Thailand: Koh Samui – Muay Thai

One of the things I wanted to do whilst we were in Thailand was to go and watch some Muay Thai. Not that I am into boxing or any form of combat sport, but I am fascinated by the cultural aspects of these sports. When we visited Mexico, we went to see Lucha Libre, a form of wrestling, which was more entertainment than sport. I suspected Muay Thai would be very different!

We spent the morning just hanging around the hotel, enjoying our lovely room. In the afternoon we decided to catch a songthaew to Chaweng Beach, where there are two Muay Thai stadiums, that had been busily advertising events throughout the week.

Our driver stopped so we could pick up some tickets for the event, which started at 9:00 pm and then got the driver to take us to a night market to get some food. It wasn’t the best place for food, at least for vegetarians, but we did manage to find a stall selling vegetarian pad Thai – not ideal, but filling.
We still had a long time before the Muay Thai started, so we decided to start walking back to the centre of Chaweng Beach, which was about 3 kilometres away. The plan was to try and get a massage before the fight. The walk was not very exciting, but we did manage to get back close to the stadium in time to get a massage before heading across to take our seats.

The roads leading to the Samui International Muay Thai Stadium are somewhat sketchy, with massage shops offering happy endings and bars with loud music and ladies in tight dresses trying to entice men in. We ran the gauntlet of these and headed inside to take our seats.

We’d booked upgraded seats, so we ended up being in the front row right next to the ring. There were five bouts on the card.

Before the event started there was a demonstration of the rituals associated with Muay Thai.

Wai Kru is a ritual ceremony performed by Muay Thai fighters directly before engaging in battle. It is composed of two distinct parts, both specific to the sport of Muay Thai only, performed to live “sarama” music.

“Wai” is the name for the traditional Thai greeting, where Thais put their hands together and lower their heads as if in short prayer. “Kru” is Thai for teacher. So, the meaning is simply a thank you and blessing to show deep respect to one’s coaches, gym, training partners and family.

The Wai Kru is the first part of the ritual where the fighter circles the ring three times before kneeling and bowing. The second part of the ritual, known as the Ram Muay, means “boxing dance” and can have many styles. These can be gym or fighter-specific, regional, or historical. There are often many individual elements included or elements that help identify the gym of a particular fighter.

The first fighters came into the ring and went through their Wai Kru. The fight commenced and the fighters moved in time with the sarama music being played over the loudspeakers. If we thought that Muay Thai was a performance art, our belief was soon dispelled as one of the fighters was knocked out in the second round.

Karen got talking to the men sitting next to her. He was friends with a fighter in the next bout called Alex from France. He was tall and lanky, and Karen immediately felt a bond with Alex as she was sitting next to his friend. The second bout went pretty much the same as the first, with Alex knocking out his opponent, who struggled to get up as his legs were so wobbly and needed help to get out of the ring.

The next two bouts also ended in knockouts, with one of the fighters getting completely poleaxed and getting a horrible cut that left a large pool of blood on the ring’s canvas that had to be mopped up.
The final bout was a total mismatch. This was a match-up between two light-weight competitors, but one of them looked punch drunk. He ended up getting convincingly beaten and knocked out early in round two.
It was all over.

Combat sports are not our thing, but we enjoyed the evening and soaked up the atmosphere. Would we go again? Maybe!

We hailed a Grab driver and 20 minutes later we were tucked up in bed.