I met up with a Canadian guy yesterday, just arrived and looking for something to do. My plan to head to Ko Samet and meet Andrew was peachy with him and we spent much of the day drinking Singha. I moved from my shitty, though cheap, hostel to the one he was staying at... A beautiful brand new palace compared to some holes I've stayed in. Not too expensive either.
Around 8:30 we decided to go check out the famed Thai boxing that everyone has heard about... we dickered for a tuk-tuk and paid 180baht for a ride all the way across town to lumphini stadium.
We bought ring-side seats, although we were late, for 1200baht (really expensive in thailand... $40CAD). We were taken down into the stadium, which was a semi-outdoor tin-roofed building FULL of screaming Thais. Seemed like it was out of a movie. It turned out that we arrived just in time for the main event, a fight between two 20year old champion fighters. A Muay Thai fight lasts 5 rounds ot 5 minutes each, and its really brutal; they kick, punch, head butt... anything goes. Some truly amazing hits... The remarkable thing is that they are able to withstand the hits, they rarely fall, they show little or no pain. Here's me with the 131lb winner. Pretty small dude...

I'm off to Ko Samet, an island southeast of Bangkok at 3 today... I'll post something more when I recover from my anti-diarrhea medication from last night...