Bed boy

It takes as much stamina to lie down as to stand up for long hours. For 65-year-old Chonthirat Sakulkoo of Phitsanulok province, Thailand, being bedridden for two years due to failing health prepared her for a grueling 500-kilometer travel to Bangkok on 23 November.

Village officials apparently declared Sakulkoo dead that day when her younger brother noticed she was not breathing. He then put her inside a wooden coffin and brought her to a hospital in the capital to donate her organs, reports say.

When the brother reached the hospital after a four-hour travel, it rejected the body due to a lack of proper documents. He was forced to bring his sister’s coffin to a Buddhist temple that offers free cremation.

Temple manager Pairat Soodthoop was about to start the cremation ritual when he heard a faint knock coming from inside the coffin, Sky News reported.

A surprised Soodthoop asked the deceased’s family to open the coffin, and all were shocked to see Chonthirat alive.

“I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time,” said Soodthoop, according to Sky News.

Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Chinese man stretched on a mattress at a shopping center in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, northern China, on the morning of 15 November and never sat up or left it, the South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald, reported.

After 33 hours and 35 minutes of resting, the unidentified man was declared the winner in the endurance contest organized by a mattress brand, according to SCMP.

The winner, who was given a 3,000-yuan prize, beat 240 contestants, including two rivals who were still lying down at the 33rd hour of the competition.

As the contestants were not allowed to use the toilet, they used adult diapers and ate ordered food while lying on their stomachs, according to SCMP.