Premier League Football – Thai Style

Jockeying For Control

Dateline:  Chiang Rai (183km northeast of Chiang Mai, by the border of Lao and Myanmar <map>)

Quite by fortune, fate or……karma, (thank you, monks), I went to see a Thai Premier League football match!  It was awesome.  The play, the people, and the price.  Incredible.

The Fighting Scarabs…???

Chiang Rai United……who the heck are they…….the Fighting Scarabs…..?  Maybe?  I don’t know, but there was a statue of an enormous beetle in front of the stadium, so that’s how I’ll always know them.  I was in a small restaurant after touring the Black House, enjoying what I would describe as Thai BBQ, when one of the employees was tuning the TV into the pre-game show for the local football team.

Black House – Chiang Rai

Darkness Lives Here

Thawan Duchanee is one perhaps Thailand’s most famous artist.  Born in 1939, he is a painter, muralist, sculptor, and designer.  

Caught in a Thai Police Dragnet

Letizia Paying Her Traffic Fine at Chiang Mai Police Station

Chiang Mai, mid-day
And the weather was fair,
Out for a motorbike ride
Through the Old Town square.

Off to see the sights,
No real plan of attack;
She on the front,
And me on the back.

Rounding a corner
There stood a cop,
Pointing to the curb,
We were forced to stop.

He proceeded to tell us
With a great deal of cheer,
We weren’t wearing helmets
(Like most people here).

He traded her license
For a traffic citation
And told us to follow
To the police station.

Wondering if I’d also get punished,
He said, “just her, not you.”
Though her Thai license reduced
Her fine from four hundred to two.

Take a number,
Get in line.
Wait your turn,
Pay your fine.

In total, it took an hour,
Really not such a drag,
And the seven dollar fine,
Just a minor snag.

We dashed out the door
And back to the bike,
Just another adventure
For WanderlustMike.