On a trip out to Bangkok we were invited back to a friend of a friend’s house for some lunch. Next to her house, our friend of a friend helps to run a coin ‘printing’ factory, producing coins stamped with a Buddhist image thought to bring good luck.
The coins, once created, are quite versatile, sometimes turned into necklaces, or just used as lucky charms. The coins are distributed around participating Thai temples, who bless them, and then are given to the monks who hand them to temple-goers as tokens of appreciation and good luck.
The machines used in the process are huge, and pretty fearsome. On the larger machines, the Thai operators sit at their base, feeding in circular copper templates, upon which the machines 'clunk' down on top of, to forever imprint the lucky image on the copper face.
Although the operators have total control of the machines (they use their left feet to push a peddle, which brings the shaft of the machine downwards) I dread to think what can happen to fingers and thumbs should one of the operators suffer a momentary lapse of concentration.
The fastest of the operators were feeding the bronze templates into the machines at a serious pace; the serial 'clunking' forming a near steady rhythm. Despite my general nosiness, none of the workers paid me the slightest bit of attention; leading me to conclude the little factory receives many visitors, or that these guys are just very good at safe guarding their fingers....
Probably the best known attraction of the province of Suphanburi, the Suphan Tower does pretty much what it says on the tin i.e. it’s a big tower, slap bang in the middle of Suphanburi town centre.
Reaching around 150 ft, it looks a little out of place towering above the busy sois; it could easily be mistaken for the HQ of Ming the Merciless in the 1980’s blockbuster Buck Rogers.
Its height gives visitors great views of the surrounding sprawl of Suphan, and beyond it the vast, flat plains of central Thailand’s rice bowls.
Also known as 'the Banharn tower', it was commissioned by 'local boy' politician stroke celebrity hero Banharn Silpa Archer, whose smiley face and / or signature often end up on lots of attractions and developments taking place throughout the province.
The tower is a good family trip out, and is surrounded by some of the most attractive landscaped gardens I have come across in the Kingdom.
Even better if you know the town a little; it’s good fun working out ‘what is what’ and tracing the routes you have travelled (I still haven’t competently discovered the location of our house, despite visiting twice and on both occasions doing little else but try to work it out).
Another bonus of the tower is it is surrounded by the town of Suphanburi itself, so those comfortable navigating their way through Thai towns can have a good look around afterwards.
Whenever I mention that I've played rugby in Thailand, there is always great interest in how good the Thai's are at the sport.
Questions like 'do Thai people really play rugby?' and 'are they any good? They are quite small though, innit?'
I myself may have posed similar questions had I not had the experience; and I always enjoy telling these people that the Thai's are pretty fecking good at rugby; particularly 10's, which is fast flowing, and suited to the climate (lots of short games).
Young Thai's who get into their 10's rugby are nearly always noticeably wide-shouldered, and usually exceptionally fast. When the Thai's tackle, they are often completely unafraid, launching themselves at their target and locking their arms and legs around opponents, rendering them static or knocking them all over the place.
Plus, Thai's are not as small as many people believe; especially the younger generations, who have had the benefit of improved diets and are often as tall as their Western counterparts (if you don't believe me, check out the youngsters around you in the Tesco Lotus queue, as you stand, and wait, for half an hour, wondering why you have travelled 5000 miles only to end up back in a bloody Tesco queue).
We should all dread the day the England International side come up against a Thai pack as big as themselves. OK, probably some way off, but, would nonetheless make for very interesting viewing.
If you need an example of Thai athleticism, this can be found in the form of the very popular SE Asian sport of 'Takraw,' a kind of football meets Volleyball.
Players need to be incredibly skilful and have impeccable timing; the sport presumably stems from the Thai's love of footie in general. You often see it being played at the roadside.
This post isn't very Thai oriented, but being that I have written about my love of 'Muay Thai' and sports in general, it was a great pleasure to go and see 'An audience with Joe Calzaghe' at Southend's Cliff's Pavilion last week.
If you don't know him, Joe Calzaghe is a Welsh boxer who has 46 middle weight matches undefeated, which for his weight class, is unprecedented.
He is a true great British champion, beating and ending the careers of some of the best boxers in history - Robin Reid, Chris Eubank, Jeff Lacy, Mikkel Kestler, Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Junior, are just a few of his victories.
All of these guys were the toughest fighters in probably the most competitive weight class; and Calzaghe beat them all.
Not only did we get the chance to listen to Joe, he was introduced by another great iconic British Champion, Henry Cooper, who looks great for his 75 years and is as funny as ever.
Interesting boxing facts that came out of the night.
1. Cooper explained why Ali is in so much trouble now - Apparently, Ali was so quick, his unorthodox style of throwing his head backwards to avoid punches meant that, over time, he took many blows to the back of his neck / base of his brain (instead of to the top and side of his head). This has left him in the physical condition he is in today.
2. Calzaghe explained that his toughest fight was.............. Chris Eubank! Apparently Chris explained to Joe that 'he would take him into the trenches.' After Eubank was knocked down in the first round, Joe continued the fight thinking 'this is going to be easy'. It wasn't, and Eubank very nearly beat him.
3. Calzaghe confirmed his most satisfying victory was over Jeff Lacy, who fought him in Manchester. Joe, although undefeated, was widely considered the underdog. 'When we met at the weigh in, he knew' said Calzaghe. 'He shit himself'.
4. Calzaghe on Frank Warren 'the a**hole still owes me 2 million from the Hopkins fight. This will be one fight I won't lose' (in court).
5. A girl from the audience asks Joe 'So.......... when your girlfriend is in the bedroom, standing in front of you, with all her gear on, the night before the fight, do you really say 'no'.
Joe laughs and talks of one of his old boxing friends (can't recall who) who apparently abstained from sex for seven weeks in the build up to a big fight, only to be knocked out in the 2nd round!
'It's bullshit, a myth' explained Joe. The longest I went before a fight was 3 days, and that was the Jeff Lacy fight'
Here are some of Joe's best moments (he confirmed that he wouldn't be tempted back into the ring). However, TTP is not so sure that Calzaghe quite believes this himself.......
