DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Tourists enjoy after a train stops at the middle of Pasak Jolasid Dam in Lopburi province, Thailand, on 6th November. PICTURE: Reuters/Jiraporn Kwang Kuhakan
• Tickets have been selling out fast in Thailand for rides on a special “floating train”, where passengers have been enjoying the illusion of aquatic rail travel due to a post-monsoon rise in water levels. The route starts in the capital Bangkok and passes through the Pasak Jolasid dam in Lop Buri province six hours away on an elevated track just above the water level, which officials say has been unusually high this year. The train runs only at weekends between November and February and tickets have been sold out until New Year. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Bunyanuch Pahuyut, who was among 600 passengers who have travelled on the route on Sunday. – JIRAPORN KUHAKAN/Reuters
Pony pumuckel with a height of just 50 centimetres looking out window of moving Land Rover. PICTURE: Reuters TV
• The owner of a Shetland pony called Pumuckel measuring a mere 50 centimetres in height hopes the animal will make it into the Guinness Book of World Records as possibly the world’s smallest pony. “Believe or not, [he] only weighs 35 kilograms,” owner Carola Weidemann told Reuters as she cuddled her best friend in a paddock in Breckerfeld, south of Dortmund in western Germany. According to the Shetland Pony Club in Britain, “a small or miniature Shetland pony…should weigh around 120 kilograms”. Weidemann has owned Pumuckel for more than two years. “When I first got him he measured, I think, 46 or 47 centimetres. So he didn’t grow much in that time,” she said. “Just like with humans, ordinary people can give birth to children of small stature. That’s what you need to imagine with this horse. The vagaries of nature.” When Pumuckel is not having breakfast in Weidemann’s kitchen or in the paddock with other ponies, he tours kindergartens and senior citizens’ homes as a therapy horse. Whether Pumuckel is in fact the world’s smallest pony will only be known in a year or so when he is four and therefore old enough to be considered for entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. According to Weidemann, the current record holder is pony Bombel, who resides in neighbouring Poland and measures 56.7 centimetres. – Reuters TV
Then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook hold puppies born from a hunting dog gifted from North Korea, in Seoul, South Korea, on 25th November, 2018. PICTURE: South Korean Presidential Office/Handout/via Reuters.
• South Korea’s former President Moon Jae-in said this week he plans to give up a pair of dogs sent by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a gift following their 2018 summit, citing a lack of support from his successor. Moon has raised the white Pungsan dogs named “Gomi” and “Songgang” since their arrival in the South and took them to his personal residence after his term ended in May. The dogs are legally categorised as state property belonging to the presidential archives, but Moon’s office said he was entrusted as their caretaker under consultations with the archives and the interior ministry, an unprecedented decision. The agencies had sought a legislative amendment to facilitate the move including financial support. But that effort fell apart due to “unexplained opposition” from the administration of incumbent President Yoon Suk-yeol, Moon’s office said. “The presidential office seems to be negative toward entrusting the management of the Pungsan dogs to former President Moon,” Moon’s office said on Facebook. “If that’s the case, we can be cool about it, as such an entrustment is based on the goodwill of both sides…though ending it is regretful given they are companion animals he grew attached to.” Yoon’s office denied foiling the move, saying the agencies are still discussing and it has not played any role. – HYONHEE SHIN/Reuters
