Weekend market & Muy Thai

Today we went to Chatuchak Weekend Market. It's a big street market that sells just about anything: funny t-shirts, buddha statues, bubble guns, and all sorts of other things you'd never think you need, but you buy them anyway, because it's dirt cheap. I bought more items today than other day this year. Best shopping experience evaa!

At night we went to see a Muy Thai fight. For the price of $80 (which is A LOT for Thai standards), you get to see 12-16 year old boys fighting in the ring.

These kids are tough, having spent all their childhood training. This is their only hope to break it in this world. They have an amazing calmness and composure about them. They rarely look at each or the audience. At the beginning of each fight, the kids do a ceremonial dance which is basically free-form movement for them to warm up on the ring.

The fight itself is pretty tough. They're not allowed to stick together like they do in boxing, and the referee constantly breaks them up to make sure the intensity of the fight is high at all times. The first couple of fights were between 11-12 year olds, and the later, more professional fighters were up to 18-20 years old. The fights got more and more intense later on in the evening, the more experienced boxers were better at saving their energy, and when the time came to strike, they struck hard, occasionally with elbows, and sometimes even a roundhouse kick.



The fights end quickly, the winner walks off without ceremony. If there is ego involved, you can't see it, the fighters are emotionless from the beginning to the end.

It was an impressive show, and the 4 hours went by fast.