Well, the Asia Fitness Convention is off to a great start! Fitness professionals from all over Asia are here in Bangkok to learn about the latest fitness trends. Here’s a picture before my presentation on women and exercise.
The conference is a lot of fun. Asians love their cameras – everyone wants to take a picture with me after I speak. Can’t help but feel like a rock star. One of the attendees asked if I want to go to Jakarta, Indonesia next May to speak at her fitness conference. Oh, I don’t know… let me think about that for a minute.
I ate chicken red curry last night… hottest thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. My mouth was on fire. Couldn’t wait to get back to my room and brush my teeth. Been living on bottled water. Getting all the free bottles I need at the convention center from the conference, which I bring back to the hotel. The refrigerator in my room is packed with bottled water. Food is VERY cheap here, although it sounds expensive because of the big numbers. You can get a good meal for 120 Baht, which is less than $4.00.
I’ve been running on the treadmill, but I tried to run outside for the first time today… practically impossible. Too much traffic, very polluted air, dirty, ugly, smelly, and I came close to getting attacked by dogs that I swear looked like coyotes. This is the view outside my hotel:
After about 30 minutes, I ran back inside to finish my run on the treadmill. Unfortunately, the two treadmills they have in their “fitness center” are open to the outside air, so it is very humid with no airflow, making it very difficult to run on the treadmill without overheating. When I saw on the hotel website that they had a fitness center, I assumed that the treadmills would be inside the air conditioning, but the hallways of the hotel are enclosed with walls and ceilings but open to the outside, so it’s very humid (it actually looks very modern and nice if it weren’t for the heat and humidity). I’m going to have to wait until I get back to San Diego to do my last long run before the New York City Marathon. Only 3 more weeks to go!
One more day left to the conference, and then I’m sticking around for a couple of days to do some tours. If you can’t get to the conferences where I speak, you can download the slide presentations from my website.