Stocky

How much are the balloon rides? How far do they go?

Just up and down on a rope I suspect.

I'm going to be at work, but the wife and granddaughter intend going, they even want a balloon ride!

I spent some time there a few years ago, nothing seems to have changed there was small bombs going off every day.

There really is an awful amount of erroneous garbage spouted about Hat Yai and bombs. We've had five incidents in Hat Yai in the last ten years, yes that's 5, FIVE. We don't have and have never had daily bombings in Hat Yai.

2014 May 6th : Three improvised explosive devices exploded roughly seven minutes apart wounding eight people. One near police flats, one by a 7-11, one near the railway station.

2012 March 31st : Car bomb explosion in the basement Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel damaged that building and an adjacent McDonald's in Hat Yai, killing four and leaving 416 wounded, mainly from smoke inhalation.

2007 May 27th : Seven explosions that injured 13 people. Most of the bombs were hidden in garbage bins and detonated nearly at the same time starting 9.00 pm. But one bomb was hurled into JB Hat Yai Hotel and another exploded in front of Hat Yai Garden Hotel.

2006 September 16th : The attack consisted of six bombs which were detonated at around 9:30 pm in the Ocean Department Store, in front of the Brown Sugar Pub, a car parking building, Big C shopping mall, the Lee Garden Hotel and Diana Department Store. The bombs were planted on motorcycles and were triggered by mobile phone. Four people were killed and 82 were injured.

2005 April 3rd : Three explosions took place between 8:00 to 8:30 pm. A bomb planted in a garbage bin exploded in front of a Carrefour department store in Hat Yai, injuring five and causing minor damage to the building. Shortly after that, a bomb inside a bag exploded at the departure hall of Hat Yai International Airport, killing two and injuring 47. Lastly, a bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in front of Green World Hotel in Songkhla without causing any injuries or deaths nor damage to the building.

I think it should have said 80%.

They are largely families that visit Hat Yai, Chinese, Indian and Malay. Single (or unaccompanied) men don't bother travelling further than Danok or Sungai Golok.

It was peaceful in the south under Chuan Leekpai, the shit hit the fan when Thaksin came to power.

What a completely ignorant statement! The Islamic\separatist violent movement was going on long before Thaksin took power.

No, not ignorant. Read the history of the south and you'll understand that the current wave of violence started after Thaksin first came to power in 2001.

Try reading Duncan McCargo, 2006 - "Thaksin And The Resurgence Of Violence In The Thai South".

It was peaceful in the south under Chuan Leekpai, the shit hit the fan when Thaksin came to power.

They took a speedboat from Bangkok to Krabi in 'Hangover Part II' so it must be right!

Hat Yai's been our home for the last ten years too, it's a nice city and a place I'm happy to call home. With the extra security in the city it's probably a lot safer than most Thai cities and certainly cleaner than many; the need to feed the city's power generating incinerator means we get daily rubbish collections. So no there are no more rats and roaches than you'll see anywhere else.

Have you ever been anywhere else???

According to my neighbors and the previous tenants of my house who lived all over Thailand, Hatyai is one of the worst places in terms of rat infestation. My wife also agrees with them.

You call Hatyai nice and safe??? hahahaha

Funny you are.

Indeed. In the twenty one years since I came first to Thailand I've been to rather a lot of it, and for the last ten years Hat Yai has been home. Yes there are rats in Hat Yai, but I don't consider there are any more in Hat Yai than any other Thai city. Note that Hat Yai's not a 'town' it's the fourth largest city in Thailand and the largest outside of the Greater Bangkok area.

Hat Yai is safe, the extra police and army presence makes it so.

As someone pointed out we are talking about Thailand, Switzerland it isn't, so everything is relative. I've worked overseas the last thirty-five years, I've worked in Africa, South America, Asia, and the Russian Far East. To me Hat Yai is a nice place to live and raise a family, clearly you don't, but life is what you make of it, if you're always looking at the faults you'll never be happy no matter where you live.

Each to his own.

Hat Yai's fine, we're not talking about the deep south of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala provinces where several thousand have been killed over the past ten years, this is Hat Yai where a total of eleven people have been killed as a result of terrorism over the last ten years that I've lived here with my family.

I'd hate to think how many have died on the roads over that period in Hat Yai, certainly far more, likewise the numbers of maimed and injured. I don't know where you live, maybe not even in Thailand, but if you do live in this country you should be far more concerned about the lunatics behind the wheel of the car behind or in front of you than of someone with a bomb. If you showed the same concern for Thai drivers you'd never leave home.

Life is all about weighing up risks, the taxi to the airport is more dangerous than the airplane, but newspapers make more of the rare plane crash than the daily road carnage. I'm happy living in Hat Yai with my family, it's a safe city, maybe you should come out of hiding and come down and see the place for yourself.

BTW I don't own a business in Hat Yai, nor do I or my wife have any affiliation with any business in Hat Yai.

Hat Yai's been our home for the last ten years too, it's a nice city and a place I'm happy to call home. With the extra security in the city it's probably a lot safer than most Thai cities and certainly cleaner than many; the need to feed the city's power generating incinerator means we get daily rubbish collections. So no there are no more rats and roaches than you'll see anywhere else.

Southern Thailand is friendly enough, people in the south talk quicker and somewhat more harshly then somewhere like Chiang Mai but it's no more different than say Yorkshire v Wiltshire; nothing to do with Muslims.

The Khao Nam Khang tunnels (communist insurgency hide out) is well worth a visit.

Kasikorn's rates are approximately 1% off the spot price.

If you don't like the word 'charge' call it profit margin then.

There are many sites that will give you the current spot price, these are two I use:

X-Rates

Finance Yahoo

You can also check and see what rate are being offered by the various Thai Banks here:

Day to Day Bank Rates

Anyone know of the reasons why Hat Yai has (so far) managed to cope so well? Luck, or does the mayor and his engineers deserve a pat on the back?

The Mayor deserves a pat on the back. The relief canals for the Utapho were stalled over land disputes in 2010, when we had the last bad floods in Hat Yai, after that they forced some kind of compulsory purchase on the owners and completed the link through to Lake Songkhla. Since then we've had two close calls but the system has worked (so far).

Hat Yai catches both the westerly (June-October) and easterly monsoon seasons (mid-October- early-January) the east coast monsoon is the one that brings flooding the total annual rainfall for Oct-Dec is almost 1m.

My experience with HSBC Singapore and Kasikorn Bank is equally positive.

Today from pushing the button on-line at 11:20am, I received an sms notification at 11:22am from HSBC to say that SGD15,000 had left my account, and Kasikorn sent me an sms at 12:13pm to say my account had been credited with Thb369,382.50. That's just 53 minutes from pushing the button to having the money available.

HSBC charge a total of SGD50 for the transaction, that's regardless of the amount, so it pays to send as much as possible, whilst Kasikorn usually give you the market rate less 1% on exchange. I can live with that.

Largely sunny again today in Hat Yai, water levels in the Utaphao have fallen some 3-4m from their height. Dry this evening, here's hoping we get get fine weather for the New Year street market and Countdown.

Sunny today in Hat Yai, first sun we've seen in a week, and with a good breeze; should help dry things out.

Hat Yai City is fine - no flooding.

Warning flags on the Utaphao were back to green on Christmas Eve and river levels dropped by a metre over night.

Yellow flag for the U-tapao was replaced with a green one at lunchtime.

The photo in the article above is misleading, there has been no flooding in Hat Yai, the city is running normally.

I'm in Jakarta for two weeks on a business visa, I'm not on a work permit, as far as I know, so long as your documents are correct they'll issue the visa.

Another year gone by, so an update on applications for a 1 year Multi Entry Non-O (Marriage) Visa at the Jakarta Embassy.

Received my passport from the agent this morning, no problems, application was submitted on 11th December and collected on the 15th, there's a weekend in-between.

Submitted the following documents:

• Passport plus photocopy of ID page
• Application form plus 2x passport photos
• Marriage certificate plus photocopy signed by the wife
• Photocopy of wife's ID (front + back) signed by the wife
• Photocopy of the Tabian Bahn signed by the wife
• Bank savings book showing sufficient funds, there was more than Thb200,000 showing this trip
• Letter from the wife asking they grant the visa
• USD 200, though they stung me on the exchange rate at 2.8m Rupiah

...most of the route has been built on...

That was my thought, just try following the old line on Google Earth, no ways.

Indeed, and if it didn't the headlines would be bewailing a drought.