Daily Archives: April 13, 2006

Sea Boxing in Thailand

I spent most of today at the Ancient City in Samut Prakan. For families who are tired of all the water fights and want to celebrate Songkran in a more traditional way then the Ancient City is an ideal choice. Other websites will just be concentrating on the water fights. However, over the following days I will be giving you photos and reports which concentrate more on the culture of Thailand.

The photos on this page show you some people playing a traditional Thai game called “Sea Boxing” ( muay ta-lay มวยทะเล ). Basically, two contestants climb up onto a pole at either end. A bell is then rung and they have to box their opponent until one of them falls off. In total there are three rounds and the person who falls off the most times is the loser.

Some of the rounds were really funny to watch. Like the guy who was so sure of himself that he gave a big wild punch that was hard enough to knock anyone out. However, he missed, lost his balance and ended up in the water much to the delight of the crowd watching.

After the Sea Boxing they had another game which was fun to watch. This involved two boats with two team members in each boat. What they were doing was taking part in a race. Not your normal race as one of the oarsmen in each boat was blindfolded and the other had a gag on! So, without being able to help each other the result was pretty much like chaos.

I will be adding some video clips to my blog later so make sure you come back to check. And do you remember the Blindfold Boxing video clip? Well, I have another hilarious clip to share with you soon! Don’t forget to check our sister sites at www.thaifestivalblogs.com and www.thaiphotoblogs.com for more pictures and stories about Songkran.

Old Patong: The U-Boat[early 80’s]

Along the north central end of Patong beach was where the former German U-Boat Captain Hans started building his U-Boat!

We’d drive by for months, watching the cement cylinder take shape, the local talk was how the machine was being built, it’s various technology and if it would sink to the bottom of Patong Bay as quickly as rock?

Captain Hans seem to have great pride in the ships craftmanship, he was there on hand to supervise every laddle of fresh,wet,hand mixed cement creating an ever fatter supository looking craft!

By night, Captain Hans ran the U-Boat bar on Soi Bangla[Bar Rd]and always had a group of northern Europeans gathered round his table for tales of WWII and how “shares” of his new [hopefully] floating machine would make them all rich when he would charge tourist a grand amount of Baht to tour the beautiful undersea coral reefs of Patong Bay and beyond!

It seemed like the work on the U-Boat lasted not more than 6 months, by monsoon, the locals were “salvaging” the iron ree-bar by hitting the flakey concrete orb senselessly with large hammers…:-(

I wish there were a picture of what was to make Patong beach and Captain Hans famous, but sadly, none were taken! Maybe there are some old timers out there in internet land that have a picture or two of the fabled U-Boat or atleast the U-Boat Bar, which lived on for several seasons after the demise and complete destruction of the U-Boat.

While the contruction was going on, many gawkers, tourist, travellers, expats and locals spent many hours sipping a cool brewski and wondering where it would all end.

Like most pipe dreams, it went up in smoke… but, maybe that’s how it started!