Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Chapter 7 - Muay Thai et al

Well last night your correspondent enjoyed his first evening of Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) at the Lumphini stadium - said by afficionados to be the premier location for good solid biffo.

Our explorers also came along, rather tragically both in white tops hoping to get splattered with blood. Your correspondent of course merely took along his note book to report events faithfully.

It has to be said that whilst the atmosphere was amazing - as the fighters fought a Thai band played eerily soothing music in the background whilst the Thais cheered every knee hit with a loud "Knee" (probably not but that is what it sounded like) and the bookies in the pits seemed to be running several books at once so there was a real cacophany in the stadium - the biffo was a bit disappointing. It may well have been the fights but an awful lot of the time they seemed just to be grappling whilst occasionally lifting a knee into their opponent's ribs.

There was some good fighting in there but it fell somewhat short of expectations which when it cost 2,000 Baht to get in (which is an awful lot here - more then Sir Ranuplh has spent in the last 3 days) was a shame. However they did hand out free key rings so that is all right then.

The particular highlights were, in no particular order, a knockout knee blow to the Solar Plexus, the penultimate fight between two 100lb fighters (i.e. tiny - the pair together weighed less than Biscuit Boy) and the wrong turn made as we went to leave the stadium taking us through the changing area, with the usual smell of sweat and embrocation, and out through the players' entrance.

In other news our gastronauts continued their epicurean adventures by sharing a plateful of chitterlings. Left Hoots feeling distinctly unwell but our hero enjoyed them immensely.

Having changed guest house a day ago (for fact fans - from the Top Guest House on the Khao San Road to the New Siam Guest House just off it) our hero has had the first opportunity to use his travel towel purchased specially at Heathrow. Travel it may be, towel it ain't. It is closer to a Chamois. Mind he is looking particularly shiny and polished today.

Bangkok has thrown up some very weird sights so far but the weirdest was yesterday when a dog moon-walked down the road. Clearly Michael Jackson still has some fans.

Our brave adventurers are moving on tomorrow to Chiang Mai. As the intrepid fellows they are they are of course really going edgy on the mode of transport - a great big air-conditioned bus. Oh the adventure of it all.

Our post bag has been literally empty with requests for a description of the taste of scorpion and clamourings for photos of the big event. We can report the taste to be like a beef pork scratching. As to the photos sadly due to technical difficulties they cannot yet be uploaded. We hope to rectify that very soon.

Next installment probably from Chiang Mai.

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