The Hot Air Lanterns of the Chiang Mai Yi Peng Festival
(YouTube Link)
The Chiang Mai Yi Peng Festival is an Buddhist holy day in Thailand. That evening, celebrants send send burning lanterns aloft, floating on hot air. According to YouTube user bugzila:
[...]it is the great festival of Lanna duly succeeded from ancient age. “Yi Peng” or full-moon day of second lunar month of Lanna villagers is corresponding to the full-moon day of 12th month of central region during the end of raining season and beginning of cold season when the climate is very nice and fair. One tradition of Lanna other than Loi Kra Thong on the river is to light up the lantern and float up in the sky based on their belief that to pay worship to Phra Ket Kaew Julamanee in the heaven or to relief one’ bad luck for more auspicious life.
Via Urlesque
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Que Sera Sera
This ad for the Thai Insurance Company features children from the Srisangwan School for the disabled, a project of the Princess Mother’s Volunteer Foundation. Link -via b3ta
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Panda-painted Elephants
The elephant is the national symbol of Thailand. But lately, citizens have been going crazy for pandas. Zookeepers feel that the elephants aren’t getting enough attention, and made their point by painting the elephants to look like pandas!
Slathering them in white watercolour paint, the keepers at the Ayutthaya Elephant Kraal then paraded the five elephants before schoolchildren in an effort to remind Thailand that its elephants have needs, too.
The furore was sparked after the nation became fascinated with the birth of a female panda cub to pandas Lin Hui and Xuang Xuang at Chiang Mai zoo.
The Bangkok Post also reported that a 20 million baht (£355,800) snow house was being built for the panda family at the zoo.
Link -via Unique Daily
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Anti-Elephant Begging Graffiti
Australian artist Brooke Bobridge, who is currently living in Bangkok, Thailand, took a series of graffiti by local and international artists imploring passer-bys NOT to feed the elephants. They want to discourage "elephant begging" where the pachyderms are used to part tourists from their dollars (or technically, bahts).
Link – via amy sol blog
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Batman Rescues Bangkok
Bangkok, Thailand, is turning into Gotham City with violence, fatalities, and social upheaval during the "red shirt" riots.
It seems that Batman has now come to the rescue, fighting crime and breaking tension in Bangkok. Although his alias is not Bruce Wayne, he steps up in the time of need for his country. See him in action in this YouTube clip. Go Batman!
Last week, as anti-government protesters clad in crimson stormed the capital’s streets, some guys hijacked a gas truck and parked it in an otherwise quiet neighborhood. They were pursued by soldiers and assumed (according to Thai media reports) that the military wouldn’t fire into an area containing a massive container of liquid fuel.
Then, out of nowhere, Batman steps into the crowd and surveys the scene.
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Monkeys Teach Their Young to Floss
Macaque monkeys in Lopburi, Thailand, were observed apparently teaching their young how to floss. These particular monkeys used human hair from visitors to the shrine. Because the visitors view the monkeys as divine servants, they allow them to pluck their hair.
Japanese researchers, led by Nobuo Masataka of the University at Kyoto, focused on 7 female Macaque’s each with one year old infants:
“I was surprised because teaching techniques on using tools properly to a third party are said to be an activity carried out only by humans,” he said.
The study focused on the observation of seven female long-tailed macaques and interaction with their off spring at a colony of monkeys near Bangkok in Thailand.
The practice of teeth flossing doubled and became significantly more elaborate when they were in the presence of infant monkeys, suggesting that they were attempting to teach the technique to the young.
“The study is still at the hypothesis stage,” said Professor Masataka.
“We would like to shift our focus to the baby monkeys to check whether the mothers’ actions are effectively helping them learn how to clean their teeth.”
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'Spider-Man' Rescues Autistic Thai boy
A fireman in Bangkok, Thailand used an interesting approach to reaching out to an autistic boy. Fearful of his first day at school, the boy climbed out on a third-story ledge and refused to come inside.
Despite teachers’ efforts to beckon the boy inside, he refused to budge until his mother mentioned her son’s love of superheroes, prompting fireman Sonchai Yoosabai to take a novel approach to the problem.
The rescuer dashed back to his fire station and made a quick change into a Spider-Man costume before returning to the boy, he said.
“I told him Spider-Man is here to rescue you, no monsters are going to attack you and I told him to walk slowly towards me as running could be dangerous,” Somchai told local television.
The young boy immediately stood up and walked into his rescuer’s arms, police said.
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British Angler Catches Largest Freshwater Fish Ever
Ian Welch of Aldershot, Hampshire (U.K.), caught the biggest freshwater fish by rod in Thailand, a record 55 stone (770 pound) freshwater ray!
It took 90 minutes to land, 13 men to heave it out of the water… and weighed 55 stone when they finally got it to the scales.
So it’s little wonder that when Ian Welch first hooked the record stingray, it almost pulled him into the river.
Mr Welch, who weighs 111/2 stone, said: ‘It dragged me across the boat and would have pulled me in, had my colleague not grabbed my trousers.’
The angler, from Aldershot, Hampshire, was fishing in Thailand when he landed the ray, which is the biggest freshwater fish to be caught with a rod.
The biologist was helping with a stingray tagging programme on the Maeklong River, when he hooked the fish.
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Sleeping with Scorpions
A Thai woman who calls herself the Scorpion Queen spent the last 33 days in a glass-walled room filled with 5,000 scorpions, successfully breaking her own world record for being cooped up with the venomous creatures. The room was in a shopping mall in Pattaya, Thailand, and every eight hours she was allowed a 15-minute break. Kanchana Ketkeaw was bitten 13 times, but she says she’d do it again if anyone challenged her record.
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Smiley Masks for Thai Highway Patrol
Thailand, nicknamed "The Land of Smiles" by countless tourist books, are living up to its name: the highway policemen in Thailand will be wearing smiley masks to "lift the mood of motorists":
The new cloth masks, which hook behind the ears and cover the mouth and nose, will help "reduce the stress from drivers when they see the police," said Somyos, the Highway Police commander.
To that end, he said, some 200 police booths would also distribute holy water, chewing gum and mints.
He defended his force when asked why drivers needed smiley masks and gum and holy water to calm down when approached by a patrolman.
"The police are not that scary," he said. "When I was in the United States, their highway police seemed to be more fierce than Thai police. I was scared of them."
Photo: Sarot Meksophawannakul/Bangkok Post
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Have You Seen This Person?
The Royal Thai Police have released this sketch of a suspected bank robber. With a sketch like that, it shouldn’t take too long before he or she gets caught.
According to a report on the newsclip.be Japanese language Thai news site, this sketch is based on the recollections of eyewitnesses, who say the suspect wore a motorcycle helmet at the time of the robbery.
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