Thai boxing- brutal and homoerotic.

22/5/11

We woke with a general malaise made up of a late night, too much booze and the incredible heat. We had great plans to do something cultural but instead opted to sit, play chess, nap and do laundry.

About 6pm we pulled ourselves together and hailed a cab to the Thai boxing arena. We got front row seats and settled in for the nine fights. The event was a cross between our previous night out -lots of nearly naked lithe lads dancing about a ring crossed with a significant amount of animalistic violence. Having never been to a like fight before we were both somewhat surprised by the sounds that emanated form the ring combined with the sweat that would occasionally fly in our direction. The fighters aged 14-20 punched, kicked and kneed each other until one either fell down and could not get up or five founds were over and the judges decided who had won. In between each fight the fighters would stand into a metal basin and be rubbed down with cold water and for some inexplicable reason have water sprayed down their shorts. This was followed by a quick rub a stretch of the legs up to the ears a bend over the ropes and then back to the ring for the next bout.

So to describe Thai boxing- brutal and homoerotic. But in all we concluded that we would not like to meet any of the fighters in a dark alley nor would we like to take part in even the training sessions.- even if everyone is half naked