The day I left the Mirror Foundation was also the beginning of the weekend for all volunteers, so we all headed back to Chiang Rai. While planning what to do this evening (for me it was the last evening with all the volunteers) we heard about a soccer match that should take place on this evening. So a big group of us decided to go there to support the local soccer team, the Chiang Rai United team.
After arriving at the stadium, we bought our tickets for around 80 Baht, got some beer and snacks and found some nice seats. For some reason we ended up right in the middle of the most loyal fan club. So there were rhythmic drums, speaking choirs and lots of enthusiasm all around us. During the match our group got more and more integrated into the local fan club and it seemed that we soon were the second biggest attraction. The locals were eager to take pictures with us and some of us even got to do the instruction part of the speaking choir. The match was fun to watch and luckily the local team won. Consequently, the whole atmosphere was very good and everybody was celebrating. Well, not everybody. There was a very small block of supporters of the other team. After the match, however, they disappeared really fast.
After the match we struggled to find a taxi back to town. Luckily, a few guys agreed to take us with their truck. However, I am not quite sure they saw how many people we were. We ended up sitting with 17 (if I recall it correctly) people in the back of a truck, so far my personal record. Shouting the speaking choirs we had learned this evening we got back into town and probably left quite an impression on the helpful drivers of the truck. If you ever should have the chance to go to a soccer match here I can only recommend you do so. It is cheap, it is fun and the Thai people really seem to enjoy the foreign company.
