Our trip continues

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Last time we left you with a few stories untold. So.. here we go. Lisa and I decided to go to a Thai boxing match. It was held in a small stadium and when we got in we were directed, by pretty much everyone in the crowd to one specific empty section. Our empty section was almost an entire wall of the stadium while all the other sections were close to full. It turns out this was the foreigners section. We were the only ones in it. When other Thai people came to sit in it they were told to stay out by the other Thai people in attendance. It was very odd and Lisa felt a bit uncomfortable. I felt special. About five minutes before the first fight was due to start, by some prearranged signal that Lisa and I were unaware of, all the Thai people suddenly teleported into our section and we were surrounded. The fights began and The crowd went wild. The sound was deafening and furious betting was taking place in the stands. We quite enjoyed the matches until the final one. It was a match between two youths who we estimated were about twelve years old...seriously. The match went three of five rounds and in the third round the smaller boy was knocked down twice and was clearly incapable of continuing. The referee sensibly stopped the fight but it was obvious that the young boy was concussed and he fell unconsious. He was down for a while but eventually got up. It left us with a feeling that we had participated in a very authentic Thai cultural experience but we weren't sure if it was a good one.

The following day we hired a guide to take us to Ayutthaya. This was a former capital of Thailand and has hundreds of temples. The first temple he took us to was a Chinese temple that had a very large Golden Buddha statue among other interesting features. We were there on a Buddhist holiday so there were thousands of people there. It was great to be in the midst of the large and celebratory crowd and experience their customs. Lisa managed to wade into the crowds in order to get some photos. After the Chinese temple our guide took us to a very large Khmer influenced temple complex built in the fifteenth century. It was in ruins and had a romantic feeling about it. As we were wrapping up our visit there we were treated to the sight of many elephants walking past the complex. After another temple visit we had a short cruise in a traditional river boat, dinner by the river and finished up with a moonlight viewing of another spectacular and beautiful ruined temple. We returned to Bangkok and went for another $5 massage at a street side massage studio. The massage experience was enhanced by the excellent street vibe with music, lights and boisterous crowds. An excellent day indeed.

The following day we hooked up with the tour group that would take us through Laos and down the Mekong. Our guide Joe seems excellent and everyone in our group of eleven seems very nice - very well travelled and laid back. We'll send another report tomorrow if possible. Computer access is limited and we cannot currently send photos.

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