Gym

I joined a new gym this week. I had been going to a gym near my house, but my membership was expiring, ans I had to decide to renew or go somewhere else. My old gym was certainly convenient, I could walk there in less than two minutes. And it had modern machines, well maintained, and friendly helpful staff. But there were some things I didn't like. They recently moved, after not being able to reach an agreement with their former landlord. The new place was in a strip mall, in a building that wasn't designed with a gym in mind. It meant that the gym was on two levels. The locker rooms and restrooms were on the second floor, so you had to go up and down the stairs just to change close, or use the toilet. While the new facility was larger, a lot more of the space was devoted to the snack area, a larger staff room and a nice big office for the manager. It meant there was less space for the equipment. This means that things are layed out in an awkward manner, and some areas are cramped. The stretching area is quite small for example, it fills crowded with any more than three people in it.

So I went to check out other gyms. Finally I ended up at California Wow. CW is in the biggest mall in CM, on the top floor. It's very, uhmmm, California. Bright colors, MTV on the TVs, beautiful and handsome sales and staff people. The manager is a little short Italian-American who looks like Danny Devito, and acts just as sincere as many of the characters Mr. Devito has played. On the upside they have tons and tons of the best and newest gym equipment I've seen in a gym. Gold's Gym, eat your heart out. And the place is massive. So the manager comes over and puts the squeeze on me. He starts showing me around asks me how long I've been in Thailand, etc. Then we sit down and he starts through his spiel. He asks me how I know about CW. I tell him I have a friend who is a member. Great, great, he says. While his assistant uses some gizmo to calculate my BMI, he goes and looks up my friend on the system. He comes back and wattage on his fake smile has gone down considerable. My friend has a lifetime membership, and he doesn't like that. Now he is going to have to offer me the same deal. Normally, they try to sign everyone up on a month to month basis, with prices ranging between 2000 baht to 4000 baht. (There are about 8 levels of membership, and the lowest level is Gold.) But a couple of years ago, when they first opened, they needed to sign up a lot of people, to get some bodies on the floor. They offered a lifetime membership for just 10,000 baht, and a renewal each year of 100 baht. That's right, a lifetime membership costs less than half a year at the month to month rate. Of course, they don't advertise the lifetime membership, and the only way to get it is to be referred by someone who already has it. He had a kind of sad look on his face when I put my money down, but he had to take it. A year at my old gym would have been about 9000 baht, but payable every year. So, I made the switch. Next year I will only have to pay 100 baht for a whole year. So as long as I stay in CM, and as long as CW stays, I will be working out for basically free.