HATYAI, SONGKHLA AND SATOON
Where do I begin? I’ve been looking forward to our visit to Songkhla Province ever since I did my pre-trip homework, reading about the province’s beautiful beaches, its national parks, incredible wildlife and thundering waterfalls. Naturally, I knew that time would not permit us to visit all of these things – after all, we are a study group and not a bunch of tourists. Nevertheless, at all of our previous locations we had managed in the course of our somewhat exhausting full days to take in some of the scenic and historical attractions that made each region unique. Even our itinerary promised a day of sightseeing in Satoon.
Alas, it was not to be. With the exception of Wednesday’s visit to Songkhla, where we did enjoy some very worthwhile afternoon sights, to be detailed later in the blog, these days prove to be the least satisfying of our visit.
In all fairness to the Rotarians, who tried very hard to interpret the GSE program into what they believed it was, our experience with the people of Songkhla Province could not have been nicer. Our host families were wonderful to us and we made many, many friendships that will last long after we return home. In fact, I truly do not mean to mention any negative feelings, for I don’t want any of the lovely families that we lived with to feel that we were in any way disappointed with them.
The problem arose because the groups in each city that we visited within the province (Hatyai, Songkhla and Satoon) were under the impression that each of should provide a “vocational day” for us, with the entire GSE taking part in each other’s professional interests. This in itself might have proved interesting for one day; however, they apparently did not exchange notes on what we would be visiting in each city. As a result, we did essentially the same things in each city: visits to the municipal government offices, universities and hospitals, where officials read out loud (mainly in Thai) from PowerPoint presentations, various statistics about the economy, the water levels, health systems, etc., as we sat, somewhat uncomfortably maintaining our smiles, as an occasional photo of the beautiful things that we weren’t seeing flashed on the screen. Even when Kip was taken to the engineering department at a university, they weren’t prepared for his visit. The day before, the engineering professors were told that “William would visit the following day,” but they weren’t told who William was or why he was visiting (as it turned out, he had a fine time on his visit.)
The exception to all of the sameness was on Wednesday, when the Rotary Club of Songkhla arranged a lovely afternoon tour of some of the city’s highlights. After a wonderful lunch on the Gulf of Thailand, we were taken further down the beach to a statue of a mermaid guarding the harbor. The statue was very reminiscent of the famous “Little Mermaid” statue in Copenhagen, Denmark. From the beach we were taken to a tall hill, accessible only by an inclined cable car. The park at the base of the hill was filled with monkeys which, unlike the tethered coconut-gathering monkeys that we had encountered in Suratthani the previous week, roamed the park freely.
At the top of the hill stood a beautiful chedi, glistening in the afternoon sun. The view of Songkhla was magnificent, with the Gulf of Thailand on one side and a very large lake on the other – just as I had seen in the guidebooks.
Descending the hill, we next took a short ferry trip across the lake, past fishing weirs to a well organized museum, detailing some of the anthropology of the area. It also had a fine gift shop where I was able to purchase some gifts for friends and family.
With an evening presentation to three Rotary clubs still ahead of us, the Songkhla Rotarians realized that we would probably like to freshen up and thoughtfully provided us with hotel rooms where we could shower and lie down for an hour. The meeting with the clubs was terrific – good food (of course), karaoke, Thai dancers and exchanges of banners and gifts.
The afternoon and evening in Songkhla were certainly highlights for us. Whether it was the omnipresent heat, the exhausting schedule or the fact that I was a bit under the weather that soured us slightly on the rest of our visit to the province, we were finally ready to move on to Trang, the site of the District Conference.
Where do I begin? I’ve been looking forward to our visit to Songkhla Province ever since I did my pre-trip homework, reading about the province’s beautiful beaches, its national parks, incredible wildlife and thundering waterfalls. Naturally, I knew that time would not permit us to visit all of these things – after all, we are a study group and not a bunch of tourists. Nevertheless, at all of our previous locations we had managed in the course of our somewhat exhausting full days to take in some of the scenic and historical attractions that made each region unique. Even our itinerary promised a day of sightseeing in Satoon.
Alas, it was not to be. With the exception of Wednesday’s visit to Songkhla, where we did enjoy some very worthwhile afternoon sights, to be detailed later in the blog, these days prove to be the least satisfying of our visit.
In all fairness to the Rotarians, who tried very hard to interpret the GSE program into what they believed it was, our experience with the people of Songkhla Province could not have been nicer. Our host families were wonderful to us and we made many, many friendships that will last long after we return home. In fact, I truly do not mean to mention any negative feelings, for I don’t want any of the lovely families that we lived with to feel that we were in any way disappointed with them.
The problem arose because the groups in each city that we visited within the province (Hatyai, Songkhla and Satoon) were under the impression that each of should provide a “vocational day” for us, with the entire GSE taking part in each other’s professional interests. This in itself might have proved interesting for one day; however, they apparently did not exchange notes on what we would be visiting in each city. As a result, we did essentially the same things in each city: visits to the municipal government offices, universities and hospitals, where officials read out loud (mainly in Thai) from PowerPoint presentations, various statistics about the economy, the water levels, health systems, etc., as we sat, somewhat uncomfortably maintaining our smiles, as an occasional photo of the beautiful things that we weren’t seeing flashed on the screen. Even when Kip was taken to the engineering department at a university, they weren’t prepared for his visit. The day before, the engineering professors were told that “William would visit the following day,” but they weren’t told who William was or why he was visiting (as it turned out, he had a fine time on his visit.)
The exception to all of the sameness was on Wednesday, when the Rotary Club of Songkhla arranged a lovely afternoon tour of some of the city’s highlights. After a wonderful lunch on the Gulf of Thailand, we were taken further down the beach to a statue of a mermaid guarding the harbor. The statue was very reminiscent of the famous “Little Mermaid” statue in Copenhagen, Denmark. From the beach we were taken to a tall hill, accessible only by an inclined cable car. The park at the base of the hill was filled with monkeys which, unlike the tethered coconut-gathering monkeys that we had encountered in Suratthani the previous week, roamed the park freely.
At the top of the hill stood a beautiful chedi, glistening in the afternoon sun. The view of Songkhla was magnificent, with the Gulf of Thailand on one side and a very large lake on the other – just as I had seen in the guidebooks.
Descending the hill, we next took a short ferry trip across the lake, past fishing weirs to a well organized museum, detailing some of the anthropology of the area. It also had a fine gift shop where I was able to purchase some gifts for friends and family.
With an evening presentation to three Rotary clubs still ahead of us, the Songkhla Rotarians realized that we would probably like to freshen up and thoughtfully provided us with hotel rooms where we could shower and lie down for an hour. The meeting with the clubs was terrific – good food (of course), karaoke, Thai dancers and exchanges of banners and gifts.
The afternoon and evening in Songkhla were certainly highlights for us. Whether it was the omnipresent heat, the exhausting schedule or the fact that I was a bit under the weather that soured us slightly on the rest of our visit to the province, we were finally ready to move on to Trang, the site of the District Conference.
No comments:
Post a Comment