Elephant Pants Common among Tourists not Locals in Thailand

Tourists wear ‘elephant pants’ in front of a tuk-tuk in Bangkok. Photo: dpa
Tourists wear ‘elephant pants’ in front of a tuk-tuk in Bangkok. Photo: dpa
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Elephant Pants Common among Tourists not Locals in Thailand

Tourists wear ‘elephant pants’ in front of a tuk-tuk in Bangkok. Photo: dpa
Tourists wear ‘elephant pants’ in front of a tuk-tuk in Bangkok. Photo: dpa

The so-called elephant pants are rarely worn by local Thais, but these light and breezy trousers can be found in abundance in tourist areas such as along the pubs and hostels of Bangkok's Khaosan road, once made famous by the 2000 film The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

There, they're a phenomenon worn by a near majority of tourists during the day, when they are sold on the sides of the street for as little as 150 baht each (US$4.90) each.

Shopkeeper Sawat Daengurai said he has been selling clothes on Khaosan road for about a decade, however. Sales only started picking up when he began to sell the elephant pants around three years ago, the German News Agency, dpa, reported.

Marissa Arranz, 50, from Spain said she has been to Thailand three times and has never failed to buy a pair on each visit. "They're really comfortable to wear. They feel so fresh," she said.

The wild patterns on the trousers resemble the designs of stitches that can be found in apparel made by hill tribe villagers. But the elephants that intersect the patterns mark the trousers with a distinguished Thai identity.

Elephants are the official national animal for Thailand and are deeply rooted in its culture and literature. The animal once featured prominently on the national flag.

"Foreigners like the pants because when they see the elephants they think of Thailand," says Mantana Kernkangpu, a 44-year old merchant of elephant pants at MBK shopping Centre in Bangkok, another major tourist destination for its cheap products.

Although the trousers may look Thai, Mantana said: "I wouldn't wear them myself. I'm too old. They're not my style."

Cultural scientist Adam Geczy from the University of Sydney said the elephant pants have a clear resemblance to harem pants from the early 20th century.



Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
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Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)

A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus.
The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled reentry, based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency’s space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had reentered after it failed to appear over a German radar station.
It was not immediately known where the spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system’s hottest planet.
The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said.
Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction.
Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity’s tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander — an estimated 3 feet (1 meter) across — was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms).
After following the spacecraft’s downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft’s deteriorating condition after so long in space.
As of Saturday morning, the US Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit.
The US Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart — and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers — was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials.
It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris.