Tuesday 23 June 2015

Everybody's looking forward to the weekend, weekend...

Monday update and I have suffered from Mondayitis yet again.
However for me it's a case of waking up on Sunday around 2pm, then not being able to sleep until 4am Monday morning, and then missing morning training.

However, rewinding back to Saturday, I had Krav Maga in the morning which was nice and fun as always and there was a few new people who didn't turn up today, so I think it was a one off.

The highlight of Saturday was two of the guys from the camp were going to have an organised fight in the same bar that the last guy fought it, down in Walking Street.
I wasn't to hyped about going, so I thought I would wing it and see where I ended up.

However on the way out to the bike to leave I see Barbara getting all geared up and I remembered she was having a sparring session in the ring, so I stop by and watch her get beaten up by another woman.

She holds her own, but the opponent figures out her tactics and throws a few good hits.  Three rounds and they are all done.

I get on the bike and head into the Thepprasit Rd Night Market, which I had read some good things about, plus it's only half way to Pattaya so I can bail and not be too far from home.

Weave the bike past dozens of people to the parking lot which is thoughtfully located on the other side of the market, requiring you to ride between stalls.  Genius.
I had earlier decided to grab dinner here, so I do a lap of the food stalls and scope out what's available.  And I settled on Spring Rolls, Corn fritters and Taro balls in a sweet sauce.
All in all, pretty meh.  Should have looked harder and found a classic Pad Thai or something.

After the food I go for a walk around the stalls, weaving through the hundreds of people and about half way in I conclude that there is only about five unique stalls, all copied fifty times.
The sunglasses stall, the knifes and lighters stall, the DVD stall, and so on.  With all blank space made up by women's clothes.

After I walked around the entire place I head back to the bike, scooter around the corner and head to Swensons for some dessert.
For those who don't know, it's an ice-cream shop similar to Pancake Pallor, with ice-cream instead of pancakes.
I get the Oreo Sundae and it was delicious.  Although after I ordered I saw the Oreo Waffle Sundae and slightly regretted my decision.

Checking the clock I see that it's about 10 minutes until the fight time, and I'm about 10 minutes away, so I figure that means I should go.
Back on the bike heading down the main road and taking what I hope to be the correct turn.  I've only done this trip once before, following someone, during the day, and it's now 9pm and quite dark.

Swing across the double lane road and park on the side of the road between hundreds of other scooters and walk down to the bar.  This time however I don't get the chorus of "hello sir" because I walk in like I know what I'm doing and where I'm going.
The two fighters and the third guy they hang out with are down the back so I go check on them, have  a chat, turns out since everything is run on Thailand time, they haven't even "checked in" yet.

I find the bar that another guy from the camp is at, get a Soda water and wait.
During this waiting time I lost 10 straight games of Connect Four.  I swear, it's like these bar girls do this for a living.

An hour and a half later the first fight with our guy starts.  The muscle bound New Zealander, shaved head, covered in tattoos (that also writes children's books) is in the ring all psyched up.
The bell sounds, the traditional Thai music kicks off through the ancient speakers and the fight starts.

And NZ comes out swinging.  The fight ends up being brutal.  Gloves, Elbows, Knee's, Kicks... damn.  I would have surrendered after one round.
Second round kicks off and the Thai must have been given his orders to win because his legs are kicking, but our guy is blocking really well.
Third and final round and NZ manages a good one two combo that lands to the jaw and drops the Thai fighter.
The entire bar who had been standing and cheering burst into cheers.  Was a great fight to watch.

The second fight from our guys is a straight up Western Boxing match and it's fairly sedate compared to the last one.  Lots of ducking and weaving, jabs and straights.
In the end it was announced a Draw, although the Ref and other fighter both told our guy he had won, however due to too many people betting on our guy, it was called a Draw so they didn't loose money.

For the Draw he get's $20, and NZ winner gets $40.  Not exactly a way to make a living out here.

After the end of the second match I bid my leave and decided to go for a walk and see if any of these shops were unique, or if they were all just copies of the Night Market... and take a guess.
Same lighters, same DVD's and same watches.
Then again, I guess people don't come to Pattaya for the knick knacks, they come for the knock knocks if you know what I mean.

Doubled back to the scooter and headed off home.  Got into the room around Midnight.
A pretty good night overall I guess... except for the shopping.
Surprise, no one is getting any gifts :(

Sunday was a down day.  Watching Arrested Development and sleeping, that's really the only things of note.

Today, well... I slept through the morning session, and managed the circuit training in the afternoon but before I started Muay Thai, I felt quite crampy in the stomach area, so called it a night on Muay Thai and returned to bed via a shower.

Felt better by the time Krav Maga came around so hopped out of bed for that, and it delivered good fun as always.  Bit of knife, bit of gun.  I did however get two thumbs to the right eye, and an elbow to the teeth.  That sucked...

Anyway, dinner was fish, water was consumed and now I'm here.
..... uummmm... good night I guess.

1 comment:

  1. Find where the Thai's buy their groceries and you'll find a treasure trove of awesome stuff.

    ReplyDelete