In search of history in Songkhla and Satun

pracha hariraksapita / Shutterstock.com

I wanted to taste some history in Songkhla en Satun and made a three-day trip to these southern Thai provinces. I took the plane to Hat Yai and then the bus, which delivered me to Songkhla Old Town after a pleasant 40 minute journey. The first thing that struck me there were the many murals by modern painters, depicting everyday life.

Singha Tram

First on the agenda was a ride on the classic Singora Tram, which takes you back 500 years in time when this southern city was an important trading port for merchants from Portugal, Holland and China. Located on the east coast of the Isthmus of Kra, this area is known for its unique local cuisine, beautiful architecture, eye-catching street art, and chic hostels.

Old fortress of ancient Singora in Mueang District, Songkhla province, Thailand

The Singora Tram Tour takes visitors to explore Songkhla Old Town and beaches. Formerly known as Singora, Songkhla has ruins of archaic towering city walls, forts and shrines, testifying to the unique multicultural communities where Muslims, Thai and Chinese have lived together for centuries.

Songkhla Heritage Club

On the corner of Nakhon Nok Road is the 105-year-old Hub Hoe Hin rice mill, which has been transformed into the headquarters of the Songkhla Heritage Club. Here all kinds of information, objects and photos are exhibited, with which one can imagine the rich past of Songkhla.

Old Town in Songkhla City, located in Nakhon-Nai and Nakhon-Nok Roads, the house design is combined between local and Chinese architecture. ABUN5M / Shutterstock.com

Nakhon Nai Road

The tram driver rings the bell and it continues through Nakhon Nai Road, where beautiful Sino-Portuguese and Sino-European buildings can be seen. The Old Town has long been the business area for Chinese residents and the merchants from Holland, Portugal and Malacca. It is still home to Baan Nakhon Nai, a luxury residential complex that has been converted into a community museum and boutique hotel.

An old concrete wall of the former tea shop named 'Fu Chao' built in 1919 in old town district was dressed up with a mural artwork to depict the inside atmosphere. Bkkweekender / Shutterstock.com

Nang Ngam Road

The Old Town is also known for its local food. Nang Ngam Road is home to beautiful shophouses, tea houses and Thai pastry shops, making the street a popular entertainment center for locals and tourists alike.

The 81-year-old Kiat Fang restaurant specializes in giant buns accompanied by a Songkhla-style stew that incorporates pork, liver and other meat scraps, all cooked in coconut milk with spices. Other places worth recommending are the classic tea house Hub Seng and the Mae Chawee Desert House.

rachata photography / Shutterstock.c

Beaches of Songkhla

After another visit to the Songkhla Phra Thammarong Museum, the tram ride ends at the 9-kilometer beach where an iconic statue of a mermaid has stood guard for 52 years. Students line up to take a selfie with her and some of them touch the mermaid's breasts. Anyone who does the latter will one day come back to meet their loved one here, as a local folktale would have you believe.

Aerial photography, Muang District, Satun Province

Satun Geopark

The next morning I visit the Satun Geopark Museum in Thung Wa district. The museum is the first geopark in Thailand and covers four districts. Geoparked in April, this is the first Geopark in Thailand and covers a total of four districts, Thung Wa, Manang, La-Ngu and Mueang. With a submerged landscape dating back more than 500 million years, a time when early organisms brought oxygen to the Earth's atmosphere, the geopark area is covered in Paleozoic marine sedimentary rocks including limestone, sandstone, mudstone, schist and chert. The Satun Geopark Museum gives a good overview with fossils of trilobites, nautiloid, graptolite, ammonite, stromatolite and elephant teeth that were located in different areas of Satun.

Stegodon Elephant Statue at entrance of Tham Le Stegodon Cave in Satun, Thailand. kunanon / Shutterstock.com

Stegadon Sea Cave

The museum visit is followed by a two-hour canoe trip – accompanied by local specialists – to view the Stegadon Sea Cave. The cave was originally named Wang Kluai, but it was renamed after a team of archaeologists from Nakhon Ratchasima's Rajabhat University identified a fossil as belonging to the genus Stegodon, a huge elephant that lived in this area 1 million years ago. The tour is just over 3 kilometers in the dark and the guides use torches to show the stalagmites and stalactites, which can look in many ways such as diamonds, elephant teeth, a rabbit, turtle, lobster, fountain, dinosaur, angel wing and much more.

Stegadon Sea Cave

Talay Waek Beach

Finally, I make a two-hour trip with a longtail boat to the Talay Waek dunes. Beautiful views of the cliffs, which we sail past, but in the end I reach my goal: I take off my shoes and stroll on the beach.

Finally

This is an abridged translation of an article written by Pattarawadee Saengmanee for The Nation. The entire article, supported by beautiful photos, can be read in English under the title 'Sensations of the South' at: www.nationmultimedia.com/

About this blogger

Gringo

Bert Gringhuis (1945), born and raised in Almelo in the beautiful Twente. Later lived for many years in Amsterdam and Alkmaar, working in export for various companies. I first came to Thailand in 1980 and immediately fell in love with the country. Been back many times since then and moved to Thailand after my (early) retirement as a widower. I have been living there for 22 years now with my somewhat younger Thai lady Poopae.
My first experiences in Thailand as a kind of newsletter sent to family, friends and acquaintances, which later appeared under the name Gringo on Thailandblog. Many, many articles followed those first stories and that has grown into an almost daily hobby.
In the Netherlands still an avid footballer and football referee, but the years are starting to tell and in Thailand still avid, but the pool billiards is really of inferior quality, ha ha!

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