I guess I missed a day. So on the morning after we each had our own rooms, Bennett slept in. Until like 10. We all had to meet up at noon as our first official group meeting. Two girls (Rebecca and Samantha) got stuck in Tokyo for a night, but everyone else was there. We got phone numbers programmed into our cell phones. We got the phones for 1040 baht. Long distance calls to the US only cost 1 baht per minute! That’s crazy. And we get to keep the phones. Cheap ones, but even so.
Zach and Robert arrived a day earlier than everyone else, so we hung out yesterday. Zach goes to Eckerd in Florida and will graduate after this year. Robert is about to graduate too, from NC State. He looked familiar but I don’t believe we’ve had any classes together. Bennett, Zach, and I watched Terminator 2 in Bennett’s room.
So all 15 of us walked to one of the Siam mall places and ate at one of the cafeterias that Bennett and I hadn’t found before. Roasted duck with rice was really disappointing.
We rested in the afternoon, and Bennett looked up the Muay Thai fight. Rachel and Petra came with us. It only cost like 230 baht for Thai people, but the same tickets for foreigners cost 1000 baht. It says that in the Lonely Planet, and it makes sense. The stadium makes money off of the bets that the Thai people make, but foreigners are much less likely to bet. Expensive, though. Inside, there’s the boxing ring, ringside seats (mostly foreigners), 2nd tier (almost empty), and 3rd tier (all Thai except us and 2 Finnish people). So many people were betting. At first we were sitting in the bookies’ section, and the other Thais there made us move. The third tier has no seats, but rather steps that you sit on and stand up as the fight gets exciting.
Our new location was near the Finns. They were so stereotypically Scandinavian. White blond hair and extremely tan skin. They had been in SE Asia for 5 months and were leaving for Finland on Monday.
There were 10 matches, each of 5 rounds. The boxers ranged from 90 to 138 lbs. Some young’uns fighting. No knockouts, and only one guy bled. He was fine though and kept fighting.
It’s so cool that instead of unhealthy concession food, they sell fresh fruit. 20 baht for 3 slices of canteloupe. The old man next to me got some and only ate a piece and gave me the other two, which was incredibly nice. Next time the fruit vendor came around, I bought some and offered him some, but he didn’t take any. It was awesome though because we had been there like 3 hours without any food. The entire thing went from 6:30 PM to 11ish. Petra and Rachel left at 8:30 because they were tired. Surprisingly, most people watching had left by the very last and heaviest fight.
