Where else but Thailand could you hold such a water fight? I was amazed to discover the previous holders were in Spain. The entire country of Thailand closes down for 4 days each year for the Songkran New Year festival and throws water at each other. Why it has taken so long to achieve the record remains a mystery. With tens of thousands packed into areas such as Khaosarn road and Silom it wasn't going to be difficult to beat the previous record of around 2,600.
The venue for the record needed to be a controlled environment i.e. so that the organisers could actually count us. An open air stage and arena was constructed outside the Central World Shopping centre in Siam square. The re-construction of which is still ongoing since the damage caused in last year’s 'Red Shirt' protests.
Wild Planet staff Toby Bell and Tan were lucky enough to get to the event in time. The original start time of 5 pm was thankfully delayed until after the 6 pm National Anthem. The Mayor of Bangkok gave a short speech after which the 3,500 + participants drenched each other for 10 minutes! Shortly afterwards the record was announced as being broken and passed on to Thailand. Any country would be hard pushed to take it back without a fight (a watery one that is).
No comments:
Post a Comment