The veil has lifted

The darkness has receded and the light shines in.

I'm more up beat at the moment, which is funny, because my body is about to die.
The blister on my heel is slowly healing, the cut under my big toe is getting bigger, I've got a new cut on my shin, and naturally, I hurt everywhere.
Especially since Barbara was trying out a new circuit for the weight loss program that had us to 30 travelling lunges, followed by 10 jumping squats..... five times.....
And that's only the first half.
For those wondering, or thinking "bah, pansy boy" go and try it.

Don't worry, I'll wait.... go on.
150 lunges and 50 jumping squats.
Now, for those that didn't do that, here's a graphical representation.

Rewind to Friday and I jumped on the scales and I was 129.9kg.  Which is still to much, but it's under 130kg, so I can cross that off my goal list.

However, I did have a hamburger on Saturday night, so maybe not :)

Saturday night (Night of the OK Burger) three of us scootered into town, ducking and weaving past buses full of horny Chinamen.

Rode past a giant "massage pallor" that employed around 300 "specialists" and out front was five empty buses.  Wonder what happened to all those horny Chinamen.

Past that place and down onto the main beach side road of Pattaya, and since I was the second bike in convoy, I was guided by the guy in front, so when he took a trip down a side alleyway, I followed.

This alleyway was Soy 6-1.  Also known as the backalley for Soy 6.  Or as I named it, Soy of The Hidden Schlong.

It's the alley where the girls from the bars in Soy 6 hangout.  And when I say girls, I obviously don't mean it entirely.

I must say, some of them are convincing.

But we motored through and then cut down Soy 6 between all the bars lining both sides of the road, and weaving around drunken farungs and mini-skirted hostesses.

Back on the main drag we set off to "The Bear Garden" for dinner.  It's set on a jetty out onto the water right at the entrance to Walking Street.

I had a burger, not nearly as nice as the one from Kellys, but the nachos and deep fried seafood made up for it.  I was stuffed.

The reason for the visit into Pattaya was Gino from the camp was set to fight in one of the bars (Don't worry, there's a ring and such, not an actual pre-arranged bar fight).

So we walked down Walking Street to go to where we thought it was.

And it was surreal.

Lined on both side by Go Go bars and a few eateries (Not like that, get your head out of the gutter), and each bar as a contingent of girls out the front in the hopes of funneling anyone into their bar and not the one next door.

Bit the weird part, was 90% of the people walking up and down were tour groups.  Usually led by someone with a flag on a stick so everyone knew who to follow.

And again, 90% of them were Asian.  I didn't stop to ask, but my guess would be China or Nice Korea.

Groups all wearing matching hats being led like innocent lambs into the street lined with lions.

So we made it to a bar that had a ring in the middle near the end of Walking Street, and asked one of the fighters if an Italian was fighting today, and nope, wrong bar.

However, there was a man playing with a live Cobra in the ring, which was pretty cool.

So, the only other bar where there was a ring, was right next to the Beer Garden which we had just left.

So we treked back against the flow.  Was actually easiest to move along and cut between the entrapping girls because most of the tourists were giving them a wide berth.

So back at the fighting bar near the Beer Garden, we walk in, and suddenly are affronted with a sexier version of the scene from Finding Nemo, where the seagulls all yell "MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE".

The layout of the bar is in the middle there is a half ring.  Rather than a square, its a rectangle, like a boxing ring cut in half.

And surrounding that is about 20 little bars, each with serving girls and stools.

You pick one and you get your drinks from them and no one else.

I picked one for us that gave us ring side seats for the fight, and to be honest, the girls weren't to bad looking.

And, it turns out that in order to keep you at their bar, they keep you entertained with their hands.

By which of course I mean they rock out two sets of Connect Four and challenge Chris and I to play them.  Not even joking, Connect Four.

After three games of winning for myself, I watch a fight between two Thai's and it looks pretty rigged.  I turn around and there's one of those twisted metal tricks that you have to try to untie, but you can't, because it's impossible.  Naturally they can, because hell, it's their job.

I finally loose a game of Connect Four that I had been encouraged to place a bet on.  She won and I had to buy her a drink.  Looked like Orange Juice, but I'm sure it was top shelf.

Finally Gino comes out and he and the opponent do the traditional dance around the ring and then get down to business.

It was pretty entertaining.  He landed a few good punches breaking through the guys gloves.

At the start of the second round an old man comes up and sits beside me, having seen me cheering for Gino, and he brings out a 20 baht note (76 cents) and points to the Thai fighter.

So I get 20 out and point to Gino.

We place it on the bar under a coaster and the fight continues.

In the end it was a draw, but I thought Gino would have won on points.

The old man and I take our money back, I pay my bill and go over to the other people from the camp who had setup at a different bar.

Turns out the guy I had bet was the owner/promoter and if large sums of money are involved, has been known to rig the fights, to the point that had I put a few thousand on Gino, the guy might have stepped up his game a bit and thrashed him.

Luckily 76 cents isn't a sheep station, as they say.

I made my way back to camp after that, the other guys I was with kept the tab running at a few other bars.  But I was exhausted.

That pretty much get's us up to date dear reader.

Mentally feeling better, even if my legs are made of jelly (not steel springs).

Night.