Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


	S.P. Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 11/1 Soi 3 Bamrungburi Rd., T. Prasingh, A. Muang., Chiang Mai 50200 Tel. 053 - 814 455-6 Fax. 053 - 814 457 E-mail: guidelin@loxinfo.co.th

In It to Win

Text : Martha Berner
Images : Apirak

Ready to train!

Meet Max. He is Swiss, but he is Thai. He’s another of the seemingly many, but yet so few and fortunate, farang who have stumbled upon a hidden treasure of a destiny here in Chiang Mai.

The amateur boxer first discovered northern Thailand working as an electrician for a private Swiss company. Within a year of discovering Thailand’s second largest city, Max would leave his job and make Chiang Mai his home – for life.

“I came to Thailand and fell in love with the culture in north Thailand. Chiang Mai was the first place I really liked and the last place I moved.” Drawn in by the hospitality, often so elusive in bigger cities, Max was mostly fond of the neighborhood and community mentality of Chiang Mai. The balance of city conveniences and village friendliness. “If you’re going around in the early morning, you know each other, like in a village. I really like that. You know, it’s a big city, we can get everything we need or want – even cheese from Switzerland. That’s the good thing of a big city. But most big cities, the people don’t know you because it is too big. But Chiang Mai is different because here the people still know each other.”

The transition from Switzerland to Chiang Mai wasn’t a difficult one for Max. “I feel like now, when I go back to Switzerland, I am a stranger. I feel my home is in Chiang Mai. I’m still Swiss, but I feel like a Thai. Thai people are always very polite to say that I’m quite fluent in Thai, but … when I watch the news I understand maybe eighty to eighty-five percent. But it should be better, it should be one hundred [percent]. I never went to school to learn Thai. So I learned just with friends, things like that, so it takes a little bit longer. Actually, when it comes to the official language, like dealing with banks and things like that, you use different words, very polite Thai. I still have a few problems with that. ”

The Thai language isn’t the only foreign matter many Westerners find themselves faced with after making Chiang Mai home and diving into life as a business owner, employee or student. Many of the Thai social interactions and problem- solving tactics differ from how Westerners are accustomed to handling conflict or stressful situations. “In Europe we use a straight way. For example, you have a little accident on the street in Europe or Switzerland – you would get out of the car and shout, ‘What you did? You didn’t see me or what?’ But in Thailand, if something occurs like that, the first thing is a smile and they’re very calm when they talk. To handle such things like a Thai was, for me, very difficult. It took me quite a few years to adapt. Once you have it it’s actually great.”

When Max saw Thai boxing for the first time he was immediately intrigued by the unique style of the sport. “They don’t only do fist fighting. You have your legs, your knees, your elbows.” Max began to train in muay thai right away and continued to do so for a number of years. However, at the age of thirty-one his body was too old to continue competing. “I don’t get up in the ring to lose.”

Nine years on, Max owns and runs the Sereephap Muay Thai Gym and employs three additional trainers. He also married. “ She was a professional Thai boxer. She had twenty-three fights and she won twenty-three times.” His wife had some reservations about her Swiss partner opening a gym for the country’s national sport. She worried about how he might be accepted – or rather, rejected. But it wouldn’t be long before this farang became useful. Max began announcing at matches to draw in the foreign visitors. He also began helping with flyers and getting the word out to guesthouses and other places where foreign spectators could be lured. In fact, if you’ve ever heard the Thai boxing announcement as one of Chiang Mai’s iconic red taxis rolls by – then you’ve practically met Max. “In the beginning, the first two or three years, I did it live. I was sitting in the car with the microphone…” Max gets into character and announces, “Toniiiiight, prrrrooofessional Thai boxing.” After years of this, everybody knew Max; shop keepers, taxi and tuk tuk drivers. It was amusing to watch a foreigner drive around and announce their beloved sport in English. Max partially credits his acceptance into the Thai boxing community to this experience.

In addition to his commitment to training skilled fighters, Max values education, honesty and integrity. The boxers and trainers at Sereephap are a family, or pi nong, brothers and sisters. “My greatest success is that all the boys who don’t fight any more, became good men. Good people. Everybody finished their studies, everybody has a job. Some, they even go work in Korea. So I can see that we teach them in a nice way. Nobody went out of this school and became a bad boy.”

I feel like now, when I go back to Switzerland, I am a stranger. I feel my home is in Chiang Mai. I’m still Swiss, but I feel like a Thai.