If you're visiting Chiang Mai, you should definitely try a Muay Thai class! It's a truly unique and exhilarating experience! I booked a group class on Klook a day in advance, thinking it would be less awkward with more people, but I still ended up making a fool of myself. The class started at 9 AM and finished at 10:30 AM, lasting a total of one and a half hours. For the first ten minutes or so, the head coach, Mark, led us through stretching, warm-ups, and jogging around the ring. The Thai coach spoke English, and everyone understood him. Since I was the only Chinese person there, my reactions were a bit slower than others, but I managed to get through the class despite some fumbling. After the warm-up, the head coach started wrapping our hands. After he wrapped one hand, he asked me how it felt. I said it was too tight, so he loosened it for me. But after he wrapped the other hand, I still felt it was too tight. He smiled helplessly and had to loosen that one too. I thought maybe the hand wraps for Muay Thai needed to be tight to protect the hands! But after the class, my hands were covered in marks, haha. Luckily, I didn't get injured. After wrapping our hands, the head coach had us put on gloves and started teaching us basic moves. After each move, he'd have us practice in pairs, repeating until we mastered the basics. My training partner was the assistant coach, "Ice." I often made mistakes because I was too nervous, like punching with my left hand and forgetting to guard with my right. He would tell me that if I didn't guard, someone would "bang" and hit me. Although the assistant coach also told me not to be nervous and just enjoy it, I always had that "good student" mindset, wanting to do my best, which just made me more flustered. In the end, I made the assistant coach laugh. He even started guarding when he should have been punching and punching when he should have been guarding. Seeing how nervous I was, he even jokingly threatened to hit me hard. I quickly waved my hands, "Nonono! You will hurt me! No!" He saw me frowning in fear and burst out laughing. Then we couldn't continue training; we were both bent over laughing. I guess that's my secret weapon in a fight! Making my opponent laugh until they're exhausted, and then winning without a fight. After a 90-minute trial class, I was completely exhausted. My hands hurt from the wraps, and my feet hurt from kicking. Even though I was hitting people, punching sandbags, and kicking tires, I was sore as if I had been beaten up. But it was so much fun and exhilarating! Life experience +1