This is an amazing annual event with numerous rounds held over several North Eastern Thai Provinces during the year. These two events featured here were held in Surin province in May 2007 and June 2010 at a small rice growing farming village called Ban Naklong close to the town of Prasat and not very far from the Cambodian border. It is accompanied by a big party weekend with music and a small funfair and bouncy castles etc, which is a lot of fun and a very good social get together for villagers and visitors alike. Then on the Sunday it all culminates in a pre-launch carnival procession and then the rocket competition event itself and this goes on from late morning until late afternoon. Well worth a visit.

Each rocket is entered by an individual, or often by a group of individuals who share the cost, and there at this event there were over 50 entries in all. The flights are timed from launch to the final return to earth and the winners take several thousand Baht in prize money. There are two classes of rocket as the pictures will show and they are quite large and they are also pretty noisy at take off.

These events could never happen in the west due to health and safety regulations as the dead rocket shells are heavy and fall anywhere within a mile or two radius, though almost always in the surrounding rice fields. Now where did I put my crash helmet?