chiang mai thailand, then i'll be back to bangkok.

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March 2nd.

Yesterday was a good one.

We spent most of the day just strolling around the old city in chiang mai, with no destination in mind. We stopped and shared a gigantic ice cream sundae, it was pretty delicious.

When the evening came, we made our way down to the local muay thai stadium and watched the fights for the evening.

Watching muay thai is an experience for all the senses. When you walk in you can immediately smell the unmistakeable odour of tiger balm. There is traditional music playing at a very high volume and drinks are inexpensive and readily availible. There is also cheap food being prepared practically ringside.

The matches began with young kids, maybe 10-12 years old, kicking the crap out of each other. The weight classes and ages eventially get higher as the evening progresses.

About halfway through, the 'special' match takes place. 4 guys (and a ref) get into the ring and proceed to get blindfolded before the bell rings and all hell breaks loose. The fighters start swinging wildly and the ref takes most of the punishment, though he doesn't hesitate to kick the blind fighters in the chest randomly. Probably one of the most entertaining things i've seen.

Throughout the night you'll get locals coming up to you and trying to make bets on the outcomes of the fights, but I woudln't bite, they know more than me.

The night concluded with a big fat brit fighting a slightly less fat thai in the main event. It seemed to our untrained eyes that the englishman whooped the crap out of the thai, but when all was said and done, the decision went to the local. A bit of a ripoff for the limey, but we were cheering against him anyhow. Go Thailand.

Less than a week left now, I'm a little homesick, but i really dont want to leave. I'm gonna miss the consistantly beautiful weather and consistantly delicious fresh fruit shakes.

Tonight we're going to take a thai cooking class then tomorrow morning we hop on a train for bangkok. We will spend the remainder of our trip going from market to market, shopping until we drop, also we're gonna go see alice in wonderland at the imax at the siam paragon. Biggest screen in all of southeast asia.

Anyhow, keep it real, I know we will.

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