Muay Thai

The other evening I went to a boxing match at Ratchadamneon Stadium and watched several pairs of tiny Thai men go at it no holds barred. The matches would start slow and build; the soundtrack was a live percussion band. Before the brutal carnage began both fighters would perform a prayer dance simultaneously. The crowd was like the stock exchange floor, everyone calling out odds and flashing all sorts of hand signals to place bets. The punches and kicks to the face, the knee jabs to the abdomen, all were accented by a resounding roar coming from the spectators, growing louder and more unified with each one, until a single blow of several hundred knocked one boxer to the ground, rendering him unable to get up again. The crowd exploded in fanfare, bills of cash like butterflies fluttered into and away from people's hands as the man was taken off on a stretcher.
Then today I played 2 hours of badminton with 9 middle-aged women, wives of very wealthy business men who live in Bangkok and join all sorts of wive's clubs to keep from getting bored and feeling isolated in the city. Afterward we went out for Mexican food and margaritas, which was interesting. I remember one particular bit of conversation that I thought was funny. Imagine one of these in an Australian accent and the other in British:
"I've been bad... Today I bought fruit from a street vendor."
"Oh, no, I've been bad: lately I've been eating lunch off the street!"
So that was a slice of life I did not expect to see while I was here... haha
As a sort of addendum I'd like to note that the formal name of Bangkok is actually:
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
or
กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลกภพ นพรัตน์ราชธานี บุรีรมย์อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์