Hi all,

 

New years eves eve was one of the best nights out I've had all year. On the Saturday Thailand reached the final of the Kings Cup an invitational tournament held in Bangkok to make sure they have a chance of winning at least one trophy every now and again this year it was Kazakhstan, Vietnam and someone else, + of course hosts Thailand.

 

Although Thailand hold the Cup purely so they can win sometimes other countries do come along and rather impolitely steal the cup from under them in there own back yard. Saturday saw Vietnam and Thailand in the Final, And Vietnam are a fairly strong side in south East Asia. So there was a worry around that they might spoil the party.

 

So I went down there with Rish a teaching friend of mine. I managed to convince him that it was worth going as something different to do. While waiting at the ticket office in a sort of crowd/queue all the good seats sold out, every one around us was cheesed off because the wanted comfy plastic seats, as oppose to a sort  of concrete terracing you can seat on, we on the other hand just wanted to see the game so while everyone else wandered off we sauntered up to get our 50 Baht tickets(50 baht = about 80p). Then we ran in, we were behind the goal but we thought at least we’ll get a good view of the Thai goals this half if there are any.

 

As we arrived at the stand we couldn’t believe it there was space for two folks to plonk their arses down right there, front row. Why had this front row space not been taken up? So we sat down and got into the action  2 minutes gone and still nil nil, Then I suddenly realized why a lot of Thai folks would be a bit reluctant to take this space,

“Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaai land” the guy next to me screamed as he lurched into me with breath which was 80% proof.

 

With his best basic English he said “you like Thailand?” “Yes I like Thailand”, Me and Rish started to chat away to 80% proof guy and his mates and between our basic Thai and their basic English we got on along fine. A couple of them were tuk-tuk/taxi drivers and some worked in a hotel near the tuk tuk/taxi stand. I’m not quite sure how they all knew each other, but one thing I did know for sure they had all been their for many hours, drinking sang som (Cheap Thai Whiskey) straight from the bottle with a swig of  water as a chaser to ease the burn.

 

One of the reasons we were accepted so quickly was my mate had bought a Thai Flag and we were holding it up, now we were a bit nervous about whether there was any special etiquette you had to observe with the Flag, usually Thai people do forgive you for making these mistakes but its best not to make then in the first place.

 

Before we had enough time to worry about this, one of the Thai guys next to us asked to borrow the flag then he proceeded to tie the ends of it round his neck to make a sort of superman style cape and ran around the stand singing “Super Thailand!” So then we guessed we didn’t have to worry too much to worry about on the old flag etiquette front.

 

Thailand took the lead with a bundled in goal and the stand went crazy, well everyone got up and cheered at least. The good thing about Thai crowds is there is a great family atmosphere very friendly, two rows behind us a young couple had brought their baby and he managed to sleep though the whole game I couldn’t believe it. However they are normally fairly quite most of the game, this game was pretty good as Thailand won, so the Cheer of Thailand Su! Su! (Thailand fight! fight!) was being shouted by all.

 

Half way through the second half another bottle of Sang Som arrived as if by magic in my mates hands and incredibly 80% proof guy did decide after one swig perhaps he’d had enough today  with some encouragement from his mate Tanom. I think he was being told to sit down before he falls down, wise council. So we had a few swigs of Sang Som, it would’ve been rude to refuse and we bought a few cans of chaang and offered them as a thanks for the whiskey.

 

Thailand won 3-1, Tanom invited us to his noodle stall he runs so we got his number and said we’d hook up later. Everyone looked like they were having so much fun on the pitch we wanted to run on. The drop from the terrace to ground level was about 10 feet which looks along way if your standing up on the terrace but if you hang over the edge holding on to the ledge its only really a 5 foot drop. We had seen a few Thai supporters do it, and Rish who is always very confident when it comes to silly ideas decided to give it a go, then  I followed fortunately with him to hold on to my legs on the way down.

 

We stormed the pitch long with a few hundred others some of the victorious Thai team were being mobbed and giving autographs. Lots of smiles lots of laughs.

 

We went on to Tanom’s noodle stall a bit more drink with some of the guys who were at the game, a lot more cheering Thailand Su Su. Then to Chinatown, then I dropped into a late night bar on the way home and slept soundly.

 

I hope all is well with you all

 

Love dom