Long beach and Mai Thai

I wake up early and spend the morning sorting out paperwork. There are things that would be easier in the uk but nevertheless I persist and eventually at 11am I'm done. I have been invited by hilmi to join him at long beach and I take up the offer. I sit by the pool relaxing and reading and watch the children playing on a scooter.I smile to myself watching the children share the scooter without a cross word and thinking of how differently that would play out at home.It's a family run place, and they have an elderly Thai man who they care for, bringing him outside and making him comfortable and my guess would be he has cancer but there's no chemotherapy or radiotherapy for the poorer people here and I don't think that's a bad thing strangely as they use natural ways of dealing with pain and ailments. In the afternoon I take a ride to long beach with hilmi and we sit on our little perch watching the world go by learning new things from each other. It's a quick sss (shit shower and shave) before I head out for the mai tai boxing. There are a good 9 of us going and so we hail a tuc tuc for the 5 of us and within 15 minutes we arrive at the stadium. The ticket includes a thai buffet, which is a selection of local tai food and rice i can honestly say there is nothing ive eaten here which hasnt been delicious. There is a woman who has multiple jobs here firstly bar maid then compare then the board holder for each round of boxing and In between she shouts out the words to songs they are playing. The entertainment starts with Thai dancing which is beautiful and then the fights begin. They bring all the fighters into the ring and then there are 3 rounds starting with kids aged about 11. The next fight is 16 to 18 Yr old followed by the man's fight which is a French guy and a Thai guy. The French guy is a bit lairy but I personally think the better fighter. All the fighters have an ice tray that they sit with their feet in after each round i can only gues this is like a shock factor to take away the thought of the pain. The evening is finished with a fire show. An absolutely brilliant day.Read more