What is sport to people? Here and there? For us it is clear: sport is football on the whole. But when you are with friends in Bangkok, for example, the world looks different. When it comes to sports, what’s important here sometimes even plays a role in big, elegant weddings. Could you imagine that there would be a show fight between a Muay Thai fighter and an MMA fighter at a wedding reception? That there is no blood being shed, but rather a secret being revealed? But more about that later.
First let’s get on the Skytrain, which rolls through Bangkok on stilts, a tram above everything. It’s like everywhere else there, almost everyone and everyone is holding a cell phone in front of their nose. If you look over the shoulder of the boy in the Adidas tracksuit, you’ll see what he’s watching so closely, a Muay Thai fight. Many claim that this is the pinnacle of sporting fighting, not of the primitive brutality of so-called Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), but harder than the boxing we are familiar with.
What surprises the newcomer is that even in this city’s Moloch, racing cycling is paid homage. At six in the morning, when it’s not so hot, we meet at the airport. A perfectly developed 23.5 kilometer long course runs around it, specifically designed for racing cyclists. Hundreds of Thais and a few expats meet here to race around the airport in groups, the fastest in the mid-40s, almost all on planes and in outfits of the highest quality and price range.
That should be enough for a certain level of basic fitness
Actual high society meets at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, founded in 1901. From the skytrain you can see the huge area with a horse racing track and the golf course inside. The value of the huge property in the middle of the city is estimated at three billion dollars (2.78 billion euros). Anyone who wants to become a member should have 50,000 dollars (46,268 euros), the best connections and enough patience for a waiting period that often lasts decades.
This text comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Those who make it to the club have access to badminton, basketball, billiards, bridge, chess, cricket, field hockey, football, golf, gym, martial arts, polo, Qi Gong, rugby, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, yoga. Even without cycling, that should be enough for a certain level of basic fitness.
Michael Eder Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Michael Eder Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5 Michael Eder Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5
And the show fight at the wedding? The pink-clad Muay Thai fighter versus the blue-clad MMA fighter? The secret was a delicate one. The bride was pregnant and hardly any of the 250 guests knew whether it was a boy or a girl. To make a long story short: Of course the Muay Thai fighter won, everyone knew it.
