(ED: This is a synopsis from a report provided by Jeff Delkin and Rachel Speth, our Asian correspondent team)

Americans look forward at the end of the year to our most traditional sporting events, the World Series and college football bowl games.  In Chonburi, Thailand, the much anticipated sporting occasion is the annual Chonburi Water Buffalo Races & Parade.

   Thai farmers gather thousands strong each October to celebrate the end of the rainy season with a festival that features intense bareback racing among large steeds who normally toil in the rice paddies.  The competiton on a 130-yard track is accompanied
by an intensely colorful parade through the streets of this provincial capital, and, of course, a teen age beauty queen contest.
   The buffalo competitors are primed for their performances with a mixture of eggs and beer, believed to greatly enhance their speed and endurance.  The bareback jockeys are  known to utilize half of this mixture to boost their courage in riding the rampaging beasts. Our correspondents report that the race crowd whoops, roars and often dives for cover as errant mounts stray off the track.

   Accustomed to slowly plodding with plow through the paddies, the racing Buffalos need a great deal of prodding at the starting line before exhibiting truly swift hooves.  Numerous racing rounds pare the field to a final four. This year’s winning ride, one ton “Sri (Thai for “good”)” earned owner Somak Sriswan the munificent sum of $475 and a new irrigation pump.
   Yes, betting is heavy, but all odds are unofficial.  Fall tourists in Thailand shouldn’t miss this centuries-old celebration of local life, just 40 miles south of Bangkok.

(C) 2001 Delkin and Speth