Chiang Mai Walking Street and Muay Thai Fights

Earlier this week we went to the fun but very tourisy Night Bazaar here in Chiang Mai.  Tonight is Saturday night, when they hold the weekly "Walking Street" market.  It seemed to us to be more of a fun local thing to do on a Saturday night; we saw lots of families out and about and there were definitely fewer obvious tourists.

There were lots of musicians playing everything from traditional music to singing karaoke on portable machines.  This little girl was very talented.  I think she is playing a khim, which is a hammered dulcimer.

We enjoyed walking up and down the street, checking out all the booths.  But the main reason we came here was for dinner, to try some local foods.  Of course we started off sharing an order of phad thai.

Then Kevin had a local sausage (kind of like the ones shown here, but shaped differently and from a different stall).

This lady sold all kinds of good-looking things; we bought a delicious grilled banana skewer to share.

And for dessert there was a tasty ice cream square.

There were a few delicacies that we just weren't adventurous enough to try.  Normally, Kevin loves calamari, but this squid on a stick just didn't appeal for some reason.

And not even the low, low price of 20 baht (about 65 cents) was enough to tempt us to try these fried insects.

After our street-food dinner, we took a tuk-tuk to the Thai boxing stadium.  Our driver was a lady, which I thought was pretty cool.  We haven't seen any female tuk-tuk drivers here.  She also had the most tricked out tuk-tuk in town.  The rear passenger seat sat on top of a thumping bass, and the ride was equipped with speakers that could be heard down the block. Very fun!

We arrived at the Thapae Boxing Stadium just in time for the start of the fights.

Muay Thai is a style of boxing/fighting that originated in Thailand.  It is nicknamed the "Art of Eight Limbs" because fighters are permitted to use fists, elbows, feet, and knees.

The stadium had an interesting setup.  Most of the spectators were farangs (foreigners) although there was one section full of Thai people, most likely friends and families of the fighters.  There were several bars selling overpriced beers.

Bookies competed with each other to convince the foreigners to wager on each fight.  Here are a group of tourists placing bets.

Traditional music accompanies each fight, getting faster as the rounds progress.  The clarinet-style instrument is called a Pi Muay, Pi Java, or Pi Kaek.



One of the fights we saw was a championship fight for the 85 lb weight class.  These were some tough kids!

For intermission, they also had a "special fight" -- five guys blindfolded and forced to duke it out with each other (no kicking allowed).  Things got interesting whenever they mistook the referee for a combatant.



Afterwards, the blindfolded guys came around asking for contributions and taking photos with the spectators.

Palais Omnisports de Paris - Bercy

We are down to our last three Paris City Walks cards. This one took us out to Bercy, where we had a look around the Palais Omnisports building.

It's an indoor sports and concert venue, built in the 1980's.

But what's the green stuff on the wall?

I can't imagine how they get a push mower up these inclines to mow it.

Oh, that's how.  A guy hoists a round rhoomba-type mower up and down with a rope.  That doesn't look like a fun job at all.

Also...what happens if the rope breaks?  Unwary pedestrians below better watch out.

We walked down to the Seine and took a detour along the Quai de la Rapée to get a view of the Cité de la Mode at du Design (Fashion Institute).  What a strange facade.  Apparently the green add-on is supposed to mirror the Seine below, but from this angle and in this lighting it just looks like an alien eye mask.

Before we crossed the river I took this shot of the Pont de Bercy, with the Bibliothèque National de France - François Mitterand in the background.

Then, from the other side of the river, we could view the Palais Omnisports beneath a graying sky.

This turned out to be one of the more boring walk cards.  The only thing that made up for it was that we had lunch at the Buffalo Grill.  It is a French chain restaurant specializing in Americana, with photos of the American West and Route 66 (although the website calls it "Road 66") plastered all over the walls.  The food wasn't fantastic, but at least now we know where to go if we're craving something resembling ribs or chicken wings.  In case you were wondering, the burger of the month is the Arizona Burger.

Rue Mouffetard

Before we went to the Panthéon yesterday, we walked around the Rue Mouffetard area in the 5th district.  Since it was a Sunday, many of the streets were closed to traffic and there were lots of people strolling around.  We started off near the Place de la Contrescarpe.  From Rabelais in the 16th century to Hemingway in the 20th, many writers have found inspiration in the taverns and cafés around this square.  

Further down was the Mouffetard Sunday market.  For the most part it was just like every other street market we've been to -- a few stalls of produce, fish, butchers, etc.  However, something I saw in the street caught my eye.

At first I thought maybe this was just some cheeky street art.  But further investigation showed that there was, indeed, a bowling alley on Rue Mouffetard.

But after looking at this mural in the stairway, I'm not sure they play it the same way.

As we headed down the last flight of stairs we could hear the telltale sound of pins falling.  There were several groups down there enjoying a Sunday bowl, accompanied by loud techno music.

We went back up to the street and walked down to the end, following the sound of accordion music and singing.  There was a whole crowd gathered, and people were handing out song sheets for a big sing-along of French chansons.  A few couples were dancing, as well.

We hadn't been standing there more than a minute or two when one of the organizers approached and asked me to dance.  How could I refuse?  Stephane was very kind and didn't seem to mind that I can't dance to save my life.  It was very fun, though.  He sang along as we danced...the song is Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.



Here's another short video of some much more talented dancers!

Tour de France

I have to be honest; I haven't been closely following the Tour de France, a 2200 mile bike race around France.  The French seem to have a love affair with bikes...even their capital city is very bike-friendly, what with the Velib (free bikes) and bike paths along most major streets.

The course for the Tour de France changes each year (the race has been run since 1903), but the finish line of the final stage is always along the Champs-Élysées.  In fact the cyclists usually do a series of 20 laps up and around the Champs-Élysées.  So even though we didn't know much about the race, we decided to take the opportunity to cheer on the cyclists.  But we also figured the Champs would be a zoo, so we opted to just watch the racers pass by the Pont Neuf.  The schedule had the riders arriving around 3:45pm, so we staked out a spot behind the barricades about an hour earlier and began to wait.

As we waited, there were cars passing by from the team caravans.  Some were just plain old cars carrying the support staff, but others were the more interesting sponsorship vehicles, heading for the Champs-Élysées crowds to toss out freebies.

Spectators lined the street, but it really wasn't too crowded.  We realized we hadn't needed to arrive an hour early.

In fact, the race was about 45 minutes behind the  schedule on the website.  Unfortunately for some people, the street closures prevented them from getting across.  One gentleman with luggage said his cab driver just dropped them off on the wrong side of the barricades from their hotel because the driver could not find a way across.  There were ways to cross via the metro passages, but that wasn't good enough for this lady...



Apparently she really, really needed to get across in a hurry.  We had expected the gendarmerie (police) to arrest her...but no, they just deposited her back on the original side of the street.  She continued to shout and harass them for about fifteen minutes.

And then....finally!  A cheer went up and we readied our cameras!  The pack whizzed by at breakneck speed.  The overall leader, Cadel Evans (Australia), is in the yellow jersey.  He is the time leader of the overall race, even though he is not shown in the front of the pack here.

The rest of the pack passed us by in what seemed like a split second.

To give you an idea of just how fast things went by, here is a video of the action -- and by "action" I mean a lot of slow-moving cars with a few seconds of cycling footage.



After the pack passed by, the police started removing the barricades.  Kevin and I just looked at each other, saying "Is that it?".  It was kind of a letdown.  But then all kinds of bicyclists, including average joes on Velibs, started riding down the street.  Of course the crowd started cheering them on also.  This wannabe racer came along at least three minutes behind the pack -- the police had to scramble to get pedestrians out of his way.