Becki's Thailand journal: Casper goes to Pattani

So last weekend was another long weekend here in Thailand. So, I decided it was the perfect time to pack a bag and finally go down to Pattani to visit C and friends from English Camp. I say finally because I had been telling C I would come down for about a year and a half now. Since I don’t have classes on Friday we were able to leave early. One of my students (who also doesn’t have classes on Fridays) went with me. On Thursday he said we were leaving at 9am…but we actually wound up leaving about an hour late (typical Thailand). We reached Pattani about 7 hours later after taking a taxi from Hat Yai.

My first big surprise was that my phone stopped working once we entered the province. In the southern 3 provinces they require you to register your phones Sim Card as a prevention measure against bombs. The first mini surprise was all the security checkpoints and soldiers…but it wasn’t a huge surprise since I already knew there were problems in the Deep South. The 3 southern provinces are well known for bombings and other attacks. However, these attacks are usually focused on the military presence and checkpoints.

Once I got into the city I went to Hakeema’s house to stay with her family (her husband, mother, and 2 babies) and C. Our first excursion was to Hakeem ‘s Language school to give the students a chance to talk to a real live white person! After they got over their shock they peppered me with questions for about 45minutes. Then C and I headed to the night market for dinner where I was constantly stared at…and hearing whispers of “Farang …Farang…Syw…Syw Mak Mak…” of “foreigner…foreigner…beautiful…very beautiful…” Being stared at so much threw me for a few minutes because I’m not usually the only white person around.

Hakeema

Hakeema and her family!

On Saturday, we woke up to a very rainy day :( We wound up spending most of the day in the house watching TV and playing with the babies. Once the rain let up a bit we went out for some coffee at PSU campus. We were going to go to the beach to watch the sunset but it started pouring again. We had a brief bomb scare from a firework that was set off behind us. We all jumped and then laughed nervously once we realized it was just a stupid firework.

At the Coffee shop with Mareekee, Hakeema, C and baby Arissa

On Sunday, we took a tour of the city via car. We began at the Kiah Pattani Mosque, which the Thai people say looks like the Taj Mahala...really the only similarities are the domed roofs and the water out front. After snapping a few pictures it decided to start raining again!

Then we went out of town to Krue Sae Mosque, where the rain miraculously stopped. According to Raymond (Hakeema’s husband) the mosque is cursed so it cannot be finished and that’s why id doesn’t have a completed roof. He also said that in the past there was a massacre there when insurgence hid in the mosque.