Thai rocketeers shoot at sky to end drought  

AFP / Steven Martin 
   YASOTHON, Thailand, May 27 (AFP) - As a slow countdown 
was intoned over crackling loudspeakers, crowds of 
onlookers fled in all directions from the wooden launch 
platform, looking like some rickety ladder to heaven.
   With a roar similar to an F-16 fighter jet being 
catapulted from an aircraft carrier, a flagpole-sized 
bamboo rocket aimed at ending drought hurtled skyward on a 
huge plume of grey smoke.
   Seconds later, it exploded with a loud report and pieces 
of flaming bamboo tumbled from the sky.
   "That wasn't supposed to happen," said rocketeer Wachara 
Bunsungnern as thousands of eager eyes scanned the heavens, 
trying to gauge whether the falling debris would fall on 
them.
   "The whole idea is to keep your rocket airborne for as 
long as possible," Wachara explained while leaning on 
another enormous bamboo rocket painted a sinister day-glo 
orange.
   Welcome to Yasothon's rocket festival where teams of 
rocketeers compete to keep projectiles aloft for the 
longest period, hoping to bring an end to the dry season.
   The flashes of light, thundering noise and clouds of 
smoke produced by the rockets are hoped to stimulate rainy 
season conditions -- and inspire the spirits to produce the 
real thing.
   As a result of the El Nino weather phenomenon affecting 
much of Asia and the Pacific, Thailand has been suffering 
its worst drought in four decades, according to the Thai 
ministry of interior.
   For 363 days of the year, the populace of this 
provincial backwater in northeastern Thailand live a quiet 
existence. Then, at the height of the torrid dry season, 
the town goes temporarily insane with a madcap combination 
of fireworks and firewater.
   By mid-morning thousands of rocket watchers had gathered 
on a wide swathe of drought-stricken rice paddies baked 
hard under the sun.
   Originally an animist ritual thought to predate the 
arrival of Buddhism in this region, the festival, known 
locally as Boon Bang Fai, is a common annual event held all 
over northeastern Thailand and neighboring Laos.
   Crude rockets are fashioned from stout bamboo poles 
stuffed with gunpowder which are then launched skyward as 
villagers dance, cheer and drink.
   "In the old days this was a ceremony to call for rain," 
explained Wachara who, dressed in a Hawaiian-print shirt 
and swigging a beer, seemed to represent the ancient 
ritual's modern face.
   "Nowadays we're not so much into the old spiritual 
beliefs," he said, pointing to a spirit offering of joss 
sticks and jasmine tied to the nose of the rocket with a 
length of silk.
   "I don't mean to say that we no longer believe," he 
said. "It's just that Boon Bang Fai has become more of a 
sporting event."
   While Wachara chatted, his team, wearing T-shirts 
bearing their team logo, busily worked to ready their 
rocket for an afternoon launch.
   Measuring nearly 15 meters (about 50 feet), the section 
of the rocket containing the fuel was a five-meter (16.5 
foot) piece of plastic pipe lashed to a bamboo pole.
   "We compete to see whose rocket stays airborne longest 
and this takes a powerful booster to get the rocket up high 
and a brake to give it a slow descent.
   "We've spent nearly 20,000 baht (500 dollars) on this 
one and if it fails to clear the launch platform we'll be 
very disappointed," he said with a laugh.
   As launch time approached, Wachara and his team passed 
around a bottle of rice liquor for a final toast before 
parading their rocket to the platform and inserting an 
electric fuse into its tail.
   On the blast-off signal the crude missile spiralled up 
into a cloudless sky with a deafening roar. For anxious 
seconds the team squinted into the afternoon glare and 
commented in strained tones as the rocket peaked and then 
plummeted into a distant paddy field.
   Even before the official timekeepers had made their 
anouncment, it was clear that this year's entry was not a 
winner.
   "It doesn't matter," said Wachara with a good natured 
shrug. "Maybe we'll get some rain instead."