Thai Boxing

Not something I would normally watch because I don’t like violence and I always turn this sort of thing off if it’s on the telly, but I decided to give it a go and found it to be rather entertaining. In the middle of all the girly bars in Koh Samui is a big boxing ring, quite a good place for it I thought thinking it would be a male dominated thing, however, to my surprise it was lady boxing first and there were lots of women who had come to show their support.

A strong smell of hot sweat that intermingled with the ordure of some Thai version of vixs vapor rub floated through the air and created an electrical environment of charged energy which you could feel in the atmosphere around the crowds of cheering Thais. They loved it seemingly and we were gradually getting absorbed by the intoxicating vibe. Just a few tables away from where we were stood the Thai boxers were getting ready for their fight. The coach was trying to give them a pet talk over the sounds of house music that was coming from the surrounding speakers that were attached to the roof.

The girl that we were supporting snapped her bra and the match had to be suspended until she found a replacement. Needless to say everybody found this hilarious the fighters included. Eventually the seriousness of the match took hold of the contenders again and the fresh bra Thai finally won. We remained at ring side transfixed for about four fights while we destroyed a few beers. I was drinking beer Chang and Mark was drinking Singha beer. The night ended with both of us having a Thai dish from one of the street stall near the boxing ring. After that we took a steady stroll back to our hotel through the populated streets of Samui.

The last day of Koh Samui was taken up in an internet café. I was trying to find a place to stay in Chiang Mai which was our next must see place. By 8.00pm that night I still had no luck. Sometime in the coming week it was the king’s Birthday and the holiday season for the Thai people making Chiang Mai the most popular place to visit for their holidays.

So in the end I ended up going to a travel agents and booking a hotel, which is normally really cheap on the internet, for a silly price. All the hotels have hiked the prices up for the holidays it seems.

We had a quick Indian meal and then went home to pack our stuff for our early morning flight to Bangkok and then on to Chiang Mai. We had to get up at 4.00am and that only left us with about 3-4 hours sleep by the time we finished packing.

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