Do you want to study Muay Thai (Thai boxing) in Thailand?
And not just visit a two week course, but actually train for many months or even years?
There are Muay Thai camps in different parts of the country where this is possible, although many of them are only for Thai people, at least there is no one who can speak English.
But a couple of options for foreigners exist too.
One of the most popular choices is the Tiger Muay Thai camp in Phuket. As of now, the price for studying 6 months at the camp is 52,000 Baht. They offer accommodation also.
The cheapest rooms start at 6000 Baht per month. This is for a bed in a dorm room. If you want a private room, the cheapest price is 8000 Baht per month, and then there are other options up to 24,000 Baht per month for a really fancy place.
The camp started out many years ago as a small hobby project of a foreigner in Phuket, and then slowly and steadily grew into what is now one of Thailand’s largest Muay Thai camps for foreigners.
There are other options for training Muay Thai in Thailand too, like at the Island Muay Thai Camp on Koh Tao, or Santai Muay Thai in Chiang Mai.
Another option is the 301 Gym program:
There are in fact plenty of options in Phuket, another one being the Rawai Muay Thai Camp at Khao Lak.
Yet another option on Phuket is Sinbi Muay Thai, where many trainers have championship titles. This place is owned by Sinbi Taewong, who was a famous fighter.
Dragon Muay Thai is also located on Phuket. Three months of training cost 22000 Baht and they also have a Muay Thai shop where you can buy everything you need. The World Professional Muay Thai Federation proclaimed the gym as the Best Training Camp 2010.
Chang Muay Thai is also located in Phuket, at Kata Beach. Price for one month of training here is 6800 Baht.
If you can’t miss the full-moon parties, then don’t worry – even on Koh Phangnan there is a Muay Thai camp: Diamond Muay Thai. One month of unlimited training costs 10,000 Baht, and they probably have discounts for long-term students too.
It’s definitely hard to beat the beautiful natural surroundings and atmosphere of Koh Phangnan. You can see fighters trained at Diamond Muay Thai in their YouTube channel.
Koh Samui also has a Muay Thai camp: this is called the Lamai Muay Thai Camp, which is sanctioned by the World Muay Thai Council, and their monthly prices are 4000 to 6500 Baht. They opened in 1989 and are one of Thailand’s oldest foreign-operated Muay Thai camps. Both men and women train here, and they obviously have a long track-record of teaching people Muay Thai.
You can see a video of the Lamai Muay Thai camp here:
If you want to train in Pattaya, there is FairTex Muay Thai, and if you want to train with a champion fighter you can request that here – but be aware that it costs 3,300 Baht per hour!
So as you can see, there are many place where to study Muay Thai in Thailand. Even with all the places we’ve listed here, this isn’t by far a complete list, but it sure is a good starting point.