Blogs from Sungai Kolok, Southern Thailand, Thailand, Asia

As Lonely Planet had specifically, clearly and categorically stated NOT to cross the border from Malaysia into Thailand at Sungai Kolok, we thought this would be a marvellous wheeze and hoisted our backpacks on and trotted off to have a chat and be terribly British with the border guards. Slightly disappointingly, it all went so swimmingly that we were totally unprepared for the fact that Thailand is an hour behind Malaysia (not helpful when checking train times) and that if a Thai person makes a mistake, they really, really, really will not admit it, apologise or try and make amends in any way. We staggered into the train station with visions of a slightly better first class journey than our last and bought tickets for the express. We were told that it was delayed until 2pm ... read more

Malaysia, border crossing, 14-02-2009. I leave my dingy liitle room early morning at first light, bulky backpack strapped to my back and dressed in my last clean clothes, I've a border crossing to do today so it's best to be dressed in clean clothes or else I might get refused entry on the grounds of looking like a worn-out pennyless tramp. The lobby of my hotel is a complete mess, empty cans of Chang beer and equally empty big bottles of Kloster lying around at random, an Isaan lady of the night asleep on the old sofa with the cracked leather upholstery where I was most of last night "admiring" both the going-ons in my hotel as well as the mad spectacle outside in the dimly lit street. The receptionist lady is fast asleep snoring loudly ... read more

Songai Kolok, same day in the evening of 13-02-2009. Muezzins call the faithfull to prayer, attend the many mosques in this ach-typical border town while I disembark from my last Song-thaew, shouldering my bulky backpack feeling worn out, sweaty and semi-frustrated after a whole day of travelling on local chicken buses, road blocks with severe looking police men and soldiers getting on sometimes taking people out for frisking purposses outside the Song-Thaew with the driver patiently waiting for the - to him no doubt - daily procedure, unfriendly and at times even outright hostile stares from my other passengers. Leaving the bus terminal my eyes are under a strange and constant attack of contradicting impressions, sights so unusual for me in this part of the world. women pass me in the street dressed head to toe ... read more

20 August. I arrive in Sungai Golok and check into the Thai Liang hotel. Its nice, especially for a hotel in a town that books like Lonely Planet recommend not stopping in if you can help it. But I had a reason to stay: there's a peat swamp on the outskirts, the largest left in Thailand. It is known by a number of different names, all versions of Pa Phru Toa Daeng Peat Swamp forest or Princess Sirithorn Peat Swamp forest. Nobody that I asked seemed to know where it was or even that it existed. It didn't help that unless I'm using anything but the most basic of words then most people can't understand my accent. Even a word like 'bird' gets complicated, never mind 'binoculars'. I went to the police station in the end ... read more