“So there’s this bar in Phi Phi where you can get into a boxing ring and fight someone for a bucket of alcohol” said Cody back in Koh Phangan.
It’s the first of March in Koh Phi Phi–my birth month. I’m sitting behind the boss desk on the porch of Alena Dorm Room, eating an American Breakfast. I’m feeling kind of hungover as I recall what happened last night.
We had a few drinks on the porch at Alena, and then walked over to meet Adam at the legendary Muay Thai Bar. It’s legendary because strangers get into a boxing ring in the middle of the bar and fight each other for a free bucket of alcohol.
We’re rolling deep–we’ve got a crew of about 12 from the hostel. Everyone is sitting ringside drinking beers and watching low quality amateur Thai Boxing. It only took 20 minutes for one of our crew members to get convinced to step in the ring. Kimbo Slice was going in.
He went a full three rounds against his opponent, showing off some cool looking street fight moves. Near the end he kept doing a 360 spin move which looked pretty cool, and could distract an opponent in a street fight. Unfortunately it was not very effective in the ring.
Kimbo got his ass beat, with one leg kick to the stomach at the end of the third round being quite poignant. But the entire time he had a smile on his face and kept going, so you’ve got to respect that. Turns out that both competitors get a free bucket and a plastic gold medal. I guess everyone can be a winner in Thailand too.
After watching a few fights and celebrating a bit with Kimbo on his brave entry into the ring, we headed to Stockholm Syndrome. You can get a bucket for 180 baht here, and there’s really mainstream but easy to sing along to music here. Sometimes they slip in top Swedish language hits, like one where the lyrics say “Everyone not dancing is a rapist.” Some Swedes clued me into this inside joke.
We ran into Émilie and Cynthia here, the two French Canadian girls I met in Koh Tao. They were joined by two Dutch girls that they had made friends with. We also ran into Jack, a Thai guy we met at the trap gym. He was giving drunk Westerners beautiful tattoos that they’ll probably regret in 15 years. We had no idea he was a tattoo artist, but that just automatically makes someone cooler.
We all headed to the beach and we did that standard hop along between Ibiza Bar, Stones Bar, Slinky, and occasionally Blanco’s. After a lot of drinking and dancing until the bars closed at 02.00, I hit up the snack shack again.
Schnitzel and fries with malt vinegar, same as last night.
And that was that the second night in Phi Phi.
Same same, but different.
