Sudden decision

Having left my Lonely Planet guidebook safely on the couch at home, my travel plans have a randomness that I rather like. In this way, I was rather frustrated when it became clear that my minibus was heading for Hatyai and not Sungai Golok, where I planned to cross the border into Malaysia. Had I brought a map with me, I might have realised that going to Hatyai first wasn’t a complete disaster, and, given that I was the only one going to Kota Bahru from Railay that day, not an unreasonable diversion.

So, when we arrived in Hatyai, I changed my plans, got off the bus and crossed the road to look at a guest house. The room, dark, windowless and on a fourth floor without windows or fire escape, the most depressing place I have been for a while, I made use of the bathroom and left. Just down the road, another guest house, Louise’s immediately looked more promising. The owners have an obsession with the royal family and there are photographs of them everywhere. The room was still depressing, but spotlessly clean and I decided that in the event of a fire I could easily climb down the outside of the building.

It is years since I have been in Hatyai. It has grown somewhat, but the centre is much as I remember it. I found the Cathay Guest House where I had stayed on my last visit - rescued and dropped off there by a group of high school boys who saw me wondering the streets with a guidebook and a backpack and a lost look. I will always remember the Cathay because of the room girl. About 35 she would knock on the door every afternoon at the same time offering me a massage. When I declined, she would then run though a list of alternatives -
        “You want lady?”
        “No thank you.”
        “You want girl?”
        “No thank you.”
        “You want boy?”
        “No thank you.”
        “You want beer?”
        “Oh, yes, why not.”
Happy that she had found something that I wanted, she would go away and fetch me a beer. The same, good natured conversation went on each day, and each time I stayed there.

Hatyai is a busy place: busy with hawkers and shopstalls; seedy westerners heading to or from Malaysia to renew their visas; seedy Malaysian men away for a dirty weekend in the non-Islamic moral freedom Thailand provides, safe from the prying eyes of their neighbours; busy with the general Thai-Chinese economic bustle - good humoured and purposeful - a picture of the kind in every shop.