Betong Part 2: South Thailand and the Redlight Schwing…

Speaking of red light schwing…

betong2

What hairdo shall I employ before my “big night out”?

Hmmm let me see.. If I intend to drink a lake’s worth of booze, I should try the
‘pond lane stagger’ ,

If I end up plastered, face down in the ground, I should try the
‘ferment mud’,

and finally, if I intend to get entangled in the rise and fall of the landscape, I should definitely go for the
‘coil the undulation’ 😛

Anyway, try and spot/match the hair-do of the man ‘soliciting’ in the photo.. I think that should definitely classify as a ‘BAKE OVAL’ .. ya think?!

betong

Anyway, what can we say? Walking the streets amidst all these late night ‘activities’ , we never once felt threatened and eventhough some of the people on the streets might not be doing the sort of “work” that most folk deem proper, I have to say Thai people are still really friendly, charming even, and their smiles still untainted by that ‘fake’ air that some of our own people put on.. people doing more ‘respectable’ work, so to speak.

We really like Betong – the laidback, stress free and relatively clean roads. The unpretentious people. The Betong crossing has probably the least traffic and stress and is really rather scenic. Two dozen people or so at the immigration check point vs. 500 people at Bukit Kayu Hitam one means you don’t need to enter Thailand all frazzled and tired even before the fun part of the journey begins!

Betong, meaning bamboo, is named in the Malay language. It is administratively divided into 4 areas, i.e. Yarom, Aiyerweng, Tanah Merah, Tan Namtip, and one municipality – the Tambon Betong Municipality.

With a population of around 50 thousand, which can be classified into two major groups Muslims and Chinese, the majority of its people are agriculturists. Climatically speaking, Betong is under the influence of the Southwest and Northwest monsoons. Therefore, there is a lot of rain and the weather is nice and cool with fog in the morning. This is perhaps how it got is name – ‘A Town in the Mist with Beautiful Flowers’.

betong1

Despite the recent and ongoing troubles you hear in south Thais, we feel (and so do a lot of foreigners!) that it is still pretty safe. Once you pass Betong and meander along towards Yala and to Pattani , you will see the Thai military dressed to the nines, complete with hand grenades, riffles and bullet proof vests, everywhere. These military checkpoints come up every hour or so … initially it was a little bit unnerving but we soon got use to it!

However, THAT is a different story altogether and you will have to tune in again to see , who had the GUTS to take a photo with the MILITARY BOYS… Cumi or Ciki?

(Place bets now. Winners can take us out to dinner 😛 ahem!)

8 Comments

  • 550ml jar of faith says:

    HAHAHA! The hair menu is a RIOT! There’s almost a Midwestern redneck feel to Betong from your pics, communal and unthreatening. My guess is… both of you took pics with the military boys!

  • babe_kl says:

    LOL!!!

    errmmmm it has to be Ciki IMHO!!!! 😀

  • Julian Si says:

    Such scenes of debauchery would never be seen in .. uh … Klang!?

  • Life for Beginners says:

    My guess is… ah, best not offend the one who didn’t take the pic, haha.

    I do appreciate what you mention about some folks putting on airs here… It’s unavoidable methinks, it could be everywhere. Which is why it’s great when we stumble upon a lil oasis sometimes of people just being… people. 🙂

  • Selba says:

    Me so confused reading the hair menu, hehehe…

  • thenomadGourmand says:

    dress A fingernail for 120baht?? ;p
    My guess is Ciki!! tht woman is game for anything!

  • Bangsar-bAbE says:

    “Massage Infront 1 The Group”…I wonder what that is…

    My guess…both of you! Each took one photo! =P

  • Wilson Ng says:

    This place is a man’s heaven. Would visit one day…. for the food…

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