Day 3 - Ta-Lay Noi

Dear Wiwat,

I got back to Sydney early Monday morning and started work straight away. Still suffering from jet lag so am looking forward to the weekend.

Just like to THANK YOU and Nee for our lovely time in Hat Yai and the surrounds. It was great to see you so happy with your lovely family in your lovely family home. Well done and do enjoy the fruits of your hard work.

We enjoyed all aspects of our visits: beautiful Hat Yai and Songkla, the sea and of course the lake system. Nothing beats your friendship and that of our childhood friends Somchai and Preecha. Hope that your new friendship with them will grow. My mom could not stop talking about how wonderful you were and that memorable lovely morning boat ride at the Little Lake.

Wishing you a lovely Chinese New Year.
Go to http://cp69.blogspot.com/ for my little articles and photos.

Sincerely,

Vute

Day 2 - Pattaloong (west of Le-sarb Songkla)

Day 2 took us to several temples and lunch with some childhood friends (Somchai & Preecha) in Pattaloong.

We first visit a temple in Hat Yai which is of significance to Darunee and her family. It features a huge inclined Buddha. This is in great contrast to a jungle temple we visited in the afternoon in Pattaloong. Let see if you can find what's there on the wall in a cave behind the jungle temple?

We spent some time enjoying the cool air by the side of the top lake (I think) where Tarnin got to mix with some Thai kids of his own age. We also drove past Thaksin University where we subsequently visited the next morning to see an impressive technology transfer program in action. It was a demonstration of know-how by old folks to young and old (us) students alike.

Wonderful Welcome to Hat Yai

At the end of January 2010, I paid Wiwat a 3-day visit during my 2-week holidays in Thailand. I must admit that this trip came about after I read a number of articles in the books about "Le-sarb Songkla" which were produced by a team lead by Wiwat, and a subsequent visit to Sydney by Darunee and Tip around October 2009. We traveled to Hat Yai by train mainly to let Tarnin appreciated the tradition way of travelling to the South. The train left Bkk at 2.30pm and arrived in Hat Yai around 7am in the morning. Wiwat was there to welcome us to his adopted home town.

At Prince Songkla University, I caught up with Kamrit and Paiboon (CP'71) and got to appreciate Wiwat's commitment to the "Conveying of knowledge, the Love & Care of Lake Songkla" Project. We visited Wiwat's own design and built home just outside Hat Yai city centre. Wiwat adopted the sustainability concept with both natural high ceiling ventilation supplemented by modern air-conditioning. He also let me in to his well-kept secret of how to create a mosquito-freed home. For those of you who are fans of Top-Gear, well Wiwat has a garage which could fit all those cars in the show.