Weekend roadtrip through southern Thailand: Phuket–Pataloong–Hat Yai
My son’s mother’s relatives invited me to accompany them to a distant relative’s funeral in Pataloong, southern Thailand’s smallest and poorest province, followed by an overnighter in southern Thailand’s most thriving city, Hat Yai of Sonkla province. Figuring that I had no plans for the weekend and had never been to any of these provinces formally, I thought it was a good opportunity to expand my southern Thailand horizons.
Around Friday, noonish, the aunt in law came by to pick me up in her car. Before leaving Phuket, we had to pick up some other relatives and on the way, making a wrong turn we ran into our first problem. The step aunt ran over a rubber garbage bin and the tire was stuck. The only way to solve this problem was to take the bin a part and scoop out all the mushy, spoiled, wet garbage and beer bottles out of the way with my bare hands. Yuck!
Soon, we were on the way and picked up the other two passengers. We were to drive from Phuket to Pataloong via Krabi and Trang provinces–a scenic 5 hour+ drive (nearly 400 kilometers) through vast green tropical mountains, rubber plantations, and rice and cattle jungle frontier.
Friday night, we checked into a hotel, downtown Pataloong city. I was quite amazed to hear that in all of the province, there was not one western style chain superstore such as Big C, Tesco Lotus, or Makro so common elsewhere in Thailand. Downtown Pataloong did seem to be experiencing some major construction phase, anyway. After a shower, we drove some 10 kilometers out into the country to the pre-funeral festivities at the deceased, an 85 year old mother of 10’s country home.
I’ve been to Thai funerals before so had a general idea of what to expect for this night before the cremation: Lots of people, food, and drinking. It varies, depending on each family and what they choose to host, considering they pay for everything. Some people will put together a mini carnival featuring games, movies, stage theatre, and even concerts. This particular pre-reception was nothing extravagant–rows of tables set up under a tent in the yard with various relatives and friends sitting in groups, chatting, eating and drinking.
On arrival, we paid our respects to the deceased’s display–a picture adjourned with flowers in front of her closed casket–by lighting two incense sticks and waiing–a Thai pray-like gesture of respect and worship. After that, we sat down at a table where relatives greeted eachother before serving us sweet pork, fried squid, some soup, and beer.
When adult Thais get together in large groups and are sitting around with nothing particular to do, it’s the perfect excuse for ‘casino’ night,’ a favorite illegal past time of the masses. Thais aren’t hesitant to try their odds playing card and dice games. Perhaps the fact that gambling is illegal adds to the thrill for them but they seem to enjoy themselves.
Eventually, we made our way back to the hotel in Pataloong to relax. Saturday morning, eventually got back to the house to eat some yummy spicy Southern Thai beef curry and sweet pork, waiting around for the scheduled procession to the temle. Around
The drive to Hat yai was nearly 100 kilometers to the south and took about two hours. I was excited to finally see the famous bustling city, though slightly in fear of Thailands deep southern violence leaking into the city as was the case in September 2006s Hat yai bombs.
Just 3 kilometers from downtown, the car died and wouldnt start up again–perhaps a sign or warning–right at a busy intersection. I jumped out and with the help of two other girl (a 14 year old girl and her grandma) passengers and a good Samaritan who got out of his car to help us, pushed the car to safety parking at a tire shop at the corner as traffic raced by.
After a few hours of sitting around, the tire shops crew ended up switching a relay and just as the sun set, we were finally able to continue to downtown to find a hotel. After driving in circles, we finally settled for
Hat Yai is a bustling city with a cosmopolitan ambience, featuring an abundance of shopping malls, hotels, shops, plazas, massage parlors, bars, clubs, restaurants, and Im sure much more that I wasnt able to see.
Definitely deserves another visit in the future. A guy’s meat haven at night and a girl’s shopping haven in day–a balanced and worthy destination, that is if you minus the recent terrorist dangers leaking from Thailand’s deep south unrest. Being a weekend, the security seemed efficient to ease the fear just a little.
Saturday night had me quite worried, as from my hotel window I noticed groups of police squads right out in the front of our hotel checking motorcycles, most definitely for bombs! Relatives in the next room heard reports from other relatives that bombs had been discovered in Hat yai that night, though I couldn’t find anything on the internet or local news to back this up. At that moment, circa 10pm, the streets seemed awkwardly quiet but eventually the police checks broke up and the action and traffic gradually picked up.
A 22 year old bell boy at the hotel named Nut invited to show me around. He seemed friendly and knowledgeable and after he assured me there would be no bombs, kidnappings or beheading, I took him up on the offer and we went to sing some karaoke over a few beers. Lots of beer that night, surrounded by heaps of girls, clearly and openly selling sexual services. I politely declined short time and all night offers, but from what I know Hat Yai seems much more reasonable and better selection than what I’ve seen elsewhere.
Woke up with a bad hangover to say the least. In the morning, I tried to walk it out going to the Lee Gardens Plaza shopping mall for a bite to eat and coffee at Chesters Grill, coming back to the hotel to wait for the relatives who were out shopping. As I had already checked out, I sat in the lobby conversing with a friendly local about everything from business to politics and religion–not an easy task with a hangover. Early afternoon, the relatives and I set off for the 500 kilometer trip back to Phuket, arriving just after
Following are some pics of Buddhist Funeral in Pataloong
Loading the frozen corpse into a truck for the final procession to the temple. The corpse has been kept at the home for several days during the pre-reception festivities/gathering/mourning stages
Where the corpses are cremated: The Main เมน
Guests–relatives and friends begin to pile in for the long ceremony ahead
Preparing at the temple as guests begin to arrive
The abbot gives a buddhist sermon prior to the monks and guests chanting
Unless one is a close relative and well versed in Buddhist chants and southern language, sitting for several hours requires lots of patience
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October 10th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Uhhh really?
I would be scared out of my wits going to Hat Yai. Cudos for the courage!
December 17th, 2007 at 12:14 am
We just arrived in Bangkok today. Damn it\’s hot for winter!