Siam City Hotel Hat Yai

... book. I don`t consider coming to Songai Kolok a mistake, I mean I knew what to expect, I had heard the stories, the rumours circulating on the boulevard in Pattaya, Sodom and Gomorra all in one and right smack in the middle of the Muslim South of Thailand and apperently also the headquarters of the Muslim uprising in this Asian Kingdom... Good joke, these Isaan ladies of the night would most probably kick out Mohammad himself if He had the bloody nerve to show up here!!!

... language barrier) over registration documents.<br><br>PHEW, it was a relief to finally drive out into the bordertown. What a colourful busy but poverty stricken town it is and what a dramatic change in the countryside we encountered on our drive north - quite scrubby and primitive.<br><br>Another super duper hotel with the best shower we have encountered since leaving home.<br><br>Hotels also inexpensive - NZD50 per night.

... go through metal detectors. Were in hat yai for one night then we are off in the morning to koh phangan (party island wahooo!) Traveling a lot again 5 hours on the bus and then 3 hours on a boat so going to be a long day. Spending a few days on the island, marks birthday is on the 25 so that could me a mental day. We have missed the full moon party but hoping for a half moon party, its party time all the time though so it shouldnt matter.

... was trying to move on - Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore - wherever their airline was willing to give them a seat. Which is how Lyle and Nadine ended up continuing their exhausting stretch of trains, buses, and planes, eventually making it home safely from Singapore a mere four days late. We, on the other hand, stayed overnight to catch a minibus/ferry to Koh Lipe, a small island in Tarutao National Park although as it turned out, we almost never made it out at all ...

... he would try to sell us some tickets, at 450 baht same price as the first place, so frustrated,tired,hungry and angry we start to head back in the nearing darkness,the security guard did offer us lift on his scooter for 100 bhat or a ride in 4x4 for 200 baht but merlin decided that it was time for helen to pay for her silly mistakes so he started to march her back at high speed on our way back merlin noticed a what we call " normie"which is some one like our selves. he speeds past ...

... like the safest place in the world at night and the streets aren't very well lit so we wandered back to the main streets to find some dinner. Everything looked pretty dirty and unappealing but we finally found an average looking Halal restaurant. I was happily munching through my fried beef and rice when Will suddenly, without warning, shot about 4 foot in ...

Here are some pictures from Church service at the SDA church in Hat Yai. I'm Missouri Synod Lutheran, but I could relate to the love these worshipers showed. It's neat because although 95% of the congregation is Fillipino, there are some ...

It was a mad dash this morning to catch the 6:45am bus out of Phuket. The receptionist took his time processing our room deposit so we had to walk double time to get to the bus station before our bus left. The VIP bus we had reserved seats on was nothing like the VIP bus we caught in Bangkok. We ended up collecting several people along the way, resulting in the walkway full of people standing up and a few cheeky ones trying to sit on our arm rest. We didn't go direct ...

... probably all spelt totally wrong!) The train will take us from here to the Malaysian border, then we have to travel on to the perhentians, for some more beach action (and some sunshine too, please god!) A strange thing, at the train station, we were talking in English to a guard, telling us to come back at 6am for the train (seriously people, crazy o'clock, what's going on!), I thanked him in Thai, and he asked, very ...

All border towns are the same....the world over! They survive from trade going backwards and forwards and theres no real sense of community or history. Hat Yai isnt as bad as some but its effectively the same, just rather bigger than most. We checked in to our LP approved hovel and bought bus tickets to Malaysia ( Penang, Georgetown) for the next day. Having bugger all to do in this wonderful town we thought we ...