First Thai holiday: Fried crab curry and female face punching.

Met up with a classmate of mine, Gabriel, from Singapore, the only other inbound exchange student in the program, the night before classes started. We ate this exact dish:
http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/07/05/food-fridays-in-bangkok-fried-curry-crabs-that-dont-disappoint/
It was so good, I was sort of laughing while eating it, in a state of disbelief.

Then took a tuk-tuk to the Grand Palace, where festivities of all manner were happening. Street music, mingling, ceremonies etc etc. As we meandered in and out of traffic and people, we finally found a place to grab up two spots and spend about half an hour - ring side at a muay thai bout!

The intro show:

                                       

Notice the sparks from the swords. CLANG!

One full round of the women's title fight. France vs Thailand. France (in blue) came out victorious.

The fight was delayed right before the first bell, when a downpour opened up on the event. It rained the rest of the evening, including some especially hard bursts of a few minutes duration, as we tried hailing a taxi, that sent Gabriel and I for shelter in a small park underneath an umbrella we had to fold out. We ended up riding back in a tuk-tuk, rain and all, I finished off my journey from his place to mine alone, landed in bed and awoke to my alarm hours later for the first day of class..