fight night in chiang mai

a storm is definitely brewing in chiang mai province. the winds are blowing, and the storm shutters bang open and shut, punctuating the shuffle of palm and banana and bougainvillia that surround me.
a truck creeps down the alley toward this cafe weaving past laundry and motorbikes and dogs. loud speakers mounted on the roof advertise a thai boxing match. the thai slips into a few words of english and back into thai, and through the distortion i only recognize the linguistic shift long after it happens. with nine matches tonight, two regional championships will be decided. the locals will be out in force to support their fighters, no doubt. the fights start at nine.
i bought my ticket this morning, and got a primer on muay thai form, and its street-side variants. the secret, my friend Audee claims, is to fake a punch and step in with the elbow. the other technique is to throw a volley of punches to the face, and then sneek a fist into the groin - the "secret" to all street fighting. i nod pensively, with due respect for the life an death subject matter, when he demonstrates, and speak with the thin veneer of wisdom of my many years street experience, suggesting a few of my own favorite moves.

filled with a new found gastronomic confidence i have bought a ticket to a small town in the northwest of thailand. it has a reputation of being touristy and over-run with foreigners, but of being pleasant, even bucolic as well. we'll see. it also has the rather dubious reputation of a particularly unreliable police force. in early january two canadians were shot in a bar fight by a plain clothes policeman. the man died and the woman remains in hospital, but is recovering. the facts around the shooting remain unclear and the incident is being investigated. i plan to poke around a little myself, see if i can't get to bottom of this.

i'm looking forward to being on the move again. the comforts of chiang mai do not inspire me, as my first week of travel did. i seek some obstacles in my path. a fight to win. for now, at least, i seek a sense of overcoming more than success or comfort.

fight night in chiang mai.
lets get ready to rumble.