If you’ve arrived in the middle of my Songkhla story, you can jump back to the start with this link.

Early afternoon was spent at the National Museum of Songkhla, although I think I spent more time outside the building than in it.

First though, I paid a visit to the Governor’s Residence – Phra Tamnak Khao Noi. Tourist info rates it highly, but it turns out you can only see it from the street, and that isn’t exactly close. He has a nice view though. The hill is where I’d just come from. The green line on the right of the hill is where the elevator runs…

So, yes, the museum… Personally I think the building is nicer than the contents. Museums in southern Thailand contain some interesting things, but they all seem to have the same interesting things. This one was almost a carbon copy of the contents of the Nakhon Si Thammarat National Museum.

The building was constructed in 1878 in what is very clearly a Chinese style, originally to serve as the residence of the Songkhla ruler. I’m glad they booted him out to live in the new place. I wandered around the outside for quite some time, so here’s some building photos first:

And, for sure, there were some things inside that were worth a photograph or three:

By this point, I must admit, I was moderately pooped. So, I decided to check into the hotel and take a break. It gave me a chance to look through the photos so far, and to plan the rest of the day. That story is coming soon…