World News for Students of English

03-02-2015 15:00

Hundreds of people in Thailand have gathered to take part in the annual Pattaya International Bed Race.

Ex-pats line shoulder-to-shoulder with locals for the competition, which involves parading a decorated bed and costumes through the city.

Teams for the race are in pairs with both parties pushing a decorated bed for two kilometres, and the spectators loved it.

“How would I describe it? Great and ting tong. Fun. Good fun but crazy. Never seen it before. Only in Thailand, yeah?”

The race is now in its seventh year and it’s not just for fun – organisers also say it helps gather diverse groups of people together.

“Well, as you know, Pattaya is a multinational, multicultural city, and we have actually teams from every corner of the world – Russia, France, England, Scandinavia and of course Thailand!”

But instead of a good kip after the race, most competitors went to celebrate in local bars.

Difficult words: gather (to come), annual (yearly), ex-pat (short for expatriate or person who now lives in another country), parade (to walk in the street to celebrate something), party (person), spectator (person who watches something), ting tong (Thai for “crazy”), diverse (different), kip (a nap).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com