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Published: February 3rd 2008
Lumpinee Stadium
It wasn't a very big stadium. My guess is that it probably only sat around 1,000 people. The ringside seats, where we sat, was almost all foreigners while the bleacher seats was almost all Thais. I think that's because you can only gamble in the bleacher seats and there was a lot of gambling going on once the fights got started.So this weekend was an adventure packed weekend for me. It started out with me staying in and doing absolutely nothing Friday night because I was tired and I actually really enjoyed myself. Two of my housemates went out partying but I was perfectly content to take it easy and get some sleep, so that is exactly what I did.
Saturday I got up relatively early to try and get a lot accomplished. After some minor set backs in the morning involving some hotel reservations that I simply could not get, I finally got out of the apartment in late morning to head to Chutuchak Weekend Market. I had been there a few weekends ago but I only looked around briefly and didn't buy anything. This time I wanted to go and get some shopping done and I think I was pretty successful considering I spend almost all the money I had in my wallet when I left in the morning. I got gifts for quite a few people (including myself) so even though I spend a good amount of money, I didn't really care because I accomplished what I set out to do. I decided that once I was
Muay Thai
Each of the fights had weight classes, ranging from 100-130 pounds. The fighters looked small but it was hard to believe some of them were only 100 pounds. They didn't look much bigger than me and most people think I am small yet I weigh around 150. broke that I should head back to the apartment since the others were planning on visiting a couple more wats (temples) that we had yet to see. So the three of us hopped in a cab to Wat Arun and after falling asleep in the taxi yet again (this seems to be a recurring problem with me) we arrived at Wat Arun. The temple was just as beautiful as all the photos I had seen of it but the steps were a bit steeper than I was expecting. It really was an adventure going up and down the steps to get to the top level of the temple. I don't know if my photos do it any justice but just imagine steps that are about 6-8 inches deep and probably 10-12 inches tall. Needless to say it was a little scary, but it was fun. After we walked around Wat Arun we took a ferry across the river to Wat Pho, home of the Reclining Buddha as well as the Thai Massage Institute. I was hoping to get a massage but unfortunately time didn't permit it so it will have to wait for some other time. The Reclining Buddha was
huge, just as I expected it to be. After wandering around Wat Pho the three of us went back home to clean up and then in later that night we went to Lumpinee Boxing Stadium to see some Muay Thai fights. Muay Thai is sort of like kickboxing, where the fighters are allowed to punch, like you would in normal boxing (they wear boxing gloves) and they can also kick, knee, and elbow their opponents. The object is to hurt your opponent while defending yourself as best you can, but you can also knock out your opponent as well. There were 9 fights and each fight was 5 three minute rounds. Not all the fights went for the full 5 rounds but needless to say, after about 5 or 6 fights I started to get really bored because I was exhausted and it was just the same thing over and over again. But I'm glad I went to see it even though it was a little disconcerting at first because I have never watched a live fight before so it took a fight or two for me to get used to watching two people beat the crap out of each
Knock out
Boxer getting taken out of the ring on a stretcher after he was knocked unconscious. He lost that fight. other.
Today I took a day trip to Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand. It's about 90km north of Bangkok and it was the capital from the 14th century until the mid 18th century. I booked a tour online where they transport me to Ayutthaya, take me around to a couple of temples with a guide, and then they bring me back home. It was a little on the expensive side but it was definitely worth it. Every place I've been so far I'm just going and looking around. There hasn't been much of an opportunity for me to actually learn much about the things I'm seeing because there isn't anything written about it at the locations and I just haven't gotten around to looking things up online. Having the guide was a nice change because she was able to explain to me the significance of some things and provide me with a history about them. It was also good because she continuously wanted to take pictures of me at each of the places, which is nice considering I have very few photos of myself around Thailand and she knew all the good spots to take photos from. The
tour started out by going to Bangpa-In, which is the royal family's summer palace. They don't use it often now because if the King or Queen goes there the palace is shut to tourists and being it is a big tourist attraction, they try to avoid doing that. The palace was built by King Rama V, I think sometime in the 19th century, and it has a very European style to it because Rama V traveled often to Europe and liked the style. There is one building built in a Chinese style, which was paid for by Chinese people living in Thailand. After leaving the summer palace we went to three different wats. Each of them was built during the 14th century (I think) and most of them were just ruins. The reason the capital was moved from Ayutthaya to Bangkok is because the Burmese attacked and were able to sack Ayutthaya, so for safety reasons the capital was moved further south. That is way there aren't many complete temples and a lot of ruins. The ruins actually reminded me a lot of Palatine Hill in Rome because all that remained of a lot of it was just walls and
Bleacher seats
These are the "cheap" seats where all the locals sat. They really get into the fights the way anyone else would for a sport back home. It was cool to see how intense they were about watching the fights. pillars. The only difference here is that the ruins are only 600-700 years old instead of nearly 2000 years old. After visiting each of the temples we went to see a little elephant show where they have the elephants do some tricks and stuff. I had thought part of the tour involved an elephant tour, which I assumed to be an elephant ride around the temples, but I guess it just meant the elephant show. It didn't really bother me because when my guide told me that the elephant tours in Chang Mai are excellent so I will go on one when I am there instead. After the elephant show we went out for lunch at a buffet in a hotel in Ayutthaya. The food was good, except I ate too much, but it was good none the less. After lunch they drove me home (where I managed to fall asleep in the car yet again) and that was that. Now I need to get some work done so I know what I am going to be teaching this week and then Thursday morning we are all heading off to Phuket for the Chinese New Year. Hopefully the photos I've
posted will help explain some of the things I've left out about Ayutthaya, but if not I apologize. I'm really tired right now and I've probably already forgotten 95% of what I learned today.
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Lauren
non-member comment
I like all the pictures in this entry.