Thailand-Days 18 & 19 Bangkok

Our trip back to Bangkok from Cambodia was cheaper, faster, and easier than the other way. It helps to be going to the capital city and the hub of all travel in Thailand (or Southeast Asia for that matter). We headed to watch some muy thai boxing right after getting back. The English speaking “guides” at the gym were quite eager to help us buy the (clearly overpriced) ticket for foreigners. After perusing the crowd, it seems that the nightly matches seem to exist solely for betting and entertaining foreigners. From what I could tell, catching good muay thai action requires one to be in a city during some sort of festival. As for betting, immediately upon entrance, we noticed a swarm of men clutching up to ten cell phones per person. They were very active during the matches, some of them yelling into the numerous phones they had on a clipboard. All of the bookies made the matches even more exciting to watch, as their reactions were quite lively.

By far the most notable think at the fights was the size and probable age of some of the fighters. The early rounds were pretty normal sized fighters, but the last fight featured the 90-95 pound range. To be that small, they pretty much had to be young teenagers. They were pretty fun to watch though, as they were really springy and pretty raw, as their techniques weren’t too refined.

We ended the night walking along Khao San Road, the famous tourist/bar street in Bangkok. It was bustling, loud, and in your face, as any good tourist district should be. The most fun thing that they sold there was fake IDs and fake diplomas. So, apparently, if you can’t get your cousin’s old ID or you don’t feel like going back to college after your Christmas break. We met up with John Thao for a final goodbye, he was in town attending a conference with some coworkers.

The next day consisted of basking in the beautiful Thai sun while browsing souvenirs or reading books and drinking beers at a café near our hotel. I spent maybe the best eight dollars of my life and got a Thai massage at one of the massage parlors recommended in the guidebook. This is one place where the (in my opinion) overly politically correct guidebook came in hardy. Massage in Bangkok is generally an innuendo for any manner of sexual services provided by the “masseuses” sitting outside every hotel and bar. So, the big “No Sex” sign in English and Arabic was a good sign when I entered. My massage experience is pretty limited, but this was by far the best I have ever had in my life. Having the guidebook direct me to a legitimate massage parlor was really valuable, as this parlor really didn’t look any different from any of the other ones on the street.