Songkhla city beach & province

Thailand's deep south starts at about a line from Songkhla Hat Yai.

From here southwards to the Malaysian border is a rather lawless country where gangs of smuggler, illegal fisheries and Islamist insurgency rule. The area is dominated by farm and fishing communities, a very huge mosque - picture below - is between Songkhla and Hat Yai. 



A good question is what to do in Songkhla?

Songkhla is one of this old Thailand cities where history is still visible but not the one with temples and pagodas it's a history of a different kind with old Chinese shop houses, rotten fishing vessels in the harbor and some interesting museums with e.g.a stone axe, around three thousand years old, found at Ban Phli Khwai , Sathing Phra, give a glimpse into this very early times when settlers might have moved from caves into the fertile plains around
A very old bronze drum or Dong Son drum was found in Chana. In the first and second centuries some communities of Hindu traders and fisherman emerged on the Sathing Phra peninsular, this peninsular was basically a agriculture area and transformed into a port after. 

In the sixth century Indian traders brought Buddhism into the area. In the seventh Sathing Phra was already an international harbor and administrative center for the area. 

In the second half of that century Chinese took the lead in commerce activities.Some museums give a idea what happen in the past, a lot of old items of various kind are on display.

The main museum is the Songkhla National Museum, the museum in an old Chinese

mansion offers insights into the past, beside of folk art, old Chinese ceramics, Buddhist and Hindu objects are on exhibition. 

A interesting visit is to the Thaksin Khadi Sueksa Institute (a view over Songkhla from the institute is at right). Songkhla is a fishing port since ancient times and has recently become the center of the offshore gas business and exploration in the gulf of Thailand. 

All big US companies are here, since they are the one who have the expertise, like Unocal, Halliburton etc. the hotels make good business with the professionals who are shuttled everyday from the local heliport to the offshore platforms. It looks like not much from the money created through this business find the way into the local environment.

Songkhla is only minor developed for any kind of nightlife, there are a few cafe with girls singing and some karaoke in the major hotels, there you also can find some interesting companions but this wont match e.g. Phuket by any means. One can have a short drive to Hat Yai and there it is where the heat and action in terms of nightlife is on, as mentioned before Hat Yai is a small edition of Bangkok.

The very old quarter of Songkhla is located on Sathing Pra. As many other places in southern Thailand the city has seen a lot of people from many nations passing since ancient times, they mainly were Indians, Arabs, Malay, Chinese, Persians and so on. They called the place “Singhla” which mutated with the time into the present day name. The name identifies two islands looking like crouching lions (some fantasy needed) at the entrance to the Songkhla lagoon, now their name is Koh Nu and Koh Maeo the harbor is also a interesting point to

visit, actually there are several.

Very few tourist come all the way down to Songkhla and if they come its usually a through ride to Malaysia.

Hat Yai Trip to the third largest city in Thailand, a few miles southwest of Songkhla is the main commercial city in the region, actually it’s somehow a smaller edition of Bangkok. Not much to say about beside that Hat Yai has a sizzling nightlife mainly serving Malaysian, Singaporean, Korean and Japanese tourist who seek some short time fun in Songkhla and Hat Yai southern Thailand.

Songkhla and the south of Thailand.

Around Songkhla in the past the big business was Tin Mining.

The South of Thailand is rich in tin. This was the first metal people used and was later substituted with a mix of copper to produce bronze which is more durable. 26 other minerals are known  to be around here to make gypsum, coal, marble, glass sand, feldspar and quartz. 

According to historical records tin was already exported to China from the Kingdom of  Tambra Linga from the 11 to the 13th century. Prior to the 19th Century mining was done by slaves.  lie tr 11) nis.cry, tan or' watt orodifcva macuty by the slaves. Later Chinese did the production and trading job. 

During 1847 – 1892 tin mining was monopolized by the Sultan in 1963 a company with the name Thai Sarco Co. was founded and they established a tin smelting plant in Phuket which is still visible at the Deep Sea Port in the south east part of the Island, not far off the Cape Panwa Hotel.

The Tin ore business brought high profits to many in the South of Thailand for many years, accounting for about 75% of the total value of all minerals produced in the country. Since 1983 the price of tin has constantly declined and most mined have closed. In Phuket they filled up the mined with water called it lagoons and built several luxury hotels and apartments around this placed is called now Laguna finally tourism took over in the south.

There is some interesting pop art around the city and beach area.

A variant of "trash art" but people are more  interesting in the Mermaid Statue where every day people are hanging around making "selfies" and whatever, the most rough are Chinese tourists. 

The beaches around are not interesting and all is Muslim territory, although they have the sandy waterfront it's not appealing. 

This are also the closest one to Hat Yai since "Hat Yai Beaches" are not existing. The best waterfronts in this south Thailand area are on Ko Tarutao and Ko Lipe off Satun Province. 

There are a couple of restaurants built into the sea on stilts which are great places for dinner. There are always rumors about bombing by insurgents which are very rare in the part of the south of Thailand. 

The chance to experience a blast made by the Insurgency here is similar as to have one in London, all this stuff is always blown up in-proportionally by the media. The bomb explosions of the mad Islamist are much further south at the border provinces to Malaysia.  

In general when visiting the area don't drive south of Songkhla, there is no problem towards Hat Yai and south to Malaysia but on the east side there is a very unhealthy melange of Criminals (usually diesel smuggling) and the insurgency since all this is supported by Malaysia (they deny it) it is not possible to get it under control and the Thai are smiling but do nothing else as usual, there are too many people making money in this situation.

E.g in 2015 after the military coup (which was a very good thing for the country) they arrested the top men of the crime suppression in Bangkok (equivalent to the FBI). The boss and most people working there should catch criminals but they run a huge smuggling and extortion racket in the south. The police under military supervision found millions of Baht and

English Pounds in cash, gold, high valued Buddha Statues and other valuables. They are serving long year sentences now but who knows how long?

Songkhla has some other pretty places such as native fishing villages where the inshore fishermen are living. 

About the top attraction in Sonkhla which is the Market in the City Center.

Although Thailand means "Land of the free" many people push this over the limit and they think rules and regulations are for the other but not for them, this is over-exploited by people who have some money and because of that they think they are influential ones. 

In the country only money rules this is a very dangerous thing to do. Together with the fact that they have the worst education system in SEA plenty of problems are arising every day. Just as an example the other day was Songkran, the Thai New Year, by road accidents over 300 people lost their live within 6 days, the main cause was drink and drive but nobody cares. About until 100 years ago when they used mainly oxcarts that wouldn't cause a problem but they cant do the same with cars.