Koh Samui, the Gulf Coast & the Deep South

The Gulf coast of the peninsula was a crossroads of Indian Ocean and South China Sea trade from the first centuries AD. Tambralinga, based around Nakhon Si Thammarat, and later the Srivijaya world left Buddhist and Hindu sites along the coast, among them the stupa of Wat Phra Borommathat at Chaiya in Surat Thani. Nakhon Si Thammarat became the great religious and political centre of the south, spreading Theravada Buddhism, and its rulers long held sway over much of the peninsula, later under the influence of Ayutthaya.

Further south, the Malay kingdom of Langkasuka gave way to the sultanate of Patani, which became a wealthy port trading with China, Japan and Europe and was ruled by a line of queens around 1600. Siam treated Patani as a tributary and conquered it in 1786, later dividing it into seven small principalities; the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 fixed the present border with British Malaya.

In the 20th century the Gulf islands turned from coconut and fishing economies to tourism, starting with backpackers on Samui in the 1970s and the full-moon gatherings at Hat Rin from the 1980s. Typhoon Gay devastated Chumphon in 1989. In the three Malay-majority provinces, policies of assimilation fuelled a separatist movement from the 1960s, and violence resumed on a larger scale in 2004; incidents such as the deaths at Krue Se mosque and Tak Bai that year still shape relations with the state, and peace talks have made slow progress.

The upper Gulf coast is Buddhist and southern Thai in speech, a fast, clipped dialect. Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung are the heartland of two southern arts: nora, a dance-drama with beaded costumes and crown-like headdresses, recognised as UNESCO intangible heritage in 2021, and nang talung, shadow puppetry performed with leather figures behind a lit screen. Nakhon Si Thammarat's Tenth-Month festival, Sat Duan Sip, honours ancestors with offerings at temples, and the city is also known for its niello silverware.

The deep south is a different world. In Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat most people are Malay Muslims who speak Patani Malay, written traditionally in Jawi script, and identify with the old sultanate; dress, mosques, pondok religious schools and the Friday rhythm set daily life. Songkhla is mixed, with Thai Buddhists, Chinese and Malay Muslims. Painted kolae fishing boats are the region's best-known craft, and dikir hulu, a call-and-response song, is performed at celebrations.

The towns have long-established Chinese communities. In Pattani the shrine of Lim Ko Niao, a Chinese woman of local legend, draws a large annual festival. On the islands, Samui and Phangan mix old fishing families with a large international population.

Hat Yai, in Songkhla province, is the south's largest city, with roughly 190,000 people in the municipality, and is the business centre of the south. Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat are the other main cities, each with around 100,000 or more, and Samui has a local population of around 70,000 plus many seasonal workers. The deep-south provincial capitals of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are smaller market towns under a heavy military presence.

Rubber, oil palm, coconuts and fruit are the mainstays of the land economy, and fishing fleets work both the Gulf and the Songkhla lake. Tourism drives the islands and brings Malaysian visitors to Betong on the border.

Daily life on the islands is dominated by tourism and its seasons, and on the mainland by early markets, coffee shops and night markets. In the far south, checkpoints, soldiers and ranger patrols are part of the scenery, and civilians as well as security forces have been targets of violence. Another pressing issue is flooding in the northeast monsoon, especially around Hat Yai.

Southern cooking is fiery, rich with fresh turmeric, shrimp paste and sour flavours. Kaeng tai pla, a fierce curry of fermented fish innards and vegetables, kua kling, a dry-fried curry of minced meat and spices, and kaeng som, a sour yellow fish curry, are eaten with khanom jeen rice noodles or rice and a plate of raw vegetables and herbs, including the bitter sato bean. Khao yam is a southern rice salad of herbs and vegetables, and budu, a fermented anchovy sauce, is eaten with rice and raw vegetables.

Surat Thani's oysters and rambutans are known across the country, and the province makes salted duck eggs. In the Malay-Muslim south, breakfast may be nasi dagang, rice cooked with coconut milk and served with fish curry, or roti with curry, and satay and khao mok gai, spiced chicken rice, are sold at every market.

The islands add seafood and coconut, and drinks run from coffee in the town coffee shops to fresh coconut water.

Koh Samui has the beaches of Chaweng and Lamai, the Big Buddha on its islet, inland waterfalls and boat trips to Ang Thong National Marine Park. Koh Phangan has Hat Rin's full-moon beach, quieter northern coves and jungle walks, and Koh Tao has reefs, the islets of Koh Nang Yuan and a large dive industry. Chumphon's coast has the beach of Hat Sai Ri and boats to Koh Tao.

On the mainland of Surat Thani, Khao Sok National Park has rainforest, limestone peaks and Cheow Lan Lake, and Chaiya has its ancient stupa and the forest monastery of Suan Mokkh founded by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. Nakhon Si Thammarat has Wat Phra Mahathat's great stupa, shadow-puppet workshops and Khao Luang National Park with the village of Khiriwong below it; Phatthalung has the waterbird wetland of Thale Noi.

Songkhla town sits between its lake, the largest natural lake in Thailand, and the sea, with Samila beach, an old quarter and the National Museum; Hat Yai is a shopping city. Further into the deep south — mostly off limits for safety reasons — are Pattani's Krue Se mosque, Yala's border town of Betong, the Hala-Bala forest, and Narathiwat's beaches and wooden mosques.