Is Songkhla Province a Safe Place to Live?

Since starting my blog I've had a few people ask me where in Thailand I live, and when I tell them, I live in Hat Yai, in Songkhla province, I get responses like this....

"Why are you in Hat Yai? Isn't that a danger area?"

This is sparked by information such as that given by the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), who advise 'all but essential travel to Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla.'

Now, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, are much more dangerous than Songkhla, with bombs on a regular basis, so it saddens me that Songkhla sometimes gets tarnished with the same brush. Although the difference seems to have been recognised by the lonely planet guide, who've said that 'Hat Yai and Songkhla, are less affected by the political turmoil plaguing the cities further south'. So that's nice to see.

Still, a lot of people don't believe me when I tell that I actually don’t feel scared living here and I actually really like living here. Which again, saddens me, because, frankly, the people with this negative view of the place, are people who have never lived here, or even visited, they have simply formed opinions by reading newspaper articles which state the fact there have been 'two bombs in the last three years', etc.

Whilst I'm not saying Hat Yai is the safest place in the world, it is true that there have been a number of bombs over the years, the latest one being in 2014. I just wanted people to look past the newspaper reports for a second and see why, a lot of people, including myself, actually really do love the place. 

So, with that in mind, I thought I'd give some personal, qualitative data, from those who live here. So I asked my friends on facebook a simple question "Do you think Songkhla province is safe?!" and these were the responses. 

  

Kylie Millar The thought of being a 'danger zone' was quite scary, especially when I found out I was placed there and did a Google search! But in reality, I met the most honest, helpful and genuine people ever in Hat Yai. I always tell people if you want to see 'real' Thailand, head down south. Love Hat Yai!

Lee Loftiss Hatyai is the best! I lived there for 10 years and never once considered living in any other place in Thailand. As for feeling safe; other than driving, I felt pretty safe in HY.

Tum Rocklegs Chai, Safe!

Marlon Hipolito Hatyai rocks! \m/

Igor Stankovic I lived there for 5 years. Yes, it's safe.

Dingo Egret I never felt in danger at all.

Nicholas Acton-Bond Hat Yai dangerous... Yes. If you walk around drunk or abusing people or both. But in the general sense its not dangerous. Regarding the bombs - far more dangerous to live in the capital; or any capital for that matter.

Vanessa Soulsby Despite the bombs and being mugged twice while driving (but over a 4yr period mind!) I still felt like daily life was safe and breezy! So much love for HY and Songkhla

Leojohan Lajos Szemeti Well for me I think it's safe to stay here, only on some special occasions that we much be a little more careful, but at least we always get the warning (as Thai, I don't know about foreigners, or is it because my dad is in the army ?) but anyway I always feel safe here only in the time that I'm not here that I normally get a little worried, about my family yes, but I would say that I feel pretty much safe here

Hayley Morgan Tetley As a woman on her own, I generally felt safe (despite one mugging). As long you're aware and have general common sense about getting home alone late at night and don't make yourself vulnerable in bars (all basic rules for wherever you live) you're good!

Nima Sunny · I used to live there for 2 years and I still dream about the lovely Hatyai.if I wanted to live in Thailand again, I would go back there.

Doug Walls ·I have been living in Hat Yai for over 16 years and have no plans to leave in the near future. I have never felt that I was in danger 

 I also received a few messages to my inbox. 

        

        My friend Nick Said:

      Yes, I feel incredibly safe living here. I never feel like I should be watching over my shoulder and feel, from experience that everyone is very trustworthy and willing to help. I feel people like seeing "white" faces around as it's not as common as somewhere like Bangkok or Lanta etc.. I don't ever feel threatened by the idea of terrorism. I wouldn't swap Hat Yai for anywhere. We have a great location to islands, we have a good balance of being traditional bit also having those home comforts at hand (should we need them)....

My friend Sammi said:

I really do feel safe here, but maybe it's because I've been here so long that I'm familiar with everything so less things scare me. or get me worried, Also with knowing the language means that you don't feel so excluded from situations as you might be otherwise, and having solid Thai friends def makes you feel very safe and protected.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this little insight into Hat Yai and Songkhla. Let me know your thoughts in the comments :)

If you haven't already, check out my videos on Youtube :)

Lots of love 'n' stuff :) 

Cola

Going Vegan

If you have been following me on social media you will know that during November I did a 30 day Vegan challenge, and woah, how my body and health transformed. It was incredible. I told myself I was going to try and continue this healthy lifestyle for the most part, but since the challenge was over, of course, I decided to treat myself to some of the things I had been missing, and slowly but surely over the past month I've had more and more of these 'treats'. No meats, I stopped eating those a long time ago. I'm talking about the doughnuts, the cake, and of course, the cappuccinos.  I feel awful. My body has gone from feeling spirited to lifeless within a matter of weeks.  During the challenge, I'd have healthy snacks such as fruit and peanuts, the stuff that gives you body the energy it needs to run, not these stodgy foods and weigh you down. Enough is enough. I'm going to try my best at being plant based again :)

If you haven't tried it out I'd highly recommend giving it a go,

just see how amazing you feel. It doesn't matter if you slip up now and again, it' bound to happen when you're just starting out, but just try doing it. Your body will thank you I promise!

Check out my little Vegan food haul :)

Let me know if you do try it!

Nicola

What I miss about living in the U.K.

Here are five random things I miss about living in the U.K.

 Hey, everyone! I'm a British Expat currently living and Teaching in Thailand. Some of the things I miss about living in England I realised soon after leaving and others were brought to my attention after I'd returned home for a visit. It's like the old sayings go 'you don't know what you've got until it's gone,' and 'you don't know what you've been missing until it arrives'.

1. Conversations

I guess what I mean is, being able to communicate easily. It's something I hadn't contemplated before moving here. I only realised how much I enjoyed being around people who can speak the same language as me when I visited home, and well, you couldn't shut me up! I can speak a bit of Thai, but I'm not fluent, I can't just talk about anything and everything and I certainly could not have a deep conversation in the language. Obviously, I do have English friends here, and my partner speaks English, but it's not the same as being surrounded by people you can communicate with all the time about everything.  Let me know if you can relate with this.....

2. Seasons

And everything that goes with them. 

Thailand only has three seasons, hot, hot and hotter. Even though I do enjoy the nice climate, it can be a bit samey.  Sometimes you just want to crack out your nice boots, a woolly hat and head outside to see all the pretty autumn colours!

Ya know what I'm saying? 

........

3. Walking

No one in Thailand walks. I guess for one it's very hot in the daytime, so it's much nicer to drive around on your scooter with the wind in your face, or in a lovely air-conditioned car. But also, there is a severe lack of pavements. There are some pavements, but they're usually so packed full of street sellers you're pushed onto the road every few yards. I gave up trying to walk around. I used to live in York in England, if you've never been I'd highly recommend visiting, it's a beautiful historic city in North Yorkshire, and the thing I loved most about living there was that it was so small so you could literally walk everywhere. I've always been one for wanting to walk instead of using transport where I can, but it seems there isn't much choice in Thailand.

4. Organisation

Most of us know Thailand isn't the most organised of places, the roads are horrendous, people rarely stick to plans and the trains are always late. When my Thai partner went to England he was shocked at the fact the doors closed on the trains and left at exactly the right time, I think the words were "shit, they're leaving already?" Uhh yeah, that's the time on the ticket....

Lastly but by no means least,

5. Family

I never appreciated how nice it is to have your family so close by. There are often times in Thailand when I think that it would be lovely if I could visit my mum for a cup of tea and a nice chat. And then there's everything else you miss, all those family gatherings like birthdays and of course, Christmas, which seems to get harder every year. I wish being an expat meant your family came along with you. Luckily, I have a wonderful family who comes and visits me as often as they can, but if I didn't, I might just be sat here writing about why I miss Thailand....

:)

Thank you for reading and let me know if you relate with any of this in the comments!

Lots of love 'n' stuff

Cola

:)

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2015 Reflections and New Years Resolutions

xSo I wasn't going to do this post, hence it being a bit late in January, but I've been thinking about it a lot the last few days and I thought how wonderful it would be to look back on it this time next year!

So here it goes....

To be honest, 2015 didn't have the best beginning, I'd moved to Thailand late October in 2014 with my partner and our two-month-old baby. I know, our son was so young, but this is something we had to do due to my partners Visit VISA for the UK running out (he had 6 months). We wanted to keep the family together. Late October 2014, I started work again. I really didn't want to but it was something I had to do to get my VISA for Thailand.

Don't you just love VISAS....

Thank goodness I was at least in a nice school where I could teach something fun to ease me in...

In hindsight, I should have stayed in the UK longer, the good thing was that our family were together but I think overall I felt very low, having to go back to work when my son was very young, moving countries and saying goodbye to my family back home. It was tough.  I really did miss my family and support network in England. We did want to live in Thailand for the better quality of life overall, but I now believe the move was too soon. So during the end of 2014 and the start of 2015, I was feeling very homesick, my partner, Tum, even made this makeshift fireplace at Christmas to try and make it feel more like England....

He's a good'un.

I was also was extremely tired with working and looking after our son, my partner works from home as a freelance architect but couldn't get much work done while I was at work, so when I came home it was his time to work and I would look after Asher. Adding to that, we hated the house we lived in (it was a house we'd found very quickly due to needing a place asap) and my partners family's house was an hour away so they couldn't help out much. I didn't have many friends around either, most of the teachers who were here when I had taught in Thailand in the previous term had left and now I couldn't go out much to meet new people, the party days were over!

Whilst it wasn't all doom and gloom due to our amazing little boy and those precious first moments of seeing him grow, it wasn't easy managing everything.

After I had finally gotten through the first semester of teaching, I then had two glorious months off (one of the most amazing things about living here), my lovely mom came to visit from the UK and things started to look brighter. Although I felt bad because we didn't do any "touristy" things, we just stayed in the neighborhood where I lived and had some nice days out.  I needed the break and I just enjoyed not having to go to work for those few months. I think she understood.

At the end of the holidays, we started looking for a new home, we really wanted to move but it's sometimes very difficult to find a nice place in Thailand. After a lot of searching, we found a place we actually liked, it was double the price of our last place, so we spent a few days thinking about it and during that period, of course, someone else took the house! We were a bit upset but decided that if it was meant to be it would have happened and all that. 

We continued the search and but couldn't find anything else we liked, we had pretty much given up until one night we drove past the house we had originally seen and saw a 'for rent' sign (in English, the owner is Australian!), we quickly stopped and asked the neighbours what had happened and she said the girl who was renting the house previously had decided to move back to her hometown, so it was available. The next day without a shadow of doubt, we paid the deposit and planned our move. It was going to be more expensive, but we figured being happy with where you live is extremely important, after all, it's where you spend most of your time!

That's when things really started to change for me, it just goes to show how much your living environment can have on everything else. Even though it was time to go back to work, I felt refreshed and our son was a little older and I knew he understood more now. The only thing which was still hard was that I still couldn't meet a lot of friends, whilst we did have a lot of nice family days out, I did feel a bit lonely and disconnected from the wider world due to not having a lot of free time to meet friends and build friendships.

But something good definitely came from it, and that's that....

I discovered the online community. 

I started to love reading blogs and watching people's youtube videos, responding to comments and making conversations with people all over the world. I loved it so much that I wanted to feel more part of the community, so one day, when my son was sleeping, I sat down and filmed a video.

My first ever sit down video...

My Top 5 Tips for Teaching in Thailand

And  few weeks later, another one....

and then before I knew it, I had started a blog,

and so Cola's Place in Thailand was born.

Starting this blog and my Youtube channel has changed my life. I actually feel part of something and it's given me a place when I can be creative, communicate with people and help others.  Even though it's still early days, and even if my blog doesn't grow like I hope it will, it's something that has made me so incredibly happy in such a short time, and that can only be a good thing.

So what are my goals for 2016?

Just that.

Keep working on my blog and Youtube Channel.

And if you are one of the people who has supported me in 2015,

I just wanted to say,

Lots of love,

and see you very soon!

Cola

December Favourites

Hey, everyone!

So I always love watching these 'monthly favourites' videos on Youtube and since I've gotten quite a few new bits in December that I am loving, I thought I would make one too, just for fun :) I possibly overdid it on the phrases 'love it' and 'it's amazing' but what you gonna do...

I guess there's always next month :)

Anyway, let me know if you like this and if you'd like to see me do more of these!

Lots of love 'n' stuff

Cola