Thailand to mark boy football team's dramatic cave rescue with museum

 

Members of the soccer team rescued from a cave are seen during ordination ceremony, in a temple at Mae Sai, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai construction workers on Thursday began building a museum to commemorate the dramatic cave rescue of a boys' football team in the northern province of Chiang Rai and the death of one of the divers.

 

The 12 boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach went missing on June 23 while exploring the cave complex and were rescued more than two weeks later during a perilous three-day mission by foreign and Thai divers that gripped audiences around the world.

 

Work on the museum began after a traditional Buddhist ceremony on Wednesday at the Tham Luang cave, in which authorities asked for the blessing of local spirits.

 

The museum, which is expected to take about five months and 10 million baht (228,860 pounds) to build, is being funded by a Thai artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, a Chiang Rai native.

 

"This place will be very beneficial for our country, as it will commemorate the multinational cooperation and the hero who sacrificed his life. Tourists from around the world will visit this place," Chalermchai said.

 

Thai diver Samarn Kunan died after he lost consciousness during a mission to place oxygen tanks deep inside the cave.

 

A four-metre statue of Samarn, currently being sculpted, will be placed in front of the museum.

 

The museum will also house a 13-metre-long painting, which features rescuers, including the British divers who first found the boys.

Eleven of the boys have been spending time as Buddhist novices to honour Samarn. On Saturday, they will leave the temple to return to normal life.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-04

1 minute ago, rooster59 said:

On Saturday, they will leave the temple to return to normal life.

And to help them completely forget about their nightmare ordeal, they are going to build a museum about it, just round the corner from their houses!

20 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai construction workers on Thursday began building a museum to commemorate the dramatic cave rescue of a boys' football team in the northern province of Chiang Rai and the death of one of the divers.

Perhaps a better use of their skills would be to brick up the cave entrance so this can never happen again. Time for everyone involved to move on me thinks.

The TAT and gov will milk this cave story for everything its worth. It wont be long before there is a board game in the shops and maybe a tv series. A bronze statue is also on he cards.

They just can't let it go....

5 minutes ago, lanista said:

The TAT and gov will milk this cave story for everything its worth. It wont be long before there is a board game in the shops and maybe a tv series. A bronze statue is also on he cards.

Brilliant, and how about a theme park set in the mountainous area called "Lost in Thailand"? T shirts and other trashy paraphernalia saying " I got lost in a cave and only have this lousy T shirt to prove it"

This is all starting to get a little OTT.

 

It was a successful rescue of a group of unfortunate people unfortunately trapped in a cave for days on end, yes. But it is NOT the event of the century that deserves its own museum, milking it for everything it's worth and more. Thailand proves once again that it is a master of blowing things out of proportion.

When you've got nothing but a couple of kids winning at golf and math olympiads, you better keep every postive event in the news. Otherwise people will go back to talking  about submarines, watches, prostitution, slavery, military rule, marine safety, pollution, etc.

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 20187 yr by Darcula

Normal life... Who are they trying to fool?

Greedy money grabbing bar stewards setting up a committee to control access, setting up a museum just around the corner, normal life my a++e.

what better place to flog the ''cave trinkets and memorbilia''...Keep thecash flow flowing..shamless thais will pimp this until its ''unrecognizable''.. thainess 101 take something great and squeeze it until its nothing more than a shadow of its original self...

Edited August 4, 20187 yr by mok199
speliings

When finished the museum will attract a village of outside stallholders selling food and souvenirs and Thai massages in tents. With them will come the RTP to collect the monthly "fees".

There will be a min-population explosion with grasping hands flying everywhere. 

Perhaps later there will be a 7 Eleven store and into the future some multistory hotels built on encroached land. The potential is enormous. 

Lets hope they stock these in EU sizes:

How tasteless! though in all honesty nobody could accuse Thai society of having any redeemable standards ?

Reminds me of the first trip I made to the Bridge of the river Kwai, 30 years or more ago, they had the most tasteless museum set up, it really was atrocious.

How about a museum of fatal road accidents with some video shows of the dumbest manoeuvres in the world.shame on any farang that goes to visit this place.as for Thais we know they don't know any better.

4 minutes ago, CGW said:

How tasteless! though in all honesty nobody could accuse Thai society of having any redeemable standards ?

Reminds me of the first trip I made to the Bridge of the river Kwai, 30 years or more ago, they had the most tasteless museum set up, it really was atrocious.

I wonder what they will have in this museum? A model of Eton's submarine, with contact details for prospective customers, a plethora of photos of the PM with his entourage traipsing through the rescue site getting in the way of everyone trying to do their job, assorted underwater gear, the boys bicycles, plastic moulded examples of food they ate, photos of VIP helicopters coming and going........

But the first priority is to set the admission fee.

12 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

How about a museum of fatal road accidents with some video shows of the dumbest manoeuvres in the world.shame on any farang that goes to visit this place.as for Thais we know they don't know any better.

Or a sunk ship museum? anything to make $$$

16 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

How about a museum of fatal road accidents with some video shows of the dumbest manoeuvres in the world.shame on any farang that goes to visit this place.as for Thais we know they don't know any better.

Perhaps the museum might inspire a follow-on TV series about the road accidents?

You've Been....T-boned...Lampooned...Transferred to the next life.

That Deja-Vu Moment - showing identical accidents in the same location.

To quote the producer - "Series one is going to be 'a big hit - every second'."

P.S. I've got Pat Pending on those titles.

 

Posted despite my #12 ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-45029013/thailand-mural-celebrates-cave-heroes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-45057491

 

1 hour ago, Cadbury said:

I wonder what they will have in this museum? A model of Eton's submarine, with contact details for prospective customers, a plethora of photos of the PM with his entourage traipsing through the rescue site getting in the way of everyone trying to do their job, assorted underwater gear, the boys bicycles, plastic moulded examples of food they ate, photos of VIP helicopters coming and going........

But the first priority is to set the admission fee.

Perhaps also a diorama depicting the cave and crudely fashioned effigies of the teens sitting out their rescue. Visitors can partially flood the cave at the push of a button... because interactive displays are always great fun. 

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"This place will be very beneficial for our country, as it will commemorate the multinational cooperation and the hero who sacrificed his life. Tourists from around the world will visit this place," Chalermchai said.

Admission fee for Thai: 40 THB

Admission fee for foreigners: 800 THB 

 

Let's build a statue to commemorate the deaths of the recent boat accident....

Nah, forget it, nobody cares about that 

3 hours ago, Cadbury said:

I wonder what they will have in this museum? A model of Eton's submarine, with contact details for prospective customers, a plethora of photos of the PM with his entourage traipsing through the rescue site getting in the way of everyone trying to do their job, assorted underwater gear, the boys bicycles, plastic moulded examples of food they ate, photos of VIP helicopters coming and going........

But the first priority is to set the admission fee.

The foreigner fee is easy to set, a minimum of 5 times the local price or Bht 400, whichever is the higher. 

Sublime to ridiculous comes to mind.

What is the Thai phrase for "over kill", "over the top", or "silly notion" ?

I hope they don't forget to include a tour bus ride to go past all the boys houses as they do in America with the movie stars for the Chinese tourists to hang out the windows and take selfies