Thai boxing and Thai cooking

We have been in Koh Samui since Nov 18th, arriving by air on Bangkok Air. I must admit I was a little nervous about flying a domestic Thai airline given the recent crash in Phuket. However, the flight was fine; the most eventful thing was the spicy carrot salad that neither Julia or I could finish. It is low season here, with November having the most rain of the year. However, we have lucked out so far because the first two days had lots of sun, and although today was a bit cloudy and rainy, our plans took us indoors for a cooking class. We attended the Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts and cooked three courses: a green chicken curry (from scratch); a seafood coconut soup; and an oyster sauce beef stir fry. All three were delicious, and we hope to make them again in Vancouver using the recipe books we were given. Unfortunately we could barely eat half of what we had made because each dish was to serve two. But we gorged ourselves as much as we could and left very happy.

Last night was interesting for me too. I attended a Muay Thai match. For those of you who don't know what it is, it is Thai kick boxing. There is a small arena here on Lamai beach, and the event was attended by only about 60 people. The competition was fierce despite the small crowd, and it was really fascinating to watch. There was even a fight between two boys, probably 11 or 12. Don't worry, it wasn't sketchy. Clearly they were training to become champions! The one thing that struck me about the fighters was how small they were. I think they couldn't have been over 150 lbs, and may have been as small as 115 lbs. They could kick hard though, so I would never want to get into the ring with one of them.