Thai Fight

A couple of Saturdays ago Mike and I went on our second date since our return to Bangkok. This time we left the kids with my mom quite early (mid-afternoon, which is very early for us to leave the three of them with her) and headed off on what I didn't know would be such a fun night.  The kids weren't happy about us leaving but they behaved.  Cristiano just instructed us that it would be the last time I get to go to a work function with Mike! (Yes, this was a work function as the tickets to Fight Night were given to the Embassy).  In Cristiano's opinion, Mike does not need a date!

The trip to the convention centre where the fights were taking place was a little long but while riding the train, we got to see other parts of Bangkok.  While waiting for Mike's colleagues, we got to enjoy some time alone watching the planes land and the passenger train pass with people hanging from the windows or sitting outside the cabin.

Watching the train pass under us

Watching the planes fly over us

We finally made it to the convention centre, had a small bite to eat in the VIP lounge and headed in to the stadium.  There was so much excitement in the room and we had front row seats.

The rink was right in front of us

Mike and his colleagues who had been to fights before told me I would be getting spit on me and maybe some blood.  So at this point, I was a bit apprehensive about watching and being there and the front row seats weren't so appealing.  But when the fighting started, it was not so bad.  It's hard to explain there is definitely an appeal to watching a Muay Thai fight.  Many of the fighters were entertaining, as they would dance when taunting their opponent or would pull off some amazing jump kick moves and plus there is traditional music that accompanies the fight - music similar to what would be played for a dancing cobra.  The faster and more intense the fight got, the faster the music got.  The music makes the fight more entertaining and traditional and in a way less focused on the fact that we are watching two men beat each other up.  Here is a link to videos of the fights that took place that night: http://www.muayfarang.com/en/videos-results-thai-fight-kmitl-20816/.  Hopefully this will give you an idea of what we were watching.

What really made our night however is the fact that a Canadian was one of the fighters.  We cheered so hard for him the news teams, the judges and the refs noticed us.  To top it all off, he won!  And we got to take a picture with him.  We had to walk across the stadium to meet him at the back to take the picture and I think the Thai people got excited about how into the fights we were.

With Sean Kearney and Mike's colleagues

When we got back to our seats everyone was very excited for us.  They love their Muay Thai and probably loved that foreigners were also into it.  The Canadian win really made our night. And then Antoine Pinto came out...  This young guy from France was a favourite in the crowd.  He was very cute and as we later found out, he grew up in Thailand and Muay Thai is a family thing for him because his brother also fights and their dad is their coach or manager.  The crowd was screeching when he came out and even when he was fighting.  Ashley and I were definitely crushing on him because was so cute (although we are almost old enough to be his mom).  The screeching was not really coming from us but for some reason some of the news teams and the refs thought I was screeching of excitement and they kept turning to me to do a thumbs up or smile when Antoine did something good. Unfortunately the fight was short because his opponent dislocated his shoulder, but when Antoine was walking out Mike and Brian asked him if he would take a picture with me and he said yes!   LOL... The crowd in front of me got very excited for me for some reason.  Anyway, it was a small moment of fame and I loved it! haha!

Although he is French, he carried the Thai flag after he won - I am sure that is part of the reason the crowd loves him

We ended the night with a long ride back in very high heels to make it to Arab town for a delicious shawarma on the street.  Truly a fun night!