Fitness Centers are renowned for having aggressive policies and for turning up the steam to get as much money out of their customers as possible, but I don’t expect to have it thrust in my face every day. Stationed at the entrance to Central World Plaza in Bangkok are representatives from True Fitness. Their tactics are truly hostile, pouncing on people as they enter and leave the building, hounding them to sign up for a program they don’t need.

This sort of practice is common in the UK – heck, even the Hare Krishnas do it – but it seems to go so far against what I would consider to be a Thai way of acting that I’m sure many people are scared into spending money when they don’t necessarily want to. It’s the ultimate form of confrontation to be chased down by someone with a leaflet, and then shown to a seating area where you can sign up to the gym. Before California Wow came along, I didn’t notice an abundance of gyms in Bangkok scouting for potential customers. Now that the ante has been upped, I’ve heard many stories about problems with the top gyms being less than honest in their pricing strategies.

Their mission, as it appears to me, is to get as much money out of you as possible by any means. A friend of mine recently said that she was told the fee was X, but when she went back another time it had suddenly shot up to Y. The difference between one person’s monthly fee compared to another’s can be vast. It’s a scandalous world, pumped full of gimmicks and gadgets, when you could get as much benefit (for your mind and body) by going to a local Thai gym and paying a fraction of the cost.

Fitness is not some big secret that only mighty corporate businesses in Bangkok hold the answer to.

Techno’ tags: Gyms, Thailand, Bangkok, Fitness centers

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Former Primer Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is a crafty fella. Despite quitting politics, he has still managed to find his way into newspapers across the world (not just in Thailand) on an almost daily bass. To an outsider, he just looks like a fun-loving type of guy bumbling his way around the world, but to those in Thailand he is perhaps an attention seeking manipulator of people. The Thai traveler once tried to buy Liverpool Football Club and failed; his latest target is Manchester City.

“He is looking to do some business, and it is possible that he will buy a team because he loves football,” said Noppadol Pattama, Thaksin’s lawyer and voice on occasions. For someone who was ousted in a military coup, he seems to be having a whale of a time. His smiling face keeps popping up, and his foreign image is steadily growing. Leaving Thailand seems to have done him no harm.

There are currently some reports that Thaksin has already purchased Manchester City for six billion baht, although these are yet to be confirmed. Mohamed Al Fayaed, owner of Fulham Football Club, has reportedly been helping out his old Thai buddy in his quest to infiltrate the British Football Association.

With former football player Ray Ranson’s 90 million pound bid for Man City looking likely to be rejected, Thaksin may well be the front runner in this bizarre chase. The other group is an unnamed American consortium, but I am not convinced that fans of Man City would really warm to the idea of an American takeover.

In other news linking Britain (where Thaksin is based) and Thailand, it has emerged that on May 4 there will be an anti-coup protest in London. This is certainly interesting as it shows Thai people’s discontent from across the world. Whether or not Thaksin’s influence has anything to do with the protest is unclear.

Sadly for sports fans, Thaksin appears to have let his golf game go. As AFP reported today from the opening of a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, “his time since the end of his political career appeared not to have been spent on improving his golf game, as his drive ducked left in an awful hook.”

Techno’ tags: Man City, Thailand, Bangkok, Thaksin Shinawatra

Imagine coming home, soaked through to the skin by Bangkok’s “summer” rain, itching to get dry and shake off what remains of a long, working day. Imagine getting to your front door: the relief, the satisfaction, the release of tension – imagine all of that, and you’re with me up until I put the key in lock.

The key wouldn’t budge. I jiggled it, I pushed it, I pulled it, I shook it, I banged it… and nothing. It wouldn’t move. I was locked out. It had never happened before in this manner and so I knew something was up. Looking like an unloved Bangkok soi dog who had just been swimming in a swamp, I went to get my landlady to find out what was wrong with my door. I suspected it was her doing because she had had my keys all day on a promise to install a new sink for me. Little did I know what a disaster this would turn out to be.

I’m always reluctant to give my keys to my landlady; it’s not that I don’t trust her, but I know that if she goes into my room she will tidy things up and move things around, as only a Thai landlady would do. This was to be no exception, but before I would even have a chance to see the meddling, there was the small task of getting into my room. Mama, my landlady, tried in vain to open the door using the key. The neighbors came out of their rooms to inspect what the commotion was, but when they saw it was me they quickly lost interest. The resident handyman was summoned (it was him who had been given the task of making my sink) and he went to work with the same key-routine that Mama and myself had both tried to utilize. It didn’t work. His next bright idea was to climb outside and hack one of the sections of metal barring that acts as a window from its place. Much banging ensued and eventually he was in my room, with Mama and I on the other side of the door.

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The sound of a runner’s feet approaches, skipping lightly along a path. He effortlessly slices though the air, turns sharply, and jumps over a bench, landing with ease on the opposite side before rolling forwards and back up to his feet, continuing on along the path. Another runner nearby stands tall before leaping several feet from one wall to another; he lands gracefully as a slight breeze picks up across Benjasiri Park next to the Emporium.

These are members of Thailand’s first (and only) active free running collective. Anshul, Shayan, Dhruv, Arun and Gee (aged between 19 and 22-years-old) met each other through study. “I watched the Jump Britain show [a free running documentary shown on UK TV station Channel 4 in 2005] last year and then went to the States and saw there were people doing it over there,” explains Anshul. “So when I came back I told these guys and we formed our own group.”

Free running is the discipline of traveling from point A to point B with as fluid a set of movements as possible. It is heavily inspired by parkour, which is the physical art of movement. Whereas most people choose to walk along a path to get somewhere, a free runner looks at the environment he finds himself in and sets himself the challenge of getting to the same place in a different way.

“There’s all these structures and buildings in the way wherever you go,” says Shayan. “Back in years gone by, people used to walk, they used to run, but now our chances are limited, so this is a way of rebelling against the norms of society.”

Anshul adds: “It’s like if you’re walking on a sidewalk, anyone can use it, but this is breaking free. There are so many alternative ways to move. You can use a wall or anything.”

It’s easy to look at free runners and question why they do it. “What people don’t understand they will mock,” says Shayan. “Anything that’s new, people won’t care about.”

Free running goes deeper than the general public often gives credit for. It serves several purposes, as Anshul explains: “Some people think it’s a philosophy, like a martial art, and people can relate to it in real life. Some people just do it for fitness, and some see it as a sport. Some people want to put it into competition while others want to keep it as a philosophy because they don’t see why someone’s move should better than someone else’s.”

The group is very focused on looking after its best interests. “First, we always concentrate on safety,” says Anshul. “We don’t want people to get the wrong idea. If you watch a movie, you see people jumping from buildings and stuff, and we don’t want people to associate that with parkour and free running. In the States, when I went to jams, we teach people the basics first.”

Injuries are still a hazard of the sport, however. Shayan once tore a ligament in his ankle when he landed the wrong way after performing a basic jump. Undeterred, he learnt from his injury and tried to motivate himself once more to improve. “When I got injured,” he says, “I couldn’t do the same move for three or four months because I had the fear in the back of my head. But it never made me want to stop.”

Anshul explains how free running is in us all: “If you think about it, we all love to be playful with our surroundings from an early age, like jumping over a bench or a trashcan. It’s in us, but this is giving it a name. You can actually do it and move through your environment more fluidly.”

Shayan offers some advice to anyone interested in free running: “You should train hard, definitely warm up, and learn to warm down, go to websites, and do as much research as you can. Safety is the most important thing. Learn to balance your body and know where your center of gravity is. You don’t want to be standing on a building and fall off. There’s a lot of stamina and strength training needed.”

With that, Shayan scurries off, barrel-rolling over a bench as he goes. Next time you’re walking to work, or next time you’re strolling along the street o the way to 7-eleven, take a look at your surroundings and imagine how you could get to where you are going in a more interesting way; that’s what free runners do.

This article will appear in One2Go Magazine next month. It was written at the end of last year.

Techno’ tags: Free running, Parkour, Thailand, Bangkok, Extreme sports Asia