In search of "chauk Thai"

Or maybe it is "Bok Thai?" Not sure. Thai Boxing/Muay Thai, however it is translated. This is one of the better experiences of my trip so far and unfortunately I didn't bring a camera.

At the boxing class here one of the instructors said there would be boxing this morning near Mae Ramat. It's a small town about 30km from Mae Sot. Of my friends interested in this sort of thing, only one was able to get away from work on a Saturday morning (what's wrong with this place?). I rented a motorbike and joined him for the trip to Mae Ramat. We had no idea where it would be in Mae Ramat, but it's a small town. I assumed it would be at the school gymnasium or something similar.

We pulled into town and drove around a bit and ended up at the post-office thinking someone might know English or at least they would have a map. Gesturing and Jelwyn's limited (though vastly better than my) Thai confirmed that there was boxing nearby, and we basically figured out that we had to go back the way we came, take a left, then a right. The boxing was occuring about 10 km away.

Needless to say, the directions weren't adequate. We tried to follow them anyway and came to a sengthaw station (pick-up truck buses) and their directions were a little better. Thankfully everyone in town knew about the day's event. Go back to the highway, turn left, then turn right at some point. Again, about 10km. So, we went back to the highway and stopped somewhere. There was an American (by accent) having his bike repaired.

Thankfully, he knew the area very well and was (so far as I could tell) fluent in Thai. Like everywhere we'd stopped, people were excited that we were interested in muay thai, and they showed this by lots of boxing motions. Our directions from there were sufficiently detailed:

Go a few more kms past town, turn towards Tak, take a dirt track around a washed-out bridge, then look for a sign to a village that pointed towards a dirt road on the left. If we missed it, at the next police checkpoint was another road that would get us there as well.

Of course we missed the first road -- the sign was in only Thai. We got to the checkpoint and saw two rutted tracks running in the right direction. The police saw us looking uncertain and again we made the "boxing" gesture and pointed. They confirmed, and then pointed to someone who had arrived after us indicating that he was going there too.

The bad road led quickly to the nice dirt road we had initially missed. It wound back towards the mountains. Pickup trucks full of kids were passing us as well. Shouting "?auk Thai" at them yielded excited yelling. We must be on the right track.

We went through a very pretty village with a concrete road and then back to dirt. We crested a steeep hill and were confronted with some guys in fatigues (usually at highway checkpoints they wear olive uniforms or blue police uniforms). They asked for 20 Baht each which we paid, not really knowing why. Another 10 meters and it was obvious we'd paid the entrance fee. The valley was packed, although it was a really tiny valley. The hills are steep in the mountains here. A few hundred people was enough to fill the hillside.

We parked and looked for the ring. It was under a shelter of bamboo poles with palm fronds just laid on the roof to block some (but not enough) of the sun. It was 95 today and I hadn't thought I would spend more than an hour in the sun, so hadn't put on sunscreen. The end result was very Bloodsport-esque. Sun filtering through the palm leaves through the bamboo framing onto a rusty boxing ring. It was like boxing nights at home -- lots of bouts with 10 y/o boys fighting until they get tired and then kind of quitting followed by a few older guys who really know what they are doing.

After a couple hours of that the older guys got started, and it was amazing. There was definitely a Karen/Burmese contingent in the crowd, and they went nuts for their countrymen. We were the only two white people there and were given ringside seats. I kept hearing the announcer say the Thai word for foreigner and look at us. Jelwyn didn't know what he was saying. People (including one of the referees) kept asking us if we wanted to fight. I said emphatically "no." I've heard that in the cities they really like for foreigners to fight, though I'm not sure if they enjoy seeing proof that their culture is appreciated outside of Thailand, or if they like seeing foreigners get they asses kicked. I think it's likely that they were hoping one of us (or both?) were a Jean-Claude Vandam in disguise who just happened to wander into their little town.

There didn't seem to be weight classes, and it didn't seem to matter. I saw a really scrawny guy take out a stockier opponent in about a minute with one good kick to the xyphoid process. Another quick KO was when a guy ducked to avoid a punch and ended up with an elbow to the top of his head. As I understand it you can kick someone until they are fully flat on the floor, and a couple knock-outs were as someone slipped or fell and got kneed in the head on the way down. Often they just fought until they were exhausted and one fell over. The best bout went five rounds to a decision. The winner got a cut over his eye in the second round and bled all over his opponent for the rest of the time. Not much concern for blood-borne diseases. In general though not many people got hurt. They often ended the kids fights before they could get out of hand.

It was very egalitarian as well. One guy looked to be Burmese Muslim, which is about the lowest class a person can possibly be in Thailand. His shorts were threadbare and didn't fit him -- he was struggling to keep them from falling off about as much as he was trying to fight his opponent. People cheered him just as much as they did the guys from gyms with matching jackets and nice stuff. It helped of course that he was really good.

One more thing before I end this lengthy story. I'd seen the instructors do some dance-ish stuff in the ring before but didn't think much of it. The same music played through all the fights -- off-beat drums, high pitched gongs on the main rhythm, and a screechy oboe-like instrument. In the ceremony before each fight all the fighters would walk around the ring and kneel in each corner (maybe some animism sneaking in?) and some guys would do elaborate dances towards each side of the ring before starting. Some people snickered and I think the announcer was ribbing them, but it seems to be an acceptable part of the pre-bout ceremony. Maybe a more traditional version? During the fight, the boxers movements settled into a rhythm with the music. If they stepped away from each other I could see them take a deep breathe and relax back into the swaying before stepping back in to pound each other. Really cool.

When it ended I had an uneventful ride home, drank two liters of water, slept for an hour, ate a medium pizza by myself, and am now killing time until I can justify going to bed. I'm really not fit for this climate.