Dragon Muay Thai, Chalong: What Training There Is Actually Like

Where is Dragon Muay Thai?

Dragon Muay Thai is on Soi Ta-iad in Ao Chalong, southern Phuket. Soi Ta-iad is the 1.5 kilometre road known as Fitness Street, and Dragon sits in the middle of it, so once you are on the road you will not walk past it by accident.

One practical warning: the gym does not have a working website right now. The old domain returns an error page, so the results you find when you search are directory listings, map entries and reviews written years ago. That is the reason this page exists. If you want the exact pin, search the gym name in your map app rather than trusting a directory address, because the directories do not even agree with each other on the house number.

What the gym is like

Dragon is one of the more traditional gyms on a street full of modern fitness businesses. Vice visited and described it in 2016 as a Thai-style wooden central building with four rings, a mirrored mat area, about a dozen guest bungalows and a coffee shop attached, run by Ekkarin Lookchan, who opened it when he was thirty. Details change over ten years, but the character has not: it is a working Muay Thai gym rather than a resort with a bag rack.

Two things follow from that, and they matter when you are choosing where to train.

It is Muay Thai only

Several gyms on Soi Ta-iad sell Muay Thai next to MMA, BJJ, CrossFit and strength coaching. Dragon does not. If you want a week of mixed disciplines, another gym on the street will suit you better. If you want to spend your time in Phuket actually getting better at Muay Thai, the narrower focus is the point.

Thai fighters train here too

The gym keeps a team of Thai fighters alongside its visiting students. That is the reason the standard on the pads is high, and it is also the honest reason some people find it demanding. Tripadvisor reviewers describe Dragon as less crowded than the big neighbouring camp, with more actual training time and a higher assumed fitness level.

That last part is a fair warning about group sessions, and it is exactly the gap a private hour fills.

Group training or a private hour at Dragon?

Both happen in the same gym, and you can do both in the same week. The difference is not the quality of the trainers, it is how much of one trainer's attention you get.

Most visitors who stay a month end up doing both. Most visitors who have a week get more out of three private hours than out of seven group classes, because a week is not long enough to fix a bad habit you keep repeating in a crowd.

Private 1-on-1 with Kru Marn at Dragon

Kru Marn (ครูหม่าน) teaches private sessions at Dragon Muay Thai. He is a former Southern Thailand Champion with 180 professional fights and 150 wins, and he has been teaching for more than fifteen years. In a session you are not training with a gym team, you are training with him.

• ฿700 per session. That is the lowest published private rate of any Phuket gym we compared.
• Equipment included. Gloves, wraps and pads are provided, so a first session costs you nothing but the session.
• No membership, no sign-up fee, no minimum. One session is a normal thing to book.
• All levels. Complete beginners, fitness travellers, and fighters in camp.
• A 20-session package is ฿14,000, which is the same ฿700 per session, so waiting to commit costs you nothing.

Getting there and what to expect on arrival

1. Find the road first. Soi Ta-iad runs between Chao Fa East and Chao Fa West near Wat Chalong. Search the gym name in your map app rather than a street number.
2. Most people ride. A scooter is the normal way to get around Chalong. Taxis and ride-hailing reach the street easily if you do not ride.
3. Come in training clothes. Shorts, a t-shirt, a towel and water. You will train barefoot, so bring shoes that slip off.
4. Bring cash. Sessions are paid in baht at the gym.
5. Message before you come. A private hour is one trainer's time, so it gets agreed in advance rather than walked into.

If you have never trained before, read what actually happens in a first Muay Thai session first. If you are still comparing gyms and prices on the street, we listed every published rate in what private Muay Thai training costs in Phuket, and the street itself is covered in our guide to Soi Ta-iad.

Frequently asked questions