Ko Yo and the Southern Thailand Folklore Museum

An easy day trip from Hat Yai or Songkla is the island of Ko Yo. There are fishing villages to admire, seafood restaurants to get stuck in, and a splendid large museum, run by the University.

Spread over more than a dozen buildings, connected by a series of brick staircases and pathways, the museum covers so much material you get exhausted before you reach the end. Highlights for me were the collection of porcelain, the history of glass bead making in Southern Thailand, and the carved wooden walking sticks.

Helllloooo, ladies

Smutty teenagers should ensure they visit the collection of coconut graters, for cock-and-balls aplenty (I guess grating coconuts is boring work, hence the *ahem* distracting carvings).

(No, I'm not posting any pictures of the smutty graters. My mum reads this blog.)

The museum also features an attractive garden, a prime outlook on the hill, and a concrete viewing tower which gives you fantastic views over the lake.

Quite a view

To get to the museum from Songkla, board one of the dark red sorngtaews just west of the clocktower, and tell the driver that you want the museum on Ko Yo. You can also flag down the buses from any of the clearly labelled bus stops along Ramvithi Road (AKA highway 407, the main road through Songkla), but as none of the buses have their destination labelled in English, it would probably be a challenge to flag down the right one.

(While on the bus, don't be concerned when you shoot straight past the turn off for the island - vehicles have to go past and then do a u-turn to get onto the right road).