Only 4-5 hours to the North from Bangkok, Phitsanulok divide Thailand’s Central and Northern regions. It is a great stopover place once you’re travelling to the North and it also has its own tourist attractions that everyone would love to visit.

Also known as Song Kwae City (Song means two and Kwae means river), the city has two important rivers run through. The place is full of natural treasures like mountains, rivers or even waterfalls that make this place more worthwhile.

Apart from the natural attractions like national parks, Phitsanulok is also very well known of its noble history and culture from historical evidences like stones, ancient tools, old temples etc. It is the birthplace of King Narasuan the Great, the legendary King who declared Ayutthaya independence from Myanmar in 1584. You can check out the greatest movies made about him in Asian movies section.

What else can you do in Phitsanulok apart from visiting all those places in the city? I recommend you try trekking. The province is very popular for camping and trekking destination because it consists of several national parks that feature different landscape and flora and fauna. This will definitely impress all the nature lovers just like you. And if you’re interested, you might need to hurry because this is the best time to see all the wildflowers blooming in many beautiful colors in Thung Salaeng Loung National Park.

You can also try rafting. You don’t get to try this a lot elsewhere you know that. It’s getting to raining season in Thailand and the water is getting swifter. This will be a very big challenge for the newbie.

So if this caught in your eyes, you can find out more about it like how to get there and stuff at www.tourismthailand.org. You won’t regret of going there!

Oh yeah, we are still giving you Muay Thai lesson and I think it might be quite crucial to know even though people today learn the modern kickboxing, not original Muay Thai anymore. Some of the moves you might have never seen before. But this is, we think, a really good thing to know for your references of Muay Thai.

We are still with the Muay Thai Cherng Sok or how to use Elbows, the two of Muay Thai essential weapons. There are 24 of them and now we are at number 5. We will continue writing and giving you lessons until…well until there’s nothing else to write about…and that’s quite impossible when talking about boxing there are always things to talk and discuss about it.

Ok back to the lesson. Here’s everything you need to know about this move. It’s even better if you are doing it with you Muay Thai trainer because he or she can help correcting your move and might give you some more advice.

This move is basically the inverted elbow, used when the opponent is at close range to the boxer. From the basic stance, the boxer must first lower and pull in his elbow close to his body to gain power. Next, he raises his right elbow and throws it to the opponent’s forehead or left side of the head. When the elbow joint is properly used, it can cause a cut to the opponent’s face. As the boxer delivers the elbow blow, his fist is simultaneously pressed down. This action is mainly used for attack.

What if someone attack you with this move? You have to use your left arm to brush your opponent’s elbow away.

When the boxer lifts his right arm to throw an inverted elbow punch, his midsection is left open to attack. Use this opportunity to throw a right knee straight to his midsection. If the boxer is lefty, then the actions should be applied on the opposite side.

Don’t forget the check out our lessons in the past if you’re new here. And stick with us for more useful information about Muay Thai.

Are you ready to see this gym? Nowadays there are lots and lots of new Thai boxing gyms popping out each day. The good thing about it is that you have a lot more choices. I mean a lot of gyms are not so much different except that you’re willing to pay a handful of cash for it, then you might get a little something else.

Chaopraya Muay Thai Academy in St. Ives, Cambridge shire, is another good choice for you, unless you’re not in England. The place will get you fit and firm. It knows what the students want. If you want to find out what Muay Thai is like and at the same time learn self-defense and train for fitness, why don’t you check out this gym.

The students here will get a chance to pick out what kind of training they want. Are they the full contact training kinda person or maybe they want to start out with the lighter contact. But the purpose is the same. The training here will help their student achieve their goals.

The trainer, Kru Yai Shaun, who was trained the martial arts of Thailand right in its place, wants to keep his training traditional and exact the Thai way as possible as he can. It would be hard to do everything like the original Muay Thai like in Thailand in any western societies.

Equipment: as I can see, the gym got everything you need to train boxing. They got a standard boxing ring, all kinds of bag and pads.

If you are interested, please check out its website at http://www.chaophrayamuaythai.com for more information on the cost and schedule of training time.

One more thing, the classes are mixed of all levels because Kru Shaun believes that each student can also learn from each other. That’s a very interesting thought!

Here is another good example of a very cruel boxer. He has got so many nicknames like “Iron Mike”, “The Baddest Man on the Planet” or “Kid Dynamite” but I wanna call him “Ear Eater”.

Michael Gerard or Mike Tyson was born on June 30, 1966. He is now a retired American boxer who was once the undisputed heavyweight champion and remains the youngest man ever to win and lose a world heavyweight title. But unluckily he wasn’t just well-known for his boxing career but his controversial behavior both inside and outside the ring fight.

He won his first 19 pro bouts by knockout, how amazing was that, and 12 of which in the first round. He was the Heavyweight Champion for over 2 years until he lost to an underdog Buster Douglas in 1990.

Too bad the guy is not good at keeping himself clean. 16 years ago in 1992, he was convicted of raping a woman. And as a consequence for that he served 3 years in prison. He was back to fight after he was released from the prison. But he didn’t do some good works as he did before even though he regained a portion of the heavyweight title because only a year later he lost to Evander Holyfield, poor guy, who lost an ear in their rematch a year later.

He continued fighting though until he retired from competitive boxing only 3 years ago after two consecutive KO losses to Danny Williams and Kevin MaBride.

Now let’s take a look at the video clip below of some of his KO collection. You can look for more of his clips in YouTube or anywhere. I’m sure his name will remain unforgettable for quite a long time due to his fame in the past.

Mike Tyson KO Collection from YouTube.com

Hope we’ll be back next time with some more nice boxing clips! See you then.

Have you been practicing Muay Thai along our lessons here? If you’ve been with us long enough, you would know that now we have finished one of the Cherng Muay already which is Cherng Mud or the Punch. And right now we are continuing with the Cherng Sok which is how to use your elbows as weapons in Muay Thai.

I really hope you’re happy to see us again today to continue showing you the next move. And remember we are doing this for free, because the more people interested in Muay Thai, the happier we are for it. A lot of martial arts have lost and died through this time and we don’t want our Muay Thai to do the same.

And today’s Cherng Sok is how to do Straight Elbow. And the name of the move is NGAE LOOK KANG. Let’s take a look at what it is and how to do it effectively.

Used for escape, the straight elbow is done by keeping the right elbow at an angle between 45 and 90 degrees away from the head. The forehand should be turned into the right shoulder and the boxer’s should take a forward step with his right foot to hit at as close a range as possible. The right elbow is then used to strike the opponent’s chin. Ensure that you use the elbow bone’s sharp tip instead of the bottom part of your forearm.

To Attack: Wipe down the elbow used for attack with your left arm.

To Defense: With your right foot, throw a kick to the boxer’s abdomen. You can also deliver a blow to the boxer’s face if he fails to bring his elbow back up to protect his face after delivering the straight elbow. If the boxer is left-handed, reverse the actions from one side to the other.

Visit us again next time for the next move of Muay Thai’s Cherng Sok!