Lanna Muay Thai is located in Chang Mai, which is the second biggest city in Thailand next to Bangkok. The camp is located at the foot of the Doi Suthep Mountain, near the local university. There are also several small shops and resturants located near by and the main part of the city is only 6km away. The camp is located about 10 minutes from the Chang Mai airport. The address itself is:

Lanna Kiat Busaba Muay Thai Camp

161, Soi Chang Kian,

Huay Kaew Road,

Chiang Mai, 50300,

Thailand

Putting the address into Google or Mapquest is difficult, because you have to format it correctly with the commas and everything in the correct place. The camp provides a map on their website which you can use to find the gym from the airport. You can view it at their website.

Best Travel Route

You have two options for the best travel route to get to the camp.

Option 1 (which is the best overall) is to fly into the Chang Mai airport. Most likely you will need to connect to a flight from your previous destination at the Bangkok Airport. A flight from Bangkok to Chang Mai will take only about an hour or so.

Option 2 is probably best used if you have a long overlay between flights. That option would be to fly into Bangkok airport and take a bus from there to Chang Mai. The bus ride will take between 10-12 hours, however if you were going to be sitting in an airport all that time anyway, it may be best to try and arrange a bus ride.

Pricing

The price to train at Lanna Muay Thai is pretty consistant with most of the more popular gyms in Thailand, perhaps a bit on the lower side which is always nice. The daily price is 400 baht, the weekly price is 2200 baht and the price for a month of training is 8000 baht. The accomodation prices are decent as well ranging anywhere from 3000 baht for a shared housing room right at camp, to as high as 10,000 baht for an apartment/condo/house for a month. The camp does not accept credit cards.

Accomodations

Speaking of accomodations, here is a little information on that. The camp has 3 rooms (2 person per room) that are onsite at the camp. Each room has it's own toliet and shower, although there is no hot water. Accommodation at the camp is on a first come first serve basis, if there are no rooms avaiable upon arrival there are several guesthouses, bungalows, and hotels within walking distance of the camp where people may stay. The basic guesthouse rooms outside the camp are usually a single room with toilet/shower and fan. Air conditioning is available but mostly unnessecary and expensive. The camp will help you find a room upon your arrival to suit your needs and budget

Facilities

The facilities in the gym include 2 rings, 12 bags, 1 speed ball, 1 punching ball, 3 sit up benchs, various basic free weights, medicine balls, monkey, chin up, and parallel bars. Utlizing the uniqueness of it's surroundings the camp uses the near by mountain for some tough hill runs. The training area is partially roofed and open on 3 sides to allow some nice air flow and keep the gym cool.

Trainers

Lanna has 8 Thai Trainers full time, 3 part time, as well as the owner who is a farang instructor. Additionally two of their long term foreign fighters, including one woman, also help out with the new students. Each of the Trainers have their own fighters who they work with but all their fighters will also train with different trainers. Lanna gives everyone the chance to work with several different trainers, to find their favourite, and to give them the experience of different styles. The full time trainers are all at the Camp at least 5 days a week, some of us are here 7 days a week.

The average class sizes can vary from weekend mornings with 5 people to mid-week afternoons with 40 people. The constant is the fighters, there are always people training to fight, even on Sundays. At times Lanna can have a lot of fighters competeing at the same time the camp will be buzzing with intense training. Even during the quiet times you can still find someone in the gym training, hard!

Training Routine

The gym has 2 training sessions a day, in both the morning and afternoon. Here is an overview of the training schedule:

Morning

0600-Warm up/Stretch

0610-10 km. Run

0710-Drills (Knees, Kicks Teeps and Punches on the bag)

0730-Shadow Box (5 to 6 rounds)

0800-Bag Work (4 to 5 rounds)

0825-Pad Work (2 to 5 rounds)

0850-Clinching/Sparring (alternate days up to 5 rounds)

0915-Drills (as before)

0935-Exercises (sit ups push ups chin ups)

0950-Shadow Box (2 to 3 rounds)

1005-Cool Down Stretch

Afternoon

1600-Warm Up/Stretch

1610-3 to 5 km. Run

1635-Skip (4 rounds)

1655-Shadow Box (5 to 6 rounds)

1725-Bag Work (6 to 8 rounds)

1805-Pad Work (5 to 6 rounds)

1835-Clinching/Sparring (alternate days, 5 to 6 rounds)

1905-Drills (as morning)

1925-Shadow Box (3 to 4 rounds)

1940-Cool Down Stretch

I have seen schedules on many gyms which only include about 2-2.5 hours of training. Lanna's sessions go for almost 4 hours. As a result you will get into excellent fitness shape extremely quick. It is also important and very overlooked that the sessions include a warm up and cool down stretch. This helps avoid injuries and aids in your recovery time.

Fighting

Lanna is usually having about 2 fights a week as a camp. At times it can be as many as four fights in a week. One question I specifically contacted the camp and asked was how they determine if someone is ready to fight. I wanted to know if it was necessary to spend a specific amount of time at the camp, or were there other means of evaluating this. Here is how Lanna determines if someone is ready to fight. The camp will determine if a person has experience or the ability to get into the ring to fight with your first training session. In the case you are a new or first time fighters, the only criteria is a true desire and willingness in your heart to not only have a go in the ring, but put in the effort into the training, and with about one to two months training, a basic level of fitness and basic technique you will be able to have your first fight.

Administration/Office

There are a couple strengths here as far as I can determine. First off, it is a farang owned school, and the owner Andy (who is also a trainer) handles all the correspondence. It is always an advantage to have a Western person in charge to handle any issues that may arise, in my opinion. An example is how quickly Andy returned my email when I contacted him with additional questions I had regarding the camp. His response was in the same day, and it was very detailed. Andy also seems very willing to aid the guests with any services that are necessary for them to enjoy their stay, from arranging tours to finding accomodations. These small touches do not go unnoticed and would give Lanna an edge in determining if it is the right camp to attend.

Website

Lanna has a very informative website. The format of the site is not overly flashy or complicated. It is easy to naviagate and there is more than enough information on the website including the history of Muay Thai, training techniques and a frequently asked questions section. One downside to the website is that it does not have any photos of the gym. Also, the addition of a forum to the website would be nice as it would allow prior and prospective students of the camp to communicate with each other.

Extracurricular

There are plenty of things to do around the area when you are not training. The camp is located at the foot of a mountain, so hiking and rock climbing are among the first activites that comes to mind. There is also a famous temple in Chang Mai called the Doi Suthep temple, which has 304 steps to reach the top. Other activies include Elephant treks, blues and jazz bars, golf courses and the night bazzar.

Uniqueness

I asked Andy what makes the camp unique. Why should someone chose Lanna over another camp. He had a great response. Here is what he said:

"Consistency. We are really no different from any other Muay Thai gym in Thailand. We live our life training for the same thing, to fight every week at the local stadiums and country fairs, the big city and overseas when we are good enough. We are different because of our strong foreign support, we have had several long term, 2 years or more, foreign fighters stay with us and many of our students, fighting or not, come back year after year to spend time training and living at the Camp. Muay Thai is about family and we have a large extended family after our 15 years together. When it comes to training, we ensure good basic technique and understanding of what you are doing, and the chance to experience and (maybe) live the life of a Muay Thai fighter."

I gotta tell you, that sounds great to me. I love the fact that people come back to the camp again and again. That is always a good sign. I also hit up a lot of forums and always hear good things about Lanna, which is promising.