On an upbeat positive note, the red shirt movement in Thailand appears to have settled down. For now anyways! Bangkok and 27 other provinces are still under a curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. Schools open Monday, the blocked roadways are being cleared, and transits systems are given the go ahead. For most part it is back to business as usual for now! Time will tell what resolutions have be made, and when the next political elections will be. Steve and I have been fortunate to be hanging out in the south harbored by sand and surf, we have had no real interaction by the Thais turmoil only by the news and conversations with locals, as most our days are filled with the tough decisions of what beach, what time and should we eat Thai food tonight from the market or a restaurant. Not a lot of pressure here! Yes we are very lucky! This week we had our first full on experience of competitive Muay Thai boxing. We were lucky to have met and got to watch our neighbor Richard from England fight as the headliner in the seaside town of Patong. What an experience! Great to have a familiar face to cheer for and the insight of the fights rituals. At the beginning of each fight the boxers enter the ring and walks around holding the rings top rope to seal out bad spirits and pausing at each corner to say a short prayer. They also do a dance before each fight to honor their god, their supporters, their coach, and to also help them to warm up , relax, and focus. The fighters also wear good luck charms, such as headpieces, armbands, and of coarse the sexy satin shorts . There is live music played and even though it sounds the same, the tune is played to speed up with the fighters pace or use the rhythm to speed up the pace of the fight. There were 8 fights in total. They start with the lightest leading to the heaviest weight and finish with the headliners rounding out the night. The first few fighters were so tiny, weighing in at 60 pounds at the age of 11 years old. They looked to be the same size as the Vietnamese jockeys. Like our Canadian hockey players, they start out at a very young age, spending many hours training. Most fighters were well matched except for one where the Scottish fellow out weighed the Thai guy by 25 pounds, ouch..... no doubt a first round knockout! The crowd watching was almost as entertaining as the matches. From the parents, coaches, and Thais chanting their oooiyyys and awwws to the gambling and farangs adding their own touches to the evenings entertainment. We had four Aussies sit by us that were very funny to listen to. They thought that Richard was from Australia (misprint on the flier) and sang Richard, Richard man to the tune of Macho macho man. They kept asking me questions and I told them we knew Richard and pointed out his girlfriend Emma to them. They then went over to her and told her how lucky she was. They worshipped him (true bromance). Adding a few beers under their belt enhanced their enamoured state. Happy to say he won knocking out his opponent in the four round , giving the crowd good value for their buck. A very talented focused group I have to say. This week we had our old landlord Anders from Denmark, his Thai girlfriend Tip, and our old Finnish neighbor Resto join us at the beach along with Aussie Dave ,his girlfriend New, and Austrian, Herwig . What an international group we were. They were setting up for a weekend event of paragliders competing and a Canon sponsered photo contest called Fun Fly at Naiharn beach. There were over 30 international jumpers registered and about a dozen photographers for the photo contest. There is always some type of entertainment at the beach. Almost got taken out by a paraglider on a practice jump, I had to dive under the umbrella. He was happy to miss us. That same day we witnessed a couple get married ocean side, another couple practice their baton throwing, Dave and Herwig surf, Steve get drifted out by a rip tide to have Dave give him a ride in! Also present was eyecandy man (old man in g-string). Lizzy the beach dog with her pals and to top it off we ran into a guy (no names mentioned) that owns a bar in Kata and this is the third time that we have run into him with other woman while cheating on his Thai girlfriend. It was so funny for us because he looked down the row of beach chairs and here was eight of us that know him and his girlfriend. He was caught, red handed and red faced! It gave us all a little to laugh and gossip about, cheating on your thai girlfriend, hhhhhhmmmmmmm, go figure? It`s a small world after all.
