Whakaputaina: 07.03.2020
Interesting for martial arts fans: Lumpinee boxing stadium. 👊🏼
Since Jannik practices various martial arts himself (including Muay Thai), we decided to visit the famous stadium. We chose not to buy the expensive tourist VIP tickets and instead stood on the stands with the Thai crowd. And that was definitely the right decision! The VIP seats are crap. 🙃
You can't see anything from down there. On the other hand, we had a great view of the action (which you can see in the picture) and experienced a completely different atmosphere around us because the Thais bet like crazy and were fully emotionally invested in the fights.
The VIP tickets are actually more of a tourist rip-off than 'VIP'. But when I think of the young couple sitting below on the expensive seats and watching the whole spectacle just through their phones, my sympathy quickly disappears. Judging by the young lady's high-tech respirator mask, money wasn't really an issue for them, and they didn't seem particularly interested in the fights either. 2000 Baht is about 55 €. Maybe one should consider beforehand whether they want to spend that much money on something that doesn't really matter to them. But well, enough gossiping. We also made a fool of ourselves. We were told that it takes about 2 hours to reach the stadium due to traffic from 3 pm onwards. That's why we arrived much earlier.
Stupidly, there was nothing to see around except a few monitor lizards (which were really cool!). So, we spent quite a bit of time waiting until the fights finally started. Really a lot of time. We then discovered a Thai market where many unidentifiable food items were being sold. However, it was clear that tourists rarely venture into this area, as the place was definitely not aimed at tourism. In the end, the whole waiting was worth it because it was a really cool evening with interesting fights! We had a lot of fun! 😊