Before I came to Thailand a good friend of mine started learning Muay Thai. She had me promise her that I would not leave Thailand without seeing a Thai boxing match! Muay Thai is extremely popular in Chiang Mai particularly, and it is common to see flyers for the upcoming match stapled all over town, in restaurants, and being hand-delivered to people on the streets by men on motorcycles.
We decided to go to the Muay Thai stadium on Loi Kroh Road (a popular club area) to see two fights between Thais, and the headliner for the night, U.S.A vs. Thailand. As you might probably suspect, Thailand came out on top. Even though I usually dont like watching sports which revolve around violence (I just feel bad for them when they start to bleed!), I thought the matches were really entertaining because it IS a form of art, and an important part of Thai culture. It is not always necessarily about weight, size or strength, but more about technique. There are many years of training to become a professional Kick-boxer and apparently the boxers even get voluntarily beaten with heavy, rock-hard bamboo branches during training, the purpose of which is to kill the nerves in their legs and other body parts to prevent them from feeling pain during a match! Ouch.
No comments:
Post a Comment