The adjoining Wild Tribe Superfood Café serves some of the best vegan and vegetarian food I try in Koh Samui. Lander knows his stuff and while I’m not here for weight loss, I’m impressed by the healthy yet effective programme he has devised for those who are. Run by Lander Loos, a permanently upbeat Belgian man, the affordable retreat offers a residential programme that includes morning hikes to the top of the island’s most scenic viewpoints, strength and conditioning classes, and yoga. I find a slightly gentler pace next door in Visit Natural Detox Resort. After endless laps around the boxing ring, pad-work and some light sparring, I’m lying in foetal position, drinking a bottle of Gatorade like it’s a bobo. I go in envisaging a personal reinvention akin to the Rocky training montage before being humbled by the 15-minute-long skipping-rope warm-up. What they fail to tell me is that it’s also intense, exhausting and utterly relentless. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of some of the other camps but seasoned fighters tell me their training is top class. I chose Lamai Muay Thai Camp for my first session. Some of the more popular Muay Thai gyms in Koh Samui include Punch It in Surat Thani, which has impressive facilities and an adjoining café known for its high-octane coffee, and Koh Fit, which includes a multi-storey gym and 20m swimming pool. Many international fighters train in Koh Samui ahead of their fights, so in these gyms you’re likely to meet people who have never picked up a skipping rope, alongside professional fighters whose faces you recognise from billboards in the local stadium. Muay Thai is Thailand’s national sport and there are dozens of dedicated camps that cater to all skill levels dotted throughout the island. Most of the thirty- and forty-something solo travellers I meet in Koh Samui plan to spend at least a week of their travels in a fitness retreat on the island - and almost all of them feel duty-bound to try at least one Muay Thai class before they go home. During a stretching session following a HIIT class in Surat Thani, a forty-something British woman tells me she’s here to mend her broken heart after a post-lockdown break-up. He’s hoping a month of yoga and sunshine will give him some clarity. After a vinyasa yoga class in Lamai, a thirty-something American man tells me he quit his hectic job on a whim.
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