Blogs from Songkhla, Southern Thailand, Thailand, Asia

We went to songkhla with the whole family on Tuesday morning, all the swimming and beach gear packed… however unfortunately after enquiring at a few hotels (in Thailand you never normally book things) we discovered there was a medical conference and therefore no family sized rooms. Unsure of what to do, we carried on with our day and decided to plan later whether to head back home or find somewhere else, we met Rob’s Californian friend Marlane who is an anthropologist and so knew a lot about the history of the town and had a lot of things to show us. We walked round the town and to the port, before going up ‘monkey mountain’ although Rob said he often used to jog up it, he also said that was how he damaged a tendon in ... read more

Day 19: Hua Sai to Songkhla We set off biking early at 8 am, with the wind against us. But at least the day’s route was flat, and we biked along 408, the main highway, for hours. I was very, very sore and every push of the pedals made each muscle in my body hurt. We stopped to eat noodles for breakfast, then noodles for lunch, mixing it up with white noodles, then yellow. We rode by cows tied up through a ring in their nose, cute kids on bicycles, dozens of stray dogs of varying decrepitude. Huge smelly trucks piled high with unknown goods and motorbikes with side cars whizzed by us as we rode. The people down here in Southern Thailand had much darker skin than the Thais we’d seen before. Thai people generally ... read more

Ok, so yesterday I was planning on going to Songkhla Zoo. However, I woke up at about 4am with my legs feeling incredibly itchy. I figured it was just some more mosquito bites. However, I woke up later, looked down and saw that I had some blisters developing on my legs. They were really itchy, and looked gross (as you can see). The people in the guest house had never seen anything like this, and I felt pretty rotten (not ill, just pissed off with more bug problems). Ning was going to the hospital to visit the ladyboy who broke his leg. I was advised to head over with them, and have someone look at my legs. So, off we went, taking the ferry to get there. The hospital was quite nice, with lots of trees ... read more

Today was a pretty exciting one, even if that wasn't the way I planned it at all. I'm staying at a really friendly guesthouse called the ABC (it used to be the Arbitus) in a town in the south of Thailand called Songkhla. Songkhla is a pretty interesting place for me. Because it's quite limited beachwise it's not very touristy (it hs two but they don't comprare to the big resort beaches). In addition, there has been problems with security here in the south, with seperatists waging a campaign against the government. There is occasionly bombings; teachers and monks have been killed. further south. It's all very sad and too-familiar somehow. For me however, Songkhla reminds me a lot of Aberdeen, with the choppers flying overhead taking workers to the rigs in the Gulf of Thailland. ... read more