View Wang Yai Waterfall น้ำตกวังใหญ่ in a larger map

Here are some more pictures that are way better than mine.

- A Thai Post Office is open everyday including Sundays and holidays in the basement which is actually the middle of the underground parking lot.
- Tops brings a new selection of food.
- Sizzler. Need I say more?
- Almost every bank has a full branch on the top floor (including no-fee AEON)
- True, AIS & DTAC all have full service stores.
- iStudio Apple store.
- 2 Export clothing stores bring cheap Western sized clothing.
- Aquarium that your kids will love, even if it is tiny.

One disappointment so far is that there hasn’t been an English soundtrack movie yet. This annoys my wife as well because she hates the cheesy Thai audio overlays. Hopefully some of the big Summer movies coming out in the next few months will have at least one English showing. For movie times at Central click here.

For more pictures click here.

Central Plaza is open M-F 10:30-21:00 and 10:00-21:30 on weekends.
Phone: 045-950-699

Ubon has a new zoo called Ubon Jungle Park. It’s still under construction with future reptile, elephant and Mekong fish exhibits to come, but there’s still plenty of other animals to see. You have the option of either riding on a tram or you can rent a golf cart for 300b for one hour. An hour was plenty of time to make it around the 3.6km trail. We made it through the park in about 40 minutes stopping at all the exhibits. We went around a 2nd time without stopping just for fun. It’s a very nice forested area and even though we went during the heat of the day, the shade made it bearable. It’s hard to imagine all of Isan used to look like this. There’s no entrance fee to the park other than what you pay for a golf cart or the tram. The park phone number is 045-252-761. They also have a Facebook page.

View Ubon Jungle Park in a larger map

Early start driving to Ranong from Phang Nga.

We used the Andaman Club visa run service for my friend. This is much easier than what I did years ago living down here and taking long tail boats from the city to get over the bay. They have their own immigration office and you ride in an aircon boat over. While we waited, we walked over to the Customs Tower which is right next door. The office told us we couldn’t go up but we asked some soldiers outside instead and they took us up. It’s a beautiful view looking over the bay at Burma.

An interesting house down on the bay. Looks bad on the outside but it was covered with CCTV cameras and looked nice inside from a distance.

Customs boat.

On the way to Bangkok.

Tunnel under Hua Hin Airport

Entering Bangkok.

View Ao Thalane Bay Kayak Launch Point in a larger map

“Stop Violence”

“Tired of Violence”

“When you grow up don’t be corrupt. Corruption won’t make you grown up.” This is an anti-corruption program targeting kids.

Literally: “Children and grand children are drug addicts, frustrated, can’t think, tell me.” This is a sign for an Islamic school in Pattani that’s very poorly worded and doesn’t seem to be communicating much other then perhaps if you enroll your problematic children, they’ll be cured of their problems.

In front of some military checkpoints.

Checkpoint entering Yala province.

This is just a store front sign in downtown Yala.

Peace in downtown Yala.

I think this is a sign for the local Village Scouts group.

SBPAC is an agency that was disbanded by Thaksin and reinstated after the 2006 coup. A good article about what they do can be read here in English. It’s an agency that isn’t technically under any branch of government but reports directly to the Prime Minister. One of its responsibilities is “protecting the rights and liberties of local people and ensuring justice for them.”
The road sign in the background is Siroros Rd. in Yala where a large motorcycle bomb went off in November.

In my last post I focused on observations of security in Yala. This post is a little bit about life in general unrelated to security. Yala felt like any other Thai capital city. Old concrete buildings. Motorcycles. Temples. Train station. Bus station. Markets. 7-Elevens. More importantly, wonderful people! If you go to the main park in the city you’ll find many families, both Muslim & Buddhist enjoying the outdoors and mingling. A sharp contrast to what you might think reading the news. The news often reports the religion of those attacking or being attacked even if the attack has nothing to do with religion so it’s easy to assume that it’s always a religious conflict. Not once did I ever sense there was any religious hostility whatsoever. On the contrary, I was surprised just how much interaction there is. If you didn’t ever read the news, you would have no clue there’s an insurgency going on. Below are a few pictures at the main park in town one late afternoon. This park gets used far more then parks I’ve been to in other capital cities.

I only visited one market where a variety of people were selling their goods together. I know some markets have been threatened for selling pork in the past. For some reason I expected 7-Eleven to not be selling pork but they still carried my favorite grilled ham & cheese sandwich and everything else pork-related. I chose to avoid it on this trip though…

3 generations on one bike. Family is very important for both Thai Buddhists and Thai Muslims.

The Central Mosque of Yala’s call to prayer can be heard echoing over the city everyday.

The Yala City Pillar Shrine had plenty of visitors everyday we drove by.

A few last random observation.

1. Google Maps and Apple Maps were both HORRIBLE in the Deep South. I kept driving on roads that weren’t on the map, but at least they were all in great condition.

2. The Thai food was amazing! They use a different kind of sauce in the stir fried dishes. I couldn’t tell you what it is but it was great. My favorite Pad Thai and Pad Si Ew are now officially in Yala.

3. I paid for almost nothing once in Yala. In other locations in Thailand I sometimes feel like a walking ATM. I’ve been invited to dinner in Ubon before and then was asked to pay for the whole group. I don’t know why but I ate with both Thai Muslims and Buddhists in Yala and was never allowed to pay for a meal. My only hope was to sneak payment during a meal.

Since I’m a news junkie and follow Thai news outlets like MCOT and Bangkok Post, I hear about all of the violent incidents in the Deep South so I was a bit apprehensive about going down there. Nit noi. Of course as fate would have it, on my way to Hat Yai I would sit next to an explosives technician who “strongly recommended” I not go outside after 6pm. My friend also told me to make sure I arrived to Yala before 6 which didn’t exactly make me feel much better. On top of that I knew I was going to stand out in a place I’d rather not be noticed. Foreigners are not targeted in insurgent attacks but after leaving Hat Yai, I was the only Westerner I saw the entire week. Yay.

Security concerns in Yala are a reality of life and most people take steps to protect themselves in simple ways. According to my friend there is a lot of small crime at night so they use an excessive number of locks on doors and don’t go out in the evenings very often. We did go out to eat after dark a couple times but we were always back before 8. There was a strange lack of police on the streets, only soldiers at checkpoints it seemed. My friend kept saying, “It’s kind of like the wild wild west here isn’t it?” They also protect their vehicles as much as possible. The streets are empty of motorcycles and cars at night since insurgents often steal vehicles to use for bombs. My friend has had 2 motorcycle bombs go off in front of neighbor’s homes, both of which they later learned were stolen. In addition to all of this, my friend is part of a large chat group on the “Line app” of people in Yala to share emergency information if something happens in the city. I thought I heard a Facebook group mentioned too but I can’t find it.

After greeting someone for the first time in Thailand, the follow up question is usually “where do you come from” or “are you a teacher” but nearly every person I met in Yala would ask if I was scared of bombs. “No” was always my response though I don’t think anyone believed me. And then they’d ask me where I come from. Several bombs went off in the province while I was there and I made the mistake of quickly informing a group of people I was with. They were less than interested in hearing the news even though it was only 10km away. Unless there’s a significant incident in the city, I found that most people didn’t even know anything was happening. Not because they don’t care, but because it happens all the time and simply don’t want to hear about it. One neighbor told me she never watches the news because the violence makes her too sad.

Security cameras are everywhere. During my visit it became a game after awhile to see who could spot a camera. This camera is an obvious one at a checkpoint but most of them are high up on telephone polls or buildings.

This is a military checkpoint near the border of Yala and Pattani. The provincial border checkpoints are large like this one. Once in the province, most are a bit smaller. We went through 6 of them in 125km from Hat Yai to Yala.

Occasionally you see small military camps like this in random rural areas.

The East side of the tracks in Yala is predominately Muslim. The West side is a mix. The friend I stayed with said that 12 years ago it was about half Muslim, half Buddhist all over the city but many Buddhists are leaving due to the insurgency. Despite the difference in religion, the majority of Muslims and Buddhists interact constantly, live as neighbors, shop the same places and work together. I’ll discuss this in my next post.

This monk has an armed escort in front and back with 2 children following. (Can’t see the other one.) Of the dozen or so monks I saw doing morning alms, this is the only one that had an armed escort.

Mini checkpoints like this are in strategic locations all over the city but not on the main roads.

The Thai military has done a good job of blanketing the region, making it difficult for insurgents to be mobile. I can’t imagine working these checkpoints, always wondering if a car is going to explode or if you’ll be attacked by a group of insurgents.

The next post will focus on life in general and not on the security situation.

Leaving Ubon Ratchathani you can see Thung Si Muang Park and the bridge to Warin.

Sisaket intersection in Ubon. The rest of the trip to Bangkok was very hazy and not worth showing any of the pictures.

Of course on the way to Yala, an explosives expert would sit down next to me at Don Mueang Airport.

After another horrible experience with Air Asia we were finally in the air leaving Don Mueang Airport. They changed our gate 3 times and people got lost and some left behind. The guy next to me said his friend missed the flight. The flight board, the paper announcing a change in gate and the announcer changing the gate on the intercom all said 3 different gates. It was chaos. Anyway…

Looking down Ram Intra into Laksi.

Rajpruek Golf Club

It didn’t take long for things to get hazy again but you can clearly see Ratchaprarop Station, the Baiyok Tower, Pantip Plaza, Central World and Paragon from here. A few of Bangkok’s icon locations.

Rama IX Bridge (top) and Bhumibol Bridge (bottom) over the Chao Phraya River.

Just South of Hua Hin.

Prachuap Khiri Khan

Koh Tao

Koh Samui (left) and Koh Pha-ngan (right)

Looking back at Koh Samui

Nakhon Si Thammarat

Phattalung is on the other side of the lake. The lake is cut in half and most of the coast in this picture is part of Songkhla.

Looking down on Songkhla.

View of Hat Yai just before landing.