Thailand : Bangkok : Muay Thai!

We took a bus at 7am after smiling and goodbyes. We were the first foreigners Tik had ever met - he was granted only 7 days holiday per year, but if he took it his villagers got angry!
The bus was quite something. Ancient and rickety, it rattled through tiny villages, the driver wheeling around potholes and all the time dealing: buying oil and selling a white powder...
At one point he pulled up a hatch in the middle of the bus to adjust the engine, smoking and deafening.
Out of sheer laziness we went back to the Khao San and flopped into bed til the early evening.
We felt very out of place buying tickets from a surly woman behind a grille. The stadium entrance was sweaty and gritty. We went all the way up to the top, where Liv discovered there were NO female toilets, as no Thai women ever went to MUAY THAI. We were crammed onto concrete steps at the ack of the auditorium, behind a high spiky metal cage.
The crowd was densely Thai, only two other Westerners in the whole place. We sat with them and spent the evening trying to discover what was going on: the winner seemed entirely arbitrary. Sometimes when it seemed one guy kicked ass, the other guy won. The fighters were extremely small, weighing about 150lbs max.
Inside the ring was all colour and light. The boxers strode on with matching entourage. They ceremoniously shed their robes to reveal fat shorts and flower garlands. They would then bow and warm up with a jaunty puppet-like dance routine.
Each fighter had a group of supporters ringside who were especially frantic.
The atmosphere was fantastic: fat grunts from the crowd pressed against the cage, relentless music and constant frenzied betting.
Afterwards we chatted to the couple we met over drinks, mostly about ping pong shows. After about 20 minutes, they admitted (very embarassed) that they'd been to one.
I'm curious. Liv is disgusted by the whole idea. I often find we reach a happy medium in this way - "I'll be fine" from me and "That's totally ridiculous!" from Liv.