Battle Conquer Phetchabun [Gym Review]

I’m a third time offender! 

I’ve visited and trained at residential camp Muay Thai Battle Conquer once in 2023 and twice in 2025 and it’s an experience I intend to repeat on any trip to Thailand. It’s strangely addictive, and I’ve been wondering what exactly the intoxicant is.

For context: I’m English, I’ve been training for over five years, through rehab of a torn ACL and have experienced over ten different gyms in Thailand and a splattering all over the world. I’ve yet to fight but have trained alongside some big stadium fighters in gyms in Thailand. 

Guest Post by Naadia Kidy
Edited by Angela Chang

Contents:

• The Camp
• Facilities
• Staff
• Training
• A Woman’s Angle
• Other Things to Do
• Other Things to Note
• Summary

The Camp

Battle Conquer mixes two concepts together: the wellness camp focusing on yoga and the Muay Thai camp. This brings together a blend of students and you’re all on this farm in the middle of Thailand away from tourist hotspots! Whilst more of an international camp rather than a traditional fighters’ gym, the Muay Thai isn’t sanitised, it remains deeply rooted in Thai culture with quality coaching at its core.

It’s a funny cocktail, like being at university. You live together, train together, eat together and party together. (Whilst alcohol is banned on campus, there’s still outside opportunities to let your hair down!). You’re assessed together, you champion each other and grow your practice together.

The camp draws an eclectic mix of students: broken souls looking for healing, youngin’s with new wings never having ventured anywhere globally, Muay Thai junkies scratching itches, those fallen off the wagon. This is where you can find grounding, curious wanderers, fresh starts and old friends.

This is a quiet spot in the middle of the country, where time simultaneously slows down and slips away. where you don’t worry about meals, laundry, work. You just worry about that janky switch kick and whether or not you can finish your conversation with that interesting man who was also writing a novel. Perhaps the intoxicant is that, in this environment, we strip ourselves raw, we fall in love, in our sweaty flawed states, with ourselves and others, we watch each other grow, we magnetise our souls.

There’s no main strip or local scene to immerse in. We are the scene, we are each other’s family.  We mourn departures and cling to final promises of whens and where’s. We find people who we may never have found before. 

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Facilities

It’s set in farmland in a province in central Thailand, Phetchabun. It’s self-sustaining; everything you need and wish for is provided on-site. 

Muay Thai is the star of the show, of course. There is also yoga – a variety including silks and Muay Thai-specific yoga. A weights room, a pool, ice bath, bike/gear rental, on-site massage, nail bar, sak yant tattoo artist and acres of quiet farmland to run on. [See Other Things to Do section for nearby venues and activities.]

The camp meals themselves are wholesome and Thai, mainly chicken for breakfast and dinner. Options for vegetarians, vegans and raw diets are available too. (A little hack I discovered if you like western “clean eating” was to opt for the raw diet and add some chicken to it!) It’s two meals a day but fridges in communal areas have options for light lunches too.

Halal is standard, but the kitchen also caters for a variety of intolerances and dietary needs and plan to expand their options with the introduction of a new kitchen this year.  

The facilities are divided into two camps:

• Camp 1: more budget-friendly, this original accommodation has nooks and crannies, chickens and mountain sunsets and is very much a part of the environment. The camp also has the dining room, main office (which also has gear for sale and rental) and yoga shalas. 
• Camp 2: boutique living, modern and pretty. All the accommodation faces the pool. Camp 2 has the massage and nail rooms, the Muay Thai and weights gym, the smoothie bar and shop. 

Shuttles run between camps although I loved the ten minute walk between. When camps are full, there’s a local hotel with more private accommodation.

Packages come in two options. Muay Thai and fitness (fitness) or lots of both Yoga and Muay Thai (wellness). 

Staff

The Battle Conquer staff are stellar. The top boss herself, P’ Noi, is an absolute legend. Catch her around campus with her cute puppy Coco (sometimes in a baby carrier!). A true example of matriarchal hard work, who built the gym from a few rooms to the booked up establishment it is now. Along with partner Owen, they have also expanded to a Pattaya branch, which I have yet to visit.

The kitchen staff, housekeeping, bar, massage and maintenance teams all morph into your family away from family and remember you. An onsite management team with good global and local understanding warmly guide you through your qualms and training and before long become homies for life. 

And of course the Krus, the patient, wonderful fun coaches. I travel for work and try and train wherever I am, and have found the Muay Thai in Battle Conquer bloomin’ brilliant. Two two-hour sessions per day (7am and 3:30pm), all encompassing: a little running, warm-ups, stretches, shadow boxing, drills/ techniques, padwork, bag work, cool-downs.

The recent addition of a treadmill is just a dream on the knees for those with injuries. Often a sprinkling of fun games are added which work on agility and conditioning too. It’s fun training with a big educational impact. Battle Conquer’s gym space is clean, well equipped, and constantly improving. 

Training

Beginners and experienced students are trained separately for technique and total beginners are taken aside for full inductions. They notice new students and introduce themselves. This camp offers one of the most beginner friendly programs I have seen in the world. Hands down. The “high technique” class is varied and offers a lot of knowledge, the trainers are excellent here. 

More advanced students are quickly noticed and also given separate training regimes to prepare for fights. Sparring is only once a week but trainers will spar with you if they recognise your ability. Classes run seven days a week which is useful if you’re patching camps together or arriving on a weekend. One-on-ones run between the classes and are bang for your buck. 

Women: No need to go under the ropes.

A Woman’s Angle

The trainers are equally playful and helpful regardless of your gender. I found this very reassuring. The man to woman ratio is far more even, which is likely because of the yoga programme. I have yet to feel uncomfortable staying on campus or training “as a woman” at Battle Conquer. With strong women in management (Laura and Silvia), yoga instructors and lots of women training, you don’t feel any loneliness or vulnerability (and the whole camp is covered in cameras to boot). 

There are options on the market to join women-only cohorts in gyms in Thailand, but if you’re travelling alone and want to feel secure, amongst your gender and looking for first timer/traveller-friendly experiences, this camp is a great option. 

I took a few yoga classes and some rehab yoga one-on-ones, and the teachers are grounded, knowledgeable and incredibly helpful when it comes to supporting your Muay Thai practice from a yoga perspective. I found the yoga program really complementary to the Muay Thai, whether it’s staring down your demons or simply opening your hips this marriage of disciplines works really well. 

As a bonus (or maybe as I age), I’ve started to develop a real maternal attachment to the young women practising yoga who try Muay Thai for the first time and become so proud of their accomplishments insisting they continue their Muay Thai journey when they return home. Watching women come to camp and just check out Muay Thai, only to fall into its addictive snare, is so satisfying. I am a firm believer in everyone having some martial arts training but making it part of your life and loving it is beneficial to general confidence. The team actively supports women being put forward for fights too. And of course having a woman as top boss is just dreamy. 

Other Things to Do

There’s a camp bar off campus which has pool tables and poker nights. And every morning you hear chickens and prayers as you amble your way to sunrise yoga. It’s rural, laid back Thailand in a nut shell; a quieter pace to training in Bangkok. 

An on-site smoothie bar, local cafes and a mama’s street food cafe complement the provided meals. There’s no online food delivery like Grab but the local karaoke bar will personally deliver you food in between camp meal times.

Once a week the kitchen opens to students and Thai cooking classes are given, I told you it’s self-contained!

The schedule is vast and enriching. Town shopping, temple visits, waterfall hikes, country walks, lake swims, sports, karaoke, night market visits and of course fight nights. A camp WhatsApp group allows for fluid communication and photo shares. 

Other Things to Note

I wondered to myself, comparing 2023 and 2025 if the camp was getting too convenient but access to a little tuk tuk for a quick Lotus (supermarket) run, or having a few alternatives to camp meals in a camp so big is actually a nice opt out.

When, on occasion, or even regularly, you need to be alone, and the dining area is full, and the pool area is busy having an option of seclusion can help regulate the social overwhelm. And I know I need that to stay regulated.

I found myself less socially anxious in 2025 than 2023 and I think the access to getting off campus helped that massively. It’s harder to focus on individual goals (eg writing my novel) because the social aspect is so high and the camp so big. For that kind of escape a stay at Kem’s in the mountains (see Megs’ and Angela’s reviews on here for that) is more conducive. But if you’re disciplined enough you can make it work. I’m not. 

Battle Conquer has so many return guests and it’s easy to see why. Whether switching off or tuning in, it’s gives real space to connect with yourself and others, understand your body, and fall in love over and over again with people and their spectrum, yourself, Thailand and of course Muay Thai. 

Perhaps that’s the intoxicant after all. 

Summary

• Location: Bueng Sam Phan District, Phetchabun
• Price (includes accommodation, training, and meals):
  Fitness Package (7 days): from ฿16,600 (approx. US$504)  
  Wellness Package (7 days): from ฿20,790 (approx. US$630)
• Training:
  Fitness package: strength & conditioning, excursions and activities
  Wellness package: everything above plus yoga, meditation, cultural activities, cooking classes and Thai massage(s), depending on the package length.
• Gym Culture: Relaxed, inclusive, high ratio of women participants and staff members.
• Language: Mainly English, although some trainers speak only Thai.
• Getting There: The camp can organize taxi or tuktuk for you from Samo Thot.
• Contact: https://muaythaibattleconquer.com

This article was written by Naadia Kidy. You can find her on Instagram via her personal page and photography page.

If you want an in-depth guide to training in Thailand, I’ve got just the thing.