Muay Thai

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Knowing that we would be in Thailand I decided that I was going to watch Muay Thai. Having lived in Malaysia and travelled through Thailand a few times I was curious to see a match as I had often seen posters or heard other traveler’s stories of what the fights were like.

In order to get a good seat bought tickets online(from Thaepe) in advance. While it wasn’t needed to secure a seat, as the place was about ½ full of patrons, it was a little bit cheaper. On the fight bill for the night there were 6 different fights. First, the kids rounds. Yes, kids. Ok, they weren’t toddlers or anything, but still I’d guess the boys we saw first were maybe 10 or 11 years old. They fought pretty intensely and their parents were in the corners cheering them on.

After the kids rounds were over next came the girls, then the women (with a fighter from Singapore) and finally the men. You could definitely see the fighting skill getting progressively better as the fights went on.

The whole event was pretty interesting. We arrived just before 8pm, when the fights were scheduled to start. That was way too early. There were a few other patrons, but mostly we sat there, sipping beers and talking to the dog in front of us until around 9pm when the child fighters started to arrive. 

Every fight prior to engaging the fighters had a ritual in the ring, a wai kru. Then they removed their mongkhon, or headband, had a final rub/slap from the trainer and walked to the center to have the ref speak to them before engaging. 

Rounds felt short (a couple minutes?), but you could see how intense the stamina needed for fights like this. It brought me back to my days in Japan doing aikido when we had to do routines for passing level tests, though I’m sure this was much harder never mind all the punches and kicks along the way. Fighters have a kind of kick boxing style, but use elbows, shins, fist, feet, etc. All 8 arms as they say (what are the other 4? No idea!) The main fights were around 10pm and by 11pm the whole show was over and we said goodbye to the dog and walked back to our hotel. A great experience.