So now that it was Tuesday, we checked out of our Nai Thon Beach hotel and stashed our shit in our new digs in Patong Beach. Half the price, one fourth the beauty and service, but they had breakfast in the morning, and a DVD player in the room. One of the things I was determined to see in Thailand was a Muay Thai match, and I was in luck; the previous day I'd passed a booth selling tickets to what I was told was a particularly big fight:
The Pech Sombat International! At least, it was big enough to have cars driving everywhere with loudspeakers telling everyone to go to it. Good enough for me! I forked over about 60 bucks for VIP seats and prepared myself for a night of good old-fashioned mortal kombat. But first, snorkeling.
Unfortunately, we were too late to get to Phi Phi Leh without staying the night there, and since I had my (non-refundable) Muay Thai ticket for that night, we decided to nix that idea and just found a boat touring a shitload of other islands. Of course, we could've gone to Phi Phi and then tried to find a private boat to take us back, but come on. The Beach movie wasn't that good anyways.
Here we are on said boat:
...And that's about it for photos of that excursion. It was full of swimming around beautiful beaches, me getting horribly sunburned (even though it was cloudy, WTF skin o'mine), and speaking Korean with some other tourists. Oh yeah, and getting fucking stung by a fucking jellyfish on my fucking face! Here's a picture about 4 days later, and you can still see the sting (it's the red line going down the center of my cheek):
Fucking jellyfish, seriously. How does something with no brain manage to be such a dick.
Now onto the fight! Here's a flier from the event so you can follow along!
I was on my own, as Jessie had no interest in seeing a fight, thus setting back her gender by 50 years. Sorry Jessie, but I don't make the rules. After I got a couple beers and made my way to the VIP seating. Holy cow, that guy was not kidding about my seat, it was about 2 feet from the ropes. Also, holy cow, the first round is going to be 90-pound kids going at it! Some photos of the children who can't be older than 13, about to tear each to shreds:
Before each match, the fighters would walk around to each corner and bow their head at the post.
And then they do a thing where they go around the center on their knees:
And now for the good stuff that is also awful because man are they tiny:
One of these kids eventually took a blow to the ribs and went down (I want to say it was blue shorts, but who can remember) so hard that his eyes rolled back and he started to foam at the mouth. About 3 feet from where I was sitting. I've never seen it take 2 smelling salts to wake someone up before, much less a kid. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the down, because exploiting such an event would have been terrible. Also, like I said, I was 3 feet away from the hooplah, including the judge who I was sitting next to, and it might've gotten a bit awkward to snap a photo next to his trainer and the doctors.
Onto the next fight!
That's all I've got. It was probably pretty boring.
But fight 3 was the first girlfight of the evening! First up, we have this tall glass of water, "TELEZAR" from Sweden:
The little ceremony in the center:
And her opponent, YODNAMPECH from...Bangrong?
No photos of how that fight ended. I think the Thai girl won, but if there are any TELEZAR fans among my readers, do feel free to correct me.
Fight 4, WILLIAM from AMERICA! Whoo, AMERICA!
Jesus, he's like a foot taller than the other guy, I whispered to the white guy sitting next to me, whose girlfriend was clearly not enjoying herself.
With all that extra reach, height, and American spirit, the match ended pretty much as you'd expect:
The Thai referee here was doing a Chris Tucker impression and screaming "You got knocked the fuck out!" at the downed fighter. Come on, I wouldn't lie to you. Anyways, AMERICA WHOO:
Fight 5! And these Thai fellas did not waste any time laying into each other:
Like I said, these seats were really close to the ring. I remember actually feeling some sweat hit me at one point, and it may have been here:
Gross. Anyways, here they are being adorable and giving each other a post-match hug. Or they're clinching again, my memory's fuzzy.
And red shorts wins! Way to go, Red!
Moving on to fight 6, and the second girlfight of the night! Here we have the chiseled beauty of TAZEE, from Switzerland:
And the exotic and terrifying beauty of her opponent, CHENTEL of Italy:
And here we have another entry in the "maybe this is where I got sweat on" contest:
Still gross. Not sure what's happening in this next fight, some sort of post-fight ground ritual again:
But in the end, Italy reigns supreme!
Whoo, Chentel! That's a fucking sweet belt:
Growr.
Fight 7, and another white guy! At least this time JONO from Australia only has a funny name, and not a full foot on his opponent.
But it still ends the same:
Tough luck, MONSIAM from Rawai.
And now, what I guess was supposed to be the premier fight because there's an explosion graphic around some Thai writing in the flier:
Buuuuut that's the only photo I've got. You rule, Blue Shorts!
Later that night, Jessie and I bought some bootleg DVDs that either didn't work or were really shitty cams, and then I -think- we might've gone to a ping pong show or two. I can't remember which night we first went, so instead I'm just going to give ping pong shows their own post later on.
Tomorrow (ha!) I'll try to update with Wednesday, where we go to Ko Pha Ngan for the night, I go bungee jumping, and mushroom shakes are had and then tarot cards are read. Which totally ominous card did I get while trying to keep my stoned shit together?! You'll have to read to find out. That is how it works.
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