My last day in Bangkok started as usual with a view of Sean heading to the shower.

Breakfast is included at the Woraburi Hotel and after picking at their buffet which includes eggs, bacon, toast, fruit and an Asian dish we walked over to Starbucks on Sukhumvit for a coffee.

Sean and I wanted to do some promotions in the Patpong area thinking there would be many internet cafes servicing the tourists. We actually only found a few and it was interesting to see the famous street in the morning hours, almost nothing was open.

Patpong is a small street about 150 meters long that lies between 2 larger roads. These other roads have a ton of restaurants, banks, department stores etc. Bangkok in places seems like a modern city and as Sean mentioned before there is an amazing amount of office space, the city is huge with tall buildings spread all over it.

After doing our best to interact with internet caf� owners we went home to do some work online. Sean had arranged for us to go to a Thai boxing match later on and around 5pm we tried out a restaurant on Soi 4 that looked modern. Our starter was a Thai salad consisting of carotts, cucumber and other diced vegetables covered in chili, onion, cilantro and raw garlic. I tell you this was good and really cleaned out the germs.

My main course was a fried rice with green curry ( already mixed in ). Sean had some bizarre dish consisting of noodles and tiny shrimp.

We met our driver back at the hotel and heading for the arena in a special �Muay Thay� ( boxing ) van.

The stadium we went to wasn�t one of the larger ones and had a real neighborhood feel. Upon entering we were shown to our ring-side seats and sat next to 2 Americans guys from San Francisco over here for a week and 2 British guys doing the same.

If you are not familiar with Thai boxing it takes a couple of fights to get into it. The 2 fighters enter the ring shortly after the last fight has finished wearing tradition adornments consisting of tassels on the biceps and headgear that makes them look as if someone whacked them over the head with a squash racket.

The fighters perform a traditional stretching warm up that resembles a dance and is accompanied by traditional music. Even though the fighters are about to knock the stuffing out of each other they seem hardly bothered by the other�s presence and there is no sign of egos going on before the first bell.

We noticed that for the first round in many fights there were not too many blows thrown. This seems to be the �get to know you� stage. Round 2 is a different story, kicks and punches fly and the crowd and corner-men get into it with whoops and calls.

Thai boxing differs from western boxing in that fighters are allowed to use feet, shins, knees and elbows as well as punching. Their favourite kick is aimed at the opponent�s outer thigh that renders it numb and useless after a while. Naturally there is a lot of feigning and moving to get the other guy to open himself up.

In between rounds corner men place a large circular pan under the fighters seat and soak him in water, while another gives massage and another 10 offer their opinion on tactics.

We saw a few kid�s matches where the fighters looked about 12. Most of them walked away without a scratch but we did see one teenager get leveled by a volley of punches, only to be carried out by stretcher, still unconscious.

The whole contest lasted round 3 hours and by the time we finished we had seen some pretty decent efforts by the up and coming fighters. Sean and I felt like a million dollars.

Outside the small stadium food vendors and tuk tuk drivers hovered eager for business.

The place that issued the tickets arranged our ride home and Bangkok traffic is something that you always have to contend with at any hour of the day.

Next time I�m in Bangkok maybe I�ll try to see some more pro fights and of course take more photos.