down south

as part my book research for the upcoming Moon Thailand, john and i recently went down to thailand’s lower southern provinces to spend a few days. since i arrived in this part of the world a few years ago, i had been really curious about the pattani region (comprised of yala, pattani and narathiwat provinces) but hadn’t had the opportunity to visit.

the three provinces are predominantly malay muslim and have long been the seat of separatist movements. violence has reached extreme levels recently, with more than 3,000 killed in the past four years. in a region the size of connecticut, with only 1.6 million people, that is a significant number. complicating the matter, the victims have been muslim and buddhist, teachers and monks, rubber plantation workers and government officials. no groups have ever taken credit for the violence, nor has anyone really articulated the ends sought by such ugly means.

two of my colleagues at the paper got to go on frequent reporting trips down there. sometimes, when i was assigned yet another bird flu story that required i hike up to a random province in the middle of the country or a tsunami recovery story that required i go to the andaman coast yet again, i would shoot the guys a hateful stare, wondering why i wasn’t a war zone reporter. am i not tough enough? is it because i’m a girl?

well, they were probably shooting me hateful looks, too. my beats at the paper were wonderful, and you can’t really complain about having to fly down to phuket to visit some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, even if you are reporting on heartbreaking tragedy while you are there (well, unless it’s christmas day, for the first anniversary of the tsunami, which was probably among the bleakest moments of my life).

anyway, angle as i might, i never did get sent down to the south, and so although john was doing the writing for this chapter of the book, i was happy to tag along as the assistant researcher. we took a quick flight from bangkok to hat yai and spend a night there, got a rental car and started driving south. though there are small airports in the deep south, there are no longer any flights from bangkok, assuming it’s a security risk, but seems to further alienate the area from the rest of the country.

you’ll have to read the chapter when the book comes out (especially john’s nicely written travelogue, a narrative of our road trip) but i’ll tell you for now that the region was everything we expected it to be – muslim dominated, charming small seaside towns, friendly people and a significant military presence.

when we started the trip we were apprehensive, standing firm in our belief that it is a region that should not be casually visited. by the time we were finished, we thought differently – it’s not that dangerous, right? what harm can come in a region where you can’t throw a stone without hitting a soldier with a machine gun (though not advisable)? plus it’s a rare opportunity to see a part of the world few other outsiders spend any time in, and violence and danger are an unavoidable reality wherever you go. after we returned, we revisited the issue, and in the book sternly advise that people do not go to the south. why? we learned that the hotel café we had been sitting at on the previous wednesday was bombed two days afterwards, killing two people and injuring more than ten. it was one of those vicious bombings that are all too common lately – the first, small bomb goes off inside, and everybody rushes out, where another, bigger bomb is waiting for them.

i have enough friends reporting or working in war zones to avoid patting myself on the back for “narrowly” escaping casualty. the risks i take are too small, and the ends i am seeking perhaps not noble enough.