THAILAND TRAVEL NEWS: Martial arts aficionados who are in Thailand during the first two weeks of August are in for a treat as between August 1 and 9 the country will host the first Asian Martial Arts Games.

More than 1,300 athletes from 40 countries will compete for 121 gold medals in judo, jujitsu, karatedo, kickboxing, kurash, muaythai, pencak silat, taekwando, wushu, and kungfu at three Bangkok venues and the Suphan Buri Sports School in Suphan Buri.

Dubbed The Games of Spirit – The Land of Smiles, Thailand was selected by the Olympic Council of Asia to host the event and last October and the then Cabinet approved the proposal by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

The organizing committee will use Hanuman Yindee, depicted in the great Asian epic Ramayana as a white super monkey with every kind of fighting skill has been chosen as the games’ mascot by the organizing committee.

Hanuman often shares in the traditional flower festival as a gesture of warm welcome and inspires friendship and unity among all Asian people. The word yindee means pleasure and satisfaction, and is often used to extend to everyone a warm welcome and a chance for lasting friendship and solidarity among the people of Asia.

The opening ceremony will take place at the Indoor Stadium Sports Complex at Hua Mark on August 1, at 6:00 pm, with competitions in Bangkok also being staged at the Nimibutr Stadium and the Bangkok Metropolitan Youth Center (Thai-Japanese) Stadium.

By John Le Fevre

Thailand Travel News for July 28, 2009