Thai Gone Wild

Last night was my first real night out with the entire crew, and what a night it was. We started off by going to see a Muaythai match, which included 5 fights that had fighters from my camp. It was pretty crazy to see the people I've trained with in actual fights. I am happy to say that all 5 won, and all of them did so with knockouts (as opposed to having no clear winner after 5 rounds and needing a judge's decision). Thai fights in general are really interesting to watch. There is a lot of posturing and procession at the beginning, with each fighter walking slowly around the ring and saying a little prayer in each corner. That is followed by a sort of dance that each does--fighters have their own styles and the dances are a series of movements to prepare for the fights. The fights themselves are really wild (especially having trained a bit now, and understanding the movements, etc). Watching someone block a full-power kick with their shins is impressive, to say the least. The fighters don't wear shin pads (or any pads really, besides cups) and so their shins (and everywhere else) has to be in great shape and tough enough to take a beating.

After the fight, we went out to a bar that the camp owner also owns. We were out in Chewang, which is more of a party area than Lamai where my camp is. The bar is on a strip with a collection of other bars, all competing to see who can play the loudest, most obnoxious music. But it was fun to see pretty much everyone from camp out and enjoying themselves. However, I soon realized what happens when people that train constantly start drinking. Two things that occurred were arguably inappropriate.

The first thing that I considered fairly inappropriate for a bar was that guys began taking their shirts off. Even in a beachy island town, I don't think that is necessary. But I guess once one guy does it, others follow. Soon, almost all the guys were shirtless (I am proud to say that I was not one of those guys). I guess when you train all the time and are in great shape, you want to show it off to people other than those you train with every day. It also may have something to do with age, as the older guys (like me) generally showed a bit more restraint.

The second inappropriate thing is that some people got ridiculously drunk (off what I would guess was the equivalent of 4-5 drinks). It was enough alcohol for the average mid-20's person to feel it, but I was pretty surprised when two people were suddenly so drunk they couldn't stand. One guy couldn't even hold himself up in a chair--he literally fell to the floor 3 or 4 times--so another guy and I finally had to carry him out of the bar (the other guy, who knows the drunk one well, took him home so he could sleep it off).

After carting the guy out of the bar, I realized it was about 3am and decided to call it a night. I think I suddenly no longer felt the need to be in a group of progressively more drunken and testosterone-fueled shirtless Thaiboxers, and opted for a quiet exit. All in all, however, it was an interesting and memorable night.