tourists around, the space was big enough with few enough visitors that it wasn’t uncomfortably packed. A couple hours would be plenty of time to see this area, more or less depending on your speed and how frequently you like stop to take photos or just sit and enjoy the view. Do keep in mind that the temples are a holy site, so remember to dress appropriately (pants/skirts extending past knees, no bare shoulders).

DaNang, Vietnam: Statues around Chùa Linh Ứng

DaNang, Vietnam: Base of the giant lady Buddha statue

DaNang, Vietnam: Gate near Chùa Linh Ứng area

Marble Mountains

DaNang, Vietnam: Statues at Marble MountainsThis area consists of a series of limestone hills with little maze-like paths meandering throughout and leading to shallow caves filled with statues, and surrounded by temples, pagodas, and more sculptures. It’s all quite beautiful! One word of caution – there’s a lot of steps and many of them are slippery from stones made smooth from wear, so flip-flops (which I wore) might not be the best choice of footwear. There is an elevator from the base to the top for a fee, for accessibility or just for anyone who doesn’t feel like taking the stairs.  

There is an entrance fee of 40,000 VND (about $1.70) to enter the main area, with an additional fee of 30,000 VND to see Am Phu (Heaven and Hell) cave. You can also purchase a map (which includes a handful of postcards!) for an additional 15,000 VND. I did get the map, though the area isn’t all that big and there’s large signs with maps everywhere, so you really don’t need one. Marble Mountains is an easy half day trip. It’s actually located within the city, about 15 minutes away from the city center by scooter.

The area at the base is surrounded by many vendors selling larger sculptures as well as little carved stone figures and animals made of various types of rocks in shapes of Buddhas, elephants, pigs, lotus flowers, and other creatures, if you’re looking for a souvenir. Bargaining seems expected, so feel free to try to negotiate price. There are tons of food vendors around too, if you need a drink or snack. There are also vendors selling traditional Vietnamese conical hats, which I absolutely love – they’re comfortable, lightweight, and cast a very large shadow covering neck, ears and face, offering significantly more sun protection than a baseball cap. Which is very important in this sunny city for people who are sensitive to sunburns. Further away from the base of the mountains are many shops that make/sell larger white marble sculptures. These are presumably for use in other temples as they’re much too big for anyone to bring home as souvenirs.

DaNang, Vietnam: Marble Mountains caves

DaNang, Vietnam: Marble Mountains

DaNang, Vietnam: Dragons, dragons, dragons, dragons!

DaNang, Vietnam: Great views from the higher points of Marble Mountains

Marble Mountains: Am Phu (Heaven and Hell) Cave

Hanoi, Vietnam: Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in Am Phu cave, Marble MountainsAm Phu is one of the largest of the Marble Mountains’ caves and, as its name implies, symbolizes Buddhist heaven and hell. To enter, you first cross a little bridge with water on both sides containing some sculptures of hands reaching up out of the water like those of drowning people. Inside the cave are a handful of really impressive high-ceiling limestone chambers. It’s dimly lit, filled with intricate sculptures illuminated with colorful light, with the scent of sweet incense in the air and some low Vietnamese music in the background.

From the main chamber there are two possible paths to take – one a steep stairway that eventually leads to a little outdoor balcony, symbolizing the challenging climb to heaven. The other leading down to more caverns symbolizing hell, with statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (often associated with Buddhist hell) at the center. According to the internet, there’s supposed to be a bunch of creepy/disturbing statues of figures being tortured but I didn’t actually see any of these around so, it’s possible they were removed on account of being too disturbing for the tourists. There were a couple demon sculptures, and a scale (to metaphorically weight the good and bad actions of your life) though.

Hoi An

On one of the last days of my stay, I took a half day trip down to Hoi An, a small ancient harbor town to the South of DaNang about 30 minutes away by taxi. I took a Grab scooter taxi here, which cost about 95,000 VND (about $4) one way. I was also told that there is some kind of bus/shuttle that runs between the two regularly that’s a good cheap way to get between the cities, but I didn’t look into this myself.

Upon arrival, I first took a detour to eat at Rosie’s Cafe, recommended by a friend. It was located a bit North of the ancient city so in a less touristy part of town. Rosie’s Cafe was a pleasant little restaurant that could easily have been found anywhere in downtown Phoenix for the menu and granola-chill ambiance. I had the avocado toast which was delicious and came in a very generous portion for a very reasonable price. After having eating primarily Asian food for the previous couple months, it was refreshing to eat something so typically found back home. The menu is vegetarian/vegan friendly, and also environmentally conscious with things like reusable bamboo straws instead of disposable plastic ones.

I then headed towards the “Japanese covered bridge” and wandered around the old city center for awhile, which was EXTREMELY crowded with tourists. There were vendors selling food, clothes, souvenirs and tours everywhere. There seemed to be an entrance fee to go inside the Japanese bridge, but it was so packed full with people that I decided against it. It would be hypocritical to complain, being a tourist myself, but Hoi An (at least the city center) certainly lacks the peace, calm, and authenticity of DaNang. Hordes of tourists make walking around some areas (like crossing the bridges) difficult due to the sheer number of people walking across or simply stopped in the middle of the bridge taking photos. That being said, the old city center was quite beautiful, with strings of colorful lanterns hanging over tiny, pedestrian-only streets lined with pastel colored buildings of a more European style. I couldn’t really tell which of the buildings are genuinely old, and which are just crafted to look like ancient buildings.

Hoi An does have a really great selection of restaurants and street vendor selling foods/snacks, and many cute cafes. Many of the restaurants offer cooking classes teaching tourists how to prepare traditional meals which I didn’t participate in due to time, but which sounded like a fun idea.

Hoi An is also known for its silk trade and tailors. There are multiple shops selling clothes pre-made, ranging in style from baggy elephant print pants and light sundresses to business suits and more formal attire. If you have the time and money (I have no idea what something like that would cost or how long it might take to make), you can also have your measurements taken at a shop so that they can make a piece of clothing exact to your specifications and style requirements!

Hoi An, Vietnam: Streets lined with shops near old town

Hoi An, Vietnam: Rivers, boats and bridges

Hoi An, Vietnam: Street full of lanterns in the old town tourist area.

More Veggies Now

One word of warning if wandering off the tourist path, which I suppose holds true in any country… you might see some things which are somewhat disturbing to American sensibilities, or animal-compassionate people. While walking through a market away from the tourist area one day, I came across a vendor selling (living) white duck. There were about 12 of the animals not in cages, but rather with their legs and wings bound tightly behind them with ropes so they weren’t able to move, many of them quacking in obvious pain and distress.

Without going into the vegetarian/vegan diet debate, I’ll just say that this sight actually renewed my commitment to a vegetarian diet, which I’d gotten fairly lazy about lately in the excitement of trying new foods in foreign countries. But, I cannot in good conscience continue to consume a food whose production so clearly causes pain and distress to another living creature. I certainly don’t believe Vietnam in any worse in this regard than any other country – it’s simply that here you’re occasionally confronted with the reality of meat production in plain sight, rather than having it hidden away where you can more easily and conveniently ignore it. I debated whether or not to even write about this, but feel it’s important to present a realistic and complete picture of a place as I experience it, rather than glossing over the more unpleasant aspects.

Fortunately, it’s extremely easy to eat vegetarian/vegan in DaNang – a quick Google search revealed 6 specifically vegetarian/vegan restaurants within a 20 minute walk from my studio. One of which I’d already been visiting regularly in the previous month, simply because they had great food. These do tend to be higher end restaurants, meaning you can expect to pay $3-5 instead of $1-3 for a meal.

DaNang, Vietnam: Delicious little veggie meals!

Training

My home gym for the month was MMA Fighter Club, located on the 3rd floor of a building near the dragon bridge. Training regularly was a little more difficult this month as this was the only gym that offers BJJ classes in DaNang and it turned out to be much further away from my apartment than I realized, eating up a significant amount of bicycle commuting time getting there and back. 

BJJ classes are held a couple times a day all days except Sunday, both gi and nogi. The class sizes were relatively small, ranging from just a couple students to maybe 10-12, with a larger percentage of lower belts, and travelers passing through DaNang dropping in periodically. Evening and morning classes are taught by black belt Reynold Garcia, and mid-day nogi classes are taught by blue belt Jeff Corra. It was Jeff’s mid-day nogi classes which I attended 3x per week.

Jeff and the other students were easy going and welcoming – I felt instantly at home training with this group. Jeff is an expat himself but had already been living in DaNang for a couple years, so was a great source of information for any questions I had about DaNang. Classes were straightforward and clear, with technique building off of previous techniques learned, branching off to show related variations, counters and defenses in a logical progression.

In addition to BJJ classes, the gym offered MMA classes throughout the day. The gym includes a good set of weightlifting equipment and with a boxing ring with punching bags along two of the walls.  

DaNang, Vietnam: MMA Fighter Club gym spaceDaNang, Vietnam: Group photo of nogi bjj training with Jeff at MMA Fighter Club

Weightlifting at Bina Gym

Training BJJ only 3x a week instead of the usual 5-6, I needed to find another physical activity to fill some days, and ended up weight lifting at Bina gym near my studio some days. It didn’t have AC but did include a nice set of basic equipment and weights, so that was great. It also only cost 30,000 VND ($1.25) for a single time drop in! One interesting thing about weightlifting gyms here – they’re carpeted, and all the local people work out barefoot. You could easily tell who the tourists and expats are were just by looking at their feet! I wore shoes and socks the couple times, before just going barefoot myself as well.

Alliance Frankfurt

Training report: Alliance BJJ – Frankfurt, Germany

After the successful interview in Luxembourg, I was offered a job as a Financial Analyst. For the first few months of my newfound job, I was based out of Frankfurt, which became my home base while I traveled in Europe. In Frankfurt, Alliance Jiu-Jitsu became my home gym and is where I received my blue belt.

Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

City
Frankfurt — located in the German federal state of Hesse — is recognized as an international financial capital of Germany; it is home to the headquarters of the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bank, and Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Tourists flock to the city to explore the old town and its old cobblestone streets, where the infrastructure has been preserved and reconstructed with the intention to protect the history of the city. Frankfurt is a city that encapsulates the history and tradition of its old red-brick homes and buildings with the contemporary style of the present, which is visible in the towering, glass coated skyscrapers being planted throughout the city. The Airport is among the world’s busiest, and the city houses tourists and newfound residents from all different walks of life. As one of the most active airports and travel destinations, it is likely you will end up in Frankfurt if you are flying to/from Europe. On the next trip, I would recommend taking the opportunity to explore the town, rather than just pass through as a layover.

alliance bjj frankfurt

Overview
Alliance BJJ Frankfurt was founded by Professor Henry Navorra, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt under Fabio Gurgel. Alliance Frankfurt has a long history to share how it became as recognized as it is today. When Henry started his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu journey in Germany, the resources for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu were not readily available as it is now. From driving to Holland once a week to train with a UFC veteran, Remco Pardoel, to inviting Brazilian Black Belts for seminars, Henry went above and beyond. Eventually, Henry went to Brazil to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Fabio Gurgel. After his trip to São Paulo, he gathered a small number of students together in an aikido center, which later became one of the first Alliance affiliated schools in Europe. His initial students included Dimitri and Daniel who are current black belt instructors at the academy.

Interestingly, Alliance BJJ Frankfurt does not have any full-time instructors. All instructors have other, full-time primary jobs; Henry is a lawyer and Daniel is a trader, but both are passionate about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and make time to instruct and teach in the evenings. The instructors’ class structures are as ever-changing and varied as their other occupations. For example, Dimitri’s 2-hour long classes consist of almost one hour of warm-up/conditioning with insane partner drills while Henry’s classes focused on repetitive drilling with a heavy emphasis on wrestling. Luckily for everyone, classes always end with 30 minutes of rolling. However, with six black belt instructors and countless high-level color belts, I would not underestimate the intensity of rolling at Alliance Frankfurt.

The highlight of Alliance BJJ Frankfurt is its gym culture. Given the school’s history combined with friendly students, the academy has a laidback culture with no place for gym politics. While there, I saw various BJJ Globetrotters from Brazil, France, and the U.S. dropping by and it was common to see students attending the BJJ Globetrotter camps all around the world. Everyone was always welcomed at the academy. Also, Alliance Frankfurt frequently hosted various seminars, and I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar of the legendary Fabio Gurgel who is one of the founders of the Alliance team.

With solid instruction and tough rolls, there is a reason why Alliance  Frankfurt is a reputable gym in Germany, and arguably a top gym in Europe. If you are traveling to Europe, there is a decent probability that you will fly through Frankfurt. When in Frankfurt, Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Frankfurt is a must visit. After six months of training and making new friends in Frankfurt, the list of people I need to thank at the academy is too long to name every individual. Instead, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Alliance BJJ Frankfurt for making my experience in Frankfurt unforgettable. Alliance Frankfurt will always be a second home for me, in my heart.

Location & Facility
Alliance Jiu-Jitsu is in Offenbach, Germany. You can take the S Bahn 1/2/8/9 from Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) to Offenbach(Main) Kaiserlei, which is only 6 stations away. From the S Bahn station, the academy is approximately 10 minutes away by foot. Also, there should be parking across the street from the academy. Alliance’s facility includes a spacious white mat space with basic weight training equipment on the side. (Google Map: Link)

Schedule
The academy is open every day, including Sundays, offering both gi and no-gi classes. Since the instructors at the club hold different full-time jobs, classes are only offered in the evenings during the weekdays and mornings on the weekends. The academy’s most recent schedule is posted below:

Visitor Pass
The club is a BJJ Globetrotters affiliated gym. However, it is always courteous to reach out to the gym before your visit.

Miscellaneous
— Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Frankfurt’s Website

Things to do

  • Römerberg — At the heart of Altstadt (old town), this iconic square is surrounded by picturesque medieval buildings with the Justice Fountain (Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen) at its center. Despite suffering extensive damage during World War II, Römerberg’s unique architecture has been restored, and the square constitutes one of the city’s main tourist attractions.
  • Frankfurt Eintracht — If you are looking to experience life as locals do in Germany, one of the best ways to do so is going to a football game. It is one of the traditional German football clubs currently playing in the Bundesliga. Surrounded by German football fans while holding a German beer, you can fully submerge into German culture.
  • Alte Oper — Located in the inner-city district, Innenstadt, the Old Opera House is the city’s major concert hall and a former opera house. There are over 150 high-quality performances offered in all sections of music including musicals, jazz, and classical music.
  • Museum District — Located on the south bank of the Main river, the city’s Museum District (Museumsufer) is a first-rate collection of 12 highly reputed museums centered around the historic art museum Städel.

Big thanks to everyone from Alliance BJJ Frankfurt!

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Open Mat during Ramadan in Istanbul

Hello Globetrotters!

The insanely creative title of this post is none other than what I walked into, word for word.

Potentially because of that, there were only two people at the weekly Sunday open mat at Balaban Solid Sports (Atos Jiu-Jitsu affiliate). PS – beautiful facilities, by the way!

Great, this will be short and sweet, I told myself.

Background context: my only goal was to get a roll in before my tattoo session the next day. Which, by the way, came out great and I highly recommend Pokey Poke Studios. And I only mention this because 1) I absolutely love it and 2) it’s BJJ related.

Finger Taping

But realistically, I had just spent over an hour and a half commuting from Sultanahmet (so I took a tram to the ferry, the ferry from the European to Asian side of Istanbul, and then a bus into the Ataşehir neighborhood), so it didn’t feel right to stay for less.

I met Yasar and Can, both of them relatively new to BJJ. Yasar told me he started in Spain, took a break, and decided to take it up again. Can just started recently. I rolled (no-gi) with both of them, and to be honest, I felt pretty out of shape (I blame it on the state of my vacation mode body) ((but if you read my last posts, I always blame it on the state of my vacation mode body)).

Unfortunately, I’m not a long term traveler. It’s really difficult to fit in gym drop-ins when you only have a couple of days in a place! I only have 10 vacation days (huge bummer as an emerging adult in the workforce in North America, I’m looking at you Europe) so strategizing how to use them is what I do on the daily. But no matter how challenging it is, it brings me great joy to be able to meet BJJ practitioners from all over the world. So naturally, drop-ins are ingrained as an important part of my travel process. 

sabine-chiang-mai-thailand-cover

Temple City Chiang Mai

Reasons to go: Very affordable, great food, beautiful ornate temples literally everywhere, extremely safe for solo female travelers, relaxed atmosphere, modern city convenience, great “beginner” Asian city destination

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is a medium sized city in the Northern part of Thailand, and was an excellent place to set up my home base for a month. It was, in all ways, an extremely affordable and very convenient city, with everything I needed (food, fast wifi, laundry, bjj training) within close, easy access. In addition, it had a wonderfully relaxed and peaceful ambiance, with a lot of lush vegetation – a much needed break after the two bigger, more hectic cities I’d previously stayed.

I quickly fell into a comfortable, pleasant daily routine here which I followed most of the month… wake up around 8-8:30ish without an alarm, have breakfast at one of the nearby restaurants, work most of the morning/afternoon with frequent breaks for iced coffee and Thai iced milk teas (so tasty!!) at the nearby cafes, have afternoon meal, bike to evening BJJ training, then have papaya salad and fruit or fresh coconut from one of the street vendors for dinner. This was broken up by laundry and the occasional day off to explore the city and do something touristic. My month in Chiang Mai flew by much too fast – if it weren’t for visa restrictions and the next part of the trip all planned out already, I could have happily stayed here much, much longer!

Chiang Mai would be an excellent “beginner” destination for anyone who hasn’t yet been to an Asian city. It’s safe, has many many grand temples to visit, isn’t overwhelmingly big, and has enough elements of normal everyday Thai life to make it an authentic experience while still having great tourism infrastructure making it easy to communicate and navigate the city.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand: so green and lush in some areas!

No Grab Taxis

Having become extremely accustomed to using Grab (Asian Uber) in Hanoi, first thing I did when I was ready to leave the Chiang Mai airport was to call a Grab taxi. Little did I know, Grab taxis are illegal here. The moment my driver arrived, four police men surrounded his car after some discussion in Thai which I didn’t understand, took him inside. When I asked the police what was happening, they thoroughly apologized for the delay and told me not to worry, that I should just to go wait in the car (which had been left running with the air conditioning on while they took the driver inside).

My poor driver returned about 15 minutes later looking a little shaken, and explained the situation. Turns out, all ride-share services (like Grab and Uber) are actually illegal here, on account of being an unregulated business taking work away from the official taxi drivers. The first offense is a 500 baht ticket (about $16), second offense is 2000 baht (about $63) and it escalates from there. This was fortunately my driver’s first offense. Someone later told me that Grab often actually pays the fines for their drivers in situations like this, as it still ends up profitable for them to pay the driver’s fines and keep operating in Thailand.

Ancient Walled City

At the center of Chiang Mai is the ancient walled city. It’s shaped like a square and is surrounded by a small moat, with many bridges for roads crossing over it. The water in the moat is covered with patches of lily pads with beautiful giant white and neon pink flowers blooming! There used to be walls surrounding the city as well, but only little pieces of those now remain. It takes about half an hour to walk from one of the corners of the walled city to the other.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Old city walls. It's difficult to see from this angle, but that wall is a good couple meters thick!

Temple City

Chiang Mai, Thailand: No bare shoulders or short skirts allowed in the temples!I don’t think I’ve ever been to a city with this many temples (almost all Buddhist) in such a small space! You literally can’t walk more than 5 minutes in any direction near the old city without running into another beautiful temple, and it’s not uncommon to see orange robed monks out and about. Just a reminder – it’s important to dress appropriately when visiting Buddhist temples. This means no tank tops or mini skirts, making sure to cover the shoulders, and wearing shirt/shorts that extend past the knees. Also, keep an eye out for signs about removing your shoes before entering, or just look for many shoes out front as an indication of when to remove yours. Also (very important), if you’re a woman – do not touch the monks.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Temples everywhere! 

Tourist City

Chiang Mai (at least near the old city center) is very much a tourist city. It has great infrastructure for it, with tons of hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, and gift shops in old quarter. You’ll see plenty of other tourists (from all over the world) while out and about, and the local residents are very used to seeing and interacting with the tourists. Even people who don’t really speak English usually know a handful of words phrases to answer common questions, and the food menus often include English translations. There’s even a special “Tourist Police” to help out with any issues when involving a tourist! Chiang Mai has a large expat population as well, most of which work teaching English (employment for a Thai organization being one way to get an extended Thai visa).

Chiang Mai, Thailand: pretty little streets inside the old city area

Elephant Pants

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Elephant pants - SO tourist, but SO comfortable!Many tourist clothing shops in Thailand (both Chiang Mai and Bangkok) sells a certain kind of loose, baggy, very light pants (or sometimes shorts and skirts of the same general style) with brightly patterned elephant print, which tourists seem to love and locals never wear. Nothing screams “I’m a tourist” like wearing a pair of elephant pants!

Knowing this… I’d refrained from purchasing these my entire first month in Bangkok, but needed new pants so finally caved and got a pair. And, let me just say, I can totally understand why people love wearing these! The super light, loose material is great in the heat, offers protection from the harsh sun and protection from mosquitoes, and they’re as comfortable as wearing pajamas! Zero regrets on this purchase!

One word of warning… I washed these pants (and a similar pair with a neon orange plant print) with some other items, and they turned everything in that load of laundry orange! So, if you get a pair, you might consider washing them separately or with similar colors the first couple times.

Burn Season and Pollution

Throughout most of the year the air in Chiang Mai is fine, but from December through April is burn season. This is the time when farmers clear their fields with fire during the driest part of the year in preparation for planting fields the following year. There’s a number of wildfire that occur this time of year too, due to the drier climate and lack of rain. This results in atrociously bad air, beyond just “unhealthy” into “hazardous” levels. People who can afford to often leave and go elsewhere for some/all of these months to avoid the worst of it.

I unfortunately didn’t know any of this when booked my trip to Chiang Mai and had scheduled to arrive a couple days after the official last day of burn season. Having seen a couple rather alarming articles and photos about how bad the pollution was, and having already developed a perpetual cough from the “unhealthy” air days in Hanoi and Bangkok, I was a little concerned about the impact this would have on my health. It was my hope that the air would improve once the official burn season had ended, but didn’t know how long that would actually take. I briefly even debated rescheduling the trip. But, having already booked (non-refundable) flights and accommodations – I ultimately decided to just go for it anyways. Thinking ahead, I did purchase a much more robust air mask before leaving Bangkok. Of course, it’s not possible to wear an air mask ALL the time (the inside gets damp with condensation after just a couple hours).

Fortunately, the pollution had cleared up considerably by the time I arrived. There were still a few days where the air reached “unhealthy” levels, and many more days where the air was “unhealthy for sensitive groups”, but nothing in the “hazardous” range, which was what I was really worried about.

I didn’t actually end up using my more robust air mask at all, and only wore the cloth mask on a handful of days. Oddly, even on the days where my phone’s app reported higher levels of pollution, it didn’t seem as visible in the air or seem to affect me as strongly as it had for the same levels in Hanoi. Perhaps I’d grown accustomed to it, or perhaps it was just a different kind of pollution (fires instead of vehicle exhaust) which I was less sensitive to.

Transportation

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Shared taxiOptions for transportation in Chiang Mai are walking or renting a bicycle (great options near the old city center if not going far), renting a scooter, shared taxis, regular taxis, tuktuks (three wheeled taxis), app based bike rental, or the bus. There is no metro or tram system in Chiang Mai.

You’ll see red shared taxis vans throughout most of Chiang Mai, they’re extremely common and easy to find. The back of the vans is opened, lined with two rows of benches facing each other to accommodate about 10 people. The fare is based on the number of people in the vehicle, the number of people in your group, and how far you’re going. In the busier areas, the taxi has predefined stops and will wait until the vehicle is full before leaving, meaning you might have to wait 5-15 minutes before they depart. When leaving from one of the more touristic areas when the taxi is full, the rates are very cheap. If you’re the only person in the taxi, the driver will take you exactly where you want to go (as opposed to a predefined stop), but you’ll end up paying a lot more.

As mentioned above, ride-share services such as Grab are illegal, though there are still quite a few drivers operating throughout the city. The few times I considered using Grab, a quick comparison of rates at that time of day showed that they weren’t actually significantly cheaper than using the shared taxis though, so I ended up using the official shared taxis instead.

Besides that, it is possible to get regular taxis as well. I used one to get to the airport on my last day since I was leaving at 5am (with a suitcase) and didn’t have great confidence there would be shared taxis operating and easy to find at that time of day.

Chiang Mai has two app based options for transportation: Mobike (for bicycles) and Neuron (for little electric scooters). There are bikes/scooters scattered throughout the city, an app on your phone lets you unlock a vehicle, you pay for the short time you’re using it, and you’re not obligated to return it to a specific point. Mobikes sounded like a really great idea and I initially did want to go that route instead of renting a bike for the month, but a glitch in the app didn’t allow it to function properly on my phone. I contacted the company about this via email, but they never replied.

There is a bus system in Chiang Mai as well, though I didn’t actually try using it. You’ll need to use the app ViaBus to get information on routes, since Google Maps doesn’t provide bus information, and searching for it online isn’t helpful (unless maybe you’re fluent in Thai).

One word of warning for those renting scooters/motorbikes: I very frequently saw scooter check points on the roads along the old city wall, where police would restrict the road and everyone on a scooter (tourist and local alike) had to pull over and present some documents. I’m not sure what those documents entailed since didn’t rent a scooter myself, but whatever they are – do make sure to carry them with you while driving to avoid fines or tickets!

Biking in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai, Thailand: My bike hanging out in the scooter parking lotSometime in the first couple days of my stay in Chiang Mai, I went ahead and rented a bicycle for the month, which turned out to be a really brilliant idea! Not only was it fun to ride, it was awesome to have my own transportation instead of relying on taxis. The rates for bicycle rentals at a couple different shops ranged from 900baht to 1500baht ($28-$48) per month for a basic street bike. I went with the cheaper bike, which was a somewhat older/simple model but worked (mostly) fine. It came with a basket on the front, a bell, a friction powered front light, and a lock and chain large enough to lock the back wheel to the frame. It didn’t include a helmet, which isn’t required here. The gears on my bike didn’t really work but were stuck in one of the higher gears, which was fine for getting around town on flat streets.

Riding a bike on the larger streets made me a little nervous at first, mostly because I’m not accustomed to riding bicycles on the street at all, and there’s no dedicated bike lanes here. But, after a couple days of getting accustomed to my bike and the roads, it was really no problem at all! Bikes here ride mostly on the far left (all traffic in Thailand drives on the left), and share that lane with scooters, parked scooters, moving cars, and parked cars. I learned that it’s best to just ride at as steady, even pace and not make any sudden stops, speed changes, or sharp turns – the faster cars and scooters will adjust their path accordingly when needed. I had the general impression that drivers were much more aware of bikes here than in US. This is probably due to the huge amount of scooters, bikes and pedestrians using the roads, which makes drivers much more accustomed to looking out for these smaller vehicles.

Intersections

One odd thing to be aware of – intersections work a little differently here than in US and Europe. In those countries when the intersection is a square (two roads crossing), opposing lanes are given green lights and permitted to go at the same time. Here in Chiang Mai, each side of the square at the intersection takes a turn going when their light is green, during which the other three sides have red lights and must wait. Another important thing to keep in mind is that people drive on the left here.

Summertime Days

Summer starts around April in Chiang Mai, so it was extremely hot 40°C (100°F) most days with little/no rain while I was here. Throughout most of the day, but especially between 11am – 4pm, the city was a ghost town. It was just so unbearably hot that people didn’t want to spend any more time than absolutely necessary outside!

Fortunately, many indoor places in Chiang Mai do have air conditioning. Many restaurants are covered with an open-air wall and fans but no air conditioning, however. So, for someone unaccustomed to the heat, summer might not be the best time to visit this city. If you do visit in summer – make sure to have plenty of sunscreen and water when you go outside for longer periods of time, as well as mosquito repellent (especially if going into the woods or on the outskirts of the city).

The evenings in Chiang Mai were wonderful though, once the day time heat was reduced to just pleasantly warm, without the bright harshness of the sun. In the evening, the town became much more lively with people of all ages (families, couples, groups of friends, tourists) walking around, hanging out in front of their homes or at tables out front of cafes, and street vendors open selling various snacks.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Open-air restaurant

Delicious Thai Food

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Wooden bowl and pestle used by street vendors to make fresh papaya saladsThai food here continued to be amazing, including various combinations of rice, noodles, light soups, veggies, meat, dumplings and sauce. The food here seemed overall sweeter and less spicy than in Bangkok. I could be less cautious about making certain not to order spicy meals and there was more on the menus that wasn’t spicy to choose from.

Throughout the city, there were many street vendors which specialized in selling specific items such as smoothies, papaya salads (made fresh in a giant wooden bowl and pestle!), meat on a stick (freshly fried in oil), ice cream with toppings of choice, and fresh fruits. The papaya salads and watermelon smoothies were my favorite – the perfect refreshing meal and drink on a hot evening!

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Delicious Thai food!

Coffee

Coffee was VERY affordable here, about $1.00 for a large iced mocha with whipped cream which would have easily cost 4x that at Starbucks in the US! The coffees here use condensed milk instead of regular milk, and the whipped cream is much lighter with less of a dairy base than in the US, which I actually prefer. There’s also a huge assortment of smoothies and milk iced teas for similar pricing, all of which are pretty delicious. Gotta try them all!

Water

Before going to Thailand, I’d heard plenty of warnings about the importance of being careful with the water, making sure to consume only water and ice from bottled sources due to high levels of bacteria etc. in the local water that would make me sick. Well, I DID drink water and I DID have ice cubes whenever offered in restaurants without confirming the source was bottled… and had zero digestive issues the entire time I was here. Most restaurants do additionally have bottled water available though, for anyone uncomfortable with drinking their normal water. Only the newer tourists actually purchase those though.

The host of my AirBnB accommodations offered free bottled water from a water delivery service for all the guests (so I didn’t drink water directly from the tap there). This probably saved me at least $100 with how much water I was drinking, given how hot it was!

Buddhist Temple Wat Pha Lat

One of my tourist days off was spent walking the “Monk’s Trail” up to Wat Pha Lat (one of the temples on top of a hill). The starting point of the trail was roughly 15 min away from my studio by taxi. I had briefly considered riding my bike there, but wasn’t sure if there would be a good place to leave the bike, or if I’d be returning to the same point afterwards. In hindsight, I’m very glad I decided to take the taxi! The trail head was further away than I imagined when looking at a map, and the last part of the road included a handful of very steep inclines, which would not have been fun riding on a very hot and cloudless day.

From the trail head, the hike up to Wat Pha Lat meandered through the forest (which got progressively denser the further up you went), going steadily upwards the entire time. Along the way you can see knots of orange cloth (like the monk’s robes) tied to trees marking the path, many of which are now pretty faded with time. Even without these markers, the path is very clearly visible. I tried to imagine what it must have been like to be a monk walking this path to get to the temple in sandals every day. The trail wasn’t too long or too difficult, taking about 45 minutes to get to Wat Pha Lat. I’d say it’s pretty accessible to anyone, even kids or people without any athletic abilities.

One word of warming – ants were everywhere in the forest. There were lots of mosquitoes too, which largely completely ignored the copious amounts of mosquito repellent I’d applied and went ahead and bit me anyways.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Monk's Trail up to Wat Pha Lat

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Orange cloth tied to trees marking the path of Monk's Trail up to Wat Pha Lat

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Bamboo bridge at the end of Monk's Trail up to Wat Pha Lat

Chiang Mai, Thailand: A little piece of nature reclaiming the walls of Wat Pha LatWat Pha Lat at the top was very lovely – very well taken care of, with many beautiful and ornate stone sculptures and a few plants creeping in as if nature had started reclaiming the buildings. It had a very peaceful and calm atmosphere, and while there were a handful of other visitors, it was not overwhelmingly full of tourists. Heading further up the road you can find two smaller (also very pretty) temple buildings, with statues of Buddha inside.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Buddhas in one of the buildings of Wat Pha Lat

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Wat Pha Lat

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Wat Pha Lat

Chiang Mai, Thailand: One of the smaller temples near the main road at Wat Pha Lat

Chiang Mai, Thailand: wild lilies in bloom along the Nature TrailFrom Wat Pha Lat, you can actually keep hiking to Doi Suthep (another larger but far more busy and touristic temple) by taking the Nature Trail. This trail was also well maintained and clear to follow, but is a bit more strenuous – it goes basically uphill at the steepness of a staircase the entire way. Directions to the Nature Trail are as follows… to find the trail head, leave Wat Pha Lat following the street uphill until you get to the main road. Cross the main street, and follow it uphill (towards the left) for about 5 minutes. The Nature Trail is the first path going off into the forest that you’ll encounter on your right, where the power lines cross. The trail continues to follow the power lines up the entire way – this is an easy indication that you’re on the right trail. Eventually (after maybe 45 minutes), the Nature Trail will come to the main road, which you can follow uphill for about 5 more minutes more to get to the Doi Suthep area. This area is super touristic, including a little market with lots of food stalls, gift and clothing shops.

BJJ Competition

There was by chance a small local BJJ competition in Chiang Mai happening one of the Saturdays I was there. I briefly thought about signing up last-minute but couldn’t find any info online, so decided just to spectate instead. The competition was located on 5th floor of a mostly unused section of a huge mall and was initially a little hard to find. I asked a few people in the mall where it was, but either they didn’t understand me (I don’t speak Thai, most didn’t speak much English) or they didn’t know anything about it. Also, the mall was a bit of a maze and I wouldn’t have guessed a competition to be located in one of the more unused areas. After some unsuccessful wandering around for awhile, I texted one of my gym mates who met me downstairs to show me the way.

The competition took place in a single large room which was also having a taekwondo competition that day as well, so was pretty lively and full. The BJJ area consisted of one mat, with a very big group of kids competing. Spectators were allowed to sit right up close to the edges of the mat, which was cool. Most of the competitors were local, though one group of participants had driven up from Chiang Rai (3 hours away). I ran into a friend from Bangkok there as well, who happened to be in Chiang Mai for work. Two of my Pure Grappling gym mates competed and did well – lost some rounds, won some rounds. All in all, a pretty fun day!

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Unused section of the mall on the way to the competition

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Local BJJ competition

Training at Pure Grappling

Pure Grappling (BJJ Globetrotters affiliated!) became my home gym while in Chiang Mai, where I trained 6x/week in the evenings. It’s actually run by a group based out of Singapore with no permanent full-time instructor at the location in Chiang Mai. Instructors from the group in Singapore take turns living and working here, for something like 4-5 months at a time. The instructor while I was here was Charlie (Carlos Alcayaga), a brown belt from Argentina.

I had a wonderful time training at Pure Grappling! Class was given in English, with students being a mix of expats and local residents. This gym frequently received single-time drop in tourist visitors too. Because a big majority of the class was lower-belts, a lot of the material we covered was the important fundamentals, which I feel like I can always use more of. Charlie’s classes were very clear and well-organized. There was strong emphasis on detail and strong continuity from one class to the other, with technique building upon what was previously learned in the days and weeks before. We spent a lot of time drilling and fine-tuning the same movements, which resulted in those becoming much more smooth and intuitive toward the end of the month.

The gym was small but was very clean, including two rooms with nice mats and padded walls, a changing room, two bathrooms and a shower. Only the smaller downstairs room included air conditioning, which we used when the class size wasn’t too big. The gym also included quality air filters, making it possible to train even on high pollution days in Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Pure Grappling BJJ upstairs room

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Part of the Pure Grappling BJJ group

Training at Chiang Mai BJJ

The other gym I had the opportunity to visit (for a single time drop-in) was Chiang Mai BJJ. The students and instructor were very welcoming, technique very clear and detail-oriented, and I had some nice rolls there!

Uplay

Uplay Martial Arts – BJJ Luxembourg

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg — Have you heard of Luxembourg? I myself was vaguely familiar with it, but could not have told you anything about the country until I temporarily lived there. This past January, I was traveling in Germany when I received an invite to interview for a job; I had to jump on a plane for a 24-hour round trip, but after my interview, I managed to squeeze in a training session. Fast forward 6 months later and Uplay Martial Arts became my second home for my entire stay in Luxembourg.

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City
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg — surrounded by Belgium, France, and Germany — is one of the smallest countries in the world. Despite its size, Luxembourg is the second richest country in the world with one of the most competitive minimum wages available. Its capital, Luxembourg City, is globally recognized as a major financial hub and a tax haven. Due to its intertwined culture, languages including French and German are spoken in addition to its native language, Luxembourgish. Luxembourg is a country with unique characteristics that make it worth visiting. It is rare to find a country in Europe where various cultures and languages are overlapping but act in perfect harmony.

Overview BJJ Luxembourg
Uplay Martial Arts was founded in 2016 by Professor Leonardo Neves, who is a BJJ Black Belt under Leonardo Vieira. He is originally from São Paulo, Brazil, where he started his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training under the Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Academy, but he has traveled and established academies around the world under Team Neves Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Association. The affiliated schools are located in various European countries including Sweden, Croatia, and Poland.

Before my interview in Luxembourg, I reached out to the academy via Facebook and I received a warm welcome from Professor Neves. Fortunately, my relationship with Uplay Martial Arts did not end with one visit. I had the opportunity to pay a few more visits during the business trips, and I eventually moved to Luxembourg for three months. Every time I was in Luxembourg, the door at Uplay Martial Arts was always open for me.

Despite the fact that approximately 48% of Luxembourg’s population are foreigners of more than 170 nationalities, Uplay Martial Arts has a close-knit community with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu bringing everyone together. The atmosphere at Uplay was friendly and playful. Drilling and working together after the class to improve and hone their skills could be commonly spotted at Uplay as if it were a part of the regular curriculum. In addition, BJJ Globetrotters frequently visit the academy, and Professor Neves and students create an open environment for everyone regardless of the affiliation.

Established three years ago, Uplay Martial Arts has shown incredible growth in the number of students and their levels. Although the academy might be new, the professor’s seasoned skills as an instructor have helped rapid growth of the BJJ Luxembourg scene. Also, leveraging Professor Neves’ connections within the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community, it is common for high-level BJJ competitors such as Lucas Leite from Checkmat and Thiago Abud from Unity to visit the academy as guest instructors. The professor himself is also often invited to host seminars in various academies across Europe. With his passion to spread Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and proven teaching skills, Professor Neves’ Uplay Martial Arts is a must visit in Luxembourg. If you happen to be in Luxembourg, I would highly recommend for you to drop by Uplay Martial Arts.

bjj luxembourg

Location & Facility
Uplay Martial Arts is located in Beggen, Luxembourg. The academy is easily accessible via public transportation, which is soon to be completely free within the country. In order to reach the academy, you can take a bus 10 or 11 from the city center and get off at Beggen, Bastogne. The facility, located on the second floor of a large shopping center, includes a spacious open mat with basic weight training equipment. (Google Map: Link)

Schedule
The BJJ Luxembourg academy is open every day, including Sundays, and offers a variety of classes from Freestyle Wrestling to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. With the academy’s morning, afternoon, and evening classes, it is hard to make an excuse not to train while in Luxembourg. The academy’s most recent schedule is posted below:

Visitor Pass
Uplay Martial Arts did not charge for the training. However, it is always courteous to reach out to the gym before your visit.

Miscellaneous
— Uplay Martial Arts’ Website

Things to do

  • Luxembourg Old Town — With its stunning blend of high-end shops and restaurants, Luxembourg City is not a typical European old town. Surrounded by major tourist attractions such as Place Guillaume, Place d’Armes, and Adolphe Bridge, the small capital city of Luxembourg is one of the most unique cities in harmonious diversity.
  • Grand Ducal Palace — Fully restored in Flemish Renaissance style in the 1990s, the Grand Ducal Palace is a residence for Grand Duke. The residence is open to the public for a period of 6 weeks over July and August whilst the Grand Duke and his family are away on their holidays.
  • Casemates du Bock — Consisting of 23 km of tunnels under the fortress prior to its deconstruction, Luxembourg’s famous network of underground fortification is a true textbook example of European military architecture. Listed as World Heritage by UNESCO, Casemates du Bock constitutes Luxembourg’s main tourist attraction.
  • Vianden Castle — Located in the north of Luxembourg, Vianden Castle is the most visited monument of Luxembourg. The origins of the castle date back to the 3rd century when the Romans fortified Vianden, but the castle was built between the 11th and 14th century. With the beautiful nature and old town surrounding the castle, Vianden Castle is worth a day trip.

Thanks to Uplay Martial Arts BJJ Luxembourg!

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Manchester England Represent.

Manchester. United, City, football, bees, music, culture, history and people. You name it, this city had it. It was an amazing place to visit and so much to see and do……not to mention a lot of different things to eat! My family and I just did a trip over for the weekend to catch in the sights, sounds and experience the atmosphere the city of Manchester has to offer….and of course the super cheap flights on Ryanair didn’t hurt!
Since this is a jitsu blog, I gots to drop the report on that first!
As I always do, once accommodation was sorted, I started looking for places to train nearby. I found the SBG Manchester gym right by the Piccadilly station which was like a 5 minutes walk to our hotel so easy decision to check them out. I made contact and got a reply super quick, I could only roll on a Sunday so they had a class and were very welcoming to me. I have not dropped in to another gym since I was graded to black belt and to be fair, I think I was as nervous as I was when I first started training! I have a lot of faith in my jiu jitsu but I am also just about 40 years old, standing at a towering 176cms and tipping the scales at a huge 73kgs, makes me very realistic  that I am not a dominating sized athlete!
Anyways, confidence is all about how we portray ourselves and there is always going to be nerves. If you aren’t experiencing nerves then you aren’t getting out of your comfort zone enough! So, as I was saying, life goes on and I still bowled down to the gym. I was early, rocked in and the crew in the gym got me signed in and I was changed and ready to go!
The coach on the day was Manik, a brown belt who was friendly, introduced himself and let me know the run down of the training and also what other classes were on offer that I could possibly make it to, I was on a family holiday and time was not a luxury so will have to look at coming back for another class! Being a Sunday and the day before a Public Holiday, I wasn’t sure of numbers we would get but there were 8 of us there in the end, mixture of white and blue belts and then Manik and myself. Good mix if you ask me. We started with takedowns. The old Bryan was not a huge fan of takedowns – actually, better wording is “not a huge fan of EXECUTING takedowns” but since I have been studying judo now for the last 18 months or so, I am very confident in standing grappling. Not just pulling guard quickly now! I highly recommend ALL players and gyms push this into their training, makes such a big difference and opens up a whole new level of grappling. We did double leg drills which I love to do but this was on a slightly different setup that I normally look for, I am normally all about the judo and use the wrestling as a backup option from the trips and throws but it’s another feather in the cap.
The drills were well run, we did with resistance and then with a counter and then a counter-counter before we ended up doing randori takedown drills at the end!
The groundwork we ran through was saddle entries from single leg X and then into reverse X to sweep back into the saddle. This was extra cool for me as I haven’t really been through much saddle entries. I left New Zealand when we were just getting into them and since teaching in Ireland, I am yet to move into this as I am not going to teach the leg lock game until they have a good understanding so I only went through some with my head coach in New Zealand in 2017, open mat rolling at other gyms in Ireland and then 2019 I did some drilling with my Head coach Hayden Wilson in Ireland and now here in Manchester! I took away a lot here at SBG Manchester and it’s nice to drill these with live resistance as well so I can see what is happening and working when they defend. Finished up the class with me showing a quick tip to help finish the arm in guillotine and then we went off to complete 30 minutes of sparring rounds.
I had some great rolls with a good range of partners, from tanks to sedans and white belts to blues, the rolling was a great pace and tempo. The crew at SBG pushed me to roll well but nobody was cranking anything on or applying a submission with too much force.
I highly enjoyed myself and definitely suggest contacting them for a roll/class if you are in the city. Manchester itself was a blast! The city is super vibrant, intense demographic with friendly people of all different ethnicity and backgrounds – the Gay Village was highly recommended to us by many people and although we only walked through it during the day, we could hear all the people partying at night and will one day head back here to check it out!
Manchester. I told people it was not what I expected but to be fair, I don’t know what I actually expected, all I know is I loved my short visit here and so did my whole family. Will be back!
Oss
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“It all comes down to confidence: your body can do great things only if it believes it can accomplish them” – Georges St Pierre

GTT

German Top Team (Reutlingen, Germany)

Reutlingen, Germany —The road trip in Germany through Matsurfing continued. After training in Stuttgart with my host, Philipp, he invited me to visit his old training ground in Reutlingen. Visiting this unknown city was unplanned, but I was rather excited to explore a smaller German city and train at a new academy. Without Philipp, there would not have been a chance to train at German Top Team.

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City
Reutlingen is an industrial city in Baden-Württemberg located about 35 km south of Stuttgart. Along with the beautiful university town of Tübingen, Reutlingen is a part of the larger Stuttgart Metropolitan Region. The first settlement in the area dates back to the 4th century and the historical buildings can be spotted all over the city. 

Overview
German Top Team was founded in 2004 by the head coach Peter Angerer. Professor Peter “Yamatodamashii” Angerer is a highly decorated martial artist with black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Luta Livre, Shooto, and Shidokan Karate. As a seasoned fighter who competed all around the world, he is considered one of the most successful and experienced MMA fighters in Germany. With over 600 fights in Karate, Kickboxing, BJJ, and MMA, Professor Angerer’s experience and records speak for his qualification. With his various experience, the academy offers a wide range of combat sports including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Shooto. 

German Top Team was Philipp’s old training ground. He introduced me to Professor Angerer and other students, and we joined the Luta Livre sparring class. Luta Livre is a Brazilian style of grappling art similar to no-gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The martial art was developed almost parallel with BJJ. However, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu heavily favored Gi while Luta Livre only uses no-gi. In addition, Luta Livre puts an emphasis on wrestling and leglocks, unlike traditional BJJ practitioners. Luta Livre is an important part of training in German Top Team with its easy transition to Mixed Martial Arts. You should definitely watch your legs when you are sparring with students from German Top Team.

With German Top Team’s hospitality and friendly training environment combined with high-intensity training, I could not ask for more during my visit. 6 months later, I ran into Professor Angerer in one of the BJJ tournaments in Frankfurt. He greeted and told me I am always welcome to come train at German Top Team if I am in the area. With skilled instructor and students, German Top Team is a must visit. It would be even worth visiting Reutlingen just to visit German Top Team. I would highly recommend dropping by German Top Team if you have a chance. 

Location & Facility
German Top Team is located around 1 km away from the Reutlingen central station. You could easily walk from the main station to reach the academy. The facility is divided into two areas: an open training mat and an MMA octagon with heavy bags. (Google Map: Link)

Schedule
German Top Team offers a variety of classes from Shooto to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The academy’s most recent schedule is posted below:

Visitor Pass
German Top Team did not charge for the training. However, it is always courteous to reach out to the gym before your visit.

Miscellaneous
 — German Top Team’s Website

Things to do

  • Spreuerhofstraße — Reutlingen has the narrowest street in the world with an average width of 40 centimeters and the narrowest at 31 centimeters. 
  • Maultaschen — It is a traditional German dish that originated in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Covered with an outer layer of pasta dough and filled with meat, spinach, bread crumbs, and various spices, Maultaschen is a must try in Baden-Württemberg. It looks similar to ravioli but it is bigger in size and contains more fillings.
  • Stadtmitte (City Center) — Along with Marienkirche and Tubinger Tor, the town of Reutlingen is full of history. Marienkirche is one of the most distinct and significant Gothic buildings in Swabia, and Tubinger Tor, one of the two surviving city gates, creates a typical old German town atmosphere. You can simply stroll through the town and enjoy the city of Reutlingen.
sabine-hanoi-vietnam-neighborhood-street

Traveling & Training in Hanoi, Vietnam

Reasons to go: extremely affordable, unique city, amazing food, very safe for solo female travelers, lively ambiance, beautiful temples.

Of all the countries I’ve traveled to (over 20 in the last 3 years!), Vietnam is the first that has felt like a truly foreign experience. I stayed in Hanoi almost a full month and my first couple days in Hanoi were, in all honesty, a little overwhelming. The city is huge, very crowded with people and dense narrow buildings, constantly noisy, with the most insane traffic I’ve ever seen and much less English spoken than any country I’d previously been to. By the end of the stay, however, I’d grown quite acclimated and comfortable with all of this, and had grown to love a lot of the city’s unique charm.

Hanoi, Vietnam

A Growing City

Hanoi, Vietnam: DIY workout equipment near my home, cleverly made of scooter tires filled with cement!Hanoi is still a developing city but very rapidly becoming more modern with a better economy and larger middle class. It seems to have embraced a lot of new technologies, while still retaining many traditional elements, resulting in a very interesting mix of the old and the new.

Everyone has smart phones, gaming lounges lined with high definition monitors are popular, many buildings and scooters seem very new, and drivers use apps like Grab to coordinate rides. A couple larger freeways are currently under construction and there’s no problem getting fast wifi throughout the city. At the same time, you’ll find ancient temples and many much older buildings still in use, and see many traditional activities such as men smoking tobacco from long bamboo pipes in the streets, vendors carrying goods in baskets hanging off poles balanced over their shoulders, and women washing dishes in large basins outside.

Many aspects of Hanoi have a certain makeshift improvised quality. Whatever people can’t afford to purchase or acquire as commercial equipment, they’ll simply create with resourcefulness and ingenuity from the materials they have.

People who have left then returned to Hanoi a couple years later say that they’re surprised by how much the city has changed and developed in their short time away. I feel like if I returned in 3, 5 or 10 years, the version of Hanoi I saw today would already have changed significantly.

Hanoi

Hanoi, Vietnam: blankets over an electrical wire clothing line!Hanoi doesn’t have regular larger grocery stores. Instead, they have many tiny shops which specialize in different things, and street vendors for fruits/veggies/meats. Some vendors ride bicycles with large baskets strapped to the back and sides carrying goods, which makes them a little hard to find when you’re looking for a specific thing.

Most shops are family owned, with the ground floor being the shop/restaurant and the family living upstairs. It’s not uncommon for extended family and a couple different generations to live together in one building/home. Many restaurants are very small, so set up with tiny plastic tables and stools on the sidewalk out front to accommodate additional customers. These makes you feel like a giant when eating!

Property costs (at least in ancient times) for homes/shops were based on the square footage of the front facade, rather than overall size of the house. For this reason many older buildings have a very narrow front faces which extends far back and many stories high. The overall architecture of the city feels very organic, as if buildings and additional stories were added as needed rather than planned out in advance, with very little space is wasted between buildings.

Once again, there were crazy wires everywhere – to a more dense and disorganized extreme than I’d previously seen elsewhere. I get the feeling there aren’t really any general safety standards here, or at least not any strongly enforced.

Hanoi, Vietnam: temples and the city

My Neighborhood

My studio (an AirBnB rental) was located in a very local part of town outside of the touristic area, about 20 minutes south of the main city center by taxi. I lived in the middle of a large, dense block of narrow residential buildings many stories high. The area around my place was a labyrinth of tiny alleys just large enough for pedestrians, bikes and scooters to pass through, but not large enough for cars. The closely sandwiched buildings didn’t offer much of a view from my 3rd story window or let in much natural light, giving the space inside the ambiance of perpetual dusk at all times of day. Most morning around sunrise, you could hear a rooster crowing outside. Some evenings, you could hear the soft melody of a flute being played from one of the neighboring buildings.

Hanoi, Vietnam: tiny alleys in my neighborhood

The area which I was staying in was not at all a tourist part of town. I was almost the only Westerner/foreigner staying here, which got me more than a few curious looks from the local people in the neighborhood. Which I can understand completely. Sometime towards the end of my stay, I did cross another Westerner in the neighborhood. I’d become accustomed to seeing only local people at that point and was so surprised to see him that even I caught myself staring, wondering what he was possibly doing in the neighborhood!

There was diamond shaped lake close to my block surrounded by many cafes and restaurants, with a park/walkway along three sides including benches, an assortment of outdoor fitness equipment, and a playground for the kids. It was a popular place to hang out for people in the community, especially in the evenings. Here, vendors would set up small food stalls with tiny plastic tables and chairs for their customers, groups of friends would sit around drinking tea and eating sunflowers seeds, families would bring their children to play, men would sit around fishing, groups would play music and practice classical dances in pairs, fitness enthusiasts work out on the outdoor equipment, and all the cafes along the waterfront would be filled with customers. It was a very comfortable and family friendly ambiance!

Hanoi, Vietnam: the lake near my neighborhood

Not for Everyone

Hanoi is not for everyone. If you want to vacation in a place with more Western standards, with English spoken everywhere, pristine streets, large all-in-one grocery stores, orderly traffic regulation, good public transportation, and spacious uncluttered sidewalks – in all honesty, you’d probably be better off going elsewhere. While there are certainly very beautiful areas and many higher end hotel rentals available in Hanoi (for amazing rates!) – most of the city isn’t like that. While it’s not always beautiful, it certainly is lively and interesting, with tons of history/culture, and no shortage of things to see and do!

Hanoi, Vietnam: Old Quarter on a weekend (when streets are blocked off to vehicle traffic)

Safety

I’ve heard it said before by people who travel that they often feel much safer in South East Asia than in US, and I’d completely agree with that sentiment. At no point did I feel even remotely unsafe, even when in much lower-income areas, even living in a neighborhood made up of tiny dark alleys and sometimes returning home solo late at night.

Hanoi, Vietnam: the city at night

Needless Apprehensions

Vietnam was one of the places I was most excited to see in person, but also one of the ones that I felt the most apprehensive about. Reviews online seemed rather polarized – people either loved it or hate it, with nothing in between. I wondered which would be the case for me.

My concerns fell into three main categories. First, that I would have a really hard time getting around due to language barrier and lack of infrastructure such as public transportation. Second, that I would have something important stolen. According to the online reviews, petty theft such as purse snatching was rampant. Third, that something I would eat would make me terribly sick.

None of these turned out to be valid concerns. It is true that there was certainly much less English spoken, and at much lower level of fluency than many other countries I’d previously been to. But with the help of Google Translate, body language, little bits of English – I had no problem communicating. I used general caution and was aware of surroundings/belongings in tourist areas, so had no issues with theft. Lastly, despite eating a huge variety of foods from many different places and street vendors including ice cream and ice cubes – nothing I ate gave me any digestive problems.

I think perhaps the internet has a tendency to vastly exaggerate the dangers of things.

Visas

Entering Vietnam was a pretty straightforward and simple process. I applied for an e-visa online in advance through the National Web Portal on Immigration, paid a small processing fee (about $26), and after a couple days received a letter of approval to print to present upon arrival. The online application asks for fairly standard information such as passport info, photo, birthday, home address, entry/exit dates and port of entry.

I’d read online that a passport sized photo was needed as well upon arrival at the airport so had these ready to present, but no one actually asked for this. With all my documents in order and ready to present, passing through immigration didn’t take more than a couple minutes. I was not asked for proof of an outbound ticket, or for any details as to where I’d be staying for the month.

Money

Hanoi, Vietnam: local currencyThe exchange in Vietnam is quite extreme: $1 United States dollar (USD) = ₫23,000 Vietnamese dongs (VND). It’s a little confusing at first, but not too bad if you just memorize a few benchmark values to have some general idea of what things cost when out and about. Vietnam operates largely on a cash economy, so it’s best to withdraw some cash in advance and not rely on vendors having credit or debit card machines for most transactions. Vietnamese currency has no coins but rather is made up entirely of paper bills. American dollars are widely accepted here too, though you might not always get the best exchange rate and will often receive the change in dongs.

Everything in Vietnam is VERY affordable compared to US standards! Lodging and tours are very reasonably priced, a full plate of food (often including tea and soup) typically costs $1.25-$2, and Grab taxi rides (the Asian version of Uber) throughout most of the city are under $5 (even less if you’re brave enough to ride a scooter taxi!).

Language

The modern Vietnamese writing system (called Quoc-ngu) uses a Roman alphabet with some additional digraphs and accents. It was created by a Portuguese missionary then further developed and made mandatory by French colonists during a time of cultural imperialism. Prior that, an alphabet of modified Chinese characters was used for writing.

In this written system, the are no multi-syllable words. Every word is equal to only one syllable. Words can be written one after the other to act like what would be multi-syllable words in English. Some words have no meaning on their own, and need to be strung together with other words to acquire meaning.

Food

The food in Vietnam was AMAZING – consistently delicious, healthy, and made with local, fresh ingredients. Many really great restaurants here have very underwhelming facades. You’d never suspect such amazing food could be found down these tiny allies and inside hole-in-wall shops!

Meals in Vietnam are often served in a way that lets the customer personalize them to taste. Dishes of noodle soup often come with a plate of mixed herbs, greens, and soy bean sprouts on the side which you can add, along with many optional sauces. Meals are eaten with chopsticks and a shallow soup spoon.

A small glass of cold tea is often complimentary with the meal. Fruits are eaten after meals to refresh your mouth and clear the taste of the meal. What we would consider desserts are actually eaten between meals as snacks.

Two of my favorite snack were popped grains and sweet soup. Popped grains were sold by street vendors on bikes in the streets, and consisted of blocks of popped grains coated with sugar, a bit like caramel popcorn. Sweet soup is a milky dessert with custard, jello blocks (but of a different consistency than the American kind) and other flavors (like berries or syrups) mixed into thick milk, served with crushed ice on the side. You can add however much ice you’d like to your bowl to dilute the sweetness and flavor intensity to taste.

Vietnam also has a huge selection of delicious milk teas and plant-based milk drinks such as corn milk, soy milk, coconut milk, sesame milk, and walnut milk… just to name a few. These are usually pretty sweet. I tried as many different kinds as I could and loved them all!

Having now eaten actual pho, I can say that many of the Vietnamese restaurants in USA actually do a pretty accurate job of reproducing this meal… for about 6x the cost of what you can purchase it for here!

Hanoi, Vietnam: tasty meals!

Great (Vegetarian!) Food

Tinh Tam’s (near my home) quickly became my favorite local restaurant in the area. I ate here almost every day – sometimes even twice a day! The ambiance was cozy and calm, with friendly staff, quick service, and amazing food. Most meals were either noodle soup, a ball of rice surrounded by different assortment of raw and cooked veggies, or a plate of noodles and veggies. I didn’t realize until the last day of my stay that it was actually a completely vegetarian restaurant.

Hanoi, Vietnam: vegetarian food at Tinh Tam's

Coffee

Hanoi, Vietnam: egg coffee!Egg coffee is a specialty of Hanoi. It’s made of egg yolk mixed with condensed milk and sugar, beaten and boiled into a very thick cream which is then poured over a shot of super strong black coffee. Very delicious! Not all cafes serve this though. Regular coffee in Hanoi consists of a small, super strong, super dark shot of coffee served with sweet condensed milk and liquid sugar on the side.

Pollution

The pollution in Hanoi for the month that I was here ranged from “moderately bad” to “unhealthy”. I downloaded an app on my phone which I’d check throughout the day, and wore a cloth air mask anytime the air quality dipped into the “unhealthy” range. On the worst days, the pollution could be seen as a brown haze over the city, obscuring the buildings on the far side of the little lake in my neighborhood, and the air felt thick to breath.

Public Transportation

For all practical purposes – there is none. Ride sharing services such as Grab (the Asian equivalent of Uber) are immensely popular here and very cheap. You can use Grab to arrange for either a scooter or car taxi. The scooter taxis always provide an extra helmet for their passengers.

Scooters

Hanoi takes all aspects of scooter driving to a new level. Compared to other South East Asian cities I’ve traveled to there’s denser traffic, faster driving, more weaving amongst other vehicles, less strongly enforced traffic laws, and less clearly marked intersections and lane divisions. The direction of roundabouts seems to be somewhat optional – while about 80% of people go the uniform, correct direction – it’s also totally fine to just drive the other way if it’s shorter, apparently!

In the center of the city, there’s many more scooters than cars on the roadways. And, for good reason – it really is the perfect vehicle for commuting around Hanoi! For starters, scooters are much more affordable than cars. This is partly because scooters are made in Vietnam, whereas cars are imported and heavily taxed. It cost about $1000 USD to purchase scooter, which is 3 months salary for average person here. It’s also much cheaper to purchase fuel for a scooter than a car. In addition, driving Hanoi is much easier on a scooter because of the small streets and dense traffic. There are many tiny alleys a scooter can pass through which a car would not fit into.

You might think that it would be inconvenient at times to have a scooter when needing to transport people or larger items. Not so! I’ve seen a truly amazing amount of large items strapped to a scooter, proving that you really don’t need a car for this. Scooters can easily comfortably accommodate 1-2 passengers, and sometimes up to 4 if stacked together well!

Hanoi, Vietnam: masterful stacking! Photos by Soner Dogan.

There’s constant honking in Hanoi. It isn’t rude, but rather more of a “watch out” notification used whenever drivers are coming around a corner, getting close to another person/driver, about to merge, about to do something unexpected etc… basically any situation where another person might not be aware of them.

I once took a scooter taxi in Hanoi morning rush hour traffic. It was the most insane driving experience I’ve ever been through! It included weaving through dense sea of scooters (and few larger vehicles), the equivalent of 5 lanes of traffic (one way) with no lane divisions, lots of honking (of course), driving onto the sidewalks, and going the WRONG way into oncoming traffic on few one way streets! The most amazing part was how normal this seemed for my driver and everyone around us.

Despite all of this, amazingly I didn’t see a single traffic accident in the entire month I was here! I think Vietnamese people might be best drivers in the world.

Crossing the Street

Crossing the streets was a little daunting at first. The majority of the time there are no crosswalks or traffic lights – you basically just have to take the initiative and literally walk into traffic. The proper way to cross a street in Vietnam is simply to walk calmly and with purpose into the street. Do not stop, speed up, or slow down. The oncoming traffic is a constant flow and doesn’t actually stop when pedestrians are crossing – vehicles just speed up, slow down or swerve to the side accordingly to avoid obstacles. Changing your pace will just make it harder for them to predict where to go. I definitely significantly improved my Vietnamese street crossing skills in the month I was here, but even toward the end was not brave enough to attempt to cross many of the larger, more busy streets this way!

Hanoi, Vietnam: Scooter life!

Soccer

Vietnamese people love soccer. In the evenings when games were happening, all the outdoor bars would set up projectors for their customers and will tune in all televisions to watch the game game. Bursts of cheering or disappointed groans of dismay could be heard periodically every time one of the teams scored a point.

Religion

Hanoi, Vietnam: St. Joseph's Cathedral in Old QuarterHanoi has many beautiful and richly decorated temples throughout the city. Although Vietnam has no official religion, it still plays an important role in people’s lives. In Hanoi, the following five religions are common: Buddhism, Confucianism (although that’s more of a philosophy and social structure rather than religion), worshiping the mother goddess, worshiping ancestors, and Catholicism.

Confucianism was brought to Vietnam during Chinese occupation. It puts a strong emphasis on living virtuously, good behavior, obedience, loyalty, and education, but diminishes the role of women in society. In response and to balance this, a religion of worshiping the mother goddess was developed, paying tribute to the importance of women in society.

Hanoi, Vietnam: offerings at a templeTemples will often include a table for offerings in front of statues of important figures (Buddha, the mother goddess, past kings and important scholars, for example). Offerings almost always including fruit but also often including donations of money and other food items, sometimes even including beer!

Buddhism, Confucianism, worshiping the mother goddess and ancestor worship blend harmoniously together. It’s not uncommon to see a temple with elements of all of these together. A person can without conflict practice all, and can pay respects to different aspects of different religions. Catholicism, however, excludes all other religions.

Hanoi, Vietnam: alter to Buddha (left), alter to the mother goddess (right) in same temple

Văn Miếu (Temple of Literature)

This site consists of a series of courtyards divided by beautiful gates, with a very ornate temple dedicated to Confucian sages and scholars at one end. In the past, students enrolled in the Imperial Academy lived and studied here. The fourth courtyard includes row upon row of turtle steles (big stone slabs on the back of giant stone turtles) engraved with the names of doctors who passed the royal exams. During the war, these were covered in sand as protection from aerial bombardment. This visit was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the city.

Hanoi, Vietnam: gates at the Temple of Literature

Tours

I usually spend most of my travels exploring on my own, but since everything in Hanoi was so extremely affordable, I went ahead and treated myself to a few organized tours on a couple separate days.

Hanoi, Vietnam: great restaurants down tiny alleys!The first was a walking street food tour in Old Quarter, which included a big variety of tiny meals and drinks in a bunch of different restaurants. The guide was informative and charismatic, all the food was incredible! The biggest thing I learned here is that there are a ton of really amazing little restaurants hidden behind very unassuming facades, sometimes down tiny little alleys behind buildings which you wouldn’t even notice while passing by!

The second tour was an all day biking, boating, walking tour with Hanoi Explore Travel that covered a couple different areas to the south of the city.

First stop was Hoa Lu, ancient capital, to walk around in the temples area.

Hanoi, Vietnam: Hoa Lu temple area

Next was biking through the nearby Ninh Binh province, an area with giant limestone hills covered with lush vegetation and surrounded by flat rice patties and slow small rivers and lakes.

Hanoi, Vietnam: rice fields in Ninh Binh province

Following that was small boat rowing tour along the lakes near Trang An wharf with more giant limestone cliffs on all sides. The boats went through many cave tunnels so low I could touch the ceiling, lit with little lamps along the way to avoid total darkness.

Hanoi, Vietnam: boating near Trang An wharf

Hanoi, Vietnam: boating near Trang An wharf

The tour’s last stop was Mua cave, which wasn’t actually a cave but a giant hill 500 steps high with breathtaking panoramic view from the top!

Hanoi, Vietnam: hiking up Mua cave

Hanoi, Vietnam: hiking up Mua cave

Training in Hanoi

BJJ is still a pretty new sport in Vietnam, with very few black belts in the country, but is gaining popularity and developing quickly. Hanoi has three gyms: BJJ Hanoi, Agoge and Ronin BJJ Hanoi.

I did have the opportunity to visit and train at all three during the time I was there, and enjoyed some great rolls at each! BJJ Hanoi was a short 10 minute walk from my studio, so became my “home gym” for the month in Hanoi. Both Agoge and Ronin are Globetrotter associated gyms but were located a bit further from my place, requiring a 30 min Grab taxi ride to get to, which unfortunately didn’t make them practical options for training on a regular basis.

BJJ Hanoi

BJJ Hanoi was actually the first BJJ club in Hanoi, founded in 2011. The gym was located on the second story of a large sporting facility building. There were often people practicing other martial arts in groups outside, playing table tennis, or lifting weights in other rooms of the building. The BJJ room was rather small for the number of students training regularly (about 20 per class) but had good quality mats and padded walls. There was no air conditioning but that wasn’t really a problem for the time of year I was there, with exception of a few hotter days.

Class most days was taught by purple belt coach Trần Tuấn Anh. The students consisted primarily of white belts, so many of the techniques we saw focused on the important fundamentals. The instruction was clear and detail-oriented, usually not given in English but my training partners were always happy to step in and translate. The students at the gym were very friendly, enjoyed having visiting travelers, and very passionate about BJJ – it was a pleasure to train here!

During the last week, two black belts traveling happen to be in town for vacation and stopped in to give class! The first was John Bernard Will from Australia with brown belt wife Melissa Will. The second was Louis Levy from US. Super nice instructors, greatly enjoyed their classes and learned some valuable details from both!

Hanoi, Vietnam: group photo with the BJJ Hanoi crew!

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The Dreaded Knee Injury!!!

The Dreaded Knee Injury

It’s a long time since I last posted an article about my travels. It will a bit longer still as this article focuses more on something that plagued me for the rest of the Odyssey and still today at times. It happens to the best of us in the Jiu-Jitsu community, especially those who always grapple at high aggressiveness or compete, hell it just happened to Gordon Ryan arguably the best of best of the Jiu-Jitsu competitors. Sooner or later we get injured on this path of the Jiu-Jitsu Life. It’s not about if we will get hurt but more rather when and how and can we mitigate and minimize those injuries through smart training, which is whole other topic. It just comes down to it that injuries come with Jiu-Jitsu, like all combat or full contact sports, and at some point you’re going to have a back problem, a popped elbow, a torn shoulder or of the one thing everyone fears the most, a popped or torn knee. Through my Jiu-Jitsu life so far I have been very lucky with no major injuries sidelining me from training (excuse me while I now dawn every possible ward and hex to protect me after making such a bold statement) but while traveling I was met with a serious enough injury that kept me from the mats at times, or at least learning to adapt and cope so I could continue to train, and at one point almost made me just quit the Odyssey all together.

 

Let’s pick up where I last left off in the previous article I wrote a while back. Since It’s been awhile click the link to read about my time in Auckland and Taupo NewZealand if you haven’t already or want to recap the previous adventures. I had just finished teaching and rolling with the fine bunch of eager killers at ROC Taupo and was about to head back to my hostel for the last night there before taking the bus in the morning to meet up with a long time friend from Canada who now lives in Wellington. The class I taught all focused around the half guard and with that so did the rolling afterwards. This means there was a lot of knee action involved throughout the session. At this point I had been wearing knee pads for a while. I came to terms that wearing protection isn’t about being old or weak and first picked up a pair at the first BJJ Globetrotters camp I went to in Heidelberg Germany. I have for a long time had problem with patellar bursitis on my left knee that comes and goes when I train a lot. Luckily I don’t get swelled up kneecaps like in the link but there is a little swelling and a lot of tenderness right under the kneecap on the patella. This makes it impossible to use that knee on the mats (as in direct contact to the mats like pushing off or kneeling etc.) without incredible pain at times. It started to flare up when I was at the camp and I decided I didn’t want to miss out on training and rolling with everyone so caved in and got a pair of knee pads, like I was admitting I’m some old guy now or something. Best decision ever, in reflection I think anyone who trains aggressively or trains a lot in general should get knee pads just to protect the longevity of their working knee joints. Jiu-Jitsu is hard on our knees for a number of reasons after all.

 

Anyways back the story, so I finished class with everyone and we all slowly packed up and were leaving together while still chatting about Jiu-Jitsu and traveling, my left knee, the hurt knee, being a knee intensive training session it was quite sore. This is something I noticed coming in waves while I was traveling, if I had good aggressive sessions or a lot of training days in a row, my knee would tend to hurt, and a rest day from the mats just meant more sight seeing which meant more hiking and not really resting my legs. A point I overlooked for the longest time. So we’re leaving the gym and standing on the sidewalk, I say my goodbyes and pivot to walk down the street away from them and *RIP* I feel this horrible cutting/burning sensation from the inside of my left knee. I instantly stop and say to the guys ‘I think I just tore my meniscus’ to which they just laugh and walk away and get into their cars, thinking I’m joking. I gave it a few seconds and tried to shake it off, maybe it was some sort of nerve reaction to the training, it hurt like hell and wasn’t going away. I slowly limp down the sidewalk toward the hostel thinking what the fuck do I do now?! I couldn’t believe it, It wasn’t during some competition match or some life or death situation on the streets, or even an aggressive roll in a gym, of all things I hurt my knee from walking down the street…

 

 

Looking back I can see now there were all kind of signs of the knee hurting from all sorts of different actions, telling me to take better care. It’s funny really when I think back of all the times I would just foam roll things out and do light yoga and think that fixes everything. Really I may of helped my back and relaxed all my aching muscles but nothing I was doing was taking care of the joints. It wasn’t until this point that I even thought about what to do in this situation, and really it wasn’t even until much later on that I even began to do anything for it to really heal it other than just rest. One thing I know I still don’t do enough is ice my joints after training. Through my travels I had the privilege of being able to try some cold baths at a few places, most notably the cold tank at Mjolnir Gym in Reykjavik Iceland during the BJJ Globetrotters Iceland camp, the Chill’n Out cryotherapy chamber in San Diego during the Free Rollers San Diego camp and of course jumping into the Arctic Ocean in Nuuk Greenland at the BJJ Globetrotters Greenland camp. They all work amazingly well, I felt so good after training, joints not hurting near as much and all muscle cramping gone. Really folks, we need to ice our joints and make ice baths a usual thing at gyms.

 

 

So I make it back to the Hostel and I rest and stretch out and ice my knee. I was in a torrent of emotions that night as I thought out my options. What if it’s worse in the morning? What if I can’t train anymore? Should I go to the Doctor’s? Or just got home and get it check out it? What if I have to quit the Odyssey? All sorts of questions went through my head that night, I decided ice it and get some rest and figure it out when I get to Wellington. In morning it actually didn’t feel too bad, I felt like I strained something but I really never know when I tear things until I finally get it checked out and I’m told. I definitely wasn’t doing anything strenuous on that knee anytime soon. I say as I continued to hike around with my 25kg backpack. After a few days my knee still hurt but I still trained without rolling. Only going to classes for drills without any rolling really sucks, especially when you’re visiting the gym in what might be you’re one and only time ever being there and meeting these people. But it was better than nothing.

 

At this point for the next few months I was trying to continue training like normal until something hurt, then I would stop doing that one thing but continue on. I did this through Singapore and Cambodia and most of South East Asia where I would try this trial and error method, often doing things I shouldn’t be doing in the first place, until I would hurt myself again then say no more of that one action, trying to find my limits with this injury without missing too much training. It’s a weird concept to explain now but it’s all made sense back then. I want to see the world, I want to meet and train with as many people as I can. This injury prevents all of that but if I can just find ways around it I’ll be OK. But really I’m just hurting my knee more and more while I travel. In Cambodia, which was shortly after New Zealand, I was there for the holidays and took a week or so off to rest and heal. I then decided I would join in on the class warm up running and doing a leap frog type drill, for some reason I was thinking I could hop on that knee that I can barely do more than walk with. Hurt again. This obviously wasn’t a great method to dealing with an injury while traveling and really I should have have stopped and put up with the fact I was missing training until my knee was healed. Sometimes you’re just caught up in the moment. 

 

It wasn’t until I was in Vietnam weeks later after Cambodia that I began to even think about doing anything other than just rest and stretch and ice. I hurt myself yet again trying to do the drills in class that the instructor, an American expat wrestler who has a lot of experience with this type of injury, told me about rehabilitation methods for the knee to strengthen it. The thought of rehab never occurred to me but as the same time I knew I should have been looking to it as soon as he told me. At this point it had been around 2 months since first hurting it in New Zealand and as the instructor said, whatever got injured is healed, now it’s about making it work right again. 3 years ago, the year before starting the Odyssey, I had an operation on my neck to remove a tumor causing all kinds of tension on my neck and shoulders. That operation led to months of rehab in my neck and shoulders to get the posture and strength back to be able to roll again. It took very little time for the neck to heal, but it took a lot longer to get everything working right again so I wouldn’t have neck and shoulder pains from light rolling. Having gone through that I should’ve have been thinking the same thing for my knee but instead of looking for ways to make the joint stronger I was treating it like it was a continuing injury to be dealt with later, which just led to it to hurting more and more not getting better.

 

So I get put on the right path in Vietnam and start looking at different rehab videos on YouTube. Slowly I start putting together what I can and can’t do for training and a rehab sequence I can do while staying in hostels. The hardest part was keeping within my limitations for training and continuing to do the rehab workout consistently. I would do the routine for a while, as in the whole week while visiting a city, then it would feel better and I would forget about it the exercises the next stop and my knee would start aching again. This cycle of ‘fixed again, hurt again’ happened over and over until I finally got home and got into a regular routine to fix the knee and make it feel better and stronger. As of today I would say my knee is still a little messed up if I train hard or a lot over a week but it also feels a hell of a lot better and I no longer worry about doing most warm ups or rolling several rounds in a row. I don’t think it will ever be 100% and I’m sure at some point I’ll end up having to get an operation done down the road but the more aware of my joints, all joints not just knees, and the more I work toward keeping them healthy then hopefully that day won’t be for a long time. 

 

So remember folks, keep good care of your joints. I’m not a professional on this stuff and there is a plethora of videos and articles on joint and muscle care for BJJ out on the internet but a few steps I’ve learned, some too late. Ice them after training, especially long and aggressive sessions. Take rest days, I know of some people who schedule a week off just to let their joints and ligaments reset and relax. Of course always tap early and be kind to your partners, my elbows have suffered from ignoring both of those facts, not taping during competitions and partners who think your arm is a stick shift and needs to be slammed into 5th gear to get the tap. But most importantly, always be careful of doing anything strenuous after class when your muscles and joints are sore and tired and cooling down and tightening, never know, you just might tear your knee walking down the stupid fucking street.   

I’ll be returning to retelling all my tales and adventures of traveling the world, training Jiu-Jitsu and meeting awesome people in the next post, where I meet up my old friend and fellow traveling Canadian in Wellington New Zealand.  

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

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Empty Stomach Rolls in NYC

Hello world! I managed to pull off a quick weekend trip to New York City last weekend. I try to drop by annually to say hello to a few friends. It was abnormally warm as well (at least 10 degrees celsius warmer than Toronto), so walking outdoors without a coat was also a blessing. I’m trying to change, but I’m naturally a very go-go-go type of traveller. I’m curious. I want to see EVERYTHING. So when I reach a point where I don’t need to check out anymore touristic destinations, I know that I’ve gotten comfortable with a place and can take it slow.

I took it so slow that I found time to drop into Clockwork BJJ for their Sunday morning beginner and mixed classes with Sebastian. The gym is located near Washington Square Park. I also brought my friend Jen along for her first class! We came in from Brooklyn and it was super accessible by transit. I found it to be a very friendly and welcoming training environment. Someone was always around to lend a hand whenever we had trouble with the technique.

I always love bringing someone to try this sport. Jen is very open-minded and I thought she did pretty well for her first BJJ class. She stood out and watched the rolls during the beginner class, but by the end of the mixed class, she and I were beginning to roll lightly. When I first started, I personally didn’t roll until after my 3rd class, and I was still pretty intimidated.

We also chatted with some of the gym regulars. We met Che, who was two months into her jiu-jitsu journey. She was telling us how she was a bit nervous starting out, but she jumped right into the mixed classes and it helped with her confidence in rolling with people of all weight classes. Now jiu-jitsu is an important part of her routine.

Empty stomach rolls wasn’t a great idea. I did not eat or drink anything in the morning after staying up until 4AM consuming alcoholic beverages. I don’t get hangovers, but trying to roll with purple belts proved to be next to death. My advice? Don’t… do… that… anyways, the meal below was so satisfying entering my stomach. Sorry, getting off track.

Next time I hope I get to stay longer so I can train more. There are so many top gyms in New York City and of course, they are on my list to visit. But in the meantime, I’m compiling my gyms to check out in Istanbul next month!

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Blog 8 – Texas and Kasai Pro

Up until this moment we’ve put about 60,000 km or 37,000 mi on our small RV. We’ve been travelling in it for two years now and don’t particularly see an end in sight. Last year we weren’t able to explore Texas as much as we would’ve liked to, so this time we made sure to set aside more than enough time to do so. 

Entering the state from the West side, a Jiu Jitsu gym was in our sights as our first destination. The academy I decided to first visit was Rodrigo Pinheiro BJJ located in San Antonio. They were extremely welcoming and said of course I could train with them. I don’t get excited often but being in a new gym for the first time is one of the few things that always does it for me. 

You won’t often see me write about specific training that happens within academies because a) I don’t think it morally right to be speaking about the specifics of an academies’ training regimen and b) I do not wish for my training throughout my travels to be viewed as any sort of review system of academies. I simply love both the art and traveling, and respectfully enjoy learning and sharing it with others. White belt mentality always. That said, I very much enjoyed the classes here and was surprised to be shown a couple of chokes that I have never seen before. I met a lot of really cool people here. One of which being a black belt, Tony Erard, and a brown belt Jeremy Abates. *Side note* Jeremy’s son is a young phenom who trains full time and has won a ton of tournaments. His name is Cole Abate, he’s a great kid and you should go like his page on Facebook. Both of these men made me aware that the Gordon Ryan vs. Joao Rocha Super Series Kasai Pro event was happening the upcoming weekend, just a few hours North of us, and that there was also a huge open mat the next day at the grand opening of the VA Academy in Wylie TX.

 

 

Well in my mind I didn’t really have much an option. No way I could return to Canada knowing I was only a few hours away from one of the largest grappling events being done this year and I didn’t see it. I informed Sarah that we absolutely MUST travel a few hours North to Dallas so that I could attend both of these events. Lucky for me, Sarah is incredibly understanding and supportive and she said lets go!

Kasai was being held in a neighborhood called Deep Ellum, located in East Dallas. Its known for beautiful street murals, art galleries and entertainment venues. It’s a very unique place with a ton of character and an interesting history. 

One of dozens of murals
All of the murals were of impressive quality

 

 

The last minute ticket I picked up for the show turned out to be a great spot, although I don’t think there was a bad seat in the house. I was on the balcony with a seat, table, and could clearly see the stage and large projector screen. There were plenty of exciting matches, pyrotechnics, and everything seemed to run smoothly and without a hitch. Absolutely the best grappling event I’ve ever attended. After the event Sarah and I walked around the area and explored the streets and shops, ate some food and grabbed a couple beers at a restaurant at night. 

View from my seat
Klyde Warren Park, Dallas

 

 

The next morning we drove 15 minutes to Wylie TX so I could get some rolling in at the VA Academy/Soul Fighters grand opening. I was elated because a lot of the competitors from the event were there along with the recent pals, Jeremy and Tony, I’d met in San Antonio. Sure enough the place was packed with more than 15 black belts and all other lower ranks. I rolled until exhaustion like usual, as I LOVE the grind, and did about 12–15 rounds. Great time. 

Picture by Tony Erard
Too many names to name but some of the best in the world

 

 

Our plan while heading East was to ride the southern coast to visit beaches along the way to Florida. So from the Dallas area we had to head back down Southeast a few hours to Houston. I am a Gracie Barra member, so I usually try to look for an affiliate where we are, however that’s not always possible. In this case when we arrived in Houston I found Gracie Barra Westchase. Now although I do not review any gyms that I visit, I have to say that this was one of the best gyms I’ve ever been to. Amazing facility, coaches, and training. Porrada everyday. Head Instructor and Owner, Ulpiano Malachias treated me like family and welcomed me into his academy. He’s got some amazing competitors there that were a privilege to train with. I plan to spend a lot more time here next year upon return.

Ulpiano Malachias, myself, Inacio Neto, Pedro Marinho (current #1 world nogi purple belt)
Impacto

Impacto Team (Stuttgart, Germany)

Stuttgart, Germany — Let the German road trip begin! With a working holiday visa in Germany in my hand, I was searching for a job. At the same time, it was an opportunity for me to travel within the country. The first stop was Stuttgart, and I got in touch with Philipp via Matsurfing. As mentioned in previous posts, Matsurfing opens up a unique experience of traveling with the perk of connecting with other local BJJ practitioners. Before moving forward with the post, I would like to thank Philipp for being a kind host and a friend. If you have been to one of the BJJ Globetrotters camps, you might have met Philipp there. He even started his own little mat space to host people for training in his back yard! When I was visiting him, he was getting back to BJJ and we decided to check Impacto Team out together.

Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

City
Stuttgart, the capital city of Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state, is known for the headquarters of major German automakers, Mercedes-Benz and Porche. The present-day city has existed since the 10th century, and the historical buildings can be spotted all over the city. Also, Stuttgart is surrounded by steep hills that are covered in vineyards and wineries within the city limits. In Stuttgart, whether you are a classic car enthusiast, wine lover, or history fan, you can find something to enjoy.

Overview
Impacto Team Stuttgart, located in the center of Stuttgart was founded by Professor Daniel Silva. Professor Silva is a BJJ black belt under Faustino Neto. Due to the lineage, The team has a close tie with the famous BJJ Academy, Clube Pina de Jiu-Jitsu in Manaus, Brazil. Besides Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the Academy offers a variety of combat sports including boxing and Thai boxing.

The academy had a well-lit caged mat space near the entrance with weight training equipment to the side. The gym also included heavy bags and a ring for other combat sports training. Everyone welcomed Philipp and me when we walked into the gym and I got the impression that Stuttgart does not host as many tourists as other cities I have visited. The incredibly friendly students were quite intrigued by my journey and wanted to know more about my story. I could not complain about its welcoming and vibrant atmosphere.

The evening class had about 20 students in equally spread ranks. The classes were taught in German, but I had no difficulty understanding the techniques with other students’ help. The 90-minute long class focused on intensive drilling followed by positional sparring before proceeding to open sparring. The intensity and level of students were quite impressive. Impacto Team Stuttgart is a well-established academy in Stuttgart, and if you are in Stuttgart, you should drop by Impacto Team. It will make your German beer consumption more worth it. Again, thank you, Philipp and everyone at the academy for the hospitality!

Location & Facility
Impacto Team Stuttgart is located around 2 km away from the Stuttgart central station. It is easily accessible with public transportation and only 10 minutes from the city center. The facility includes an open mat, a boxing ring, and a weight training area. (Google Map: Link)

Schedule
Impacto Team Stuttgart offers a variety of classes from MMA to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but the classes are mainly concentrated in the evening. The academy’s most recent schedule is posted below:

Visitor Pass
Impacto Team did not charge for the training. However, it is always courteous to reach out to the gym before your visit.

Miscellaneous
Impacto Team’s Website

Things to do

  • Fernsehturm — Topped off at 216 meters, the modern television tower is especially known for the 360-degree views at its observation deck. It is one of the best ways to get a clear view of Stuttgart and its vine-covered surroundings while enjoying a cup of coffee and a German pastry on the top of the tower.
  • Schlossplatz — The Palace Square is the vibrant center of the city located within the walking distance from various tourist attractions including the Neues Schloss, or the New Castle, and Königstraße, Germany’s longest shopping precinct. Its green lawns are popular places to sunbathe and to stroll in good weather. Also, the Square hosts various festivals and open-air cinemas throughout the year and is always full of street performers.
  • Mercedes-Benz Museum / Porsche Museum — Stuttgart is home to famous German automobile makers, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, and their history can trace back as far as 1887. You don’t need to be car crazy to have a good time in these museums, but for car fanatics, there is no better place to visit in Stuttgart.

Source
Porsche Museum

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Megacity Bangkok

Reasons to go: Amazing food, very affordable, night markets, modern big city convenience, tropical warm weather, beautiful Buddhist temples

Bangkok

Bangkok is immense – probably the biggest and most densely populated city I’ve ever been to! It has busy traffic with as many scooters as cars on the roads, constant background noise, and chaotic electrical wiring. It has buildings on a scale I’ve never before seen towering far above, a futuristic skytrain running stories above between the skyscrapers, and massive very modern shopping centers. It has tropical blue skies most days (at least in the dry season), constant heat, and high humidity. It has beautiful temples with ornate pointed roofs housing giant golden buddha statues, intricately patterned floors, and orange robed monks. It has exotic unknown fruits in the grocery stores, vendors selling drinks or cooking up fresh meals along the side of the street, and colorful bustling markets packed with people – I loved it all!

I was here for about 3 weeks in March.

Bangkok, Thailand: Impressions of the city

The Visa Situation

Thailand grants free 30 day visas to Americans (and people of many other nationalities) upon arrival. Many people who visit Thailand fall in love with the country and end up wanting to stay longer. So, how to resolve this?

One option for this is applying in person at the embassy after you’ve arrived to Thailand on the 30 day visa asking for an extension. There’s a fee for this, and a limit on how many additional days you’re able to get.

Another option is to enroll in a Thai school, which grants you a longer student visa. Many people do this, then legitimately attend a Thai school to study Thai or a different topic from one of the English speaking schools. Some not-so-legitimate schools exist as well to help foreigners acquire student status permitting them to stay in Thailand longer.

Another option is teaching English or being employed by a Thai company. Yet another option (requiring a much greater investment) is to actually open a business in Thailand. There are numerous regulations applying to this, and the added requirement of employing a certain number of Thai people full-time.

One of the most common (though somewhat tedious) solutions is to simply leave the country then re-enter with a new 30 day visa, which is known as a visa-run. Obviously, it’s not ideal to have to repeat this process every month if staying long-term, especially if you live far from the border.

I’m sure many other options exist, these are just some of the more typical ways that foreigners are able to stay in Thailand for longer periods of times.

SIM Cards

You can purchase a SIM card upon arrival at the airport, there are many kiosks selling these with various plans depending on the length of stay and amount of data/minutes you’re looking for. I paid something like $25 for unlimited data for a month for mine, including a phone number and some talking minutes (which I didn’t need but were included anyways). Your passport is necessary for registration of the SIM card regardless of where you purchase it. The process of getting a SIM card was extremely quick and easy, taking less than 5 minutes to complete. I still don’t understand why America hasn’t gotten on board with pre-paid SIM cards, when literally the rest of the world uses these to get significantly cheaper cell service and data with no contracts!

Language

Bangkok, Thailand: "Sabine" written in Thai!The main language written and spoken in Thailand is Thai. The alphabet is non-Latinic and the language is tonal, meaning that the pitch of the word matters. The Thai language has 5 tones (middle, low, high, falling and rising) for different syllables of a word, which can change the meaning considerably. Fortunately, most signs in Bangkok have a smaller English translations underneath, and a many people speak at least a handful of words in English.

People

People in Bangkok are so nice! In Thai culture, losing your temper and becoming visibly annoyed, impatient, angry or yelling is looked down on, and definitely won’t help you resolve a situation. This was explained to me as having something to do with pride and “losing face” – it’s an embarrassment and a disgrace for a person not to be able to maintain their composure, especially in public. If there’s a problem, Thai people address will the situation calmly and quietly.

Additionally, Thai people seem genuinely much more patient with everything. Things which would make American people anxious and irritated (like things moving slowly or rush hour traffic) just don’t seem to bother people here, they take it all in stride with a “well, that’s just how it is” attitude. Which is very refreshing and pleasant to be around!

Bangkok, Thailand: Small market near my home.

Accommodations

Finding a place to stay in Bangkok was a little different than in previous cities, where I’d largely relied on AirBnB rentals. In Bangkok, however, AirBnB rentals are technically illegal, as is renting any part of a private home out for less than a month. Which isn’t to say you can’t find AirBnB rentals online (the laws regarding these don’t seem to be strongly enforced) – there are just less of them available.

Hoping to rent a tiny studio as opposed to a hotel room, I signed up to a couple expat and Bangkok city forums, but those wasn’t terribly helpful. The problem I ran into was length of contracts. Most were looking for tenants willing to sign a 6-12 month lease, whereas I was only looking for a 1 month.

Here again, Vara’s advice and knowledge of the city was immensely valuable! It was actually Vara who ended up finding the perfect home for me to rent – a tiny, very modern and clean studio with laundry machine on the ground floor, close access to the skytrain, with many restaurants and grocery stores within a 10 minute walk. It was part of a small house 3 stories high that seemed to have 3 apartments on each floor, though I think some of them were bigger models than mine. Best of all – it was literally right next to Bangkok Fight Lab!

The only downside was the noise, which I think is just a constant part of Bangkok wherever you go. Even with all the windows closed, the noise from vehicles driving by in the street was pretty constant and not quiet. In addition, I could feel the whole building tremble when larger vehicles passed by on the street outside a couple times a day. Oddly enough, this didn’t really bother or prevent me from sleeping at all. I enjoyed my stay here so much that I went ahead and made reservations to stay there for another month in July!

Outlets are both US and European style in one. Since I had various devices from my time spent in Belgium and Arizona with both US and European style plugs, this was really convenient!

Bangkok, Thailand: My beautiful tiny home in (left), power outlet configuration (right)

Bangkok, Thailand: Skytrain entrance "On Nut" near my home.

Bum Gun

Bangkok, Thailand: The bum gunToilets here are still the western-style (seated), but you cannot flush toilet paper. Instead, you dispose of it in a trash can off to the side. There’s also the addition of the “bum gun” which is a little spray hose off to the side for, well… exactly what it sounds like. As a westerner, this seems a little odd at first, but is actually really refreshing and seems much more clean when you get used to it! America and Europe should consider getting on board with these!

Wires

You’ll see some pretty crazy electrical wiring all throughout Bangkok! The story I heard is that the electric companies can’t keep track of the wires. Every time new electrical work is needed, rather than sort through the wires and figuring out how to tap into the existing connection – they just add more new wires.

Bangkok, Thailand: Crazy electrical wiring!

Transportation

There are two main public transportation systems here which have a handful of lines throughout the city: the metro (MRT) which is underground, and the skytrain (BTS) which is a couple stories up, offering really great views of the buildings both below and towering above.

Most of the time, these won’t get you exactly where you need to go (because, Bangkok is HUGE!) but they will take you to the general area, and from there you can walk or take a taxi. Both metro and skytrain are very easy to use, very well organized, and very affordable. You can get a ticket from either a ticket machine (which has an English translation option) or a ticket counter. For the skytrain, you can either get a rechargeable card or just pay by trip (which cost about 0.75-$1.50 per trip, depending on the distance). The only slightly tricky part is that the trains get very full during rush hour traffic. I’m told you might sometimes actually have to wait a train or two for there to be room to board the train if the queues are long. I was always able to get a place, though they were packed pretty tightly with people on a couple rides. Fortunately, both metro and skytrain come very frequently, about every 10 minutes.

Besides the metro and skytrain lines, taxis are the main method of transportation for getting around town. They’re easy to find and very affordable. You can recognize a scooter taxis by the bright orange vest of the drivers. For price, drivers will either give you a quote in advance, or turn on the meter when you enter the vehicle. Another popular option is Grab, which is basically the Asian version of Uber. This is technically illegal in Thailand, but widely used regardless.

Overall, the streets in Bangkok are fairly regular, so it’s pretty easy to find your way around. The only slightly challenging part on occasion is finding the entrance to the underground metro.

Bangkok, Thailand: BTS (Skytrain)

Pollution

Bangkok was the first city I’ve traveled to where polluted air has been an issue. On the worst days, it wasn’t uncommon to see people wearing surgical-looking air masks, or to hear people coughing. People on scooters more frequently wear air masks as well regardless of how bad the pollution is that day.

Knowing pollution might be a problem in advanced, I’d purchased high-quality cloth air mask online before leaving US from Vlog Mask. Air masks come in a couple different ratings. You need one with N95 or N99 rating to filter out the most particles. It’s possible to purchase air masks in stores around town as well, though perhaps not of the best quality. Besides the rating, another important factor how well the edges fit around your face to prevent bad air from leaking in through the sides. Yet another factor to consider is the type of pollution. Air masks are more effective in filtering pollution caused by things that cause larger particles, like smoke from controlled burns. They’re less effective for things like exhaust fumes.

There’s a handful of different apps on your phone you can download to give you daily reports about the air quality – the one I used is called AirVisual. Some people are more sensitive to the pollution levels than others. General (short term) symptoms of pollution include coughing, burning eyes, sore throat, and difficulty breathing. Most days I wouldn’t have notice it at all, though I did get an itchy phlegmy throat and slightly stinging eyes on the worst days. Unfortunately, the air conditioning units pull air from outside and many places don’t have the best filtration systems, so you’re still breathing polluted air even when indoors.

Bangkok, Thailand: My Vlog air mask (left), paper masks sold in store (right). Avoid breathing toxic air while you catch 'em all!

Food

Food in Thailand is amazingly delicious! My studio didn’t include a stove (most rentals don’t) but with full plates of food costing only a couple dollars, eating out was very affordable here. I had a really fun time trying a huge variety of new meals with flavors I’d never tasted before! Food in Thailand consist largely of rice and noodles with various meats, veggies, and sauces pour over it, and light soup or small salads on the side. A lot of the food is fried, so perhaps isn’t particularly healthy. Despite this, it’s very uncommon to see overweight people in Thailand. Some meals included egg as well, either poached or as a thin omelette draped over a ball of rice. Pork, duck, or chicken is much more common than beef here.

Thai people love spicy food. I learned very quickly to avoid anything that looked like peppers or had an orange sauce, and to double check how spicy it was with the server before I order. Even meals that Thai people consider just “a little spicy” make my eyes water, nose run, and are borderline inedible to me!

Bangkok, Thailand: Typical food. Lower left is coconut ice cream and topping served in the coconut shell - yum, yum!

I ate brunch most days at the food court in a giant shopping center near my studio. Here, I could get a full plate of food cooked fresh from one of many small restaurants for $1.75 – $2.50. Food courts here often function on a pre-paid card system. You get a card and load money into it, then pay with that for your meal instead of fiddling around with money at every shop, which is just much more efficient overall.

Bangkok, Thailand: Food court

Fruit

Thailand grocery stores and street vendors offer a great variety of fruits I’ve never seen/tasted before – I wanted to try them all! Many of the fruits that are rare exotic imports in US (such as dragon fruit) are common and cheap here. On the other hand, many fruits American/European residents are accustomed to (such as apples and grapes) are imported and therefore much more expensive. New fruits I tried include longkongs (normal and mini), jackfruit, dragonfruit, mangostens, snake fruit and rose apples.

Bangkok, Thailand: Beautiful dragon fruit!

Bangkok, Thailand: Longkongs (left), snake fruit (middle), mangostens (right)

Ratchada Rot Fai Train Night Market

Bangkok, Thailand: BJJ Globetrotter friends at the night market!This is one of Bangkok’s many markets full of fresh-cooked vendor food, open every day. Vara led the evening, guiding myself and fellow globetrotters Alika, Scotty, and Josh up and down the very busy market aisles trying various snacks, giving us tips on what to try and explaining things along the way. There are stalls selling various non-food items here as well but again – the main attraction really is the food. All of it was amazingly delicious!

Vara somehow convinced all of us to try eating some grilled bugs that one of the vendors was selling. This is more of a tourist thing and not something regular people habitually eat though. We went with a kind of small grilled cricket, which seemed like a good “beginner” choice among the much larger water beetles and larvae looking things. Not saying I’d go out of my way to eat more but honestly – they really weren’t too bad!

Bangkok, Thailand: Ratchada Rot Fai Train Night Market seen from above!

Wat Saket (Golden Mount Temple)

This is one of Bangkok’s oldest temples, featuring a large temple as well as a giant golden chedi (a kind of stupa, or pointed bell-shaped decoration) at the top of a building which sits on top of a low hill that you can access by stairs. The temple at the bottom is free, though there’s a small fee to go up to the golden mount.

Bangkok, Thailand: Wat SaketThe walk up to the golden mount is 344 stairs long, but is a rather gentle climb with many decorative statues along the way (especially towards the base). There are also flat levels along the way, with lines of large bells (and even a couple giant gongs!) which you can ring for good luck. The path to the golden mount offers great views of the surrounding city all around!

The temple at the base is very lovely as well, and consists of a large hallway lined with golden Buddhas, an open courtyard areas with heavily patterned tiled floor, and a large temple in the middle containing a giant Buddha statue.

A couple things to note: it’s important to dress appropriately when visiting any of the many Buddhist temples. This means shirts with sleeves (no tank tops), and dress/pants/shorts that extend at least below the knees. Some rooms require that you remove your shoes to enter, so keep an eye out for signs near the entrances or (if it’s a smaller temple without signs, or non-English signs) see what the local people are doing and follow suit. Out of respect, you should back away from the Buddha statues instead of turning your back to them. In addition, some statues or objects are meant for circumambulation – walking around them in veneration, meditation or respect. The direction here matters – these special objects should only be walked around in a clockwise direction. Also, avoid pointing the bottom of your feet at any of the religious objects or people (that’s super rude), and if you’re a woman absolutely do not touch the monks.

Bangkok, Thailand: Wat Saket

Bangkok, Thailand: Wat Saket

Bangkok, Thailand: Wat Saket

Lumpini Park

Bangkok, Thailand: Lumpini park monitor lizardThis is a fairly large park in the middle of the city with many benches and seating areas, some artistic sculptures, a couple large ponds, little rivers crossed by bridges, an outdoor gym, a playground and the special feature of having big monitor lizards! I had the chance to see two of the lizards: a smaller one walking around near a tiny pond, and a much larger one swimming in the biggest pond.

I was here on a Sunday, it was pleasantly lively but not overly crowded, with many other people of all ages walking, jogging, and lounging around in the shade enjoying the park. Being in the middle of the city, it’s not isolated enough to drown out the background noise of cars, and you can still see the tops of tall buildings in the distance. But it was still a nice break from being surrounded by the dense buildings and busy streets of the city for a bit. I was very impressed by the large amount of people out jogging here, given that it was an exceptionally hot and humid day.

Bangkok, Thailand: Lumpini park

Training at Bangkok Fight Lab

Bangkok Fight Lab is owned and operated by black belt Morgan Perkins, with a handful of other black belt instructors teaching classes as well, and is part of the Pedro Sauer Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Association. It’s very conveniently located about 10 minutes away by foot from one of the On Nut skytrain stop, with classes given in English. Besides BJJ and nogi submission grappling, they offer classes in MMA, Muay thai, boxing, judo, general conditioning, and occasionally yoga. Vara teaches kids BJJ classes here a couple times a week as well.

Bangkok Fight Lab was a wonderful place to train – very technique oriented with an exceptionally friendly and welcoming group of people! I instantly felt at home here, it didn’t take long before I could recognize and knew a little about most of the regular students. This gym has a very international group including many expats as well as locals, with new visitors (many of them BJJ Globetrotters!) dropping in regularly. Vara continued to be my most regular training partner during my 3 weeks here, which did wonders for my technique overall but most notably vastly improved my triangles.

Training in the high heat and humidity was a real challenge, especially at first. Oddly, I felt most exhausted 10-15 minutes into the warm up, then somehow forgot about it for the rest of the class. It did become more bearable after a week, though I’m told it’s not something anyone ever truly completely acclimates to.

I meant to check out a few of the other gyms in the city to add to my training list… but have to admit I got a little lazy on this and didn’t end up making it happen. This was in part because I knew I’d be returning to Bangkok for another month later in the summer, so felt like I’d have plenty more time to do it later. It was also just hard to get motivated to take a longer commute to train much further away when I had such an awesome BJJ gym literally next door to my studio!

Bangkok, Thailand: Bangkok Fight Lab

Bangkok, Thailand: Bangkok Fight Lab. Selfie with head instructor Morgan (left), selfie with BJJ Globetrotters Scotty and Vara (upper right), selfie with BJJ Globetrotters Natalie, Vara and Francis (lower right)

Bangkok, Thailand: Bangkok Fight Lag group photo!

Bangkok Fight Lab: Nourish Cafe

On the upstairs level of Bangkok Fight Lab is vegan cafe called Nourish, owned by Tammi Willis (purple belt who also trains at Bangkok Fight Lab). Here you’ll find plenty of healthy meals, juices, energy bars, and protein shakes. If you need a break from rice and noodles, it offers some more western-style meal options as well, such as (veggie) burgers. They also have coconuts, which I now believe are the ultimate post-workout drink (natural electrolytes, refreshing, tastes great). As an added bonus, you can sit at the back counter looking down at classes training below!

Bangkok, Thailand: Nourish Cafe

Bangkok Fight Lab – Ice Bath

Every Saturday, Bangkok Fight Lab had a DIY ice bath session after training! This consisted of filling a giant round plastic bin with 4-5 immense bags of ice, filling it with water, then submerging one person at a time up to the shoulders with the goal of staying in for a full minute. Doing this is supposed to have all sorts of great health benefits that have something to do with capillaries and blood vessels constricting.

I hadn’t tried an ice bath before and the thought of getting into a giant bucket of ice water sounded like just about the worst idea ever, but I wasn’t about to turn down such a unique experience! The guys at the gym assured me that I wouldn’t have a heart attack, (probably) wouldn’t pass out, and that they’d rescue me if I did. Fortunately, Morgan didn’t give me a lot of time to think it over after I agreed to try it, otherwise I probably would have backed out!

The initial plunge felt about as bad as you’d expect from putting your entire body into bucket of ice water. My breathing and heart rate shot up, I found myself gasping uncontrollably for breath until Tammy reminded me to take deep breaths through the nose, which gradually brought it back under control a bit. Before I knew it, Morgan was saying the first 30 seconds was over, and shortly after that, the entire minute was done!

Felt amazing when it was over, so crisp and refreshing! I was actually really proud of myself for having made it through the entire minute. I continued to feel pretty great for the rest of the day, though whether or not that can actually be attributed to the ice bath is difficult to say. Anyhow, I enjoyed the experience so much I did it again the following weekend!

Bangkok, Thailand: Bangkok Fight Lab ice bath! Morgan adding ice (left), filling up the bin (upper right), Vara enjoying her ice bath! (lower right)

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No-Gi Weekend in Montréal

Happy March! Here’s a quick little post. I haven’t been able to travel out of Toronto ever since coming back from Mexico City. My life is now a little less hectic, so hopefully this means I can leave the city more often.
 
Montreal is only a 5-6 hour drive from Toronto and I normally find myself visiting twice a year. I’ve got good friends over there and it’s important for me to see them. I’ve gone enough times to not have to do the usual touristy activities anymore, so after starting this BJJGlobetrotters adventure and discovering Carlson Gracie MTL, that has been my go-to gym in Montreal. 
 
I highly recommend dropping in if you are looking for challenging rolls and a variety of training partners. Everyone I’ve met so far has been nothing but kind. This time around, I had time to drop in both Saturday and Sunday afternoon, making it a very no-gi weekend. On Saturday, I joined a no-gi class and had over half an hour of good rolls. I met someone who recently moved from Hawaii, which I immediately asked, “why??!!” because I can’t imagine giving up the beaches and warmer weather. But the novelty of moving to a new city and starting from ground up is definitely exciting as well. 
 
Every single time I’ve dropped in, I’ve managed to bring a friend to see what the world of BJJ is about. This time, my friend Mina joined me for the Sunday no-gi open mat. I showed her a couple of drills and essential moves (shrimping, break falling) but I think she’s going to stick with savate.
 
Oh well, I tried. 
sabine-phuket-main

“Fight Street” training report: A paradise of BJJ in Phuket

Reasons to go: Training paradise, tons of healthy food, very affordable, beaches, night market, coconuts, scooters

Getting There

The flight over from Arizona (USA) took about 26 hours, including the layovers. It was good and uneventful – I actually managed to get some decent sleep on the longest chunk of it, which helped pass the time.

On the third section of the flight (from Teipei to Bangkok), I somehow ended up in some kind of first class seat on the second level of what was possibly the biggest plane I’ve ever flown on! The leg space was huge, the seat folded all the way back so I could recline completely, and the blanket was a thick fluffy comforter instead of single layer sheet. I asked the stewardess twice if she was sure there wasn’t some mistake (not wanting to be charged for it later) but she assured me it was correct. I still don’t know why this happened, but it was pretty great!

bjj in phuket

The (New) Plan

My original plan actually entailed spending the full 4 weeks (the length of my visa) in Bangkok. But Vara (BJJ Globetrotter extraordinaire who currently lives in Bangkok and had been helping to answer my many questions about the city) persuaded me to spend the first week in Phuket with her instead. It didn’t take much persuasion… she had many great reasons why this was a fabulous idea but honestly, she already had me at “BJJ competition on tropical island”.

FYI: Phuket is pronounced “poo-ket”… NOT “fuck-it”.

Entering Thailand

Thailand grants a free 30 day tourist visa to American citizens upon entry. One special requirements – you need proof of an outbound ticket to be permitted to enter the country. Thailand welcomes travelers, but does not want foreigners settling in their country potentially taking jobs from the local residents, unless those foreigners open businesses that are providing jobs for local Thai citizens. Being a native English speaker teaching English in one of the many schools is fine too.

When you arrive at the airport, you’ll need to fill out a form which you’ll give to customs including a bunch of information about your trip, such as passport info and where you’ll be staying. They’ll add a stamp and give it back to you. Someone told me to keep this, as I’d need it upon departure as well, but no one actually ended up asking for it when I left. Still, seems like a good idea not to throw it away, just in case.

I actually entered Thailand through Bangkok before meeting Vara and taking another flight to Phuket, so passed through customs/immigration there. I must say, I was very impressed by the efficiency and great organization of the Bangkok airport – the entire process from de-boarding the plane to picking up my luggage took less than 20 minutes!

Fight Street

Our lodging was on Fight Street, roughly 50 minutes by taxi away from the airport. Fight Street is a total athlete’s paradise! It consists of one long main street which takes about 30 minutes to walk with the two biggest gyms (Phuket Top Team and Tiger Muay Thai) located on opposite ends of the road. There are multiple other smaller gyms offering classes in cross-fit, boxing, and mma along the way as well.

People come from all over the world to be here, for the same reason: serious training. Everything on this street caters to athlete’s needs. Besides the gyms, the rest of Fight Street is lined with restaurants and hotels, with a couple pharmacies, sporting good stores, and massage places mixed in as well.

Meals, smoothies and snacks in the restaurants are made of healthy foods: fresh ingredients, no extra sugar added, and with many high protein options available. The food is amazingly delicious and incredibly affordable for the quality you get, probably about ⅓ what the same would cost in US!

People we met and talked with were staying anywhere from a couple weeks to 6 months. Most had been here before more than once, returning time and time again for the unique atmosphere. Vara herself had been here many times before. This place has a way of getting people hooked when you see and experience it in person – it really is the perfect training environment!

Poke bowl, acai bowl - yum yum! Excellent training fuel!

Transportation – Scooters

One down side of training BJJ in Phuket is that there’s no real public transportation system. Taxis from the airport to Fight Street cost about $25. The most practical thing to do for transportation around the island is to rent a scooter near your accommodations, which costs about $8 per day.

There are as many scooters as cars on the roads in Phuket. I thought about renting one myself, but honestly just wasn’t brave enough to attempt it yet. People drive on the opposite side of the road than I’m used to and the rules (such as who has the right of way) aren’t familiar to me. Also, scooters ride between lanes and weave effortlessly through traffic, which I was definitely not feeling confident enough to try! Despite this, it’s not total chaos, there’s definite order to the flow of vehicles and relatively few accidents. I’m told most accidents are actually a result of tourists being drunk or just driving recklessly.

I think helmets are technically legally required on scooters, but many people (tourist and locals alike) just go without. Having ridden motorcycles for a number of years in US and having been very diligent about always wearing full protective gear (helmet, armored vest, boots, gloves) – seeing so many people riding scooters without any protective gear whatsoever (often in shorts and flip flops) was initially quite shocking!

I’ve now also seen people on scooters carrying babies (either balanced on the handlebars, standing between the adult’s feet or strapped to the adult’s back), families on scooters (dad driving with 3 kids kinda hanging on), and scooter side-cars with an insane amount of stuff piled on (I wish I had a photo but I wasn’t sure if it would be rude to take one). I’m so impressed in the latter that people are actually able to make this work without spilling a bunch of stuff! Traffic and vehicle regulations here are a bit looser than in US, it would seem.

Scooter parking at the beach in Phuket

Cultural Considerations

There are a couple important cultural differences you should be aware of in Thailand. First, Thai people consider the feet the dirtiest part of the body. It’s rude to point or pick up things with your feet. It’s also rude to point the soles of your feet at another person, so be conscious of how you’re seated or folding your legs. This doesn’t apply within the context of training inside a BJJ gym, of course.

Second, shoes are always removed when you enter a person’s home. Many smaller businesses (like a pharmacy, the gym, or an acai restaurant) expect you to remove your shoes off before entering as well. You can take a hint by looking at the area out front – if you see many other shoes besides the front doorway, you should probably take yours off as well.

Third, it’s a huge offense to step on money (by accident or to stop a rolling coin from getting away, for example). This is because the faces of the king printed on the bills, so in stepping on the bills you’re disrespecting the monarchy. Along those lines, you should be very careful with (or better yet, altogether avoid) any discussions about politics. Unlike America where we routinely mock and harshly criticize our political leaders, much respect is given to the monarchy here and that sort of discussion is not socially acceptable.

Lastly, it’s forbidden for Buddhist monks (which you’ll see periodically out and about with shaved heads and bright orange robes) to touch women. This includes handing items to monks and sitting next to them. So, if you’re a woman, out of caution and respect, it’s best to just keep a wide distance between yourself and the monk if you see one out in public.

Coconuts

Coconuts on the beach in Phuket!On the second day in Phuket, I discovered coconuts, which became my newest favorite thing for the remainder of the trip. They taste about 100x better fresh than anything you can find in stores in US! In addition to being pretty cheap ($1-2 per coconut) and super refreshing, these are a great source of natural electrolytes. When you’re done drinking the juice, you can scoop out and eat the pulpy white part with a spoon. It takes a couple tries to perfect the technique of doing this well. It’s amazing to watch the vendors fearlessly cut open the tops of the coconuts with a giant knife without chopping off their fingers!

Nai Harn Beach and Phuket Town Night Market

Somewhere in the middle of the trip, we went to Nai Harn beach and the Phuket night market with a group of friends from the gym. Vara and I didn’t have scooters, but most people from the group did, so we rented helmets and rode passenger with some of the guys. I’m still not brave enough to drive one myself, but being passenger and seeing more of the city like this was a very fun experience!

Nai Harn beach (I’m told) is more local and less touristy than some of the other beaches in the area. The beach consisted of super fine pale white sand with lush green hills on both sides sheltering boats in the water in the distance. There were a fair amount of people at the beach that day, but it was not uncomfortably full. I rented a parasol for $1 and lounged around drinking coconuts until the sun went down.

Sunset on the beach in Phuket

The night market was packed, with a festive lively atmosphere. Most people were locals, though there were handfuls of other tourists there as well. The market consisted of a street blocked off from vehicle traffic lined with vendors down the middle and along both sides. The buildings lining the street were interesting as well, more of a colorful European style architecture from Portuguese influence, with spectacular artwork on a few.

Night markets in Thailand, I’ve now learned, are synonymous for “food festivals”. There are clothing and other small items for sale as well, but the main attraction is the food, most of which comes in small snackable portions cooked up fresh by the vendors. I didn’t know what most of it was but it looked and smelled AMAZING! The next couple hours were spent with the group walking up and down the market tasting all the things.

Phuket Night Market

Vendor making fresh ice cream rolls!

Siam Sub Series Competition

On my second day in Phuket, Vara and I attended the Siam Sub Series Competition (as spectators). The event was held outdoors in an open air but covered soccer stadium, hosted by Alex Schild of Tiger Muay Thai. We arrived early to help set up the space – arranging the mats, attaching banners to guard rails, moving tables and chairs etc.

The competition featured to big mat spaces, with a smaller warm-up mat off to the side. Later in the day, vendors sold fresh poke bowls as well! As a spectator, this was one of the most fun competition I’ve attended due to the spacious open air venue, very relaxed atmosphere, and layout which made it possible to sit pretty close to the matts to watch the fighters. Most of the people who participated were travelers already staying for BJJ in Phuket, but some had flown in from Bangkok and other neighboring cities to attend. Saw a lot of really great and fierce fights that day which made me eager to get back on the mats and train more myself!

Setting up for the Siam Sub Series competition in Phuket before the event begins.

Training

Besides BJJ, both Tiger Muay Thai and Phuket Top Team offer a range of fitness and fighting sport classes such as MMA, crossfit, wrestling, muay thai. Both gyms provide really hardcore, immersive training programs, including the options of on-site lodging. Both include multiple areas (indoor and outdoors) to accommodate classes of multiple disciplines.

People come to these gyms for serious training. As a result, most of the students you’ll find here are exceptionally focused, motivated, dedicated to their sports, and ready to train hard! It’s a very international mix, with students from literally all over the world.

I wanted to experience training at both gyms so purchased a day pass to each, on separate days. Fortunately (for me), English is default common language, and also the language classes are taught in.

Phuket Top Team

Left: me with instructor Olavo Abreu, Right: me with instructor Mateo BernardTop Team is actually part of the Carlson Gracie lineage. (4th degree black belt) is the primary BJJ instructor there. I was able to train twice in one day here: Olavo Aberu’s class in the morning and Mateo Bernard’s class in the evening.

Mateo (a fellow BJJ Globetrotter!) is actually an instructor from Exit Asia in Freiburg, Germany, but visits to train BJJ in Phuket for a month every year. Both instructors were a pleasure to train with – very charismatic and welcoming.

Phuket Top Team, main entranceBJJ Training with Phuket Top Team!

Tiger Muay Thai

Left: me with instructor Alex Schild, Right: me, instructor Maxine Thylin, VaraHaving nothing else planned for the day and wanting to make the most of the day-pass, we actually attended four classes in one day!

The first class was taught by Maxine Thylin, who is actually in the process of traveling the world with her husband (who also trains BJJ), and is just temporarily teaching BJJ in Phuket. Maxine’s bright and cheerful personality and easy going nature made her a pleasure to train with!

The second class was taught by Alex Schild. The technique was a little newer and more challenging for me, but after some repetitions and adjustments, I was able to get a decent approximation of the main movements.

The last two classes in gi were taught by Stuart Cooper, in gi. I was feeling pretty exhausted by the end of it, but still managed to finish every last roll!

Tiger Muay Thai matsTiger Muay Thai cross-fit space

Thank You, Vara!

I first met Vara at BJJ Globetrotters Summer Camp in Leuven in 2017. She was manning the check-in booth welcoming the arriving guests, next to a life-size illustration of herself printed on a banner that said “Ask Vara”. If you had any questions about anything, she was the person to ask with the answers!

Cat on a scooter in Phuket! I really cannot thank Vara enough for everything she’s done to help with my trip this last month. Her advice and insight has been immensely valuable in all aspects of this trip. A week on Fight Street was an amazing experience which probably wouldn’t have happened without her, largely because I didn’t know it even existed. Navigating my first Asian country and understanding how certain things work would have been considerably more intimidating and would probably have taken me 30x longer without her help.

Vara is also an exceptional training partner – easily pinpointing mistakes in my technique and giving me many valuable tips on how to improve. She’s also just an all-around very kind, considerate and fun person to hang out with!

Giant thanks, Vara for helping me train BJJ in Phuket!

sabine-phoenix-arizona-cover

Rolls in the American Desert

Reasons to go to Phoenix: Sunny blue skies all year round, very mild winters, great hiking, unique desert environment, great Mexican food, many BJJ gyms

Intermission!

I took a little break from traveling from mid-Dec to mid-Feb to visit my parents in Phoenix (Arizona, USA) over the holidays. The majority of this break was spent catching up with family and friends, hiking, wrapping up some loose ends, preparing for the next big trip and of course… training!

Having spent about 16 years living in Phoenix, it’s already a very familiar city. Except for the first couple days of very mild reverse-culture-shock, it really didn’t take long to feel like an Arizona/USA local again. I won’t go into huge detail describing Phoenix, as I’ve only ever experienced it as a resident rather than a foreigner. The things that might seem exceptional for someone from a different state/country just seem normal to me. Nevertheless, here’s some general background information and highlights worth knowing.

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix

Phoenix is a MASSIVE metropolitan area, actually now the 5th largest in the USA! It’s a sprawling city, build out rather than up due to abundance of land, and still constantly growing. Its mild winters and relatively low cost of living (compared to California) make it an attractive location to settle for a lot of people from other states.

Little coyote going for a stroll through the suburbs in Phoenix.Phoenix is a desert city. It’s extremely dry all year round, with cloudless pure blue skies most days and periodic violent rainstorm in the summer. In the hottest summer months, temperatures easily top 110°F (44°C) many days in a row. Stepping outside literally feels like opening the door to an oven. Even in the shade and even at night, it’s unbearable. Fortunately, many homes and apartment complexes have outdoor pools, though in the summer even these are too hot to truly be refreshing. The “winter” is great though – still warm enough to wear tank tops and shorts most days, with just a week or two that’s truly cold enough to warrant more than a light sweater.

When people say Phoenix, they’re generally loosely referring to the metropolitan area including a bunch of smaller cities/suburbs which surround the actual city of Phoenix. These smaller cities run into one another with no clear boundaries distinguishing where one ends and the other begins. Some parts of town are extremely wealthy and beautiful, with massive multi million dollar homes and super classy restaurants. Other areas I’d be afraid to walk through alone after dark. The majority of Phoenix is made up of fairly unremarkable urban area and suburbs though.

Phoenix has some of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.The two most interesting areas of the Phoenix Metropolis are downtown Phoenix and Tempe. Both have a fairly pedestrian-friendly center with lots of great restaurants and cafes. Tempe has a university town vibe with all the college students that attend Arizona State University in the area. Downtown Phoenix has a hipster vibe, with lots of craft beer places, live music, and bright artwork on some of the buildings.

Public transportation is Phoenix is bad. I have the huge advantage of borrowing my parents’ car every time I come to visit but in all honesty, it would be very difficult to move about the city without your own vehicle, unless you’re able to stay within one of the smaller more pedestrian-friendly areas, such as near the main campus of Arizona State University, or downtown Phoenix.

Phoenix does have a light-rail, but it only really runs along a couple routes between Tempe and city center. Which is great if you happen to be going that way, but otherwise not particularly useful. There is a bus system, but the stops aren’t abundant enough to make it a practical option for everyday transportation for most people.

Navigation in Phoenix is incredibly easy. Due to the grid-like layout of most of the city, it’s almost impossible to get lost. Rush hour traffic is pretty bad though, and easily quadruples the time it should take to get anywhere for a couple hours in the morning and evening when people commute to/from work.

Fun fact: scorpions glow under a black light! This is a really easy way to find some in the desert at night. Photos by Pierre Deviche.

Dust Storms

One interesting natural phenomenon of Phoenix are massive dust storms which happen once in a while in summer. These appear in the distance as a massive churning wall of dust many stories high coming slowly towards you. Once inside, strong winds blow sand so dense it dims the light from the sun. Sand gets in your eyes, hair, and mouth, making your skin feel gritty. Fortunately, these don’t last more than an hour or so. They’re also usually mostly harmless, though the strong winds sometimes break trees and branches. For this reason, it’s best to just go inside and wait it out. 

Dust storm near Tempe Town Lake! Photo by Colin Veitch.

Wildlife

Anna's hummingbird. Photo by Pierre DevicheSome of the wildlife you’ll see easily (even in the city) includes geckos, other lizards, hummingbirds, cockroaches, and scorpions. Some of the wildlife you’ll see less regularly includes coyotes, snakes, Gila monsters (google this), and deer (up north). There are also wild javelinas (which look like small boars) which sometimes even venture into the neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, but I’ve never actually seen one.

South Mountain Hiking

Towards the southwest side of Phoenix is South Mountain, one of the biggest urban parks in all the US! It’s basically a 17 mile long oval of hilly desert land crisscrossed by tons of hiking trails, and is one of my favorite places in Phoenix. The desert can be quite beautiful, especially after the rain, and it’s really nice to have such a huge natural area to jog/hike so close to the city! It’s a great place for mountain biking too, if you’re into that.

South Mountain

Jumping cholla cactus. Do not touch the nature. If you’re not accustomed to hiking in the heat, take great care to bring adequate sun protection and water when going out, especially in any season except “winter”. It’s easy to get dehydrated or have heat stroke if you’re not accustomed to this environment. Every year at least a handful of people (mostly unprepared tourists) have to be emergency rescued from the hills for underestimating how intense the heat and dry climate actually is. Don’t become one of them!

Also, watch out for the cacti. Most are fairly harmless (well, except for being covered in spikes) but some (like the jumping cholla) have spines with tiny backwards facing hooks on the tips that will dig themselves into your skin and hurt like hell to remove.

Arizona

Arizona overall is hiker’s paradise. There’s a million really nice hiking trails all throughout the state. While the area around Phoenix is mostly flat desert (complete with giant saguaro cacti!), the state actually has a big variety of climates and ecosystems, with actual forests with trees when you get into the mountains to the Northern and Southern parts of the state. Mild winters make many of the trails accessible throughout most of the year. The Grand Canyon is about a 4.5 hour drive North of Phoenix, you can hike there as well.

Superstition Mountains near Phoenix, Arizona

Right: Sedona area, middle: Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, left: Mt. Humphreys near Flagstaff

Vegas

I took a two night mini trip to Vegas early February to visit a friend and of course, to train! By car, Vegas is about 4-5 hours drive from Phoenix. There’s nothing much to see along the way – mostly just wide open desert, with some more interesting rocky hills near the Hoover Dam area.

Behold, the desert! That spiky bush is a Joshua tree.

I won’t talk much about the city of Vegas, since I feel that’s been covered extensively by others already. I will say, most of Vegas is actually just a fairly normal city, not so different from Phoenix. The strip area full of bars, swanky hotels and casinos which the city gets its party reputation from is actually just a fairly small area near the city center.

While in Vegas, I did have the opportunity to train at two gyms, Gracie Humaita West Craig and Odin’s Halls. Both were very friendly and welcoming, I had some really nice rolls with students of each!

Odin’s Halls (Vegas)

Steve Feeka and some folks who came down to roll during Open Mat at Odin's HallsOdin’s Halls (owned by instructor Steve Feeka) opened in October 2018 and became a part of the BJJ Globetrotter community in February 2019! Despite being such a new gym, at the time I attended it already had very solid group of regular students, which I attribute largely to Steve’s very welcoming personality and enthusiasm for the sport. It’s a very family-friendly gym, including many classes for kids of all ages. One unique thing – there’s a midnight class every Wednesday night! I was there on a weekend so unfortunately didn’t get the chance to attend that one. As of this writing, Odin’s Halls is actually Vegas’s first and only Globetrotter Affiliated gym!

Jay Pages BJJ (Phoenix)

Jay Pages BJJ is my “home gym” whenever I return to Phoenix, and is also a BJJ Globetrotters affiliated gym! I really cannot say enough good things about my experience training here. Jay Pages’ gym embodies all the things I love most about training and BJJ: high level of technical skill and physical training + passionate instructors committed to their student’s success + a fun and very inclusive environment. Training here one of the things I look forward to most every time I return to Phoenix.

Jay and Lisa (owners and head instructors) are exceptionally welcoming, and go above and beyond as instructors – always approachable and available to answer questions. They’re a very active part of the BJJ community in Phoenix, hosting and participating in competitions regularly. Lisa additionally teaches woman-only classes a couple days a week, Jay participates and teaches at some of the BJJ Globetrotters camps. Weekends are Open Mat, students come from many of the neighboring gyms to participate and everyone is welcome for rolls there regardless of affiliation.

The gym itself is one of the nicest I’ve ever seen: HUGE well-lit mat space in the main room, with weight lifting equipment to the side, and an entire additional smaller mat space in a separate room. 

It was a pleasure to train here during my two months in Phoenix. Giant thanks goes out to Lisa and Jay for creating this amazing community, and to everyone at the gym who welcomed me to be a part of it! I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to train here, had a awesome time, and learned a lot!

Woman's class at Jay Pages BJJ

Group photo form last day of training at Jay Pages BJJ!

Other Phoenix Area Training

Paul Nava Ares BJJ
Stopped by here on one of their Open Mat days, got some nice rolls in!

Spartan Academy (Tempe, Arizona)
This was actually a wrestling class, but I figured that was close enough to count it on my travels/training list.

Verde Valley BJJ
I found this one on the BJJ Globetrotters affiliated academies list, and drove up one morning (about 2 hours north of where I stay in Phoenix) to check out their Open Mat. Honesty, I was more than a little surprised Cottenwood even had a BJJ gym since it’s a super tiny town, and wasn’t really sure what to expect here. But, turned out to be a great Open Mat day with some really chill people!

Black Flag BJJ
Another Globetrotter affiliated gym! I didn’t actually train here on this trip (since it’s quite far from where I stay), but had such a great experience training here the year before that I felt like I needed to mention it. If you’re in their part of town – great instructor, great place to train!

Next Adventure!

I left Phoenix feeling incredibly excited for the upcoming trip… and also more than a little nervous. My next destination was Thailand, and would be the first time I’d been to any Asian country! I’d become pretty comfortable with traveling Europe at this point but booking a flight to Thailand felt like a GIANT step out of my comfort zone into something vastly more different than anything I’d previously experienced.

The Plan

I booked flight and accommodations for the next two months: one week in Phuket (Thailand), three weeks in Bangkok (Thailand), then one month in Hanoi (Vietnam). I also booked tickets for BJJ Globetrotter’s Heidelberg Summer Camp.

My plan is to stay in South East Asia until Camp, staying about a month in every location… but I haven’t decided where I’ll go after Hanoi yet, from mid-April through mid-July.

A year ago, the thought of having no concrete plan and no idea where I was going to live in two months would have probably terrified me, but now – I’m just not too worried about it. So crazy how much things can change in just 1/2 year!

All things needed for the upcoming 9 month trip, in a suitcase under 20kg!

RGA

Roger Gracie Academy Gymbox (London, England)

Roger Gracie Academy in London, England

 “Do you guys also train BJJ?” asked Jack. I was meeting with my Matsurfing host, Joe, in his office in London, and Jack happened to walk by and started talking to us out of nowhere. Some of you who went to the BJJ Globetrotters’ camps might have met Jack as a yoga instructor, and that was my first interaction with him. He just happened to be working in that office that day when he ran into us. What are the odds? After easily connecting over BJJ, Jack invited me to his training ground, Roger Gracie Academy Gymbox

Roger Gracie Academy

Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

City
London, the capital of the United Kingdom, is often considered a leading global hub for business, politics, culture, and art. It is one of the world’s oldest and greatest cities with a rich history. Combined with tourist attractions such as the iconic Big Ben tower, the London Eye, and the Palace of Westminster, it is obvious why London is one of the world’s leading destinations for tourism.

Overview
Roger Gracie Academy Gymbox Farringdon (RGA) is one of the Roger Gracie affiliates in London led by Professor Cesar Lima. Started in 2007, the academy is now home to more than 250 athletes and it has various locations in the United Kingdom. Unlike typical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academies, RGA offers classes in a Gymbox facility in Farringdon, a large franchise fitness club that offers additional perks including access to weight training areas, saunas, and other fitness classes.

Because of the short nature of my trip to London, I only had an opportunity to attend a lunchtime open mat at RGA. I met up with Jack prior to the session in front of Gymbox in Farringdon. Initially, I was rather confused as the facility is decorated with neon lights and pop music blasting over the speakers, and was not the type of venue I was expecting to find. I thought Jack invited me to go clubbing instead. Once I passed through a group of powerlifters doing their thing and Muay Thai fighters hitting heavy bags, I found a familiar mat space with people in their gis. Although the mat space was small, it was enough space for around 20 people.

As soon as I walked onto the mat, Professor Rogerio Lima welcomed me to the academy. A black belt under RGA, Professor Lima’s competition records vouch for his BJJ experience. He and his students offered a supportive environment during my visit to the academy and I never once felt like a visitor. Since it was an open mat, I did not have a chance to take a class at the academy. However, the level of students easily reflected the competency of the instructors.

RGA offers classes 5–6 times a day and the classes are led by a team of incredible black belt instructors under RGA. If you are looking for high-level instructors with years of experience and incomparable lineage in London, the Roger Gracie Academy is the right choice for you. Come pay a visit if you have a chance. Thank you, Professor Rogerio and Jack for an amazing opportunity to train with the team.

Location & Facility
RGA Gymbox (Farringdon) is located next to Farringdon underground station. The mat space is located within the Gymbox fitness center, which provides access to the rest of the fitness facility with various weight training equipment and other amenities.

Schedule
The schedule at RGA Gymbox is perfectly catered towards busy Londoners. The morning classes start every weekday at 7 am, and the evening classes are offered 3-times after 6 pm with the latest class at 8 pm.

Miscellaneous
— Roger Gracie Academy’s Website

Things to do

  • Tower of London — The Tower of London is a historic royal fortress located on the north bank of the River Thames. Its buildings and ground historically served different purposes such as a royal palace, a fortress, and a prison. Seeing its priceless Crown Jewels and Beefeaters will complete your visit to London.
  • Tower Bridge — Adjacent to the Tower of London is Tower Bridge. The bridge is an iconic symbol of London along with the Tower of London, and the bridge is a truly unique and memorable spectacle.
  • London Eye — The London Eye is another iconic tourist attraction located on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is Europe’s tallest observation wheel rotating over the river presenting 360-degree views of London.
  • Big Ben — Commonly referred to as Big Ben, the Elizabeth Tower is among London’s cultural icons recognized all over the world. The clock tower presents a spectacular scene at night when the four clock faces are illuminated.
  • Buckingham Palace — Located in the City of Westminster, the Buckingham Palace served as the official London residence and administrative headquarters of the British monarch since 1837. The building is one of only a few working royal palaces in the world.

Source
Big Ben
Gymbox

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Auckland & Taupo New Zealand

Greetings from Auckland & Taupo New Zealand (28 Nov – 8 Dec 2018)!

It has been a while since I last posted about my travels, a lot has been going on here now that I’m back home and have a full time job. I’ll have to make a concerted effort to write more often and get these adventures out to you sooner as it’s already been over a year since these stories have taken place. Just have patience and faith I will not quit on this blog and leave you hanging. Now, on to our next adventure!

Since I had always planned to visit Australia it was of course natural to follow that up with visiting New Zealand as well. I was hoping to spend more time there and be able to hit up both North and South Island but I was unable to find any contacts for the South Island and with other visit dates (Singapore at the end of Dec and Cambodia for the holidays) I needed to make sacrifices so this visit was only to the North Island. I will have to return and explore the South Island one day.

All my visits in New Zealand were because of the kindness of the people there. I was invited into their homes and their gyms and shown the greatness at is New Zealand all because they liked what I was doing. I’ll be forever grateful for experiences like this I have had while on this Odyssey. With that let me first describe to you how and ended up in these visits and where I was staying before I tell you about my training experiences. One spoiler though, my pictures just don’t do any justice to conveying the beauty I was surround in and the fun I had visiting New Zealand.

Arriving in Auckland

Early on in my planning of the Odyssey a student of the traditional art of Kokodo Jujutsu contacted me. As I had practiced this art a little in Canada I was naturally looking forward to meeting others in this small circle. Sensai Jules Robson is a student of my friend Hanshi Michael Seamark, who is plainly put the right hand of the head of the entire Kokodo Jujutsu Organization, Soke Irie. Sensai Robson had seen my early posts about my intention to travel and train in different arts around the world and so contacted me with the offer that his dojo is open any time to visit and I am even welcome stay if I need a place. Almost 2 years later I was finally in Auckland ready to meet Sensai Robson and his dojo and take him up on his offer.

Sensai Robson and I spoke online and arranged to meet at the airport when my flight arrived. After a quick tour while driving through the city we arrived on the other end of town, or rather in the small community of Laingholm, outside of Auckland but easy enough to travel to and from by car or by taking the bus. Sensai Robson has a nice cozy place that seriously reminds me of Mr. Myagi’s home in Karate Kid. I don’t know if he moved his dojo into Auckland more as there was talk about moving to another place when I was visiting but the dojo I stayed in was next to his house, far back from the road almost right into the forest surrounding the area. It was a small place and the shower and toilet were separate, inside in a fully plumbed outhouse, but with all the dojo floor space padded in tatami except for the little kitchenette it was all they needed to train. Sensai Robson had some extra mats and a sleeping bag and pillows for me to use on the tatami as the spare room in his house was occupied with another guest. It was more than enough for me and I was comfortable in this my own training house. Staying in the dojo actually made me think of all the old 80’s and 90’s action movies and their training montages.

The Addition of Taupo

Originally I had only two stops planned for New Zealand, with no contacts coming up for the South Island and me not knowing much else of New Zealand it was just going to be a short visit. I had an invitation to Auckland and an old friend in Wellington to see so those were my planned stops. I was always planning up to three months ahead and posting my projected itinerary online. I posted my plans to visit New Zealand after Australia and I got a message from Mark about making time to come visit Taupo. I checked the map and bus routes and just as Mark said Taupo was right in the middle of the two places and I’d be traveling through there anyways. Really this was a great addition as the bus from Auckland to Wellington is 9-10 hours in one go so a break to enjoy the beautiful lake, waterfall and scenery of Taupo was greatly welcomed.

As it is happens Mark and his family have a spare bedroom in their house and Mark likes to invite traveling Jiujitseros to come visit. Given that there’s only one gym in the small town they don’t have a big group to train with or get much for seminars coming their way unless they take off to Auckland or Wellington for a visit. I arranged visiting Mark for a few days and made my way down on the bus from Auckland. It was a 4 or 5 hour bus ride but it felt longer, it was boring driving down the single road the whole way and you get tired of the green field scenery pretty fast. I got dropped off in the middle of town at the tourist center and met with Mark’s wife who brought me to their house. Taupo is amazing and I am honoured that Mark invited me in and let me visit for a few days and showed me around to the beauty of New Zealand.

Auckland Sights

Although Auckland is the biggest city in New Zealand there’s not a lot of sights inside the city other than the harbour (it is called the City of Sails after all), the Sky Tower and museums. The true gems to see are outside the city and unfortunately I was limited in my methods of traveling around town. Here’s some of the pics of the little I did get to see.

Taupo Sights

Taupo is a small town built on lake Taupo which basically in the middle of North Island. The scenery of the town wrapped around the lake is absolutely beautiful, I was told there’s a volcanic fault line that runs under the lake from Taupo Volcano in the center of New Zealand that keeps the lake warm. In fact, Mark and I jumped in the lake a few times during my stay and one of the things he loves to do is slowly drag his feet around to find a hot pocket, where you can feel the hot water shooting up from the sand, to stand in and warm up.

There’s also the Huka Falls along Waikato River which is the big attraction of the area, with the water so clear and sky blue the likes I’ve never seen in a natural setting. It also runs at a terrifying speed that is very deceptive of the calm river itself, which has claimed lives in the past.

As always you can see more pictures from this and all my other stops throughout the Odyssey on my Flickr Account.

The Gyms

And finally what I’m sure you have been waiting for, my review of training at the few gyms I visited in New Zealand. With the three I cover in this post there is a big difference between each one, one being a traditional art school, one being a big competition team and them gym in Taupo being a small isolated gym. Again it’s this kind of experience getting to visit different gyms in different settings and seeing all that’s out there that is why I did this trek.

Auckland Kokodo Jujutsu Dojo

Training with Sensai Robson and his small Kokodo study group was a spiritually satisfying experience. There was no challenge of strength or athleticism that comes with rolling at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or wrestling classes, instead we dove into the aspects of balance and control of posture and stance. This might seem like something completely far fetched or not related to grappling but when you understand the movement of your and your opponents body and how to control or restrict that movement you have both a weapon to attack your opponent with and a tool for defense of their attacks. I always look to refine how to move and control the body and I’m interested in new and different ways.

Since it’s been a long time since I spoke of this style let me remind you, Kokodo is an art of control and studies on the refinement of the methods of controlling and disarming the opponent. Kokodo’s use of control and manipulation is virtually all done, or begins with, the wrists. That’s right, it’s a martial art based solely on the study of the dark arts of wristlocks. This art can be very tranquil and educational as you learn more about the human body, how it moves and how to control it without relying on strength or it can be blindingly painful as pressure is applied to joints and nerves at different angles causing you to become painfully incapacitated. I have experienced some of the more painful locks in this art and I was instantly moving involuntarily, mostly jumping or falling in pain, and suddenly sweating profusely from the shock to the nervous system. Luckily Sensai Robson is not as evil as Hanshi Seamark and was more interested in the study of the former description of art.

In between classes with Sensai Robson’s dojo I enjoyed sharing different theologies of the grappling arts with him and his students. Sensai has a very insightful and intriguing description of the history of Jiu-Jitsu and what is now one of the most popular martial art, BJJ (spoiler alert, it’s all Judo). Over food and drink we would quite regularly talk of the different styles of martial arts and grappling arts and the cultures that they come from. One common theme was that in the traditional arts there is a big focus on being a proper person, training in etiquette, something that seems lost or of a lesser importance on in the styles of modern sport. It was a visit that trained the mind while letting the body rest, at least from the thrashing the city would give me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you so much for inviting me out and hosting Sensai Jules Robson, I hope we meet again!

Tu Kaha BJJ

I managed to make it to one class in the city, I was hoping to visit another gym or two in the area but was unable to make it out to their classes because of conflicting scheduling with the class times and bus routes. It was difficult to get to classes unless they were midday as evening bus routes heading into and out of the city were scarce. I did however make it to Tu Kaha BJJ which holds their classes in a massive fitness community made of several buildings connected together, hosting a series of large training rooms. I was shown around and where to go for the class and get changed but I was on my own leaving and I made a few wrong turns before finally making it out, amazing place. I don’t know if Tu Kaha is still there now, they may now have their own gym so contact them on Facebook for proper details.

Anyways, I made it out to the no-gi class and had a great time training with the crew. The place was packed, the mats were surrounded in a low fence with squat and cross-fit racks bordering all around on the other side, with how busy the place was you would figure every person in Auckland was training at this gym. There were all sorts of people hanging around the fence watching class as well so it was a bit of an overwhelming experience walking into this at first, luckily I’m not shy although I have met many people who might not have been comfortable enough to train in this sort of environment. The funny thing is though once you’re on the mats, anywhere in the world that may be, everything else melts away and it’s just you and the class drilling, rolling and having good times. Tu Kaha BJJ was no exception.

Like I said the class was no-gi, working various positions and submissions, lots of movement and control. The drilling during class made you work but not in a kill you in reps sort of way, more the make you work for the dominant position and submission, lots of sequences and chains to get to the final point rather than just rep out one technique. Good stuff with great students. I can’t fully remember exactly what we worked on but I do remember rolling the partner over from turtle to attack from the back, but then again I also remember being in a crucifix, which was drilling and which was rolling is hard to distinguish now. After drilling we got to rolling for a while and I pretty much just got killed by everyone. I think I had one good roll of being the aggressor and attacking but mostly I was in survival mode. All good though, no one there was interested in destroying the new visitor, everyone just wanted to roll and work their own game. I would gladly come back next time I visit Auckland.

ROC Taupo BJJ

There’s just the one gym in Taupo as I mentioned earlier and you won’t even find it online as it’s actually a kickboxing place that had no advertising of BJJ when I was there, which is why I never thought of stopping there to begin with. Without Mark inviting me and introducing me to ROC Taupo I would have totally skipped this place and missed out on the beauty of Taupo and the great training with these guys. Mark works online for some American businesses so he holds some different working hours from the usual 9 to 5, this of course means he has to get in his training in when ever he can. Lucky for him the club owner is accommodating and he has some teammates who are always up to train so he’s able to get some impromptu noon time classes or open mat sessions through the week.

One day between showing me around to the beauty of Taupo Mark set up a class with one of his teammates who’s a very game grappler and always up to roll. It was just the three of us at the gym, we drilled for a while then started having matches, Mark and I taking turns rolling against his teammate who’s name I totally forget. I think he sat out one round for Mark and I to have a roll but took us both on two or three times each before we finally called it quits. This man had quite the stamina, rolling twice as long as me and still having more energy than Mark and I combined while also beating us each round. This would be the only time I was able to train with either man as their scheduling kept them from the usual class time that I attended. Mark also had relatives showing up so I ended up switching to a hostel in so really this was the last hang out for the three of us.

The next time I returned to the gym was for the evening class, where I met with the rest of the guys training there. Mark had passed on word of me being around so I didn’t have much to do for introducing myself and really everyone was so chill they just gladly accepted me in. During the day session there was nothing else going on at the gym so we were on the main floor, you see the gym is set up with a front desk and weights in the front with puzzle matted floor for a big mat space in the back and a smaller matted space upstairs. When I showed up for the evening class there was also a boxing class going on so the main floor was taken up and the BJJ class was upstairs until they finished. So I’m stretching out and chatting with the class about my travels and then one of them just asks “So what are you teaching us tonight?” um, what? Well apparently as soon as I walked in they had all silently decided to have me teach that night. As I have said before the gym is quite isolated from the Jiu-Jitsu scenes of Auckland or Wellington so they are very receptive of visitors. They were also a very new club so everyone was young to BJJ so any chance they get to learn from visitors they jump at the chance. So I guess I was teaching now.

On the fly I decided I would work my half guard game I call my own version of the Bear-Trap only this class was no-gi, which I wasn’t as confident in teaching. It was a learning experience for sure, I probably learned just as much dealing with their questions about what I was showing them as they were watching me teach. As they say you really don’t fully understand the technique until to teach it. It was a great class, everyone was very attentive and asking all sorts of questions to dive deeper into the half guard game and in the end I think we put together one very strong sequence. In fact I’m sure we did as not only did they put my half guard game to the test but also put my skills trying to shut down my own game to the test as they used it against me. After drilling for a good hour or more the main floor was open to us and we went down for rolling. I don’t know how long we were rolling for but we were all tired by the time it was over. I thanked everyone for the awesome time and was on my way back to the hostel for one last night in Taupo. Little did I know how much making one step outside the gym would impact my future of traveling and training…

I had one last stop in Wellington with an old friend but before I get to that I have a story about an injury that nagged me from this point on to fill you in on: The Dreaded Knee injury.

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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