Be very nice to Thai women ....Muay Thai Boxing

The first evening I spent in Chiang Mai, i was still feeling a bit dazed from the bus journey, so i took it easy and visited a night market called the 'Sunday Market'. One of the main attractions in Chiang Mai is the 'Night Bazzar' which is a lot larger and runs every night but I heard it was quite commercial. Everyone i spoke to said this was better and it was really good...

....there were stalls selling handicrafts, clothes, food ...all kinds of things...




..there were some really interesting hanging lights as well. [Mark, I got a bit carried away and bought some lights for Sze lin's coffee shop. I posted them to your Harding place address. Thinking back now they may not fit her decor, but i took a chance anyway..you should get 2 padded envelopes in the post :)]



The manageress of my guest house is a lovely (but slightly crazy) lady called 'Thom', though all the guests call her 'mum' as she's 49. It turned out that she's a big fan of Muay Thai (Thai boxing) and she could get VIP tickets for GBP 8.50, so the next night we went to see a fight. She did Muay Thai when she was younger..and her daughter's had 32 fights already (and she's only 18).



Even this tiny lady serving the food and drinks had fought but had stopped as she'd broken her arm...if i look scared in the photo, it's because i am....



There were about 9 matches and all but one involved fighters over 18.

There was one match where they were 14, which i wasn't keen on seeing. Full contact thai boxing (or even boxing) is harmful enough for grown men but can be very damaging for teenagers whose brains are still developing...

Two of the fighters were women ! Here they are warming up...






The thais love betting on these matches and local punters will come up to you and wave a hundred bhat (about GBP 2.30) and say either 'red' or 'blue' (gloves). I won 100 bhat but then lost 200 on the main fight :(