The (Jay)-tsetter Travels: THAILAND: A Muay Thai Fight

When we arrived to the guest house, Tom and I rested for a while while we were waiting for Mo who was having a massage. We took our dinner. Bought beer from the nearby 7-eleven store. It was cheaper because in 7-11 'twas only 25 baht while in the guest house 'twas 50 baht. We were outside waiting for Mo, when David the owner passed by and asked why we were outside drinking. He told us to get some beer upstairs in the Bar if we needed more. We understood what he meant and we were sure also he understood it was cheaper outside, hahaha, and for sure he knew we knew economics...After about 15 minutes Mo arrived. He changed clothes and then we flagged down a Taxi to Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.
There were plenty of people. The Muay Thai fights usually start at around 8 pm. Many agents outside were selling tickets which they said were on sale. They were selling for 3,000 baht ringside, 2500 baht and 1500 baht. We were glad we did not buy outside. We went to the ticketing office and asked for a ticket. The agent said it was all sold out. Oh No Way Jose...This could not be... I asked the guy, we just went there to watch Muay Thai and we would be leaving the next day. A lady came to us and asked where we were from. Told her I was from Philippines. She smiled and said , she had been to Manila to study something, I forgot and she said she still had 3 tickets left but these were for the SPONSORS. The cost was 5000 baht. Oh come on.. hahaahah..another tactic huh to get us ripped off..hehehe. Well I used my charms. Since I had two SNEAKER chocolate BARS, I gave it to her and said these in English, " A beautiful lady deserves a sweet chocolates, would you like these? ". She smiled and said YES. Then I used my bargaining power. We saw that the price was only 2500. Fortunately she agreed for 1500 only on the VIP seat. So we paid and got inside. I had to leave about 3 still sealed bottled water since it was not allowed to bring inside. You have to put it in an ICE Wrapper (Philippine Style) with a straw. I just left it in a vendor and said would take it back after the fights.

One of the winners in the more than 10 fights that lasted for about 10 minutes.

What amazed me was the FINALE. I thought it was a fight but it was a DEMONSTRATION. If you could only see the Kicks, jumping and flying and hitting the opponents vital parts , you would say MUAY THAI is very deadly. When The Finale fight began the stadium was in total SILENCE. Deep inside my mind I was thinking that the attacker would really kill his opponent, if you could see the blows and hear the pain the opponent sighed. He was really pale and in black and blue. All the while I was holding my breath watching every move they made. I was not able to document it with the Cam Corder I brought because I was stunned . Later when the announcer said in English that it was how Muay Thai was played , whoaaa...a sigh of relief...