Thai Airways and the Guinness Book of World RecordsPrepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
What does the Guinness Book of World Records and Thai Airways International have in common? Both deal with the subject of travel. But there’s more than travel alone. For two consecutive years, THAI had been a recipient of a Guinness award. On Saint Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2001, THAI sponsored an underwater wedding that broke the world record for the most number of couples married at one time beneath the waves in scuba gear. The event was sponsored by THAI and was so successful that the management decided to launch another underwater wedding the following year. Again it gained world-wide publicity and beat the previous year’s Guinness record and Guinness awarded THAI for the second time.
Guinness, of course, is interested in records, and a topic that always heads the list is “flight,” with airplanes the main subject. The most often question asked is size: what is the largest plane ever built?
Wat immediately comes to mind is the B-747. First-flown in 1969, the B-747 is the highest-capacity jetliner which can carry more than 500 passengers at a speed of 600 miles an hour. The newest of these Boeing aircraft, which rolled out in January 1988 is the 747-400, with a wingspan of 213 feet and which has a range of more than 8,000 miles and carries 422 passengers.
And now comes the Airbus A380, another record breaker.
But the A380s are not the largest aircraft ever built. In 1947, multi-millionaire aircraft manufacturer Howard Hughes built a wooden flying boat with a wingspan of 98 metres, nearly 18 metres longer than the A380. It was made to carry a shipload of troops across the Atlantic during World War II, but never did. The Spruce Goose, as it was jokingly called, made its only flight well after the war's end, when, with Hughes at the controls, it took off to a height of 70 feet for less than a mile and landed barely a minute later.
Interesting as it might be, Guinness lists the B-747 as the "world's heaviest glider." It's true; it is! A B747 that was captained by Eric Moody had four engines stop at 12,200 metres, due to volcanic ash from an eruption on Java, Indonesia, on June 24, 1982. Flight BA009 had 263 crew and passengers aboard. Captain Moody and his crew restarted the engines after 13 minutes and landed the plane safely in Jakarta.
The earliest round-the-world flight was made by a Douglas amphibian in 57 hops, from April to September 1924. Nine years later in 1933, Wiley Post, a famous American aviator, made the first solo flight around the world in 10 hops. The first non-stop flight was made in 1947 by a B-50 Super Fortress in 94 hours. It refueled four times in flight.
Boeing also holds the record for the fastest commercial flight around the world. In January 1988, the Boeing 747 Friendship One, with 141 passengers aboard, made it in 36 hours and 54 minutes. It refueled twice, in Athens and Taipei.
While we are on the subject of travel, what does Guinness have to say about other modes? Train, vehicular, sea?
When it comes to train travel we often think that the Bullet Train in Japan is the fastest train in the world. It's not. Guinness claimed that the fastest national rail system is not in Japan but in France. The French high-speed train TGV-PSE had reached a speed of 380 kph in 1961. It ran from Paris to Lyon, a run of 425 km, in two hours and 14 minutes, averaging 213kph. The current record is held by Japan’s MLX01 in 2003 at581 kph. France’s V150 is 575 kph.
The largest railway station in the world is the Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It covers an area of 17 hectares on two levels, with 41 tracks on upper level and 26 on the lower. Some 550 trains depart every day.
According to Guinness, the US has more rail lines than any other country in the world, 296,400 km but the longest line is the Trans-Siberian Line between Moscow and Nakhodka in Siberia. It makes 97 stops and the journey takes a little more than eight days. It might sound like an exciting journey but on the contrary, it's quite boring.
The longest straight rail line in the world crosses the Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia. It runs in one section for 1276 km without a single curve. Having travelled both lines, I prefer the Nullarbor Plain journey. It's a reminder of the old American West.
If you are interested in train travel, here's a record to try to beat. One traveller who purchased a 30-day rail pass for $299, traveled on Amtrak in the US through 442 out of 498 stations, covering some 34,570 km of unduplicated miles of track out of the 37,000 km of tracks used by Amtrak.
The next time your THAI flight takes you to Los Angeles, do you want to drive across America in an attempt to make it to the Guinness Book? Think again. Every imaginable attempt to set a record has been made at some time or another, and by every means. Ben Garcia, for example, drove a lawnmower, a distance of 4500 km, from the state of Maine on the East Coast to Los Angeles. It took him 2 1/2 months.
If that doesn't sound a bit ridiculous, then consider Charles Creighton's record. He drove his Model A Ford Roadrunner across America in reverse, from New York City to Los Angeles, in 1930, without stopping the engine. If that wasn't enough, he drove back again in reverse to New York City. Both directions took him 42 days, and he clocked 11,550 km. That was before superhighways.
The fastest crossing of the Pacific Ocean in modern times (4,840 nautical miles) was six days, one hour and 45 minutes, by the containership Sea-Lang Commerce from Yokohama, Japan, to Long Beach, California, from June 30 to July 6,1973, at a speed of 33.27 knots.
It used to be that a solo circumnavigation of the world by sail was top news. Joshua Slocum was the first man to complete the feat in 1898. It took him three years. Then Robin Knox-Johnston made history when he sailed solo, non-stop around the world in nine months. Both Slocum and Knox-Johnston wrote books about their adventures, but surprisingly, their names do not appear in Guinness. Another name does appear, however, in yachting annals, and he is Jon Sanders. He made not one but three solo circumnavigations in his 44-foot sailboat. The total time was 657 days
Sergio Testa of Australia is also in the book. He sailed an 11-foot, 10-in Bermudan sloop Acrohc Australis from Brisbane back to Brisbane in 500 days, from 1984 to 1987, to become the smallest boat to travel around the globe. Interestingly, there’s a race that’s gonna start soon with three entrants, each only 10 feet long for the express purpose of beating Testa’s record of smallest boat!
Most travellers are interested in shopping. In fact, some people travel solely so they can shop. Where then is the best, the biggest and the best place to shop? Tokyo has some mighty large department stores, and both Hong Kong and Singapore are noted for their good shopping. But if it's the world's largest shopping center you want to visit, then you have to travel to Alberta, Canada. The center here is 45 hectares in area and has 828 stores. But this is a record, we can be sure, that will be broken before too long.
When it comes to travel, some people travel for the fun of it, but there are others, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, who travel solely to make a name for themselves.
Parke G. Thompson of the United States is one of these people. He traveled to every country, possession, territory and island in the world, including both poles. He made 36 trips over 31 years to fulfill his goal. His reason for travelling is obvious—to set a world record. But there are some who travel for one reason or another and make the record book without trying, like Francis Asbury, a Methodist preacher who traveled 424,800 km around America on horseback to preach. He did it before there ever was a Guinness Book of World Records.
The Guinness Book, in fact, is not that old, having been first published in 1954. But 20 years later it did earn its own place in world records when it became the top-selling copyright book in publishing history. Today the total is more than 300 editions in 35 languages. Total global sales have risen to more than 60 million copies.
The longest, the shortest, the first—and for certain, Thai Airways International is part of that record.
THAI flies to many of the destinations mentioned here.
Next week I will tell readers something about Christmas in Asia. QUESTIONS & ANSWERSI have had a number of e-mail about the coming Orchid Show in Myanmar. I am repeating at message I received from Phyoe Wai Yar Zar, Managing Director, All Asia Exclusive, Yangon.
Q. Dear Mr. Stephens, I read with interest your article last week on Inle Lake. Perhaps your readers might be interested in this bit of information regarding the forthcoming orchid show at Inle Lake. The new dates for the Orchid Show (the official name of that event will be “Inle Orchid Images”) are 15 March 16 March and 17 March 2009 and the venue will be at Paramount Inle Resort on Inle Lake. The orchids, mainly indigenous species, will be on display at that three days’ event. Along with the flowers, the traditional farming tools, items of daily life such as dresses, fabrics, etc., will also be on display. There will also be foods of the region in order for the visitors to have a bite while enjoying the floral beauties and the damsels of Inle Lake.
–Phyoe Wai Yar Zar, Managing Director, All Asia Exclusive, Yangon
A. Dear Mr. Phyoe. I am sure some of my readers will be interested, so I am enclosing the letter you sent to me. Thank you.
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited. | 
