Wednesday 9th April 2008

I'm not sure what time we left Mark and Lisa's room last night, but I know we all woke up feeling pretty delicate this morning... well, me and Nikki did - we woke up at just after 11am - Mark and Lisa woke up sometime after 12pm... when we RANG THEM! We made sure they were ok and then arranged to meet them by the pool, where we spent the next couple of hours relaxing and laughing about last nights going-ons. This afternoon we went down into Chinatown for some food and then we headed over to see the Golden Buddha which, despite being solid gold and probably worth a fortune, is just stood out in the open for all the see... or steal!

At about 5pm this evening we headed over to the Khao San road for some beers. After about an hour we caught a taxi to the Ratchadamnoen Stadium, where we watched some Thai Boxing.

We paid for the cheap seats, but still had amazing views - and it was also where a lot of the locals sat so the atmosphere was better (although we were kept separate from them for some reason). There were ten fights in all - ranging from young boys up to men. In some of the better fights the crowd were going crazy - chanting and screaming. It was easily one of the most intense atmospheres i've ever been in - like Play Off time on a Tuesday night at Ashton Gate! As the night went on, we started gambling on the outcomes of the fights. As couples we would pick a corner - red or blue - and the winning couple got to pick first the next time, Double-or-Quits. In the end Mark and Lisa walked away with the pot - about 128 Baht... or £2, but gave it straight back to cover the taxis (bless 'em). The Thai boxing was AMAZING and I think we all had a great time, although it did make us wince a few times. It's pretty full-on, with use of anything, but the head, being acceptable. In all the fights there were 3 knock-outs and one poor guy had to leave on a stretcher. The Thai's didn't seem too concerned - he wasn't even out of the ring before the next fighters were climbing in!

When we left the stadium at about 10.30pm, we decided to head over to an area of Bangkok called Patpong - which is notorious for being the Red Light District. That wasn't why we (me, Nikki and Lisa) were heading over there - they also have a massive night market, but we don't know what Mark had planned! Patpong markets were great - they were selling even more than the guys on the Khao San road, and the streets are packed with people trying to get you into their clubs, trying to get us to watch the infamous 'Ping Pong' shows. At sometime after 1am we were all pretty knackered from the shopping and flagged a taxi which took us back to our giant comfy beds.

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting... well, Thai Boxing actually!