Muay Thai

So Peem and I were trying to figure out what to do with the evening. We were going to go workout (at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club), and then to dinner. What then? That is when we saw the sign for Muay Thai and decided that is what we needed to do!

Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) is like kick boxing. You are not only punching the other guy, you are swinging your foot to meet his face as well. We walk into the place prepared to by the cheap seats, you know the ones that are further back. In this case, third tier. When we get there to by the tickets we are told that we shouldn't purchase those, there ahve been a lot of fights lately in the thrid tier, by some seats closer up. (Remember, this negotiation is between the ticket person, Peem, and his driver all in Thai.) The next thing I know we are being ushered to the floor for ringside seats to this boxing match! It was great. There is nothing like watching a guy get beat up a little bit, and we were close enough where you can see the fighter really trying to focus on not passing out after he got a kick to the head. There were a bunch of take downs but know knock-outs.

Part of the fun was having Peem's driver explain what was going on, who was winning etc. The "heavyweight" division was having a championship bout on Tuesday. I think the bigger guy may have weighed 150 lbs. No lie, there were little and skinny (although perhaps mean) men. One aspect that is interesting to note is that fighting runs in the family, where most of these fighters are probably the sons of former fighters, etc.

I am not going to lie, my favorite match-up of the night was the bare knuckle round. But the thing was, it wasn't really bare knuckles. They didn't where gloves, although they wrapped their hands with rope and fought like that. They hit hard and kicked hard. Sort of like UFC, without the octagon.

We met these two guys who were sitting next to us. They were from Los Angeles and were there hanging out for a couple of weeks. Besides betting on the fights a little bit, they were asking where to go in Bangkok, they were leaving the next day. Peem suggested that they go to Patpong. This is a small neighborhood famous for its nightlife. They were looking to "hang out with some girls for the night." Hmmm...wasn't sure whether they were looking to experience Bangkok's famous flesh-trade or perhaps just pick someone up in a bar. Anyway, Patpong is known for it's Ping Pong shows, and we aren't talking about table tennis. Basically, the young woman shoot ping pong balls at targets without using any hands! Oh yes, you have the picture, they are shooting Ping Pong balls with their _____. We figured that this area would be just what these two guys were looking for.