Outside the city

Colorful lights are stretched right and left of the narrow street, dozens of naked bulbs dangling over the various foods offered by the small stands. Hundreds of people , mainly Thais, slander between balloon sellers, grills on wheels and game booths. A brutal bass from the oversized sound system near a big dance floor travels across the festival area. The stairs to the dancefloor are guarded by three important -looking policemen with "MP" armbands and helmets.

It's Wednesday evening and we are a group of about 20 Team Quest members who have travelled about a half hour outside of Chiang Mai to a village festival. The village festival is not a cozy, small and quiet one. Rather, it is one of the larger ones and a few thousand people are here .

Piak , the 17 year old Muay Thai fighter will have his most important fight later tonight – he will fight for the Northern Thailand championship -50kg.

We pass our time with exploring the festival area: While having ice-cold coconut juice we try to pop balloons with small arrows at one booth or shoot with plastic bullets on cuddly toys at another one – I am far from being successful in doing this.

Adrien, who fought at Lumphini Stadium several times seems to be well known in the Muay Thai scene here. He shakes hands here and there... but maybe it is just because of the Angry Birds balloon he tied to his wrist which is floating over his head all the time.

I am still not sure.

When the fights finally start you can barely hear the traditional music played because the loudspeakers at the ring are nothing compared to the huge sound system at the dancefloor. But this is trivial because already the first fight is a really good one – from round to round the reactions of the few hundred people surrounding the ring become more emotional and extreme. It is very even fight - until it is ended by a surprising knockout.

The second fight is as thrilling as the first one and every hit is followed by a loud "OOOIIII!" of the crowd. Hands are raised quickly to show how much you want to bet and people are hectically looking for a bookmaker to accept their bet.

Then the third fight is on. Piak´s chance to win the title. Many of the Team Quest guys join the gamblers and we provoke a hustle and bustle when both bookmakers ("500! Wanna bet?") and gamblers ("Is he good? Is he good?") try to find out why the few farang are all betting on this one guy.

We are all nervous: It is not only a friend who fights, but it is a title fight – that it is also about money is just the cherry on top of the cake. These three things together are the most thrilling combination to enjoy a fight (right after stepping in the ring yourself.)
Already in round one Piak and his opponent go hard. With the bell for the first break, the Team Quest fighter even gets hit by a brutal shot which nearly knocks him out.

But Piak does not surrender and fights five rounds straight, trading punches, kicks and dozens of knees while clinching – It is neck and neck. The crowd goes nuts.
An absolutely awesome fight, it is really really hard to say who is better.

When the judges call the fight, my hands are sweaty.

Unfortunately, Piak loses by a split decision. But a lost fight means not he lost the war: I am not the only one who thinks the fight was great. The promoter already scheduled a re-match for the end of December.

Then, the belt will be Team Quest!

Watch the fight – it is worth it!