Correction: Big Oops. We woke up, grabbed our stuff, checked out and grabbed a cab for Bangkok airport. We had about one hour to get to the airport and check in.
Then, the oops: air Asia requires you to check in a minimum of 45 minutes ahead of time. At 44 minutes and 59 seconds before the flight departs, they give your seat to standby passengers. We got closed out of our flight. Then the really bad news: Air Asia's policy states that if you miss your check-in your ticket is null and void. This not only cost us out tickets to Cambodia, but our return flight as well. Our tickets were no longer worth the paper they were printed on.
We begged, pleaded, flirted and did everything else that we thought might help, but at no avail. Our seats were gone.
Until... the warm helpful heart of a benevolent sales manager.
It was the best Christmas present we could hope for - Icy said it was the begging, I prefer to think it was the flirting, but regardless, the clerk we were talking to told her manager about our tale of woe. This dear, sweet saint of a woman went against policy and shifted our tickets to Cambodia as well as the return flight one day forward.
Awesome. A Christmas miracle. Joy to the World.
After a long nap we decided that when one has a day to kill in Bangkok, one must make the most of it - and the most would be made by watching people kick the crap out of each other. We decided to delve into the dark bloodied underbelly of Bangkok and catch a muay thai match.
We had no idea how to get to the kickboxing place, and in the convolutions of Bangkok's streets, a walking route was hard to trace. When what to our wondering eyes did appear? But the tuk tuk driver who abandoned us a day earlier.
Note: Just now I briefly entertained the idea of writing this entire post as a poem with the same rhyme scheme and meter as "The Night Before Christmas." I even went as far as to google the poem and change some lines in this post to match. After about 20 seconds, I decided to forgo this plan. My reasoning for this? Because. That's why.
Anyway, back to things that matter. We saw the "Nick" tuk tuk driver who abandoned us the day before. Still feeling that there must have been some sort of misunderstanding, we walked over to him to find out what happened and ask him for a ride to the Kickboxing Arena.
"While I was waiting for you at Wat Saket, some tourists got into the tuk tuk and asked me to take them to another place. I told them I was waiting for a fare but they insisted."
Of course, this was a lie. You can't throw a prostitute in Bangkok without hitting a tuk tuk, so the idea that tourists insisted on shanghaiing our tuk tuk as opposed to the zillions of others that are constantly trying to solicit them is odd. On top of this, it was hard to believe that Nick put up much of a fight especially considering that he was certain to make more money off of anyone else. That being said, we couldn't blame him. We decided to give him another chance and asked him to take us to Ratchademnoen Stadium.
"Too far. I finish work in half an hour. I don't want to go too far."
We had no idea where the stadium was, and it was strange to have a tuk tuk driver refuse us (as they would typically be willing to drive you to Uganda if you are willing to pay) but we supposed it was his right and moved along the line of tuk tuk drivers that were calling to us. As we wished Nick, whose business motives seemed to neither stem from want of money or want of convenience, he made a request that was unexpected to say the least.
"Can you pay me for yesterday?"
Icy and I looked at him in dismay.
"Huh?"
"Yesterday. Can you still pay me for yesterday?"
"Yesterday?"
"Yea."
"Yesterday when you ditched us for a better fare and left us looking for you for 45 minutes on the street around Wat Saket? Pay you for that?"
Strangely his face did not register any sort of appreciation for the conflict between his lack of services rendered and his request for payment. For a few moments, Icy and I just looked at him completely unaware of how to respond to such a request. He looked back at us with a face that wondered why we don't have our wallets out. That look became a look of confusion as we wished him a good night and backed away towards the other drivers.
After finding another driver we reached the stadium. This, by the way, took about 10 minutes which would make some people wonder why the Nick driver told us that it is "too far," but by this point in the evening we had already come to terms with the fact that we will never understand Nick.
The stadium is probably much like you would
imagine. A simple building surrounded by the hoi polloi who are waiting for 6:30 to roll around. Fight time. The stadium usually urges foreigners (who, as you can see, tend to stick out at these matches... as was the case of the guy below who either lost a bet or decided to wear matching hawaiian print shorts and a shirt) to purchase ring-side tickets for two reasons. Mainly because the locals take muay thai matches and the concurrent betting extremely
seriously. They do not want people who are new to the sport to get in the way or be inconvenienced by the calamity. Secondly, they separate the visitors in order to protect them from the raffish crowd as they shout and place their bets. Not that the crowd is in any way violent, but there are a lot of them, and when bets are taken they all move around very quickly.Of course, we had little interest in the placidity of the ring-side seating and wanted to be in the heart of the fight which ironically is no where near the two guys beating the crap out of each other in the ring. We figured that obstreperous as we are we could keep up with the movement and energy of the locals. While this may not have been the case, I am happy that we made that call because to watch a muay thai match is truly to appreciate the audience.
Before that day, I always pictured muay thai fights to be about as fast paced and bloody as you get. I pictured Tong Po dipping his hands in honey then broken glass as he was about to square off with Van Damme. While indeed exciting, it more closely resembles a cross between a Karate tournament and a decent boxing match than a bloodbath. In fact, during the entire tournament, we only saw one fighter get KO'd, the rest of the matches were decided by points.Before each match, fighters enter the ring and perform to traditional Thai music played by a small band in the stands. This pre-fight ritual, known as
Ram Muay, though seemingly an act of braggadocio is in fact a deeply symbolic exercise. Fighters circle the ring symbolizing that the fight is between the two fighters and them alone. The dance is meant to show a fighter's humility to the King, the organizer of the match, and their opponent's coach. Some aspects of the Ram Muay, such as stomping around an opponent are meant to be intimidating (much like a Maori Hakka) however they are carried out with reverence and respect for the sport and the opponent. This humility is best exhibited at the end of the match where the winner kneels before his opponent's trainer in reverence. Wikipedia has a great entry about Muay Thai that outlines more of the traditions involved. I only mention the panoply involved in order to put into perspective the respect for tradition that supersedes any violence involved. (n.b. Please bear in mind that I am speaking based on an organized stadium match, and with no knowledge of the Ong Bak-esque blood brawls.)
As I mentioned, exciting thought the fights may be, the betting that occurs is spectacle by itself. For the first few rounds, the crowd silently watches the fight. After the first few rounds, the
y pick their favorite fighter and roar from their seats making a number of hand gestures to indicate their bets (imagine the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, but dingier, no ties and more Tiger beer.)
A quick tuk tuk ride, and back at the Hotel New Siam,
Where restrictions on prostitutes destroyed Icy's plans.
Yes early was the hour when we went to sleep,
For our new flight reservations we wanted to keep.
A pan-Cambodian ride, (for our lives) we were petrified,
Stay tuned for my next post where that tale will be clarified.
In the meantime, thus ends the story of a Muay Thai Fight,
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
