Day DS4: Songkhla Rest Day and Adhoc Tour

April 25, 2025

Another night, another amazing sleep — thanks, in no small part, to that Thai massage. I think my nervous system is finally starting to catch up.The quality of sleep has turned a corner. It's not just rest anymore — it's repair. After a lazy moment by the pool and an easy checkout, I asked the hotel to stash my bags and set off to meet Chris.

This hotel rated 10 out of 10. Green World Palace

View from the hotel. Those white builds in the distance I would later learn are from the military

His place was right next door, nestled in what he calls the "Green Palace Hotel Boulevard", a strip of buildings that sounds modest but felt anything but. Chris is 74, a retired British businessman with a spark in his eye and a life story that runs deeper than most. He’s not settled down in Sonkhla, he's just settled. There's a big difference. Chris would later explain to me the concept. I took an immediate liking to both Chris and the swank little pad he managed to rent.

Before we hit the road, he gave me a quick tour of his place and just like that, a casual chat and tour started to feel like something a lot more meaningful.

Chris explained that the entire boulevard: his place, the storefronts, everything, is technically land that is owned by the hotel. Once upon a time, it had been the best hotel in town. Now, it has evolved into something a little more gritty and entrepeneurial. The current manager is still doing super well and renting out flophouses to small businesses, including five massage parlors, and to tenants like Chris.

But Chris didn’t just move in. He made it his own. He asked for extra shutters for privacy, built a kitchen, upgraded to Western style toilets, and fixed the place up. The management was more than happy to help. He had nothing but praise for the female manager and her assistant. They’d become friends and allies. When his own fridge broke, they had someone there fix within minutes. When a cobra slithered into his bathroom, he asked out of curiosity, "Do you guys have a snake expert?" and sure enough they did. They rolled in with boots and gear. No drama. No panic. They didn’t kill it, they just removed it and moved on.

"That's Thai culture for you" he said. Even when he burned holes in his clothes with an iron, the local shop fixed everything with a smile.

I noticed that Chris literaly wais *everyone* he talks to. The classis hands together, head bowed. Not performative, just genuine respect. Watching him do it so naturally, I thought you know what ... maybe I need to start waing people more too.

When Chris casually mentioned how affordable his place was, I had to ask "So what are we looking at here?" He paused, like it wasn’t a big deal and said, “10,000 baht a month.”

I nearly dropped my jaw. He lived in a four-story flophouse.Most of his life was set up neatly on the ground floor: an office, a computer, stacks of freshly folded clothes, everything tidy and calm. I saw the second floor and thought already: damn this is huge. Then he dropped the real bomb: "Four floors brother. In total."

I couldn’t believe it. In that moment, my entire thesis was confirmed: yes, you could ABSOLUTELY rent a decent place in Pattani or Narathiwat for 5,000 baht or less and live like a fucking king. You could even do it in Songkhla.

But Chris did clarify: it’s not always straightforward. There’s plenty of supply, but it’s not all online or easy to find. The allocations are a bit messed up and mismatched. “You’re competing with students,” he said.“Sometimes 10 or 15 of them pool together to rent a place, and they eat up the supply.” But if you know the right people, and if you’re patient? It’s possible. Chris knew all the right people. This also proved that people trump the internet when it comes to reliable information.

Chris explained that he lives on his own: no Thai partner, no drama. He was obviously married before, that much was clear but I didn't press. It wasn't relevant anyway. “They’re more trouble than they’re worth,” he said plainly, referring to local women.“I’m happy on my own.”

He was right. These relationships become one-sided upgrades.You take her in, feed her, give her comfort and stability. She lazes around on the couch, scrolling on her phone, bringing very little to the table. This is not an enhancement to your life while you're definitely an upgrade to hers.

He wasn’t ranting. Just calling it like it is.Settled, independent, and unapologetically solo. That’s exactly what worked for him.

If it worked for Chris, it could work for me too: full autonomy, no deadweight relationships draining time, energy, or peace.

But I was also reminded of another conversation, one that happened back in Pattaya with John aka. Dad Version 2.0. John had made a different choice, and for him it worked. He wanted a partner, and in his case she wasn't a burden or a leech. She was an upgrade.

So yes… it can work either way.There’s no one-size-fits-all blueprint here. As for me? I'll learn from my mistakes, take notes from everyone I meet, and probably land somewhere in between.

Chris said it more than once: "I'm happily settled here but I'm also looking for whta's next." He talked about maybe teaching English again. Maybe moving back to Prachuap Khiri Khan, a town he also loved.

But the real kicker was when he broke down the Thai retirement visa system. He said, “You need 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account. And if it drops even slightly below that in a given year, they won’t renew the visa. You can't spend or invest that 800k baht either, it's locked in. And when you die, who knows that they do with it. I learned that the hard way and had to make a last-minute trip to Vientiane just to fix it.”

That hit home: even when you’re retired, even when you 'made it', you're still checking numbers, still making plans. Then it clicked for me: settling down is a lie. Even in paradise, you’re still playing the game. You can be settled. You can be grounded.But settled DOWN as in, done searching, done moving, done growing? That doesn't exist.

Frankly speaking, that’s why it has to end with Sophia.Or, really, with the majority of potential partners: past, present, or future. Women are hard-wired, socially conditioned, and even spiritually driven to look for a man to "settle down" with even though there is no such precedent found for that in the Bible, the Koran, or any other holy book. Jesus never bought into that either, and same with the Prophet Muhammed. His first wife had already divorced three times and she hired him to manage her thriving caravan business . The prophet in turn needed a job to fund his solo travels. The way my midnight run is going I'll be running out of money fast too and I might take a tip from the prophet. She was so impressed with his skills that this later turned into a marriage! But he never settled down with her.

Maybe that works for a lot of men, maybe that kind of security and stability is something they want to provide for their families. But I’m not one of them. I’ve seen what that drive for security leads to, not just on a personal level, but systemically. Look at China and other countries: it’s the reason why these people would choose to remain in brutal dictatorships, accepting life in places where rights are stripped, freedoms suppressed, and minds kept in quiet submission, all because they are afraid of the unknown.

If there’s a way to make it work, if there’s someone like the partner that Dad 2.0 found, someone who adds peace without tethering it, someone who understands that freedom is the relationship then yes I would consider it. But until then? I'll take the bike on the open road.

So after all this, John said "Let's hop into my old car and take a tour around the town."

Next stop was simply to look at the cloud formations

The cloud formations were worthy of a look in themselves. They occur due to the temperature differences between the land, ocean, and nearby lakes and rivers. Add the totally clean air and you can actually SEE the clouds.

I had to tell Chris, "Here's the thing, when I used to live in Shanghai it was always so overcast, gray, or polluted you would be lucky to have a nice day, much less see any cloud formations even close to this. Even if there was a remotely nice day, people would know it was never going to last."

Chris then compared this with Hua Hin and I also made comparisons with Pattaya but we both agreed this place here in Songkhla was truly unique.

It also got me thinking how rare it is to find pristine environments such as this. When we've gotten so used to living with pollution and garbage we just assume that's how it is in the earth. When in fact it is not, nor should it be.

Chris then grinned and said, "I'll show you next what was the dealbreaker that made me live here." He parked the car near the docks and we walked onto the ferries. Cars pay 20 baht, scooters 5 baht, bicycles and pedestrians free.

The ferries simply cross the Songkhla estuary, but to Chris and now to me, they were so much more than that. He said, smiling wide, "I can go for a free cruise anytime I want. Sometimes early morning, sometimes midday like now, sometimes at night which is the best time." All the boat captains knew him too "They think I'm some kind of boat guy" he laughed.

Standing on the ferry, Chris pointed out how they dock differently depending on the raging tidal currents: adjusting approach angles, throttling into the flow just right, never missing a beat. "These guys are real captains" he said with genuine respect. "It's a skill, you can't fake it."

This wasn’t just a crossing. This was freedom disguised as a ferry ride.

I also learned that picnic culture is a big thing in southern Thailand. But unlike back home, here it’s actually backed up with infrastructure. You’ll find guys set up near the beaches. Pay them a little and they'll provide everything: chairs, blankets, food. This would make a perfect date, I thought immediately.

Next, we wandered over to a nearby turtle rehabilitation pond. To my surprise it was paid for by Chevron. All the major oil and gas companies have offshore oil rigs around here. The Thai government had nationalized the operations, but allowed the private sector to continue running things more or less. Chevron, maybe out of guilt or maybe just for PR, built this token turtle rehab center. Whatever the reason, the turtles were there, a strange side effect of global capitalism meeting local ecology.

We stumbled onto something even stranger: a giant rocket idol next to a temple, where people were blasting firecrackers inside it. Chris chuckled and said, "You send your problems away to the gods." Sounds like a good idea. Or you can do like me and just run from your problems.

Next stop, a full-sized Olympic pool open to the public!

Eventually, we found a restaurant, ordered some simple food then a few beers: one, two, maybe three or four. Chris was still technically driving but then who really cares. We were long past the point of rules and regulations and simply living life. Over plates of food and clinking bottles, Chris told story after story. about his travels and his life in Thailand. Much of what shaped the preamble of this journal entry: his mindset, his lessons, his background came from this conversation.

One story stood out above all the rest. Chris talked about a time when he drove through typhoon conditions, miles from anywhere, trying to reach Songkhla from Hua Hin. He finally found a hotel, fought through impossible weather just to reach it, soaked and exhausted just like me on the bike last night.

Inside, he saw the woman who ran the place and she was cooking huge vats of food. Chris asked why. there were no guests. She simply said, "I'm cooking for the dogs". Every day, storm or not, she cooked and made the rounds, feeding the stray dogs who depended on her. Chris, stunned, asked why she would still do it in a typhoon. She just said, "The dogs are waiting for me." Nothing would stop her. That quiet unshakable duty tells you everything you need to know about the real heart of Thailand.

Next stop, a hidden restaurant on a hill

We then turned into this steep hill and it reminded me of Pattaya right away. But then every single town or city in Thailand has a hill like this with either a Buddha statue, a viewpoint, a restaurant or some combination of that. We assessed that the business potential of this place could be massive but there were no customers obviously as it was impossible to find. Chris did talk about how the staff were trained to fight off monkeys who would literally drop in and steal your food.

I asked Chris something I’d been wondering about: "What is the religious mix here?" He didn't hesitate and said, "It's about 50/50 Muslims and Buddhists". This made perfect sense. Not far south of here as my bike ride had already proven clearly, the Deep South was nearly all Muslim. Songkhla was a transition point. Chris added, casually but with weight "You'll notice the mosques start to drop off quickly as you bike further north."

He also said, "There are churches here too. In Songkhla we have proof that Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists can all peacefully coexist"

No bumper-sticker slogans. Just a city that works, quietly, respectfully, in its own rhythm. In a world constantly shouting about divisions, here was a place that simply lived through them.

I then had to ask "So what's the deal with all the Embassies telling people not to travel here?"

Chris just laughed, that kind of deep, knowing laugh that comes from years of people believing all this and getting it wrong. He said "It's not a big deal at all. You've got a higher chance of getting into a car accident than dealing with any so-called terrorism". He explained that 90% of the so-called "terrorist activity" was actually vandalism, not kidnappings, beheadings, or bomb plots like the fear-peddlers would have you believe.

"But it works in our favor" he grinned. "Nobody comes here. We've been spared the overdevelopment you see in places like Phuket or Koh Samui where you're going next. That’s why the people here are still so authentic.Why there are so few foreigners.Why the smiles are real. This totally matched my experiences.

He summed it up like this: "The minute the terrorism ends is the minute the mass tourism begins and this place gets ruined. When people say they want to visit me and I'm not in the mood I just play the terrorism card." A strange paradox. And for those willing to look past the noise?

A rare, unspoiled world waiting quietly by the sea.

We bumped into a group of Scouts. Scouts Honor.

Today's ride: 16 km (10 miles)
Total: 576 km (358 miles)

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