With 28 teams of motorised rickshaws on a 3,000km journey through Java to Bangkok, Thailand has assured visitors that the kingdom is safe for travellers with many key tourist attractions unaffected by the floods.
The rickshaw journey will cross the Straits of Malacca into Malaysia's Penang Island. They will continue to head north, and are expected to complete the first ever Asean Rickshaw Run in the Thai capital of Bangkok. News of the flooding in Thailand had caused some concern among the organisers, although the intrepid racers seemed totally unfazed."The flooding is not as widespread as the media coverage may indicate. It has mainly affected some of the provinces in the Central Region," Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Suraphon Svetasreni said in a statement. "In Bangkok, the central areas where tourists like to go are not flooded and are fully accessible."
Thai tourism officials have also assured the rally participants that southern Thailand remains unaffected, and the access roads to Bangkok are still safe and clear.
Parts of Indochina have been hit by torrential rains or typhoons, which triggered one of the worst floods in decades. The worst hit is Thailand, where more than 200 people have died, and another 2.6 million people have had their lives disrupted. The inaugural Asean Rickshaw Run is one of the many events, which the regional group is introducing, to better connect with the people.
According to the Asean Secretariat's statement, the journey is to raise money for "Breakthrough Breast Cancer", a charity dedicated to improving and saving lives through encouraging early detection, ensuring precise diagnosis, discovering new and better treatments, and improving medical services; and BirdLife International, the world’s largest conservation and authority on birds and their habitats.
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