January 24, 2004
Last night I went to the Thai
Kickboxing main event. It turns out not to be as brutal as I expected. I was with
Dave (Philly, USA) and a French Canadian woman who I cannot remember the name of. The arena was packed. We had to pay twice as much to get in as the locals. We tried to get around it by having our tuktuk (3 wheel taxi) driver buy our tickets. But it did not work because the local's tickets are white, while the foreigners tickets are pink. So we bit the bullet and paid the 500 Baht (US$12) for the cheep seats. I wondered if they charged foreigners from other asian countries double as well, or if this was simply a "white tax." When we got into the arena we were directed towards a particualr section on the far side. We politely obliged, not knowing the difference either way. After some time the mosquitos became unbearable in this section, so I left Dave
and the woman, and went over to the more raucous section where massive
betting, hooting and hollering was going on. I found a place by the
fence and watched. Very soon I was informed rather rudely that I was
not Thai and therefore not welcome in this section. When I realized
that I was the subject of such overt racism, I became very stubborn and somewhat
confrontational. The man in the white shirt would not shake my hand
because I refused to follow his command. So told him if he wanted me to move, he would have to physically remove me
himself.
I was at this point the center of attention and was rather
enjoying it, almost wanting the man to continue to challenge me. I was
soon informed that he was a well respected manager of the 4 year
champion of the arena. The manager then summoned his champion fighter to
his side to defend him. I immediately recognized the physical prowess
of his fighter, and insisted that the fight was between him and me. I clowned him loudly in front all the onlookers for being racist and for bringing in his
ringer to do his dirty laundry.
Fortunately, it was unecessary for us to escalate this confrontation any further.
He realized I was not going to move without some serious effort and I had nothing more to say. After
a while no one noticed me anymore. Sometimes, with some people, you
have to be strong and stubborn, to get respect.
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