Muay Thai

Erica and I decided that we just had to go see Thai kickboxing. Technically it is called Muay Thai, but I'm not sure that everyone knows that name. Erin didn't really want to see guys beating the crap out of each other, so she stayed in and read a new book.

In any case, there are fights every Friday night in Krabi, so Erica and I bought some tickets and hopped on the local bus. I had heard of Muay Thai and it is on TV from time to time, but seeing it live was a real treat. There probably weren't 100 people in the entire arena, but it was a grand experience.

Each fight begins with a short ritual performed by each fighter in the ring. They start with a prayer and then walk around the ring in a steady dance-like pace. Meanwhile, they stretch their arms and legs, paying particular attention to hip stretches. You can see in the picture below that one guy is kneeling while the other is pacing. After seeing them kick and knee each other for a while, you understand why it is important to focus on the hip flexors before a match.

We saw 7 bouts and I was surprised at how little blood there was. Don't get me wrong - I wasn't there to see violence as much as I was there to experience a little culture. But after all I'd heard about how crazy the fights were, it was surprising to see how tame it turned out to be. When I say "tame" I mean that we saw one broken nose, several knockouts, and one dislocated shoulder. But still no blood. Weird.

My favorite part of the crowd watching was the betting section which was right in front of us. This area of the arena had no seats, since most of the guys in this area were pretty much on their feet the whole night. They would holler out bets and yell at the fighters during each match. I got the feeling that the gamblers would make a bet and then yell at the contestant to fight harder so that he wouldn't lose money. It was a riot.