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Published: September 24th 2007
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Watching Saohin's Match
Some of the trainers sitting at the Juice Bar watching Saohin's WBO title shot. On thursday night, somebody found a copy of Saohin's fight against Paulie Ayala, in Texas. So everybody gathered around the juice bar and watched. It was amusing to watch Saohin, because he had never watched it before. When I spoke to him about that match, he said "Ah Paulie Ayala. He has my phone number." I was confused. He explained "In that fight, Paulie Ayala has my phone number." Then I understood what he was trying to say was Paulie Ayala had his number, which is a phrase that means
Saohin was outmatched in that fight. He clearly won the first 4 rounds. The next 8, however, Paulie did in fact have his number.
So, this weekend I took a flight to Bangkok to visit my old friend Andrew Konrad, who I used to train with in Guelph at the University, and to explore the city. Andrew had graduated the year before I had, so this was my first time seeing him in over a year. He was doing well, and it was good to see a familiar face while on my trip away from home, and familiarity.
Bangkok is a huge, sprawling, decaying, ugly, dirty city. With a
Sky Train
Above ground train in Bangkok population of 12 million people, it is exceedingly overpopulated. It is very polluted; I never saw the clear sky the entire time I was there. It was not overcast and cloudy, it was just smog. It got bright during the day, but it was always through a hazy layer of pollution. There was litter on the ground, as well as the occasional stray dog trying to find relief from the heat. And it had areas that were very poor, with tiny little mom and pop shops and restaurantsm and carts selling food for cheap. The traffic never stopped, with a constant traffic jam of taxis, mopeds, and tuk tuks (3 wheeled, open air taxis). Imagine the movie Bladerunner, but without the flying cars, and you're not too far off from how Bangkok is.
Andrew had arrived in Thailand the night before I went to Bangkok, so he was still pretty messed up from the time change when I got there. It was pretty funny actually, he was very spacey during our first conversation. So we didn't go anywhere on friday night, just sat around and did some catching up.
On saturday morning, we went to a place called
Crowded Street
Near Chatuchak weekend market. Chatuchak Weekend Market, near Mo Chit. Now I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard somebody say that this was the largest flea market in the world. Having spent all day there, it wouldn't surprise me if this were true. Andrew and I wandered around this market for hours, and got pretty lost doing it. It was huge and crowded. And you could buy pretty much anything you could think of there. There was clothes, electronics, art, food, movies, even animals. There were shops and kiosks set up as far as you could see. If you saw something you liked, it was advisable that you
bought it right then, because there would be no way for you to find it again if you wanted to go back. Most of the stuff seemed to be knockoffs, which was not much of a surprise. Nothing was at a set price, every purchase became a bargaining process.
I did not make it out to Khaosan Road, which is famous for its bartering and such, but I can imagine that the market was similar.
Saturday evening, Andrew and I went with Andrew's friend Kieth, to Lumpinee Stadium to watch some
Bangkok Street
Bangkok Street on the way to the market. fights. Lumpinee Stadium is considered the birthplace of modern Muay Thai, and is arguably the best competitive Muay Thai in Thailand. Every fighter here aims to be the Lumpinee Stadium champion. Several of the trainers from Tiger Muay Thai had the opportunity to fight at Lumpinee. Mac fought there years ago. Watt was the number one contender for 2 years straight. Nazee was briefly the champion.
I say arguably the best Muay Thai in Thailand, because Lumpinee seems to be on the same level as another stadium in Bangkok called Rachidaminan. Rachidaminan is more new and modern, and many up-and-coming fighters compete there. But Lumpinee was the original stadium in Bangkok. So the argument turns into whether or not it is better to be the champion at the original stadium or the new state-of-the-art stadium. Either way, they're both very high level, way more prestigious than Bangla stadium in Patong.
After hearing so much about the stadium, I honestly expected more of it. I expected it to be bigger. It was not huge, but if every seat were filled, it would fit a lot of people. The fights were spectacular, very high level. There was not a
Andrew
Andrew after bartering for sunglasses single weak link. The show went on for many hours.
On Sunday, Andrew, Keith and I decided to go to Bangkok's largest shopping mall, the Siam Centre. I wish I had brought my camera, because it have made for some pretty impressive shots. It was also the most glaring example of the disparity between the rich and the poor in Bangkok. There was not a single store that I could afford to shop at. It was all high end tailors, electronics and such. Versace, Armani, Gucci, whole lot. The upper floor of the Siam Centre was the car dealerships. There was a Ferrari dealership, a Porsche dealership, a BMW dealership, and a Lamborghini dealership, all with show-models of their most recent additions. I never saw any Thai people driving around in Lamborghini Gallardos, or Ferrari Enzos. So it was interesting to see them for sale here, not a 10 minute Tuk Tuk ride from some of the worst poverty and living conditions that I had ever witnessed.
In Canada, we have a fairly decent system in place to help people from falling through the cracks. It still happens, but not for the lack of social programs in place.
Inside the Market
Inside the Bazaar style market In Thailand, there is no such thing as welfare, or unimployment insurance. If you lose your job, you can't just continue to collect and income while you get back on your feet. Here it's all cracks. Many people are living day to day. If they don't sell enough meat on sticks, their children don't eat. For the most part people make so little that there is very little chance for advancement. So there's a certain futility of trying that you can see on people's faces while they work. It is for this reason, the shear level of poverty and lack of social welfare, that Thailand has become well-known for it's problems with prostitution.
Bangkok was a very interesting city. But I would not want to live there or visit again for more than a couple of days.
On Sunday, Andrew and I said goodbye to Keith and continued on to Phuket, although we nearly missed our flight. Bangkok has 2 airports, one called Don Mueang, which is mainly domestic, and one called Suvarnabhumi, which ia domestic and international. Our flight left from Suvarnabhumi. The first taxi we took brought us to Don Mueang. We then had to take
Clock Tower
The Clock Tower was the landmark at the centre of the Chatuchak market. another taxi across the city to Suvarnabhumi. So originally we had left ourselves loads of time to get to our flight comfortably, now we made our flight with less than 5 minutes to spare. It was that close.
Heard news from home about my Boxing coach's wedding. Congratulations, Dave.
Now back to Tiger Muay Thai and more training.
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