travelling hibbo

We arrived in the morning so had the whole day to squeeze in an activity before an evening of Thai boxing. The weather was rubbish so I spent the morning in the coffee houses and internet cafes of the city. The afternoon I had opted for a Thai cookery lesson which involved a trip to the local market.

Fruit, Veg and more

Our guide and teacher gave us a tour of the market before giving us all a basket and instructions to find our ingredients for the day.

Our guide and the main staple of the locals

Seeing all of the amazing produce on offer was great. As usual in these local market situations, the meat buying had to be done with a hint of optimism and fingers crossed. The local preparation methods were pretty basic and you were never quite sure how long it had been sat there..

Not quite the cellophane wrapped cleanliness of the local supermarket

The puchase - Otherwise known as the optimisim bit

The fish counter

After getting the fresh ingredients we walked through the cooked food and sweet sections where an assortment of colours and smells awaited us.

Spot the empty plate. they were nice.

We sampled some of the great food on offer then jumped in the van with our ingredients to the cookery school a few minutes out of town.

Our guide ready for action

Armed and dangerous!

Pad Thai on the go

Coconut sticky rice desert

After amazing ourselves with our own creations we returned to the hotel to prepare for an evening of traditional Muay Thai boxing. Having been to the boxing in Bangkok last Christmas I was interested to see what the experience would be like in a smaller and more of a local arena. We arrived via a couple of very dark and narrow alleyways to a dimly lit entrance to the familiar sound of the traditional in-house band.

mmm, this was going to be interesting

Inside the panel of judges including a random Dutch man were updating matters via the muffled PA system. Unsurprisingly the crowd was alot smaller than the Bangkok crowds but still there was plenty of noise to create an atmosphere. We bought our beers and settled in to the early competitions.

The judges panel with the Dutch guy on the mic

Pre-match prayers

The speed of the fighters was incredicle and hard to pick up with the camera. Each kick was a blurred sprawl of limbs.

My knowledge of the sport was limited and I seemed to call every result the opposite way to the final decision. The headline fight was to be a match between a local fighter and a Canadian guy. I'm not too sure how he found himself here but it was a strange twist to the evening and got the crowd going who were 75% local and 25% tourists.

After a pretty full day it was hard to think we'd just arrived that morning. Soon enough however we were going to be off again. Our stay in Chiang Mai was at least a day too short but I was excited as we got closer to Laos.