If you’ve arrived in the middle of my Songkhla story, you can jump back to the start with this link.
If you know anything about Songkhla you’ll probably equate it with statues. They are at the top end of the cape, next to the famous Hat Samila, or Samila Beach. This is where tourists tend to head as soon as they arrive in the city. So, I didn’t.
But I figured I’d better see them and so this was my first port of call on my late afternoon expedition. First there was the cat and mouse statues which are really there to tell the story of the nearby cat and mouse islands. I’ll let Wikipedia explain:
Within the boundaries of the city of Songkhla is Cape Samila Beach, the most popular beach in the province. The famous mermaid statue can be found here. The two islands Ko Nu and Ko Maew (Mouse and Cat Islands), not far from the beach, are also popular landmarks, and a preferred fishing ground. According a local folk tale, a cat, mouse and dog were traveling on a Chinese ship, when they attempted to steal a crystal from a merchant. While trying to swimming ashore, both the cat and the mouse drowned and became the two islands; the dog reached the beach, then died and become the hill Khao Tang Kuan. The crystal turned into the white sandy beach.
And, yes, I saw the mermaid too. See…
There’s one more statue I found, which didn’t seem to have much of story at all. Just a man sitting in the middle of the road reading a book.
So that was enough of the touristy stuff. I wanted to go find something more unusual. I’d read somewhere that there really wasn’t anything of interest in the old city, just a lot of of old Chinese-style buildings. There was a large Chinese immigration in the 18th century, which explains the Chinese influence. Anyways, the general advice seemed to be to park and walk. So I did just that. I’m glad I did.
There’s nothing in these photographs to make you go “Oh wow!” They are just scenes of everyday life, which, if you haven’t lived in SE Asia, I hope you will find interesting…
Please check back soon for the stories from Day Two.
