PATHUM THANI - Nearly 5,000 Thai contestants are celebrating after setting a world record for the most people dancing in one field with hula hoops, simultaneously.
A total of 4,483 people join the hula hoop event to set a new world record on Tuesday at Thammasat University's Rangsit campus in Pathum Thani. (Photo by Thiti Wannamontha)
Meanwhile, in Pattaya, nine couples began a second assault on the Guinness World Records - an attempt to remain standing and kissing for more than 50 hours without breaking the kiss.
Guinness World Records adjudicator Seyda Subasi-Gemici said Tuesday that 4,483 people had swung hula hoops to dance music for seven minutes without interruption - nearly double the former record..
The event drew 5,000 participants to an open air stadium at Thammasat University's Rangsit campus, but 517 contestants dropped off after they failed to keep their hoops up.
"There were originally 5,500 Thai participants, but some of them failed to hula-hoop the full seven minutes," said Pracha Thongsai, spokesman for CA Infomedia, which organised the event.
The event, organised by the Public Health Ministry's Department of Health, was aimed at creating health awareness among Thais.
The previous world record was set in Taiwan in 2011, when 2,496 participants swung hula hoops in a continuous motion for two minutes.
In Pattaya, the kissing marathon claimed its first quitters within an hour when the effort proved too much for a septuagenarian couple.
The other participants were lip-locked Tuesday night in an effort to stay kissing for 50 hours, 25 minutes and one second to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. They were forbidden from sitting down at all, and could only go to the toilet after the first six hours.
"They have to continue kissing while they go to the toilet and can only drink water or milk through straws," said an event spokeswoman.
"They couldn't do this unless they love each other," he mused. "The smell of their breath would probably be quite something."
The current holders are a male couple who returned to try to beat their own record set last year.
"I'm 100 per cent confident that a couple will break the record," said Somporn Naksuetrong, the vice president of Ripley's Believe It or Not! in Pattaya, which hosted the event.
The oldest entrants to sign up in hope of winning the prize of 100,000 baht cash and two diamond rings were a 74-year-old man and a 72-year-old woman celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
"They quit after about one hour. It was the first time we had old people joining," Ms Somporn said.
Couples lock lips in the dfirst day Tuesday of a Pattaya contest to see who, if anyone, can last 50 hours-plus in one marathon kiss.