February 21, 2023 Update
For the latest videos see “Thailand” under 2023 on the menu above.
Background – On this trip I arrived on Phuket Island Thailand, October 17, 2021. Thailand was the first country in Asia to open up near the end of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was like a paradise and home for almost two months. It was snowing the night I left Beijing. This and a million other cheerful scenes and people greeted me upon arrival.
While in Phuket I visited the only Wushu Kung Fu school on the island, and most of the best Muay Thai schools/camps and published two articles about those experiences.
Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 37 – Phuket, Thailand – Phuket ancient Silk Road Trading Center, origin of metallurgy and martial arts in Thailand, the comical owners of Rang Hill, and interview with Phuket’s extraordinary Kung Fu Coach Li Yu Zhong of Beijing Wushu School and Beijing Sports University. and,
Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 38 – Phuket Island’s Kung Fu Cont. Visit to Phuket Wushu School, ancient Phuket, 3,000-year-old cave art, possible ancient land and maritime connections between Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and India, two of Phuket’s many museums, “Fighting for Success,” an extraordinary insider’s view into the Muay Thai industry in Thailand by Dr. Lynne Miller and a mind-stopping sunset at Nai Harn Beach.
Then… I had to get a job for all the usual reasons and hooked up with a company that sent me to two tiny towns to teach English. Both towns were quite lovely, but neither town had any kind of Kung Fu, and only the first had even one Muay Thai school. (The second did have a great gym though.)
Looking for a real city, with ancient Silk Road history and great martial arts, in November 2022 I moved to beautiful Chiang Mai.
In the past few months I’ve spent an enormous amount of time trying to learn video productions and specifications of YouTube and TikTok, and developing those videos and channels. Unfortunately, due to the ridiculous ideas of some poorly informed people my friends in China cannot access them easily. So I posted several SILK ROAD KUNG FU FRIENDSHIP TOUR newer videos and a few older videos on the Thailand page under this one “2023” on the menu above.
YouTube Link: @silkroadmartialartsfriends7329
TikTok Link:
@Silk Road Martial Art Nomad
user5051237932857
https://www.tiktok.com/@user5051237932857
What is on those filmographies represents a tiny percent of what I’ve done here, but give some idea of some of the options in Chiang Mai. Those are tiny lists compared to my Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour publication list with Kung Fu Magazine for example.
Those articles are collected into two books available on Amazon.com, or you can download free PDF versions on the DOWNLOAD page on the menu above.
I’ve been publishing with KFM since 2008 after I first visited China on vacation from China, and my Rebuilding the North Shaolin Monastery series in Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine started in 2010 shortly after I moved to Beijing.
Before that I published a lot with Taekwondo Times magazine during the seven years I lived in Korea, but that tapered down to a few more articles after I moved to China.
So far, I’ve researched what I think are the major Wushu-Kung Fu schools here in Chiang Mai, and found the main parks where people do Tai Chi and Qi Gong in the morning, as well as some of the top Traditional Thai, Traditional Chinese, and Complementary Medicine hospitals and clinics…
In spare time I research various topics including archeology and start bibliographies. For example:
And PDFs of course.
And have visited several MOST EXCELLENT Muay Thai schools and Friday Night Action at TWO of Chiang Mai’s four main stadiums.
Thailand has always had a rich martial art heritage and one cannot really separate then, and now so easily.
Screenshot from YouTube video: Buakaw – God of Muay Thai.
Below is a slideshow/video about the founders and founding of Chiang Mai.
Below is from the Chiang Mai National Museum
And next? Mmm? A martial art school perhaps? Or a run through the park? Swim? Nope. Gotta go to the supermarket. Please see Contact page to contribute to Coach Stone’s supermarket fund. Just drop him an email and say “Hi.”
Who knows, maybe direct and alternating current.
Next? Travel plans are being considered, and answers to questions remain here and there.
Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour 