Honour Muay Thai-Ao Nang Krabi — Local services in Krabi Province

This experience has been the best experience of my life, I came here to this Muay Thai camp on kind of a journey of my self, solo travelling for the first time, to combat anxiety, to increase my confidence, social skills and of course learn Muay Thai! I can start by saying if your nervous, hesitant or afraid just book it i PROMISE within a day there it will be the best thing you’ve done, the first step is the ONLY nervous part.

Socially: Within a day or 2 I felt apart of the family, this exceeded my expectations, from a social perspective this camp give me a ‘big brother’ or ‘youth club’ vibe. You wake up, do cardio, train for 2 hours, all eat together like a family on one big table, rest, train again for 2 hours in the afternoon and then eat together again, you are in a position where you are comfortably forced to socialise as the nature of the camp is meeting and engaging with other people, which for me was something I needed to increase my confidence, when your not training or eating, your all playing pool/snooker together, all sitting around on the sofa chatting about your lives or watching tv, or you can go off and explore Thailand on your own if you like with a scooter you can rent cheaply from the gym, you meet great friends that will be for life, your surrounded by like mind people who are there to challenge and improve their lives, mostly solo traveler’s as I was, within a week you bond with people like you’ve known them since little kids.

The trainers/staff: you have bus, mam, man, eck, ffilm, peanut, wii, tuu and Howard (the owner), the trainers are absolutely great, not only are they extremely skilled and experienced, some having over 100+ fights, they are the nicest, most friendly people you meet, you would expect naturally by going to a Muay Thai camp that it would be something out of a David goggins training plan forcing you to hit 500 push ups, crying close to the breaking point, but that’s not what it is like, they are very heavy on fun based learning, they are strict in a friendly manner when needed (such as you standing around, they’ll give you motivation saying to keep going, hit the bag or do some push ups etc) or for me, being escorted by my wrist to the punch bag like a child when I would try to sneak off for a 5 minute break🤣 but they make training so much fun, you’ll have f’film singing at 7 am on the microphone in a happy mood, man tensing in the mirror looking At his six pack and peanut recording them laughing at them haha, they have a mess around and ‘playfight’ with you which is fun if your cheeky like me saying you could beat them all up then get put in your place by them all at once haha, all wind each other up, laughing, joking, they all felt more like friends which helped me learn even faster, I have made forever bonds with these trainers and I can not wait to come back to train again in the future. Then you have the lovely kitchen staff, Sai and goy, who are lovely friendly women who know how to make a delicious meal! They value you and remember exactly what your regular order is, it was to the point that as soon as they seen me because I had forgot to order my meal at the start of the day, they would say ‘chicken and rice 3 eggs’ haha

Accommodation and price: the price was very good, especially coming from the uk where the cost of living is pretty high right now, how your wanting your experience to be would be a factor of that, If you want more of a comfortable holiday feeling with a lovely hotel and pool, I would go for the resort but it does make you alot lazier staying here as it’s too comfortable, if your wanting the more ‘full Thai experience’, I would go for the on site rooms, while not the most comfortable in terms of a holiday, you will be more disciplined and have more of that ‘community camp’ experience, the resort is only a 3 minute walk from the camp, i personally did the on site accommodation for 3 weeks then the resort for 4 weeks

Overall this place is great and I can’t wait to come...

I have spent four weeks at Honour Muay Thai training. I have been to other Muay Thai camps in Thailand and Honour truly stands out as in a class of their own. It starts with the Owner Howard, a Brit and himself a former fighter. Howard is abundantly present, ready and able to answer all questions. He is pleasant, funny, and importantly extremely helpful, he is present during the training sessions, offering guidance and when needed is able to translate if a message isn’t getting through due to language barriers.

The lead trainer, Mr. Lek, is an extremely accomplished fighter, and a wonderfully adept trainer, offering great guidance for both beginners and more advanced students alike. Along with Won and Satja, who round out the Ajarn team, they are all happy, helpful, funny, and most importantly – patient! Having trained elsewhere, I can tell you not everywhere is good with beginners. I’ve witnessed where the group trainings at other gyms are nothing other than cattle calls, with little to no instruction. Honour truly is different, the beginners get even more attention, and they are truly trying to teach you technique.

I didn’t stay onsite, I only trained, but the facilities are great, and all the live in students seemed to be getting along and having tons of fun as well.

The other consideration worth pointing out, because I’ve seen the other side, is that Honour is very clean. The mats are mopped, the floors are cleaned regularly. This also has not always been the experience I’ve witnessed elsewhere.

The location is a little off the beaten path in a lovely vegetated residential area 5 minutes by moto from Ao Nang beach. Everything easily accessible.

There isn’t a scintilla of arrogance, or elitism at this place……you are made to feel welcome and worthy instantly. They hold the traditions of Muay Thai dear as well, so you quickly learn the expectation is to respect the traditions of the Art of Eight Limbs, which is really nice to experience. There is a lot of grunting and sweating when you’re there, but you also importantly hear a ton of encouragement, along with lots of laughter.

Don’t...

What really made this experience great is the people (corny as it sounds). Howard, the Brit owner, is an incredibly friendly, helpful, and genuine guy. His feisty girlfriend makes authentic thai meals twice daily for those staying at the gym. The resident fighter, an annoyingly skilled and dedicated Greek guy, was happy to share his knowledge throughout my stay. And the trainers, while playful and easygoing, really care about Muay Thai and want to help you improve. I worked with Chai Noi (sp) most of the week and he was amazing. He, like all the trainers, have a deep respect for the sport and know the training process end to end. He even took the time to learn everyone’s name and took video of my form to help me improve. On my last day he, along with the other trainers, even woke up at 5AM to see me off. I really can’t speak highly enough of these guys. A couple things to note. The facilities are nothing fancy, communal dorms and showers, which work fine and serve the purpose. While it’s easy enough to get to area beaches and nightlife downtown by scooter, the gym is a bit “off the beaten bath”. I think this is by design to focus on training and not rowdy nights out. Which leads to my next point, Howard and the team provide a great atmosphere to learn Muay Thai. While we went out a couple times together for a few beers, drinking at the gym is frowned upon, and if you’re looking to party it’s best to find accommodation outside the gym and come for afternoon sessions. The morning sessions start early with an optional run at 6:30AM, so most people are in bed by 10PM. If you’re new to Muay Thai or have years of experience, definitely give Honour a try. Like me I’m sure you’ll have an...