Thailand: A Thai man crept into the Guinness Book of World Records by spending 28 days in a glass room with 1,000 centipedes, 13 months after his girlfriend broke the record for living with deadly scorpions.

Professional bug handler Boontawee "Noo" Siengwong, 26, put his love to the test, enduring several dangerous bites by the creatures, but emerged elated and weary from his enclosure in a shopping mall in this beach resort.

"I'm proud I could break the record of longest stay with centipedes," Noo said by phone from Pattaya.

"I was bitten five times during my 28 days and I had been well taken care of by doctors," he said.

"I have no plans to do another record yet, but I will defend my title if someone challenges it," he warned.

That day may be far off. There was no previous record listed for living with centipedes, so Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum Thailand, which monitored the session, established that 28 days would suffice.

A Ripley's representative said the firm would pass on the documents and other evidence supporting the attempt to the Guinness Book for verification.

Noo said he received support from his girlfriend, Kanchana Ketkaew, who is no stranger to sitting alone in a glass box with deadly insects.

Aptly dubbed the "Scorpion Queen," Kanchana last year entered history when she emerged from a record 32-day stint with thousands of live scorpions as her roommates, also at a Pattaya shopping mall.

He and his girlfriend are both performers at a scorpion and insect farm on the southern island of Ko Samui, where they perform with the bugs for tourists.

During the record attempt Noo was permitted to leave the room for 15 minutes every eight hours, while medical officials from a local hospital were on stand-by.

Noo won a motorcycle, a luxury watch and 30,000 baht (750 dollars) for his efforts.

While a bevy of insects including scorpions are often on the menu as crunchy streetfood in Thailand, centipedes are not.

Instead, some people drown them in liquor, which releases their poison to create what they believe is a remedy for backache.

--Agents 2003-11-10

these people are nuts

On 11/10/2003 at 2:46 PM, tomy said:

these people are nuts

Other people are called "pretties", so I guess he can be called a "crazy"...

Hmmm... what's the record for spending 28 days in a glass room with a Pattaya bargirl... or 2 or 3?! When the money runs out... it's much more dangerous than scorpions or centipedes!!! ????????????

You don't want to get bitten by one of these I had crawl up my leg in the bathroom.

Fast forward the video to 15:00 so funny and scary.