Muay Thai and gooey Thai

Muay (pronounced moo – ee) Thai is a form of competitive fighting, started in Thailand, but becoming popular around the world. It includes elements of boxing, but the participants can also use their elbows and legs to strike their opponent. Some folks we know, like Robin and Andrew, use Muay Thai as exercise. And, in Robin’s case at least, to vent aggression so as not to be arrested for pounding on the person they really want to pound on.

All this background is because we happened upon the Muay Thai world championship matches. Twelve different fights in the various weight classes. We actually watched just the first two, as we were at the location (near a large mall) to eat dinner. Although Robin tells me about Muay Thai, I had never seen it. It was interesting to watch, and more action-packed than the boxing matches that Phillip watches on TV.

After watching the fights, we ate dinner. Since we were hungry, I forgot to take pictures of our food before we started. I did get a picture of our dessert (and the reason for the “gooey Thai” in the post title)… mangos and sticky rice. This is the Wells/Kneblick families’ favorite dessert. For those who haven’t had it, the sticky rice is sweet with sugar and coconut milk and goes perfectly with the fresh, ripe mango slices.

The fights were still going on when we left dinner, but the crowd had grown too large for us to see well, so we went back to our hotel. We did notice that two young women were just finishing their bout!

Back at the hotel, the air conditioning in our room wouldn’t come on, but David came to our rescue and when the hotel staff didn’t respond promptly enough to fix it, he had them change our room. The air conditioning worked well in our new room, and we finally got sleep…. Phillip and I both needed that sleep. I’m not completely over the jet lag, but I think Phillip would say I’m not as witchy (or perhaps with a different letter) today as I was yesterday.

More soup for breakfast, accompanied by French toast with honey and eggs, then off to find the 18 baht street coffee. This morning, I had the Thai tea instead… delicious and fresh! Miriam had iced green tea, and as you can see in the picture, the green tea was very green.

As I type this, Phillip is eating my jack fruit that I bought yesterday (the hotel room has a minifridge). Yesterday, we also bought roasted corn (10 baht, about 40 cents) and Miriam bought these grapefruit segments – huge segments compared to what we have, even in South Texas. Today, we travel to Pattaya, a beach front town near Bangkok, for a few days of sun and surf. Bangkok has been interesting, and we will have four days here at the end of our trip, but I’m glad to be leaving the big city for a more restful location.