Songkhla

  Just back from a fun couple of days in Songkhla. We went on the bike on the country rodes, through the fields, the smelly Muslim fishing village and then up along the coast to Songkhla. The coast road in constantly being eroded and falling into the sea. The Muslim village still reeks of stale fish and the entire stretch to the town polluted and horrible.

The hotel was very nice. The big one on the beach next to the mermaid statue. The shower was excellent and the included breakfast of good quality; help yourself buffee with plenty of coffee, croissants and jam. The cornflakes were welcome too.

The bad point was the nifty stunt they pull on the minibar. Each can coded so even the replacement cans of Singha beer were detected by the evil maid and I was subsequently charged. And then Oi, atfer I had done the unthinkable, "Can you get me a beer from the fridge, please?", she handed me an hotel can and not one of my illegal cans. I didn't make a fuss about the extra charge.

Songkhla Aquarium was really sad. We had visited it two years ago as part of our honeymoon after it had just opened, and it was crap then two years later it is virtually a ruin. The car park has creepers growing across it and all the once pristine flowers beds are overgrown and wild. The staff are asleep and lazy and you have to walk to one end to buy your ticket and then walk all the way back again to go in. The whole thing is decidedly small and fairly kak. 

Had an excellent pie and mash yesterday at the bakery and enjoyed a few loose beers. Oi and Grace had a great time and it was really good to show Grace the sea and to dip her toes in the chemical bath. There are some videos to post as my camera died during the holiday. Though it was fun, Songkhla has a very boring feel to it that hasn't gone away and it seems to be under a continual process of having some new attraction being built and dozens of neglected past projects all over the town. Some billionnaires plaything who doesn't believe in maintaining anything. It's a joke, it really is. I even found a lost Fitness Training park hidden in the jungle with all sorts of concrete logs for jumping on and more concrete logs for doing push-ups on. The ice cream palour had a string of coaches parked outside puffing fumes into the air and obscuring the view of the sea. I felt really sorry for Mankind who has made everything so shit. More later...