Meeting the Mermaid....

  Songkhla, Thailand
Friday, February 22, 2008

Charmaine had the day off as it was a National religious holiday....the day is one where people who only go to church one or twice a year have the opportunity to go and pray. (much like the protestant Christmas and Easter I guess....)

Worshipers chant at the Temple

so she took me on a site seeing tour down to the Songkhla beaches. We walked over..about a ten minute walk. There are many Temples along the route we took.

Temple

Buddas

Temple2

Cat at temple

Reclining Budda

Temple3

Temple 4

Temple5

Bonzi Tree

Temple 6

We also ran into a couple of Charmaine's students

Worsore Chalome School girls

.




They asked (in Thai...they have very limited English...) if I was her boyfriend. Charmaine blushed (she does that alot...) so I leaned over and kissed her (a 'halik' in Tagalog) much to the delight of the young school girls giggles! As we left them I taught them (actually they just parrot the words much like you or I would do...) Goodbye! Have a nice Day!"

Charmaine's School where she teaches

Many scenic things to view along the way!

flowers

flowers

main means of transportation

The King

statue

Animal Plants

"Deer"

 

Songkhla Beach

Upon arriving at the beach there were many people...

muslam woman at the beach (its 95 degrees ou

merchants hawking their wares

Street Merchant

Beach 1

Puffer Fish

and boys playing 'football' (it's not called soccer anywhere but the US...)

Football

We sat and watched a kite flying  for a while...

Kits Flying at Songkhla Beach

that was very serene and peaceful! (especially nice since I'm with my Charmaine!)

at the Beach

Songkhla...if you google search it and go to images...most likely the mermaid comes up.

The Mermaid

Mermaid Plaque

It is the 'landmark' and jugging by the number of tourist taking it's picture..it's very popular!

Mermaid 2

The story is she was spoted by a young fisherman who fell in love with her beauty...she was frightend and disapeared into the sea...the fisherman waited for her to return...but alas...she never did! I decided to give trhe lass a 'Halik' for good fortune!

Planting one on the mermaid

We took a tuk-tuk back...and he took advantage of the small filipina and her farang (foreigner) by over charging us for the ride (Charmaine has taken it many times..it is 24Baht..)he charged us 30 Baht! Welcome to Thailand....you do have to watch yourself with the merchants.



We came back at night for a picnic with Mae and Jove (Charmaine's roommates) and Gi-gi Lov and Ian.

Beach picnic with friends

We had some good food, played guitar and sang and had some fun at the moons expense..

Gi-gi plays with the moon

.

Mae holds the moon

(btw..the setting moon was as bright of red as I had ever saw...I hope my pic does it justice)

Red Moon

And speaking of food...here are a couple of the meals Chamaine has made for me!

meal 2

Meal

And here are some pictures of Charmaines place and my guest quarters...

my Room in guest house

Charmaines home

street in front of Charmaines

street in front of Charmaines2

street in front of Charmaines3

street in front of Charmaines3

street in front of Charmaines4

and one of Charmaines Braids...It takes her 35 minutes to braid her hair....

Charmaines Braids!

more post soon!