Posted Monday, November 15, 2004; 21:00 HKT
Combining the skills of volleyball, football, gymnastics and hacky sack sounds like a tall order to most of us. Not to the Thais. Go to Bangkok's Lumpini Park on any given Sunday and you can see for yourself. There, on a disused badminton court, as many as two dozen men pair off, then leap and dive through the air with one objective in mind: without using their hands, keep a rattan ball from hitting the ground on their side of the net. The democratic mix of players—moto-taxi drivers, security guards, students and civil servants—says much about the widespread Thai love of takraw, the most beautiful of Asian games. It has been played here, in various forms, since the 11th century and has spread throughout the region. It's called sipa in the Philippines, sepakraga in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, ching loong in Burma, rago in Indonesia and kator in Laos. But nowhere is it played or watched with as much relish as in Thailand, where it fills stadiums. The sport's killer move—the somersault scissor kick—can send the ball hurtling back over the net at speeds approaching 70 km/h, and to many Thais is as natural to do as breathing. You, however, should not try this at home.

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