The fire skipping rope: Entertaining drunken late night fun, or dangerous and irresponsible?
Anyone who’s ever been to the party island of Koh Pha Ngan in Southern Thailand will most likely be aware that a lot of if the late night entertainment seems to revolve around fire. One such fire related activity is the fire skipping rope, which involves setting a skipping rope on fire so that drunken backpackers can foolishly risk life and limb by attempting to skip through the flames.
For the benefit of anyone who hasn’t been to Koh Pha Ngan, I’ve uploaded a few videos and photos of the fire skipping rope so that everyone can get an idea of what it’s all about.
1) The first video was actually recorded in Koh Phi Phi (before they went all health and safety and replaced their fire skipping ropes with fluorescent blue skipping ropes), but it’s the same idea. They set a skipping rope on fire and then drunken people skip over it. This video features some random extremely cool dude starting off quite well but then making a bit of a mess of his exit.
