To be very brief about it (believe me I'll go into it more later) Chiang Mai is a farang (foreigner) playground. I think there's more foreigners than actual Thai people...but anyway, that's not what I go into a fight about.Actually the way Chiang Mai is setup there are many Muay Thai boxing stadiums all over the city. This passive aggressive boxing style is a mix of martial arts and boxing. It's beautiful and brutal with more respect for the sport than you'd find in the states.
How it starts is a small truck drives through the city blaring this music, think of that middle eastern cobra-in-a-basket music with a guy yelling inaudibly over it about a fight at the Kawilla (Gawilla sp?) stadium. We bought tickets for the Friday night fights from a resteraunt we started to frequent. I wasn't sure what to expect as Chiang Mai slowly revealed itself to be a pastiche of Thai culture for the foreigners coming to visit. It was evident in the shops that started looking like each other, from bars to restaurants to massage parlors. It was a stripmall for everyone but the locals.
I had my suspicions that this would be a show fight...and well...it was and it wasn't.
We showed up at a polebarn on the outskirts of town with chicken wire guarding the stadium seating and folding chairs by a dirty ring. The same music was already blasting throughout when we showed up at the scheduled 8:30 event. All of the 24 people in the "stadium" looked about as enthused as a group of patients in the recovery room. My doubt set in, and embarassment followed, and I wanted to escape back to my room, but I couldn't find Jess, she was off taking pictures again.
A half hour later, the crowd picked up, and the betting and gambling began.
15 minutes later and the first of nine fights began. Apparently they start out by age range. The first two kids were between 10-13. They did a bunch of ceremonial bowing at each corner while another did some kind of ceremonial dance that looked quite...uh...shall we say un-boxing like..very strange, but whatever.
They kicked the crap out of each other. With each successive fight the challengers were older, bigger, more powerful than the last and just as respectful of the each other and their sport. It was very impressive, until the main event.
The promoter apparently pulls in a lot of these foreigners by having affiliates from other countries fight their local guys in the Muay Thai tradition. Well the guy was Mic, the American (Korean-American in this case). He was everything you'd expect him to be. He was covered in tattoos...a little more muscular bulk, and hey, even brought his own cheering section. As soon as he stepped in the ring I wanted to leave. I already knew how it was going to end. Jess wanted to stay...so we made a deal, I'll stay pass the first "feeling out" round and maybe the next "full-on assault" round.
The first kick thrown took the smirk off Mic, the American's face. He proceeded to throw his brawn at the lithe Thai opponent only to be rebuffed every time. I don't think the guy knew how to kick, but he certainly didn't mind being kicked. His corner threw the fight in the third round and we got out there quick.
My reasoning was, we're on the outskirts of town with a bunch of other foriegners and they're all going to be clamoring for the same tuk-tuk driver.
By this point I didn't want to have to fight my back home.
=s=
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