RAYONG: A police officer worried about keeping up with today’s criminals gave his guardian spirit a boost by donating a high-powered motorbike to his spirit house.

Sen Sgt Maj Adisak Buphachat, who serves at Rayong Provincial Police Headquarters, spent more than 50,000 baht on a 400cc Honda CBR 400 sports bike to offer the spirit house at his home. He spray-painted the bike black and mounted it next to the shrine.

Mr Adisak said he bought the motorbike instead of the usual offerings of statues of elephants, horses or buffaloes.

Giving models of beasts of burden was old fashioned and no longer suitable for the digital age, he said.

The motorbike meant his house spirit would be able to help him much more quickly than in the past, he said.

This is particularly important as he is a police officer and has to catch criminals every day, which is a dangerous business, he added.

Mr Adisak said that since making the offering, he has felt a lot more self-confident. He also said he would let others copy the idea if they wanted to give their own house spirits a two-wheeled speed boost.

The spirit house has turned into something of a local attraction, with neighbors visiting in the hope of getting help from the speedy spirit.

NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Rain or shine, Kalong the dog unflaggingly continues her mission to guard the cleanness of Wang Nen Waterfall in Nakhon Ratchasima's Sung Noen district.

The drought, seasonal heat and stress from heated political turmoil have sent Nakhon Ratchasima residents to seek refuge in natural attractions like the Wang Nen cascade.

There they have a chance to admire this diligent six-year-old dog at its self-assigned work, grabbing floating garbage from around the waterfall and dragging it ashore where it can be properly disposed of.

Her owner Boo Lertkhonburi, who runs the nearby Wang Nen Restaurant, said that the summer heat has arrived early and his business is booming as a result.

Many visitors said they wanted to come see Kalong, as word has spread of this dog that cleans the waterfall on its own initiative, Mr Boo said.

Kalong is so determined in her task that even when she was pregnant last year, she continued grabbing garbage until time came for her to give birth to several pups.

Local people quickly adopted the pups in the hope they would be as clever as their famous mum.

Now at the age of six, Kalong’s eyesight is diminishing, causing her to miss a piece of trash or two, but she still keeps trying.

Mr Boo has urged tourists to follow Kalong’s good example and not litter rivers or water sources, but to keep them clean.

NAKHON RATCHASIMA: More than 200 tiger skins seized near Khao Yai National Park recently weren’t quite what they first seemed: examination revealed that the majority actually came from dogs and cows and had been painted with stripes.

The 204 animal pelts were seized from a temple in Pak Chong District by officers from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) on February 12.

The officers were acting on a tip-off from locals who saw a suspicious number of animal pelts being dried in Wat Simalai Songdhamma.

Initially the skins appeared to have come from tigers and other big cat species. There was also one crocodile skin. After being examined by experts, however, it was found that only the crocodile skin, one leopard skin and five skins from other cat species were real.

The almost 200 remaining skins were made by painting dog and cattle skins with stripes.

The monks at the temple claimed all the skins belonged to the temple abbot. The abbot was planning to tattoo the skins with religious writing and sell them as holy charms, his disloyal monks told the authorities.

DNP Director Jatuphon Burusaphat said it was unlikely that the abbot was working alone. His accomplices are now sought by local authorities.

“I want to warn people who like to buy religious items made from animal remains that this is not just illegal; they can also be conned. For example in this case they weren’t tiger skins, but dog and cow skins – if you worship them they will not bring good fortune. They are a cause of animal cruelty as well,” Mr Jatuphon said.

With the advent of the Year of the Tiger, attempts to smuggle tiger parts are likely to increase, he added.

NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: In the latest drug craze to hit the south, youths in Nakhon Sri Thammarat’s Muang District are reportedly drinking a concoction that includes the ashes of recently-cremated corpses and extract from leaves of the krathom tree.

‘Phon’, a 17-year-old from Muang District, said he and his gang of about 10 friends had tried every known concoction of krathom leaf available until they stumbled upon the new formula.

The mixture is made by boiling the leaves and then adding ashes taken from beneath funeral pyres following cremation ceremonies.

The youths believe the mixture confers physical strength as well as spiritual protection from the ghost of the person whose ashes were drunk, Mr Phon said.

The drink has an indescribably amazing taste and anybody who tries it becomes instantly addicted, he added.

To satisfy their thirst for the elixir, the youths drive around looking for funerals. When the cremation is over, they sneak in to steal the left over ashes, he said.

The mixture is known as ‘Avatar’ after the hit film or ‘tai hong’, which means ‘violent death’.

Sumol Aksonphalee, Chief of tambon Bang Chak Village 5, said he was well aware of the problem of youths getting high from boiled krathom leaves.

He also confirmed that the latest fad of youths mixing their krathom juice with ashes of the recently deceased – though he added that he couldn’t understand how they dared drink it.

Most of the kids who were into Avatar, both male and female, tended to look very unhealthy and he suspected they wouldn’t have long lives.

Truancy officer Somphong Yutao said he spoke to students who were into drinking ashes to try and find out what was behind the trend.

“The youths believe [the mixture] gives them special powers, especially when it comes to attracting the opposite sex. When they speak [to someone they like] they will have a special aura that makes [their target] fall for them,” Mr Somphong said.

“This type of behaviour is very worrying, but all we can do is keep track of it and inform the parents and schools,” he said.

Nakhon Sri Thammarat Governor Thira Minthrasak held a meeting on January 28 to discuss the problem and ordered a police crackdown.

This is not the first unusual drug trend to come out of the South. For years authorities have been trying to stamp out ‘4x100’, a mixture of krathom extract, cola, cough medicine and ground up mosquito repellent coils.

CHIANG MAI: People in Northern Thailand have been afraid to answer their cellphones in recent weeks, following claims that calls from certain numbers cause instant brain haemorrhages.

People are warning each other to watch out for numbers containing the sequence 3333. If the gossip is to be believed, when calls from the numbers are answered the phones send out a high frequency signal causing blood to explode out of the ear.

The deadly phone calls have reportedly been restricted to the North with reports from Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang, Phayao, Phrae and Nan.

On January 21 Kanchana Khayan, a fourth-year student at Chiang Mai Rajabhat University, told reporters that her mother had warned her never to answer calls from a number starting with 083-333 and ending with 67.

A Tourist Police officer, who asked not to be named, said the death calls are all people are talking about in certain districts of Chiang Mai.

In Phrae, the phone calls are rumoured to have killed more than 40 people.

Amnuay Na Lampang, Deputy Superintendent of Song Men Police, said he asked his officers to investigate stories of people in his district dying after answering the phone. The officers could find no evidence of telephone-related fatalities, however.

Lt Col Amnuay said he believed the news had been spread after friends and relatives in Chiang Mai had called up warning people to be on their guard.

Thanom Buaphat, from the Northern Telecommunications Center, said the suspicious numbers belonged to telecoms company AIS’s Northeastern zone.

Mr Thanom said he had heard news of mobile phones causing people to crash their cars or giving them brain tumors, but never causing instant death.

“The stories were probably just made up by youths for a laugh,” he said.

Assistant Director of AIS's public relations department, Wilai Khiangpradu, said the news wasn’t true as mobile phones could not emit signals of high enough frequency to be a health risk.

Finally, after collecting evidence from across the North, the Khao Sod news team plucked up the courage to try one of the deadly numbers themselves.

The reporters called 083-333-5xxx, reportedly one of the most  dangerous numbers.

Instead of an explosion of blood from the ear, however, they got an angry young woman who complained she had been called more than 100 times that day by people asking if she had really been sending out high frequency death waves.

The woman said she had been using the ‘beautiful number’ since she bought it three years ago. The following day she would buy a new SIM card, she added.