Yala and Songkla in Southern Thailand.

Day 24: Living in Thailand

Today was like many other days nothing to special, a trip into town to get me out then more of the same. Yep life�s not all visiting temples and sightseeing it can be pretty normal most days.

• Groceries 25 Baht - 85cts
• Lunch 25 Baht - 85cts

Total for the day: 50 Baht $1.70 - Total Remaining: 765 Baht





Southern Thailand is it really dangerous.
Southern Thailand is composed of fourteen different provinces of which only three are continually in the news, and could be considered somewhat dangerous. Songkla was the next province that I decided to visit on my journey south. It is a small province on the eastern coast surrounded by water on three sides and mountains on the fourth side not many tourists actually get to visit Songkla.

The city itself is very small and sits on the ocean, and is easily one of the nicest cities that I have spent time in, with large open boulevards plenty of places to sit and watch the world go by the main thing that I got from this town was it was not built for tourists. It was built for the Thai population that lives there 365 days a year. Songkla has a small expat population, it is not the normal type though comprising for the most part of oil and gas workers. Due to this you can get decent western food and accommodation at a fair price, Songkla is a possible choice and one of my favorites.

Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala are the three provinces that continue to have problems. I choose to visit all three to see for myself, just how bad it was. Without previous information I would not have known that any danger exists, except for increased military checkpoints and the occasional armored truck. At that time "2010" all problems where kept far from the main towns unaffecting the very few tourists that decided to visit. This has since changed with a small bomb going off in one hotel I stayed at, and another going off in another province just meter�s down the road from that hotel.

I loved the real south and experienced more initial random acts of kindness, from people in each of the three affected provinces than any other province in Thailand. Yala was outstanding, modern and voted cleanest city in Thailand, Patani industrial, miles of coast line not the best beaches. I do remember it having old collectible cars though. Narathiwat small, rural and beautiful deserted beaches.

   Continue Reading Day 25: Other places outside of Thailand, a month in Malaysia.