Daily Report: Annual Longboat Races

This is the small 30-man boat.

This is the large 55-man boat.Today, Geoff and Honey Mae, Mike and Riza, and Riza's Filipina friend Beth, and two of Beth's Filipina friends joined Epril and me out at Mabprachan reservoir to watch the annual longboat races.

According to Thanapol Chadchaidee, writing in the book, "Essays On Thailand":

"Traditionally, long-boat racing is held as an annual event by provinces with a major waterway flowing through. It is not restricted to any particular region. At present, long-boat racing is considered as a national sport, its history can be traced back to Ayutthaya period some 600 years ago. However, boat racing in those days was just only a means to keep boat men physically and mentally fit for national defence.

"Usually racing boats are made from dugout tree trunks and can accommodate up to 60 oarsmen sitting in a double row. The oarsmen usually dress in the same colour. The festive event draws several hundreds of local and foreign spectators who watch the race along both sides of the riverbank enthusiastically. At the end, trophies and prizes are given to the winning teams."

The boats really are amazing to see because of their astounding length, and incredibly lanky width. I find it hard to believe that these boats don't tip over.

It was a bit of a cloudy day, which was nice because it kept the heat down. There were thousands of people lining the 1-kilometer course, with several pavillions set up by sponsors in which to sit (if you arrived early enough to get a seat). We started off sitting on the embankment right in front of the finish line, but after 30 minutes on the hard bumpy ground, our backsides couldn't take it anymore, and we went off for a wander down the length of the course, and stood for the rest of the afternoon, which was fine.

The other thing that was fun about these longboat races were the commentators: There were 5 of them in total. The first guy would start off by taking a deep breath, and then in a voice that indicated that this was a man on the verge of losing his sanity, launched into a shouted machine-gun delivery (in absolutely undecipherable Thai) about the race. As soon as he ran out of breath, the second commentator (even more insane-sounding than the first) would start shouting, then a third, fourth, and fifth commentator (who literally screamed like a banshee), and back to the first again until the race was over. (I put video below so you can see the races and hear these guys. It's terribly funny.)

Anyway, we stuck around for about 2½ hours before leaving. Since there was no commentary in English, it got a little repetitive after a while. Still though, next year if you are around, I would highly recommend stopping by to check out the longboat races. They were fun.