Songkhla provides you details to discover and plan your visit to Songkhla สงขลา , a city in southern Thailand. Songkhla serves as the provincial capital of Songkhla Province as well as the Songkhla Town district. With a population of about 75,000 people, it is the second largest city in Songkhla province after Hat Yai.
Its location on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand makes Songkhla an important seaport for the south of Thailand. It is also a fishing village. The town's most famous icon is the statue of a mermaid at Samila Beach.
The majority of the population of Songkhla are Buddhist, although there is also a sizable proportion of Muslims in the province. There is also a large number of ethnic Chinese in Songkhla. They were immigrants from Guangdong and Fujian provinces in China who came to southern Thailand in the 18th century. Many of the most influential families in Songkhla are ethnic Chinese.
Songkhla is called Singgora in Malay. Its history goes back to the ancient Kingdom of Langkasuka, from the 2nd to the 14th century, and was part of the Srivijaya Empire from the 7th to the 13th century. It has been a Thai suzerainty since the 18th century.
Songkhla was the landing site of the Japanese troops during World War II. It happened on 8 December, 1941, just a few hours before the bombing of Pearl Harbour. The Japanese invaded Malaya through Songkhla. The invasion culminated with the capture of Singapore.
Getting there
Songkhla is less than an hour from Hat Yai. There are regular buses plying between the two cities. The bus stop in Hat Yai is at Thanon Phetkasem, near the intersection with Thanon Montri 1, while the bus stop at Songkhla is at Thanon Ramwithi.
Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.
Disclaimer
Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.
Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.