bull, sweat and beers: the Mekong Cup in Bangkok

Unbelievable but true: it could get hotter! Hotter than in India, during the ultimate frisbee tournament we never got to blog about. This time, we'll tell you all about our second Asian disc experience: 

the sportgrounds at the Thai army station

It was friday, may 24th, and it rained, the monsoon finally had arrived. Klaus and me were standing in front of a shopping mall, waiting for the pouring rain to ease, trying to figure out which street is "soi 13" to get to a hotel for the welcome party. Because hotel bars were the only place allowed to serve or sell alcohol on this public bhuddist holiday. It was a great meet-up, above all we enjoyed hanging out with the Chiang Mai players (we had been to practise there a few times) and drinking REAL beer, ie Belgian beer! Briefly we met EATDISC, the Singaporean team we'd be playing on but they were a bit shy and left early. The excitement of participating at a tourney where we don't know anyone led to interesting talks on this friday night, but the plan to get "some good sleep" failed miserably.

Saturday, finally, playing time, yeeeaaah! But why am I so dog-tired? Ah well, thanks to the noisy fan in our hotel room and the heat, this crazy bitch! We arrived on the fields at 7am, had some fruit for breakfast and sweat running down before we even started the warm up. Gosh, if not moving gets us sweaty so fast, what will happen after the games have started?
Our team arrived and brought a bag full of presents, including an amazing jersey ("Throw here" front print, 'Huck now" on the back) and cleats for Klaus and me. All of them seemed incredibly friendly - and young! The average age was 20, they said. We can add some experience to the team, we said. Still, this combination didn't serve as a winning concept against our first opponent from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, but we gave them a good fight. Above all I was glad that Klaus and me had ended up on a spirited and enthusiastic team, full of talented players, only lacking a bit of confidence.

lunch with pink pasta

We also lost the other games on saturday, but to be fair: it was only due to the weather. Especially after lunch I felt like I was fading out, being so exhausted from some lack of sleep and the HEAT. I couldn't play much of the third game, feeling dizzy whenever I turned, thinking: thank god it's cloudy. After the games were done, Klaus and me decided to skip team dinner and get some sleep for the party instead.
Unfortunately, after some good ultimate, a fantastic organization of the tournament and yummy yummy lunch, the party was a disappointment in the true sense of the word!
When we got there just before midnight, the party had been shifted from an Irish pub to the "red light district" in Bangkok, to a bar with a mechanical bull. Sounds fun, I know, that's what I thought, but unfortunately the bull was also ridden by teenage girls wearing hot pants, bras and braces. The woman controlling the bull, the boss, was a Thai person in her thirties, also in a bra and with a huge belly but no underwear (I wish I hadn't found out). If a guy got onto the bull she was trying to move it fast and throw them of (which was funny), and if it was one of her girls (who could have been her daughters) or another woman, she moved the bull slowly so it looked sexual. Above that, the boss tried to convince all female frisbee players to take off their tops while riding the bull, without success, and the Thai women lifted someone's dress sitting on the bull so everybody could see her g-string. It was humiliating for the player and shocking not only to me, but luckily not many of the Asian players had come to the bar. This stupid bar, where ugly old western men hit on half-naked underage girls. I had completely forgotten about this side of Thailand, the north was untouched and rural, but here in Bangkok, I suppose, it was normal. The one other player we knew from the HAT in India, Arjun from Bengalore, was also not having fun, we left together with him, the girl with the g-string, the guy with the bleeding nose (from falling of the bull) and some others. I was sad. No dancing. No chatting. No cheap drinking. Nothing like a frisbee party!

EATDISC in the fantastic ME KONG jerseys

Sunday, bloody sunday, you are so kind to me without a party! Unfortunately the weather wasn't, the sun was shining and all the white people knew what was awaiting them: either sunscreen in the eyes because you're sweating it off in a minute, or... sunburn. Nevertheless, EATDISC was fit and eager to win, so we played very well against "Angelina's Orphans" from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The were a nice team, so we let them win!
Finally, the coffee place next to the fields opened, I got my tired ass in it and as soon as the caffeine reached my brain it worked out a song for my team. It was a parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat it" and EATDISC loved it. We sang it about a dozen times and instantly won the next game against a team from Kuala Lumpur. ONLY because of the song... not.
Our next opponent heard it, got scared and refused to play against us. Well, they claimed it was too hot, they hadn't eaten and too many injuries but this was just a lame excuse. A Bangkok team had the same problem as we did - no opponent - so we just played each other for fun. They came in 5th, we ended up on the 9th place.

hanging out after games, just playin

Slowly everyone started getting drunk. Chucking a few beers here, having some vodka and cream poured in my mouth from one and some apple juice and cinnamon by another person, and hey - is this real Malibu?? Some teams played fun games, eg without spriting, or a beer can in one hand, or skipping instead of walking etc., the rest was hanging out on the sideline, literally. Just sitting or laying, drinking, not as an orgy, but like the party we never had the day before. Good songs to dance to, a spontaneous beer race led by a drunk Canadian, and some chats with Thai players later, the sun was setting and Chiang Mai had won the tournament. They had asked Klaus and me to play with them and I felt a pinch of regret, until I saw some EATDISC players doing the landshark. Oh yeah! They had warmed up a lot, we laughed a lot together, we will see them again a lot!

during the national anthem, actually it was our award ceremony

Happy, hungry and still quite tipsy we went downtown with the Chiang Mai players to have dinner and some game analysis. Many hugs and goodbyes later Klaus and me shambled from the taxi into our hotel room, tired, sunburned and very very happy.

Some of the best moments of the Mekong Cup were:
- to see how awesome some of the young guys from EATDISC were playing, and how confident the girls were
- how easily they accepted Klaus and me on the team
- how the soft grass made it impossible not to lay out, even for me
- the food served at the tournament was freshly made and half of it had no meat or seafood
- meeting players from all over South East Asia (and America)
- when everyone stopped warming up and froze at 8am for the national anthem and flag hoisting

EATDISC: everyone is an animal

I want to finish this report, finally, by saying a huge thanks to EATDISC for being such a spirited team, and to the organizers of the Mekong Cup, Piet and his wife, for doing a great job. I wanna be back next year!

water supply. can you drink more than you sweat?

by Lia


PS: Dear readers, do you think my blog posts are too long? Be honest, though it might not change a lot...