It was coming to the end of August in 2004, I’d been in Thailand for a number of months now enjoying a less hectic life style. All I had to be concerned with now was training and fighting.

I’d just had two fights less than ten days apart, one in Bangkok on a small event in celebration of the queens birthday and the other in Patong stadium in Phuket.

On the queens birthday I fought ex Rajadamnern champion Shutong Sinlapargon and in Phuket I fought a regular stadium fighter from Bangkok, I never did learn his name.

The stadium fighter I fought was from 96 Penang camp in Bangkok which was quite funny really because we were more or less sat together for the whole 14hour bus journey from Bangkok to Phuket. I didn’t know I was fighting him until we got off the bus in Phuket but I’ll talk about that experience another time.

After my fight in Phuket I had a couple of days just relaxing on the beach before heading back to Bangkok.

There had been a few issues with the gym I was at around this time, the lease had expired and wasn’t getting renewed but the gym manager had found another more affordable area to set himself up.

It was a bit of a trek from where I was living in Bon Kai which is just behind Lumpinee stadium.

To get to the gym I had to get the underground from Lumpinee to Silom station before grabbing the sky train at Sala Deang all the way to Saphan Taksin which at the time was the last stop on the Silom line.

Saphan Taksin was right at the bank of the Chao Praya river so from here I had to get a ferry across the river to Sathon which only cost two Baht, finally a short stroll through a none tourist market until arriving at the gym.

The plan for my first day back was to have a light training session but as soon as I arrived I was told I was fighting in Hong Kong in less than 10 days.

To be honest I fancied chilling for a bit and I was also concerned about the cut I got above my eye from an elbow during my previous fight.

There was no way it would be healed enough for me to fight in a weeks time but I was told in a humorous manner “ooooeee nit noi! Choke dai.” basically my cut was small and I could easily fight.

I’d just finished up on the pads when a young Thai lad arrived at the gym with his father. I’m guessing he’d just finished school because he was in a uniform that no child in the U.K would ever be seen dead in.

He had a bright pink shirt on, followed by beige shorts, white socks which came to his knees and black shoes and holding a ruck sack filled with books. He stood there looking around smiling while his dad spoke to  Mr Eck who was the trainer.

The young lad who I would have said was around 13 or 14 was told to get changed and to clinch with me.

This little poncey looking kid came out to make the farrang (foreigner) look stupid. He was throwing me around at will until some how the cut above my eye got reopened.

Blood started to trickle down my face and Mr Eck called me over to look at it.

He told me to get changed and to follow him.

We headed out of the camp and started to walk down the road toward to the local doctors.

The doctors wasn’t very distinguishable from the other buildings crammed along the streets of Bangkok.

As we entered the surgery the first thing I noticed was that there was no air con and the heat felt very thick as if I had to fight my way through it.

Mr Eck Jibbered away to the doctor while he examined my cut.

“You clean?” I shook my head so the doc walked off and grabbed something that looked like cotton wool and iodine solution. He poured it onto the cotton and vigorously started to clean the wound, I remember thinking bloody hell he’s a bit heavy handed!

Once he’d finished cleaning it he told me to lye down.

The room was so hot I actually wanted to go outside to cool down which is unusual in Thailand as you generally do the opposite by going into the shops to take advantage of the air conditioning.

The doc came back over with needle and thread in hand, I’ve had stitches a fare few times to know that he’d missed a bit out.

Where the hell was the anaesthetic?

He put the needle through my eyebrow and jesus did it hurt! It actually hurt more than when I first got the wound in Phuket.

I was gripping the side of the bed so hard while he was stitching me up that my hands started to ache.

I’m surprised he didn’t just give me a piece wood to bite on while he patched me up.

Six stitches later and all was finished, I sat up sweating that much that it looked like I head a fever, Mr Eck looked at me smiled and said thank you to the doctor. It cost me 500TBH which at the time was about £7 but with the exchange rate now it’s closer to £10.

I was told to return in five days to have the stitches taken out, I thought f**k that I’ll take them out myself.

We left the doctors and headed back to he gym, it was around 6pm and was starting to get dark. Mr Eck decided to give me his theory as to why my cut got reopened along with a few other bad luck incidences that had happened in the gym since we’d been there, I’ll talk about that in another blog.

I’ve been patched up a few times in Thailand but that was the only time that no anaesthetic was used so don’t panic if you ever have to have stitches yourself.

It would be interesting to hear of anyone else’s crazy doctor experiences in Thailand as everyday is an adventure in the land of smiles.