Sunday night fights in Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok Saturday evening and we slept half of Sunday away, so we didn't really do much till Sunday afternoon. After getting familiar with the subway/sky train system we took river boat to a bar and then a tuktuk to a local stadium for Muay Thai - Thai kick-boxing. I had visions of a scene from a Holly Wood movie with a screaming fans waving wads of cash to bet followed by blood splattering knock out kicks in the ring. We got a half empty stadium and teenage fighters.

However the action was still pretty good and there was gambling. There was a separate section for locals and foreigners and the all the gambling action was in the local section. We were sitting with some Aussies in the foreigner section and together we tried to figure out how to get in the action. We eventually realized that there was no central bookmaker when some of the locals spilled into the foreigner section. People just bet each other. Anyone who wanted to bet one way would offer the action until he had all the takers he could handle.

There were 7 or 8 fights on the card and we started taking action on the second to last fight. Three of the Aussies each had 100 baht (3 usd) bets on the blue corner. I figured the locals knew best, since they we're taking bets against blue I offered the same action, meaning I backed red. Feeling confident I took 500 baht action from another local. Red looked good, but it was Murphy's law and Blue finished him in the last round. The Aussies won 300 and I lost 500.

We probably should have quit then, but since there was only one fight left we decided to stick it out. So far the blue corner had won every fight of the night and you couldn't get anyone to take a bet on red - they must have figured the red corner was bound to win one. So this time I followed the Aussies and took a 100 baht bet on blue. At first it looked like red was winning, but them blue started gaining momentum. Now when someone takes your bet, they hold on to your money and then settle with you when the fight ends. The same local was holding all of our action and when blue starting doing well he started moving around the bleachers. Now he may have just wanted to bullshit with his friends in the local section, but I wasn't going to have my victory snatched from me even if it was only 100 baht. So I started following our friend around the stadium. Over to the top of the locals section, the down the bottom on the other side. This guys was all over the place - next into the bathroom, then out to the rail and back up to the top of the locals section.

As we made our way around, the fight progressed and blue started getting his ass kicked. At this point I gave up on following our now lost money and returned to the foreigners section. As the fight drew to a close our friend returned to his original spot in the foreigners section to rub it in - another bet lost...

Sunday night fights in Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand