Stocky

My TOT connection came back to life last night after 8pm, but it's pathetically slow. I was getting 25-30Mbs in Thailand and 8-15Mbs Internationally, today it's about 2Mbs inside and out.

Tonight from about 6pm in Hat Yai my TOT fiber connection has been useless, I've ended up tethering my mobile phone to the laptop and using AIS.

Well I think the distinction is moot, whilst it was called the planetarium they now refer to it as the Hat Yai Science and Astronomy Center.

There are are couple of Thai restaurants up the hill on the road that cuts across from coast to coast, great views looking east toward the mainland. I think it was the second, slightly lower down, one that we preferred the soft crab yellow curry was really excellent.

There's already an observatory in Songkhla, on Koh Hong Mountain, near the big Buddha statue.

Do you mean the planetarium on Kor Hong Mountain in Hat Yai Municipal Park??

Ditto, very, very annoying.

Of course, it could be all a scam, the original was always a fake and this poor tourist is being force fed laxatives knowing there is no diamond in her intestine.

didn't the hospital X.Ray cover that?

You reckon that for a 10mn diamond you can't get a radiographer to find a smudge on a film?

Diamonds fluoresce a chalky blue under X-rays.

They have Guinness draught at Bht260 a pint.

So why are they doing it anyway?

They want to sound all CSI and 21st century, rather than Keystone Cops and 20th century.

Hat Yai is a pit.

That's rather harsh, having lived in for Hat Yai 11 years now we're quite fond of the place.

Pattaya is slightly larger than Songkhla according to the numbers in Wikipedia, but there are several versions out there. As you say determining population is difficult as people are often registered in their home town. Hat Yai has increased significantly in size over the last ten years, there is a house building boom going on. Many of the new arrivals are families leaving the three southern provinces to find work and a more peaceful life. If you look at Hat Yai on Google Earth it sprawls over an area some 6km in circumference, it isn't just the area around Lee Gardens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Thailand

I used http://www.vietnamvisapro.com/ early this year no problems.

Yes the invitation letter included a whole crowd of people I'd never heard of, but the most important thing was my details were there spelt correctly with the right passport details.

Hat Yai is small

Everything outside Bangkok is small, but relative to everything outside Bangkok Hat Yai is big, its currently the third largest city outside the Bangkok Metropolitan area behind Korat and Chiang Mai.

Police General Somyot 'Clouseau' Poompanmoung may or may not stumble over the truth, only time will tell.

I think looking at past new there were 4 bombs that exploded in Hat Yai last year so I guess the bulletin was in response to this..... I am still coming to Hat Yai in September and will judge the place when I spend a few weeks there. any recommendations on good restaurants that have live music would be appreciated.

Incorrect, there was one incident in on 6th May last year in Hat Yai involving three improvised explosive devices that exploded roughly seven minutes apart wounding eight people. One near the police flats, one by a 7-11, and one near the railway station.

In total there have been five terrorist attacks in Hat Yai starting in 2005 then in 2006, 2007, 2012 and 2014 in total ten people have been killed with some 566 people injured. In contrast thousands have died in traffic accidents with many more thousands injured, motorbikes and cars are many times more dangerous than terrorists.

Security is highly visible in Hat Yai, with road checks on the roads in and out of the city, security checks at shopping malls and other potential targets. There is a very visible police army presence in the city. Consequently Hat Yai is probably one of the safest cities in Thailand.

There are a wide variety of restaurants in town Thai, Chinese and Malay we're a bit short on Indian restaurants. There are several bars with live music along Thamanoonvithee Road in the middle of town, my favourite is the Post Laser Disc which has the best selection of draught beer.

You're in the wrong thread luv, this one's about the American peanut farmer, not Frenchie neo-nazis.

Whatever the reason for the bomb was, it seems likely now that the bombers completely miscalculated the bombs effects, hence the reason no one has claimed responsibility.

A steel pipe stuffed with 3-4kg of TNT and another kilo of ball bearings!

What's to 'miscalculate'?

He's right that he would have been criticized for leaving blood and body parts in the streets ... but it seems to me a better priority balance could have been managed of collecting all possible evidence first and I also still don't get the wild rush to reopen so soon.

Well he could only have cleaned up and reopened because the police had relinquished control of the crime scene, any issues with the incomplete collection of material and body parts is down to the police not the Governor.

He could hard leave it blood splattered and buzzing with flies!

I think the earlier map (click here) calls it "I. Papier", which would stand for Isle de Papier ('Paper Island' in English).

Maybe the French explorers just called it that because it must have been so white and flat?

Maybe they traded for paper there, the toothbrush tree (Streblus asper) grows throughout the Thai/Malay peninsular and was used historically for paper making in Thailand.

All the early European maps I've seen suggest that Lake Songkhla is open both ends with a large island offshore. The map below is dated 1764 and shows an island rather than a lake, Songkhla is marked as Singor and Nakhon Si Thammarat is given its old name of Ligor. The border of Siam places Pattani as part of the Malay States.

The map is in the Library of Congress collection

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g8025.ct002397

If you view the area in Google Earth, you can see from colour contrast that the lake was probably much larger, extending north to Nakon Si Thammarat, the lake has since silted up, or human intervention has reclaimed land and shrunk the lake.

Even this 1932 road & rail map shows a separation.

http://cdn.supadupa.me/shop/14281/images/1857491/siam_thailand_map_1932_p2_grande.jpg

The density of schools in Songkhla town would mean no alcohol anywhere.

When I was a kid growing up in the UK it was the IRA, when I lived in South Africa the ANC, now I live in Hat Yai it's the RKK.
Regardless of whatever terrorist group it's always been more dangerous getting in the car.

Life is all about risk, and it's all relative, trust me, bombs are the least of your worries.

On a note regarding the Bangkok bombing I quote the Royal Thai Army chief and deputy defence minister General Udomdej Sitabutr who said:

“This does not match with incidents in southern Thailand. The type of bomb used is also not in keeping with the south”

No it's not on the lake, about 10km from the lake. I can't remember exactly what we paid somewhere around Bht1,000 a night.

Google it, I'm sure there are plenty of reviews at TripAdvisor or Agoda.

The Khao Sok Paradise Resort is good, a little rustic but staff are friendly and the food is good.

Note that during the wet season (approx June to December) access to the waterfalls and some of the caves is closed.

Kind of high for such a short haul, eh?

Bangkok Airways market themselves as 'boutique' rather than 'budget'.