Visitors to an aquarium in Thailand got a big surprise this week when Santa Claus swam by, carrying a sack full of food and surrounded by shoals of curious fish.
The basement aquarium in the Bangkok shopping mall was the last place families were expecting to see Father Christmas, equipped with fins, oxygen tank and a diving mask.
Children hopped up and down, and pointed excitedly, mesmerized by a Santa in a floppy red hat waving while floating above the coral and circled by angelfish.
Photo: Reuters
“She been running all the way down here to see the diving Santa,” Frenchman Jean Baptise Richard said of his four-year-old daughter, Maya, a frequent visitor to the aquarium.
“Normally, she never stays here more than 30 seconds, so today it’s already five minutes,” he said.
The woman in the wetsuit beneath the Santa outfit is Nichakarn Sariwong, an employee of the marine life center, whose job is normally to look after the fish, and clean and maintain the aquarium.
“It’s Christmas time, so I dress as a Santa for about three or four days to feed fish. The kids love the show so much,” Nichakarn said.
URGENT CALL: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency pleaded to gain access to the plant, saying ‘every principle of nuclear safety has been violated The UN’s nuclear chief on Tuesday warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine “is completely out of control,” and issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex to stabilize the situation and avoid a nuclear accident. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi said in an interview that the situation is getting more perilous every day at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March, soon after their Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. “Every principle of nuclear safety has been
On a beach in the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen, just a few kilometers from Taiwan’s Kinmen, life is carefree, despite some of the worst cross-strait tensions in decades. Ignoring warnings from Beijing, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday — the highest-ranking elected US official to visit the nation in 25 years — sparking a diplomatic firestorm. China yesterday launched some of its largest-ever military drills — exercises set to disrupt one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. However, on Xiamen’s palm-fringed beach, there was little concern. “A war? No, I don’t care,” a young IT worker surnamed
MANAAKITANGA’: Tourism operators, businesses and universities welcomed the news, despite Immigration New Zealand cautioning not to expect a flood of visitors New Zealand’s borders yesterday fully opened for the first time since they abruptly snapped shut to keep COVID-19 out in March 2020. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the nation was “open for business” after the final stage of the phased reopening, which began in April, was completed on Sunday night. Visitors from around the world are once again allowed into New Zealand, including maritime arrivals, those on student visas and those from non-visa waiver countries, such as China and India. The reopening was “an enormous moment” Ardern said yesterday in a speech at the China Business Summit. “It’s been a staged and
According to Forrest Gump, life is like a box of chocolates because “you never know what you’re going to get.” Now, an Indian remake of the movie has been hit by boycott calls over years-old comments by its Muslim star, Aamir Khan. It is the latest example of how Bollywood actors, particularly minority Muslims such as Khan, are feeling increased pressure under Hindu nationalist Indian Prime Minister Modi. Laal Singh Chaddha, an Indian spin on the 1994 Hollywood hit with Tom Hanks, is expected to be one of India’s biggest films of the year. This is due in large part to its
RSS