Bucked by a buffalo, is Baitoey being haunted?

Baitoey, famed for her bust size and short shorts (hardly the traits of a wispy ghost) was attempting to shoot a romantic scene on the back of the buffalo with her co-star, heartthrob Martin Midal. The beast turned beastly, though, and they both ended up in the muck.

Baitoey and Martin were whisked from the rice paddy in Song Phi Nong district to a hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries.

At first glance the story’s a puzzle. Why would a docile animal buck Baitoey, who’s after all a farm girl from the Hat Yai outback? Was it her singing? Did the buffalo realise it had a ghost on its back? 

In fact what really spooked the critter was a passing band of minstrels. Just as the actors got entwined on buffalo-back and were puckering up for a smooch, a trio playing drum, trumpet and mandolin happened by. It certainly wasn’t in the script – they were on their way to an ordination. 

It’s common in Suphan Buri for young men to enter the monkhood for weeks or months to make merit, and ordination ceremonies are big events in every village, celebrated with dancing and musical fanfare.

Well, the buffalo didn’t know this. It came from Si Prachan’s Buffalo Village, a popular destination in the province where urbanites can get a cool selfie with a beast of burden and where the animals are well fed and pampered. This particular buffalo, lured by visions of TV stardom, had probably forgotten what country music sounded like, and there was nothing in its contract about drums and brass. No wonder it went berserk.

As always, someone got the whole episode on video and posted it online. The animal started kicking its hind legs and then bolted, bucking Baitoey into the dirt. Unfortunately she was tied to the buffalo and got dragged a few metres. Martin managed to stay aboard for a few more minutes before he too got dumped, scuttling a prospective rodeo career. 

Doctors at the hospital determined that Martin had had a soft enough landing that he wouldn’t need a new set of teeth. Baitoey, though, was treated for symptoms of shock. Being dragged across a rice paddy by a crazed half-tonne bull will have that effect.

Speculation was rife among soap-opera fans that, even if the buffalo wasn’t spooked by a ghost, perhaps Mae Nak at least had a hand in Baitoey’s misfortune. Others reckoned it was just a matter of differing tastes in music, the animal perhaps preferring Bach. 

Most folks concur though that Baitoey, with her racy reputation, really shouldn’t be playing the pensive Mae Nak in the first place. Perhaps the buffalo, now a TV veteran, agrees.