Chiang Mai - 12th September 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 08:04PM The 12th saw us in Chang Mai in preperation for our 3 day jungle trek. This however was a rest day and so I sought out some internet while JB tried to arrange a day at an Elephant orphanage. Not much to say about Chang Mai really, it’s a bit of a sleepy town (at least in low season) - not much going on. Though we did go out and spend the evening watching some Muai Thai. This was kinda dissapointing actually - I’ve seen better kickboxing matches back homme in my own (martial arts) school. Before the main fight they also put on a ‘cabaret’ show I could have easily lived my life without seeing. They were all lady boys and unfortunately they looked just like what they were - average looking guys wearing too much makeup and silicon implants. Not at all the gorgeous “you’d never know they weren’t girls” tranvestites Thailand is suppossed to be famous for, these ‘gals’ make Dame Edna Everage look genuine…
Highlight of the night by far was after the main event - they threw about 4 or 5 guys into the ring all decked out in Muai Thai clobber with one thing extra - a blindfold each. Hilarious mayhem ensued. The refs then jumped in and started shoving guys into each other. There were wild swings that connected, wild swings that missed, wild swings at refs and wild swings at absolutley nothing….I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair. It went on until all but one guy couldn’t stand anymore.
On the way home we must have been in a rush to get away from the lady boys because we managed to take a wrong turn and somehow get on the INSIDE of the inner city moat rather than the outside. This meant my “keep the moat on my right until I see our street” navigation plan was perfectly wrong as we were facing 180 deg away from where I thought. After a while we worked out that things weren’t right so we pulled out the map to have a puzzle over. It was at this moment that we met one of the more interesting people I think I’ve met so far. Karioke Bob. Basically this old Chinese gent saw we were in a spot of bother and offered us a lift. Upon piling into his large SUV he started hitting some buttons and down folded an LCD television screen, the inside of vechicle lit up with neon glows and a decent sound system started pumping. Not satisfied with the quality of the music however the old feller (who’d introduced himself as Bob) then switched tracks and pulled out a big microphone. Yeah - we got driven home AND kariokeed too. Oh we also had to say hello to some mate Bob rang up on his mobile and yelled at for a bit - seems the guy didn’t believe Bob had a couple farang (thai for foreigners) in his car. All in all the drive back was probably more entertaining (blind bout aside) than the rest of the night at the boxing ring.
No pics for the moment, sorry…
Copyright © 2007, Ben Heys. All rights reserved.
Reader Comments (3)
Happy Birthday Ben.
I am enjoying reading your blog and viewing all your fantastic photos. You certainly are on a great adventure and loving it. Continue to enjoy and stay safe.
Happy Birthday Ben.
I am enjoying reading your blog and viewing all your fantastic photos. You certainly are on a great adventure and loving it. Continue to enjoy and stay safe.
Happy birthday mate!