Day 6 : Sating Phra to Sakom (Songkhla)
Hello. Today we are headed towards Thailand’s “Red Zone.” Evidently, the problems associated with this area of Southern Thailand are a result of the conflict between Muslim separatists and the Thai government. I’m not sure who is to blame for the problem, but I know the people in Songkhla province have been as friendly as the people in the last 3 provinces we’ve visited. Today we cycled around 25km without seeing a Buddhist temple, which as most people in Thailand know is pretty unusual. We did have lots of help and advice from locals at every water stop and lunch break about what is the safest way to travel during these next 5-6 days of our trip.
Here is a list of suggested actions to avoid trouble:
- Only cycling on the main highway roads with 4 lanes or more
- Don’t use any small or country roads, some districts are controlled by the separatists
- Cycle only between 6 am and 6 pm, not in the dark
- Cycle only after 8 am, because most attacks happen before that time (this obviously messes with the instruction above about cycling between 6 am and 6 pm)
- Don’t Cycle between noon and 1:30 pm because this is prayer time and you must be a bad Muslim or Buddhist if you’re not a temple at these times
- Always sit deep inside a restaurant or cafe, not on the roadside
- Be locked in your room before sunset
- Watch out for gangs of young people on drugs
I’m not sure if there is any other good advice or instructions of cycling behavior for this part of Thailand, but these are the ones that Natt has translated to me from the locals. Everyone is very worried about traveling in this direction except for one group.
The Pattani Cycling Club has been very supportive since Natt connected with them a couple of months ago on ThaiMTB.com. I must admit I have been more worried about it, but I cannot call this the Every Province Challenge and miss 3 of the provinces, it would just not be correct. So we will do this, and hopefully with the help of Pattani Cycling Club we will enjoy this area and see a side of Pattani that most of Thailand has forgotten, one full of friendly people and lovely scenery.
Enough scaremongering with the ‘Red Zone’ and let’s talk about the ride. Unfortunately, it was mostly uneventful. We did cross on the ferry (no charge for bicycles!) into Songkhla. The ferry ride cuts 15kms off the trip and is very pretty. The locals got a kick about our Hase Pino Tour and we enjoy the 5 minute break from cycling as we crossed the mouth of the river.
Once in Songkhla we worked out it was Sunday and also a Buddhist holiday, all the bicycle shops were shut. There is no TAT office here and we planned to find a hotel just on the outside of town making for a very short riding day of 40kms. So, we enjoyed some breakfast, cycled around looking for a bicycle shop to sign our log book, which we eventually found only to learn that it had been closed for 2 months now, as the old man “Mitr” that ran it had passed away. His son had opened another bicycle shop in a new location (closed today) but was on his way out the door to pay respect to his father and visit his mother. The paying of respect to a deceased relative is practiced by the family for a period of 3 months after the death. Anyway, we got a run down from him about Safety in the “Red Zone” and he graciously signed our log book, even though he didn’t have a business card to add. He did look for one of his father’s old business cards, which would have been cool but he did not find one in the old man’s desk.
After this we headed to see the Songkhla mermaid to get some photos of us and the bike. The mermaid of Songkhla is a pretty famous attraction in this area and we should have known not to come on a Sunday, as the line of people waiting to get their photo with her was massive when we arrived. We ended up taking a photo from a distance with other people climbing all over the mermaid. We were not so worried that we didn’t get a great shot of us and the bike in front of the mermaid, but it would have been a nice addition to our collection. Anyway, from here we cycled along the beach towards Pattani.
At one point there was a decision to either cycle the beach road or the main “safe” highway, so we opted for the highway thinking we would find some accommodation close to town. We didn’t see any type of accommodation after cycling 20kms on the highway so we decided to stop for some noodles and ask the local motorcycle taxi driver for advice. He said that the highway didn’t have any hotels on it, and that the beach road was the much better option for finding accommodation for the night. Admitting to the fact that the beach road should have been our first choice we thanked him for his advice and headed to the beach where a lovely Muslim lady, who was staff at a general store, directed us to a resort 3km back along the beach. She also told us that there were no other hotels in the direction of Pattani, which is the direction we intended to go.
Thinking this could not be possible we got on our phone and checked the internet. Google maps had at least 3 hotels before Pattani, which was still another 70kms away. Natt called the closest hotel (800 Baht and 34kms away) and we decided to head in the direction of Pattani, the way we wanted to go. Our 40km short day was now going to become 100kms or so. The lady at the shop told us we were crazy and we headed off south.
At the 95km mark for the day we found the hotel Natt had called, but the clouds were giving us ample shade and we were excited about doing three 100km plus days in a row. I was excited about making tomorrow’s even shorter, so we decided to push on to the next hotel. At 100.2km Sakom Cabana, which could be seen from the road, was on the beach front (where I am sitting right now as I write this) looked very tempting. Natt was happy with the 3 days effort we had done and the sun had come out in full strength so I was ready to pull in for a nice cold shower and a bowl of curry and rice. SO WE DID.
Tomorrow we meet the Pattani Cycling Club at 10 am about 10kms outside of town and they will ride into town with us. I hope we get some awesome photos of us, them and our Hase Pino Tour bicycle, as we are yet to get any good shots of us cycling atop it. Plus hopefully we will make some new friends.
Finally, the scare of the day: as we rode along under the shade of the coconut trees about 5 metres in front of us a coconut fell and smashed on the road. It was a rather loud cracking thud. If we had been 1 second (20km/h = 5m/s) later we would have been hit, either of us or the bike for sure. Freaky. Imagine… if we’d been killed by a coconut in the “Red Zone.”
PS – I have not fixed the racks yet, but the bicycle tube has done a great job of pulling the pannier up higher. Now it’s just a pain to get into the pannier.
