Introduction

Hat Yai, like most of Thailand, is a relatively safe place. I have spent quite a while living there and don't have much cause for concern regarding safety. I tend to keep to myself a lot of the time though, I'm careful at night and I try to avoid the wrong type of people.

I also have a pretty good 'sixth sense' for detecting and avoiding potential problems. Because Thais are so easy-going and relaxed it is easy to get lulled into a false sense of security but there are certain things to watch out for.

There is a big difference between daytime and nighttime in Hat Yai with regard to safety. During the day it is safe to walk anywhere, but the town takes on a different atmosphere once night falls and the shutters come down.

This is when gangs of young motorbike racers take control of the streets and the muggers appear. It is quite rare to see any police around. The central tourist area around Lee Gardens Plaza is quite safe because tourism brings in a huge amount of money and the Thais are careful not to cook the golden goose, but elsewhere in Hat Yai it can be another matter after dark.

While walking around Hat Yai in the daytime it is hard to imagine people being shot in the street. However, this is exactly what happened about a week before writing the first draft of this page. Before you get too alarmed though, the incident occurred in the very early hours of the morning, it was alcohol related and only involved Thais who had started to argue.

In 2006 a female lecturer from the Prince of Songkhla university had been working late and was driving home. She was driving in the vicinity of Big C where two gangs where shooting at each other. She intercepted a stray bullet and died. This kind of story (unfortunately) is only too common throughout Thailand where there are far too many firearms.

Road Accidents

I'm sure that anyone who has read through my Thailand pages on this site probably thinks I am paranoid about road accidents in Thailand. Maybe I am but there is good reason. In 40-odd years of living in England I maybe knew a couple of people who had been affected by road deaths in their families. I have spent relatively little time in Thailand but have met many people who have lost friends and close relatives in road accidents. It has gone far beyond being a coincidence.

On a daily basis I see the worst examples of driving I have ever seen and I have been at the scene of many a motorbike accident that has just happened. I know many Thais who bear the scars from previous motorbike accidents.

It is a serious problem in Thailand and no real measures are being taken to improve the situation. Politicians pay lip service when the annual figures for road deaths are announced and occasionally the police take an interest in what's happening on the roads but most of the time it's a case of anything goes.

Young males in Thailand are like young males anywhere else in the world (I used to be one before I got old) and given a motorbike they will want to ride it as fast as they can. The difference in Thailand compared to developed countries is that they get away with it here and no-one does anything. They race their bikes around the streets just for fun, completely oblivious to other road users and pedestrians.

As a pedestrian, a driver or a passenger be very careful on the roads.

Muggings and Burglaries

I know a lot of girls in Hat Yai (including my little sister, Iss) who have suffered bag snatching incidents. Iss was fortunate. The first time a good Thai man intervened to save her (she was carrying Bt20,000 at the time) and the second time she fought off the attackers on her own.

It's always the same scenario and I have actually witnessed an incident. What happens is that two young boys ride around on a motorbike and the one riding pillion, with free hands, acts as the bag snatcher.

Sometimes it is just one boy on a motorbike, and sometimes they threaten violence. One of my ex-students was threatened with a large knife and I am told that some of the robbers have guns. I have also been informed by the locals that another method they use is to kick over women riding motorbikes and rob them after they hit the ground.

Their victims are always female - I have never heard of a male victim. They target girls who are walking, or riding motorbikes themselves. As they drive past, the boy on the back snatches the girl's bag and then they ride off at high speed.

I know a farang woman who this happened to as well, so the problem isn't isolated to Thai girls.

When I witnessed a bag snatching incident, a couple of cops were actually close by. They gave chase but two heavy cops have no chance of catching a couple of teenagers who weigh next to nothing and ride like bats out of hell.

Once the thieves have the bag it is very unlikely they will ever be caught. All you can do is take precautions to make sure they don't snatch your bag in the first place.

Thailand is changing. Once upon a time this type of thing was very rare but now it isn't uncommon. A nurse was mugged and killed in Bangkok in 2004 for about Bt14,000 worth of money and jewellery. Also in the capital a few weeks after that incident a young lad was almost stabbed to death for his mobile phone which was worth about Bt10,000.

It's easy to find reasons - the growing wealth gap in Thai society and the use of amphetamines, known locally as Yah Bah (crazy drugs) - but there is little point analysing and justifying. In a country with a population of over 60 million there are always going to be a few bad people in society.

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about safety in Thailand but people do need to be aware of the dangers and exercise caution, particularly at night in quiet areas. This advice applies particularly to girls travelling alone.

Petty theft and house break-ins are extremely common in Thailand. Private houses resemble prisons because of all the bars and padlocks. I have never seen so many burglar bars, padlocks and chains protecting houses since I was in South Africa.

Motorbike theft is also quite common. Most parked motorbikes have huge chains and locks securing them. There is a checking-in and checking-out system operated in most car parks, and motorbikes are parked in a secure area where they can only be taken out by the same person who parked them on presentation of a ticket.

One thing that surprises me is why Thais are so reluctant to go to the police. I realise that the chances of catching the thief are extremely remote but if the police are never told of incidents they will never realise the true extent of the problem and therefore can't take action against it, even if they want to.

Unfortunately, the problem with muggers in Hat Yai isn't getting any better and the police have put up signs to warn people. Most locals are aware of the problem anyway but it does no harm to publicise the problem. The police signs illustrate the problem quite well in that the victims are usually always lone women and the assailants are normally two young males on a motorbike.

The advice on the signs is to avoid poorly lit places and alleyways at night and to take care of handbags and mobile phones. The phone numbers to call in case of a problem are 191 or 074 244089. There is also an e-mail address which is info@hatyaipolice.com.

Terrorism and Muslim Insurgency

Thailand's deep south - namely the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani - has a large Muslim population. The vast majority of the Muslims are very peaceful people but there are a few hateful extremists with radical ways of thinking. They have become disaffected after having their minds brainwashed by certain religious leaders.

It is not a new problem. Problems have existed in southern Thailand for centuries. Some of the inhabitants believe they are getting a raw deal from the politicians in Bangkok and there is an active separatist movement who use acts of terrorism to try to achieve this aim. It's a complex situation and it is quite possible that extremists from other countries are supporting troublemakers in Thailand to further their own causes (whatever these causes may be).

The violence flared up after an incident in January 2004 when an army base was raided, soldiers were killed and weapons and ammunition stolen. The following months saw an escalation of the violence which eventually led to over 100 people, mainly young males armed with small knives, being gunned down on 28th April at Matsayit Kreu Se mosque, an already cursed building.

On October 25th a demonstration in Tak Bai, in Narathiwat province, resulted in about 1,000 people being arrested. Their hands were tied behind their backs and they were stacked into army trucks five deep to be taken to an army base. By the time the trucks reached their destination, 78 people had died from suffocation or crush injuries.

The Thaksin government's explanation that they died because they were weak from fasting, as it occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, was not the most sensitive of remarks to make under the circumstances. This particular incident resulted in international outrage and generated a real fear that the terrorist activities would spread to other areas of Thailand.

All through 2004 and the beginning of 2005 the problems were isolated to the three provinces mentioned above and occasionally crept over the border into Songkhla. Hat Yai had been affected by terrorist activities before when a bomb went off at the railway station. The town was identified as a prime target when the violence flared again in 2004.

One of the terrorists' aims is to damage the economy, which is why fruit plantations were destroyed and rubber trees killed. Hat Yai, being an important commercial centre, and not too far away from the affected provinces, was always an obvious target.

The authorities were quick to recognise this and put security measures in place. The centre of Hat Yai's tourist industry - Lee Gardens Plaza - was given special consideration. Motorbikes were banned from parking outside the building as they could be used to conceal a bomb. All cars and motorbikes entering the car park were searched. At the height of the violence extra police and armed soldiers could be seen in the streets of Hat Yai.

These preventative measures worked for a long time and nothing happened but in many ways the terrorists achieved their objective. Such was the fear of something happening that for a long time Malaysian and Singaporean tourists (the bread and butter of Hat Yai's tourism industry) stopped travelling. This wasn't helped by the Malaysian government issuing travel advisories against travelling to southern Thailand. Even though the violence didn't affect Hat Yai directly in 2004, the loss of business as an indirect result hurt the local economy badly.

On Sunday 3rd April 2005 at around 8:30pm everything changed. Coordinated attacks saw three bombs explode, two in Hat Yai and one at a hotel in Songkhla. In Hat Yai the bombs went off at the airport and at Carrefour supermarket. Three people were killed and around 60 injured including two foreign nationals at the airport.

It was the first major attack outside of the three affected provinces and a strong signal to the authorities that there could be a seriously escalation of violence. Many residents of Bangkok were getting quite concerned about the possibility of attacks occurring there.

Foreign governments issued travel advisories for tourists to stay away from Songkhla province and the lack of tourists in Hat Yai following the blasts was immediately apparent. It was heartbreaking to see so many perfectly innocent Thais made to suffer through loss of business. The weekend tourist trade, mainly from Malaysia, is the only source of income for many businesses.

Throughout 2004 the tourist numbers ebbed and flowed according to the events that took place. At the end of the year, when things were looking better, the earthquake that caused the big tsunami shook Hat Yai and that scared tourists away again. Just as everything settled down again another earthquake rocked the town and then the terrorist bombs went off.

In September 2006 more bombs went off in Hat Yai, killing five people (including a Canadian). Tourist numbers had just about recovered before the blasts but the bombs immediately had Malaysian tourists cancelling their reservations. Estimates suggested that the resultant loss of tourism revenue would be around Bt10 billion for the following year.

As of 2009, the situation seems to have calmed down again. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

Mosquito Borne Diseases

Hat Yai is an urban environment but serious diseases such as Malaria and Dengue Fever are still present. Don't be complacent about mosquito bites. Cover up at dusk and dawn and/or wear repellent.

Dengue is nasty and can kill. The mosquitoes that carry it are the Aedes variety and they are active during daytime. They look distinctive with black and white stripes, and they are very aggressive.

I have actually been chased by these mosquitoes. I have never seen them in the central area of Hat Yai but there are lots of them in green areas just outside of town.

The local municipality employ people specifically for pest control and occasionally you see someone spraying DDT into the storm drains but there isn't the same obsession about controlling mosquitoes in Thailand as there is in, for example, Singapore.

The Thais are complacent and don't seem too worried about mosquitoes. In the evenings they will often leave doors and windows wide open and not use insect screens. My attitude is very different but I'm not Thai.

The pavements are full of gaping holes and open drains (I am informed that drain covers get stolen), and it is thus necessary to watch your step very carefully to avoid a sprained ankle, or worse. At the same time you have to look out for dangerous objects higher up sticking out an eye level.

This is one of those things that I just can't understand about Thailand. It's almost as if people do this to claim the territory outside their house or shop.

What was interesting was that there was a big project in central Hat Yai to lay new pavements, the results of which looked very good. This project was organised and paid for by the local municipality and this told me that the pavements outside shops and houses are not privately owned.

However, as soon as the work had been completed everyone started to block the pavements once again. I give up. My brother and his wife in Singapore use a buggy to push their baby daughter around in but this would be impossible in Hat Yai.

Something else you never see are wheelchairs. For exactly the same reasons, wheelchair use would be almost impossible.

The girls lie because telling the truth wouldn't be very palatable to potential customers. They say they've only just started in the job and that they don't see many men. That kind of statement is very unlikely to be true.

There are bus loads of Malaysian men coming into town week after week after week. Many of them are in Hat Yai for one purpose and one purpose only.If you play around with the girls it's a gamble and the stakes are high.

Apart from the big one, there are lots of other STDs that won't kill you but they are highly contagious and once the virus gets inside your body it's there forever.

It was a huge Indonesian earthquake on 26th December 2004 that caused devastating tsunamis in the Indian Ocean - including areas along Thailand's Andaman coast.

That earthquake shook Hat Yai (I was in Singapore at the time) but the locals told me that an earthquake had never been felt in Hat Yai before. A few months later, on 28th March 2005, another big earthquake occurred in Indonesia killing 2,000 more people after the 300,000 killed by the 26th December quake.

The second one also shook Hat Yai. I was present for the second earthquake but didn't feel anything. On both occasions Lee Gardens Plaza - Hat Yai's tallest building - was shaken and evacuated. Minor external structural damage occurred (see photo) but, as far as I am aware, no one was killed or injured.

Thailand is not in an earthquake zone and - unlike Japan or San Francisco - buildings are not designed to withstand big earthquakes. There was some paranoia in Bangkok after 26th December 2004 when it was reported that many people (mainly foreigners) decided to leave their rented high-rise apartments and move to low-level buildings.

Personally, it is not something I would lose any sleep over but people have irrational fears. They stop coming to Thailand because of natural disasters and terrorist insurgency when the odds of being affected by such things are tiny. However, they are completely blasé about the real dangers in Thailand such as travelling by road.

Thailand is also relatively free of risk from most other natural disasters. There are no hurricanes or tornadoes, and even tropical cyclones tend to occur further north and east of the region. A big typhoon far away can cause very unsettled weather with lots of wind and rain but it is minor compared to actually being in the path of the storm.

Historically, Hat Yai has suffered from regular (and quite severe) floods. Old photos of the town often show people walking around knee-deep in water. However, there has been a lot of work carried out on the flood defences in recent years and severe flooding in the central area is now quite rare.

It doesn't help that the pavements are so blocked that pedestrians cannot walk along them and they are forced to walk in the road. As a pedestrian stay alert constantly. Never assume that just because a traffic light is red anyone will stop, and when crossing one-way streets always look both ways.

Whoever is in charge of road signs in Hat Yai must have a great sense of humour.

Thais love noise. Noise is fun, right? How does one bar next door to another bar show it is more of a fun place? It plays louder music. If you go for a relaxing massage what does your masseuse do to ensure you enjoy the experience even more? She turns on the TV in the room very loud.

If you are sitting there having a foot massage and already listening to a very loud TV, what can be done to make you even happier? You're a farang. They can play some farang music very loud. And do they switch the TV off? Of course not. Noise is good and the more noise there is the better.

Specially converted sawng-thaews with huge speakers mounted on the back crawl around the streets blasting out advertisements.

The motorbikes I wrote about above are noisy too. They needn't be. If they are driven normally they're fine but when young lads start racing around, getting as much out of every gear as they can, the decibel level goes up considerably. Young Thai lads also install exhaust pipes on their vehicles purely to make a big sound.

I moved from one very noisy room which overlooked a busy street and suffered from young motorbike racers. When I first looked at the next place I moved to it seemed perfect. What I didn't realise at the time was how many dogs lived in the neighbourhood. They were allowed to bark all the time and at night they howled. The strays joined in too.

Some of the big old Thai diesel trucks are as loud as aircraft taking off when they accelerate under a load; they even drown the noise of the motorbikes.

Thais just love noise. It's a national addiction.

If you've suffered any of these things - as most tourists have in Thailand - Hat Yai will seem quite refreshing. However, there are still plenty of Thais around who believe that every single farang has unlimited wealth and their eyes light up with flashing Baht signs when they see a foreigner.

As a farang in Hat Yai I get very little hassle. I sometimes forget what it's like in other areas of Thailand until I visit those places where suddenly I find myself being hassled all the time by devious Thais. A few words in Thai is normally enough to make them back off.

Their intended victims are those poor souls who don't understand a word of the local language and are like fish out of water in Thailand. The newbies are easy to scam because the scammers know their lies won't work with foreigners who have been in the country for a while.

Back to Hat Yai. Motorcycle taxi and tuk-tuk drivers will sometimes ask for more money from a foreigner than a Thai. How much you pay then depends on your Thai language and negotiating skills. It also helps to know what the standard fare is.

Normally, the farang price is only a little more than the local price. I was once asked for Bt150 by a tuk-tuk driver to go from Tesco Lotus to Makro. It should have been about Bt20. I laughed and got the next sawng-thaew which, at the time, was Bt7.

Some tuk-tuk drivers are only interested in serving tourists because they know they can charge them more than locals. These guys hang around outside hotels and department stores in the centre of town. A piece of advice is not to hail tuk-tuks in these busy areas. Walk two minutes in any direction and find a driver who isn't as greedy.

Travel agents aren't generally a problem either but on one occasion I felt obliged to assist a couple of backpackers who were having problems.

They had just arrived in Hat Yai from somewhere in Thailand and wanted to continue down the peninsula to Kuala Lumpur. They went into a travel agent and told the guy what they wanted. He tried to convince them to privately charter one of his minivans for Bt13,000.

They didn't want an expensive minivan to themselves; they just wanted to get to KL for as cheaply as possible. The travel agent knew this but instead of telling them where to get a coach, he just tried to charter his own van so he could make a fat profit.

They didn't fall for it but left the shop angrily not knowing where to go next. I spoke to them outside, hailed a tuk-tuk, and told the driver where to take them so they could buy a Bt600 ticket each to KL.

This type of thing is fairly unusual in Hat Yai but it does happen occasionally when greedy Thais are involved. They will also try to rip off Malaysians and Singaporeans, not just farangs.

To summarise, you don't need to be constantly on your guard from con-artists as you do in Bangkok whenever you are out on the streets. You can relax in Hat Yai because people won't be targeting you all the time, but there are a few Thais that will try to take advantage.

If you end up paying Bt10 more than the normal fare for a tuk-tuk ride, then no big deal. However, if something doesn't seem right - such as Bt13,000 for two people to get down to KL - walk away and talk to someone else.

If you are familiar with this region, then seeing large rats running around won't surprise you. However, I remember coming to Thailand as a fresh Western tourist and I was a little shocked. They're everywhere and they have no fear of humans, cats or dogs.

There have been many occasions when I have been eating in a typical Thai restaurant and a rat appears looking for scraps to eat. You know you've been in Thailand for too long when you no longer pay any attention to them.

In the evenings they forage among garbage looking for food. As you walk along you will sometimes startle rats, and as they run off they will probably startle you.

They're not really a problem unless they come into contact with food. Rats aren't aggressive but food or drink that has been contaminated with rat droppings or urine can be very dangerous. One restaurant I used to eat at had a serious rat infestation in the kitchen.

The eating area looked clean but on one occasion when I walked past the kitchen it was running alive with rats. There were about 15 and they were climbing all over the surfaces where food is prepared. I told the staff but they obviously knew of the problem and weren't bothered. After that experience I never went back.

Hat Yai, of course, has thousands of stray (or semi-stray) dogs just like the rest of Thailand. People put collars on them and they kind of have a home but they are just left to wander the streets. Again, they aren't really a problem.

Muslims regard dogs as unclean animals and one Muslim Malaysian visitor was very worried about stray dogs. They bark at anyone they don't know but I have never been bitten. Most are cowardly and will back off if you shout at them.

Also, don't be surprised to see huge Asian cockroaches everywhere. I can't stand them but they are a common sight in this part of the world.

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