Muay Thai & Rally at Koh Lanta

Alright, Tanja is taking a nap again so I can update the blog. I wish I also could sleep anywhere, anytime.

After a loooong muay thai free week we finally got a chance to see some more thai boxing at Koh Lanta. On Sunday Jan 14th there was a big event called Battle of Charity at Lanta Stadium baan Phra Ae, which is quite a big and very popular boxing arena. On that evening 15 fights took place and the tickets were expensive - again. We tried to get cheaper tickets by convincing the staff that we want to sit farther away from the ring and not by the ring side. They tried to explain that as foreigners, we have to buy the ring side ticket for 1200 baht but we can sit anywhere we want to. What's the logic in that? Finally we managed to negotiate the price to 1000 baht for ring side. When we got inside we decided to sit near the ring but not on the soft seats, which most probably are meant for farangs. And also we wanted to be as near to a ring corner as possible, as watching the trainers & families during the fight is very entertaining.

During the first fight the arena was filling up slowly but surely. The people from Koh Lanta were eager to see a local champion Penthai Sitnomnoi fighting. At some point we noticed that our section was full of very excited & loud men and money was changing owner frequently. We were sitting in the middle of bookies and men were shouting towards our seats from every direction. What an atmosphere!!! I also got to hand over money a few times.

For everyone's delight the local champion won :) Also a german guy won by knock out. It was a great evening. A special mention for the gorgeous tattooed fighter Manggornpek from Bangkok. I might have to stalk him somewhere...

The next evening we found out there's a fight evening on another boxing stadium. For that one we got stadium tickets for 700 baht and we thought that's where the locals sit. Well.... not really. The arena was quite a bit smaller than the one night before and it was filling up really slowly. With tourists :( Of which 90 % were swedes as a swedish dude was having the main fight.

One hour after the previously announced starting time disco lights went on and the first small 10 year old fighters came to the ring. The stadium looked more like a disco than a boxing arena and during the rounds they played Top 10 hits. Jeez... The atmosphere was quite something else than the night before, also the french couple making out next to us made us want to puke. Get a room!!! But nevertheless, it's always a pleasure to watch the fights. The thais can really kick, but clearly lack on boxing skills. That's how the swede also won his fight, it took only about a minute for him to land a good right straight and the opponent's lights went out.

I'm excited to see what Krabi has to offer on thai boxing!

And yes, rally. We decided to rent a scooter for a day because it's the easiest and cheapest way to explore the island. I drove my grandmom's moped in the summers when I was a teenager, but haven't touched a 2-wheel ever since so first I had to ask some quite stupid questions first: where's the brake, how do I start this thing, where's the tank... No wonder the guy looked a bit worried but Tanja convinced him that I'm a good driver during I was doing a test round in the hotel yard.

And driving a scooter is really a no-brainer. There's a scooter rally going on on the streets of Koh Lanta, everybody drives one. I of course drove very safely and slowly as I also had a passenger (this sentence is directed to Tanja's parents). I actually don't have any idea if I need a motorcycle license to drive a scooter in Finland, but in Thailand you probably just have to be tall enough so that your legs can reach the ground when you stop.

Now we are on our way to Krabi, let's hope we can find a cheap place to stay at East Railay.