Friday 22nd February
The day started off pretty lazy and continued in that vein into the afternoon. My main priority for the day was to work on the journal, upload photos online and do some research on the crossing into Laos that I was about to make in the following days (the Lonely Planet's website 'The Thorn Tree' has become an invaluable source of first-hand information). I needed to get an idea of how long a standard visa for Laos lasts for, and what to expect in terms of transportation once I got there.
Later in the evening, I went to the 'muay Thai', a form of boxing particular to Thailand that involves kicking, kneeing, and grappling in addition to the standard punching consistent with the more conventional form of Queensbury Rules. I was looking forward to seeing some live sporting action in a local arena (and to tick off another of the 'things to do' in Thailand).
The fighting card started at 21.00 and the old-style boxing stadium with wooden stands on all sides was reasonably well attended, with a mix of foreign tourists and a number of local men out supporting the fights from ringside. The ticket had cost 400B, a fair price and probably a whole lot cheaper than something similar in Bangkok (although with a lower quality of fight on view). For this ticket, we got nine fights, all of varying weight divisions, from teenagers from local clubs to international fights between older guys.
The boxing (and kicking and kneeing and grappling) varied in the level of violence and impact. Some of the fighters were cagey and sized each other up before getting down to business, while others just got down to the knitty gritty and laid into each other from the start. There were some tough blows thrown and a few guys ended up with bloody faces, or were knocked down and became too dazed to get up again. About half of the fights went the full five rounds. In a sport where the most admired move is to knee your opponent in the face, I was expecting it to be a bit more brutal, although I'm sure much of the training is dedicated to defending yourself from these high impact blows.
It was good to see, and there was a fair bit of ritual and showmanship involved, mainly in the moments after the fighters entered the ring. The fighters pranced and preened, strutting their stuff with the double aim of intimidating their opponent and to curry favour with the crowd. There was a lot of shouting and gesturing from the local contingent who had come to cheer on fighters from various clubs. Despite the competition, there was a clear sense of commaraderie amongst the fighters, and any hard feelings caused by hard fighting were forgotten once the fights had finished.
After the seventh fight, I had seen enough to satisfy my curiousity in 'muay Thai', and headed back to the guesthouse to sort out my stuff ahead of my move towards the Thai-Laos border early the next morning.
