The Institute for Southern Thai Studies (part of Thaksin University) is located on the north part of the island just before the Tinansulanonda Bridge which forms part of the Route 4 highway. It's up on a hill and has some great views. There is a lookout tower right at the top to give you an even better view.

Its mission is to:

1. To promote, preserve, and develop southern Thai culture for the benefit of southern Thai society as well as that of the nation.
2. To serve as a centre for southern Thai folk cultural studies and research.
3. To organise training projects, conferences and exhibitions on southern Thai culture.
4. To serve as one of the major attractions of Songkhla where visitors can appreciate the richness of cultures in the southern part of Thailand.

There we have a nice mission statement rather than the nonsense trotted out by corporate America and, in my humble opinion, the Institute succeeds admirably with what it sets out to do.

The Institute is a serious learning establishment as well as a museum for general interest known as The Folklore Museum. You will probably see Thai students from local Songkhla and Hat Yai universities who are there to learn and study.

It was founded privately in 1975 using, so I am told, contributions from individuals and local companies and known at first as the 'Centre for the Promotion of Southern Thai Language and Culture'. It is a very well-designed and thoughtfully put together museum.

The main building has four storeys and is known as 'Nawamabhumin'. The other 23 buildings were built using traditional southern Thai architecture. There are arrows to help you navigate from building to building and it is very straightforward to get around.

As its name implies, the institute and museum concentrates solely on the 14 provinces that make up southern Thailand - Chumpon, Ranong, Surat Thani, Phang-Nga, Phuket, Krabi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phattalung, Trang, Songkhla, Satun, Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala.

The different ways of life in the south are described with pictures, artefacts and descriptions. Some of the descriptions are in English but not all. The bullfighting exhibit, for example, has no English text.

One building features coconut graters. Did you realise that coconut grating was a social activity in Thailand? At weddings and feasts people got together to grate coconuts because grated coconut was (and still is) an important ingredient in local dishes. The designers of coconut graters used their sense of humour and imagination to design weird machines so that they become topics of conversation rather than just being mundane kitchen instruments.

There are details about the history of southern Thailand and how the region was settled. Exhibits show how people have made a living in the area such as from fishing, crop production, rubber tapping and tin mining.

The background information is quite interesting in light of the current unrest that is troubling southern Thailand.

Many people are aware of Thailand's northern hilltribes but did you know about a small tribe of curly-haired, dark-skinned, African-looking pygmies who live in forests in southern Thailand? Known as the Sagai, they have their own language and way of life, but they are nearing extinction.

I enjoyed studying some of the large paintings which are made up of lots of different scenes. They give a good idea of what life was like in the region once upon a time. The people in the paintings are purely Muslim or Chinese, with no ethnic Thais around. Hundreds of years ago what is now southern Thailand was culturally the same as northern Malaysia and the local people had closer ties to Malaysian and Indonesian culture. In many respects, nothing has changed and that is the root cause behind the southern insurgency we are seeing now. The people of the deep south do not like the way that central Thai culture has been thrust upon them.

The institute is definitely worth a visit if you are staying in Hat Yai for a few days. The island atmosphere of Ko Yo makes a refreshing change from Hat Yai and you can learn a bit about southern Thailand at the same time.

What is surprising for such a great place is how few people visit. When I have visited I have been the only visitor - even at weekends. Part of the reason is the Thai fear of ghosts (seriously). My Thai friends were surprised that I went alone and said they would not go into the small rooms alone because of ghosts.

By its very nature the museum houses lots of old artefacts and the Thais believe that the spirits of the deceased who once owned these things are still around. Thais are Buddhists but their old animist beliefs are still very much in evidence.

Ko Yo is a very pleasant place. It has thriving fruit and fishing industries. The surrounding sea is full of fish hatching nets. On the island are fruit plantations, a market and a local weaving industry. Getting back to Hat Yai is no problem as there are plenty of sawng-thaews. It makes an interesting and relaxing excursion from either Hat Yai or Songkhla.

The Institute for Southern Thai Studies
Thaksin University
Ko Yo, Muang District,
Songkhla 90100
Thailand

Tel. +66 (0)74 331184-9
Fax. +66 (0)74 332008

Admission Fees

• Children Bt10
• Adults Bt30
• Foreigners Bt60 (No comment, I've said my piece about dual pricing in Thailand elsewhere.)

What's there? There's a small Buddhist temple where there used to be a friendly, caged, one-armed gibbon but the gibbon is no longer around. There's a beach of sorts and a small strip of seafood restaurants on the beach. The restaurants' eating areas are on elevated platforms over the water making it a very nice place to eat and the food is good.

In the nearby countryside are many unusual palm trees, herds of cows grazing, and lots of exotic looking tropical birds swooping around.

How do you get there? I'd like to be able to tell you that you can hop on a certain bus or sawng-thaew and it will take you to Lampo but unfortunately that isn't the case. Even if you have your own transport, I'm not sure I could give you directions from Hat Yai.

It's on the shore of Songkhla lake, somewhere in between Hat Yai and Songkhla. Every time I have gone I have been taken by a Thai friend in their car. If you want to go, either find a Thai friend with a car or talk to one of Hat Yai's many travel agents who I'm sure can arrange some transport for you. By car, it doesn't take long to get to Lampo from Hat Yai - less than 30 minutes.

The origins of Loy Gratong are uncertain but what it seems to be is yet another relic of animism that persists in the Thai belief system by offering thanks to Phra Mae Khongkha, the goddess of the water.

Small lotus-shaped baskets called gratongs are floated in a suitable body of water. They were originally made of banana leaves and many still are. A few years ago styrofoam gratongs were all the rage but they were an environmental disaster so have been phased out. Some are made of bread dough which serves to feed the fish. Some people buy their gratongs and others make their own (see photo below).

The gratongs contain flowers, incense and candles. Before floating your gratong it is customary to add a coin, a lock of your hair and a fingernail clipping. Make a wish and set it afloat. The gratong will carry away all your bad luck as well as making your wishes come true. Marvellous.

Hat Yai has a variety of Loy Gratong venues. The event at the Prince of Songkla University generally attracts a higher class of Thai and is generally refined and peaceful. The festivities at Wat Hat Yai Nai are a little more boisterous with lots of young urchins swimming around in the muddy water trying to get money out of people, especially farang tourists.

Another location is the Municipal Park which, in 2005, also featured the International Lantern Festival that opened one day before Loy Gratong.

A section of Niphat Uthit 3 is completely blocked off and a huge plastic sheet laid over the road. Thousands of people gather on both sides of the road with bags full of offerings waiting for the monks to arrive. It is an early morning affair and if you want to get a good spot you should plan to arrive before 7am.

Announcements are made over a PA system in Thai, Chinese (for the large Chinese contingent present) and even in English. Buddhist chants in Pali are also relayed to the crowd. At around 7:30am some important looking monks walk through splashing holy water on to the spectators. At this point I saw a woman come out from the crowd and prostrate herself in front of one of the monks.

A little later the other monks start walking up and down the street; there are thousands of them and quite a few very young novices. People start to give alms. They place their gifts in the monks' alms bowls from where they are taken out and put into plastic bags by a small army of monks' assistants.

It's quite a spectacle and worth seeing. As far as the religious content goes, a lot of it is just instutionalised, mechanical Buddhism. People carry on in life doing what they want, not leading very Buddhist lives, but think that handing over some food to monks in a very public setting is enough to be a good person.

It is covered and there are small lanes with several shops selling a variety of things. There are also many food stalls selling everything from common Thai fried-rice dishes and noodles to deep-fried insects.

It is adjacent to the bus station (bor kor sor Map 4) and known officially as the Asean market, or something, but the locals call it bpeudt-ty. This translates to 'open boot' as in the boot (or trunk to Americans) of a car.

In the UK it would be known as a car boot sale. This was how the market started apparently when the economy crashed in 1997. The Baht was devalued, people were struggling with money, so loaded their cars up with possessions they didn't need and went to where the night market is now to sell them.

Comments: Diving in Hat Yai is not recommended as visibility in the klongs doesn't tend to be very good but there are a few dive shops around that can organise trips or courses. Both dive shops I know of are located close to each other in Klongrien 2 Road.

Hadyai Diving is at number 82. The owner's name is Boy and he can be contacted on 01 969 1331 or 074 357699. Another couple of numbers the shop gave me are 01 599 9108 and 05 896 9320.

The other is White & Blue Dive Club at number 163 Klongrien 2 Road. Tel: +66 (0)74 357721-2 Fax: +66 (0)74 357534.

Both shops organise trips to well known dive locations as well as to some really obscure, small islands that I guarantee you will never have heard of. Equipment can be rented and instruction given although I'm not sure how proficient their English is.

Comments: You've planned a trip down to the three provinces and equipped yourself with a powerful firearm for protection from insurgents (which you bought from Suntisook market). The problem is you're not quite sure how to use it. What do you do?

No problem. Just over the railway bridge - heading out of Hat Yai - you will see the main police station on the left, and on the right is Hat Yai's very own shooting range. For a fee you can play the part of an all-American action hero and offload bullets into a paper target.

Three calibres of pistol are available and you get 50 shots:

• .38 - Bt1,500
• .9 - Bt1,700
• .45 - Bt1,700

The range is open daily from 09:00 - 16:30 but closed all day on Mondays.

Comments: This is one of those Asian travel experiences people see on TV travel programmes (I think back to Michael Palin's exploits many years ago) but rarely see for real. That can all be changed in Hat Yai where you can experience the real thing.

The restaurant specialises in snakes and there are lots of them, all housed in cages. The woman who runs the restaurant told me they are from jungle areas near Nakhon Si Thammarat. The venomous reptiles come in three flavours. There are large cobras, small cobras and some kind of banded black and yellow snake I don't know the name of. Large cobras cost Bt1000, small ones Bt500 and their black and yellow cousins are Bt300.

According to the shop owner - and customers who are mainly Chinese - eating the snakes provides the body with power and strength. (When she told me this she glanced surreptitiously at my groin). The idea is that once you've selected your snake it is skinned and drained of its blood which is then mixed with Thai whisky and honey and drunk. The gall bladder is also eaten for extra power and strength.

The snake meat is turned into soup which is sold for Bt150 a bowl and the shop also sells other snakeskin products such as wallets and belts. I believe this is mainly a Chinese thing and the majority of Malaysian and Singaporean tourists to Hat Yai are Chinese. Muslims cannot eat snake, pork or frogs.

As these pages are aimed at Westerners I deliberately avoided putting this information in the food section. Some Westerners may have an appetite for snake but I suspect that the majority don't. For me, the restaurant is just an interesting piece of Asian culture and not a potential eatery.

It is located on the other side of Sripoovanart Road to central Hat Yai, not far west of the bus station. All tuk-tuk drivers will know it if you can get them to understand where you want to go.

Important Update: I passed by in October 2008 and noticed there were no cages full of snakes outside. What's going on? I called in and spoke to the owner only to find out that this Hat Yai institution no longer exists. She has called time on her snake business; the only reminders being various products made from snake skin that she continues to sell.

I was absolutely gutted.

It's not that I would ever dream of eating snake meat or drinking a snake blood cocktail, but you kind of expect these places to exist in Asia, don't you? It's all part of the experience of living in, or visiting, this part of the world.

It's very sad but Hat Yai's Snake House restaurant has now been consigned to history.

Songkhla residents are happy to travel to Hat Yai for supermarkets and cinemas but don't really want them on their own doorstep. Neither do they want thousands of prostitutes and sex tourists although there is a very small bar area (the Dark Side) to cater for the farangs living in town. Preservation orders have ensured that a lot of the old buildings are still intact.

There are lots of temples to wander around, a typical Thai fresh market and a small museum. The hill near Samila beach has great views of the city and can be reached by cable car. This is also where Songkhla resident monkeys live, and watching their antics can be great fun but remember that they are wild animals. There are hundreds of naughty simians and they have their own playground next to the cable car station.

Vendors sell bananas and peanuts to feed them with and they are actually quite well behaved (the monkeys, not the vendors). These monkeys are so well fed that there is no need to get aggressive about food and they are actually quite fussy. Some won't bother taking the bananas offered to them but will look for the people who are giving out peanuts, which they prefer.

Getting to Songkhla from Hat Yai is easy. Go to the clock tower near Hat Yai Plaza on Phetkasem (Map 1) and either take a minivan for about Bt25 or jump on a public bus for Bt18. Buses, large and small, go between the two towns all the time up until the early evening.

If you want to stay overnight there are plenty of hotels. The BP Samila is a nice place and well located near the beach. Rooms with a sea view are Bt1,250.

The Royal Crown is a decent place in town which has a great restaurant and bakery attached. It's a lot cheaper than the BP Samila at Bt490 a night. The address is 38 Saingam Road, Songkhla, 90000 and the telephone numbers are +66 (0)74 312174, 311918, 321025-6, 321028-9. In addition to these two hotels there are lots more and they never seem very busy.

I have started a separate page for Songkhla which I intend expanding later as time permits.

The aquarium is a fairly new attraction and although it isn't the fanciest aquarium in the world, it's worth a visit. As you enter there are some small tanks, but the main attraction is a large tank with a walk-through tunnel.

As you walk through the tunnel, a variety of large sea animals swim just a few inches above your head. There are some pretty big rays, leopard sharks, turtles, and other unidentified fish.

Once you get through the tunnel, there is a viewing area where you can watch all the underwater life through a large wall of perspex. At around 2pm a scuba diver enters the tank to feed the animals.

The aquarium is very popular with schools from all over the south of Thailand, and every time I've been there have been large groups of schoolchildren present. Thai kids are pleasant enough but they tend to get overexcited and the noise can be deafening. Feeding a few to the sharks is one way of shutting them up.

The aquarium advertises itself as 'not just an aquarium'. There is a fish spa where you can sit with your feet in a tank of water as small fish nibble away at them.

Behind the aquarium is a go-kart track, and there is also an offroad ATV course. Six laps on the go-kart track will cost you Bt600. For the same price, you can ride an ATV quad-bike around the 1km course three times. There are large quad-bikes for adults and small ones for kids.

The aquarium operates a dual-pricing system, as do many attractions in Thailand. Thai adults are charged Bt150 and Thai kids Bt80, while foreign adults and kids are charged Bt300 and Bt200 respectively. If you speak Thai, you may be able to get the local price.

If you plan on visiting regularly it might work out cheaper to buy a membership card. These cost Bt499 per person or Bt999 per family and you get 50% discounts on the attractions for a year. To extend membership, it costs Bt399 per person or Bt899 per family.

The aquarium is a little way from the centre of town. If you go to Songkhla by public transport there are plenty of tuk-tuks and motorbike taxis. Thais use the same word 'aquarium' so they will understand where you want to go.

You will find Buddhist amulets next to pet goldfish, cats, dogs and rabbits. There are enormous amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables, all very cheap, and some quite unusual. The fresh meat on sale - as is normal in Thailand - is unrefrigerated and not always very pleasant to see (or smell).

Cheap, locally-made clothes are plentiful and in one section of the market you will find plants and flowers for sale.

The thing I love about Songkhla is that it is so clean. A lot of the produce on sale is no different to that on sale at the fresh market, or Gim Yong market, in Hat Yai but in terms of cleanliness there is no comparison.

My knowledge of Songkhla street names is not very good but if you take a minivan or bus into Songkhla on a Sunday morning you can't miss the market as it covers such a large area.

Comments: As zoos go, I rate the one at Songkhla very highly. It hasn't got the most extensive collection of animals of any zoo but most of them look fairly happy in their enclosures apart from a few that pace from side to side continually the way that animals do when they aren't happy about being kept in captivity.

The zoo is spacious and covers a very large area. If you are on foot there are sometimes buses that travel around from one area to another, and if you have a car you can drive around within the zoo similar to how you would drive around in a safari park. However, this is definitely a zoo so it is not necessary to stay inside your vehicle as it would be in a safari park. If you walk around the entire zoo be prepared for quite a good work out.

The location is on high ground overlooking Songkhla and the views are very pleasant. In addition, most of the zoo area is beautifully landscaped. I think it is the best escape from Hat Yai that exists within a reasonable distance.

Getting there from Hat Yai isn't too bad but it isn't that straightforward either. I was told by several people that no public transport goes to the zoo. My first journey there consisted of a minivan ride to Songkhla (Bt18) and then a short sawng-thaew trip (Bt8) to where the zoo road meets the main road. The final 1.5km stage of the journey was by motorcycle taxi at a cost of Bt20. At the zoo I was told that there is actually a regular green public bus that goes there from Songkhla market. When I had made enquiries previously everyone swore there wasn't but this kind of thing happens to me regularly in Thailand.

On my second visit I was again told there were no public buses that go there (contrary to what I had been told before) and to take a sawng-thaew. However, this time the sawng-thaew took me all the way to the zoo entrance so I didn't need to get a motorbike taxi. Nothing seems to be consistent in Thailand, for me at least. Every time I ask something I get told a different answer and every time I do something there is a slight variation.

One thing to note is that the zoo entrance where you buy your ticket is quite a way from the actual zoo. You may want your driver to take you into the zoo after he has dropped you off to buy your ticket.

The first time I tried to get there I declined the Bt500 fare quoted to me by a tuk-tuk driver to get me from Songkhla to the zoo. I know these guys have to make a living and I know that because I'm a farang I have the word 'stupid' written all over my face in big Thai letters but sometimes they just go too far.

The entrance fee is a bargain Bt30 for adults and Bt5 for children. I was very pleased, and to be honest, quite surprised that there is no special farang price as exists at so many places in Thailand (please see my June 2006 update below). I was charged the same price as a Thai for once. If you have a car and want to take it in the cost is Bt50.

It seems that very few people visit the zoo which is difficult to understand as it is such a great place. Hat Yai is packed full of tourists every week so why not try to get some of them out to the zoo? The answer is most likely that Malaysians who go to Hat Yai probably have other forms of entertainment on their minds rather than visiting zoos. The zoo is hardly advertised in Hat Yai and I guess the other thing is that it isn't easy to get to. If there was a bus in Hat Yai that went directly to the zoo I'm sure there would a lot more visitors.

And what makes me think that very few people visit - apart from the fact it has been almost deserted when I have been? At very busy zoos the animals see so many people that they completely ignore human beings. This isn't the case at Songkhla. As I approached some of the animals in their enclosures they became quite animated and actually came over to investigate me. Not only the monkeys but the big cats as well. It was actually quite an eerie sensation seeing tigers, lions and leopards paying lots of attention to my arrival. They looked hungry too.

During my visits there have been long periods of time when I haven't seen another person, neither another visitor or a zoo keeper. It has just been me and the animals. It's a bit creepy but it's actually a good experience, and something I have never experienced at other zoos.

It is this that makes Songkhla zoo what it is. I remember going to London Zoo in the 60's and 70's and seeing gorillas in concrete enclosures behind bars looking quite depressed. They paid no attention to visitors. At Songkhla zoo the orangutans came over to sit as close to me as they could and tried to communicate with me using facial expressions and hand gestures. It was actually a little sad.

With very few people around to help if something goes wrong, be careful, especially if you take children. The barrier around the saltwater crocodile exhibit will not prevent children from falling through and a big croc would make short work of a youngster.

June 2006 Update: How quickly time passes. I thought my last visit to the zoo was earlier this year but it was actually last October and quite a lot has happened since then. The entrance fee has increased but it is still cheap by international standards and the price increase reflects the fact that a lot of development has taken place in recent months.

What has really annoyed me though is that with the price increase has come dual pricing. It used to be that everyone paid Bt30 but now Thais pay Bt50 and foreigners pays Bt100. This practice is disgusting and racist but it is common in Thailand. I contribute to Thai society by teaching important skills and I pay taxes in Thailand so why should I be penalised like this?

Thais will tell you it's because Thais are poor and foreigners are rich but that isn't always the case and you can't generalise like that. You need only to look at the expensive German and Japanese cars being driven around to see that many Thais are rich. I am not opposed to some form of means-testing but the Thai version of means-testing is that all Thais are poor and all foreigners are rich.

This particular zoo covers a large area and it is quite hilly. I arrived on foot using public transport to get there and had to walk round which was hard-going at times. Most Thais arrive in expensive pickup trucks. They don't pay as much as me to get in though because I'm rich - according to Thai logic.

The first improvement I noticed was an area that has been created so that deer can wander around freely. Cattle grids have been installed to keep them in their designated area and it works really well. The deer have a very natural environment in which to live and visitors to the zoo get a chance to get very close to them without any obstructions. I actually stroked a couple of them as they were eating.

The new penguin exhibit that they started building last year is almost complete. One of the workers on the project told me they were about to fill up the pool with water and the penguins will be arriving soon. Whether it will be as good as the penguin exhibit at Jurong in Singapore remains to be seen but I will be going back soon to take a look.

The next great piece of news is that renovations of the big cat enclosures have been completed and all the big cats are back. It was a huge disappointment last time to discover there were no big cats. The absolute icing on the cake was that I was able to play with a tiger cub. I would travel great distances to be able to play with tiger cubs so having them almost on my doorstep is fantastic.

This is fast becoming a world-class zoo. The location is beautiful and the grounds are beautifully kept. There is a good selection of animals and most are kept in natural enclosures where they look fairly content.

It continues to amaze me how few people visit. There is talk about installing a cable car which I think will bring visitors into the zoo but that may never happen. It seems crazy that the local authorities don't do more to increase visitors but I'm not complaining too loud.

As we sat down for a drink at one stage, the only sound to be heard was two giraffes chomping on some leaves about 40 meters away. With the Thai love of noise, this kind of peace and tranquility is a rare thing in Thailand. Inevitably, the silence is destroyed occasionally by motorbikes roaring around at full throttle but it just wouldn't be Thailand without some kind of audible intrusion.

Hat Yai, just a few kilometers away, attracts thousands of tourists every week but few make their way to Songkhla zoo.

I would say without reservation that Songkhla zoo is the number one attraction in the area (provided, of course, that you like animals).

It's a tough place to visit on foot because of the distances and the gradients. There are bus stations located around the zoo and if there were actually any buses running this would be a perfect way to get around. However, because visitor numbers remain so few it just isn't worth their while to operate this system. I think that if a large group of people - most likely schoolchildren - travel to the zoo and warn them in advance, then the buses will operate.

The small restaurant on the main road at the junction of the zoo road that used to rent motorbikes to people visiting the zoo seems to have stopped renting them. If you arrive by public transport be prepared for a long, hard walk. The motorbike taxi guys now charge Bt30 instead of Bt20 to take you to the zoo from the main road.

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