Last August, My friends and I took a taxi to Betong town. A long the way from Yala province to Betong town, the taxi turn right and left smoothly even it had to climb up the mountains. Two sides of road were orchards, plantations, and hills. Beside the road many car were filled with durians from gardens. So, the rich durian smell defused to all that areas. Some opposite cars were filled with Longgong, rambutan, and mangosteen. Two hours later, we arrived at Betong town. I was surprised at the isolated small town was more civilized than I expected.
The small town has all conveniences as in a big city of Thailand . There are a lot of big hotels with spa and beauty service, beautiful resorts, night club or bars, shops, big education places, and beautiful visiting places. Thai, Malay, and Chinese foods are available in the market. The cars and motorcycles move busily as same as in the big city.
Betong is a district of Yala province which is located at the Malaysia border. Most of populations are Thai-Chinese and others are Thai and Thai- Muslim. There are around 24,688 populations. Many tourists come from Malaysia . Betong is known as “a beautiful border town, southern most of Siam , beautiful flower, town in the fog.”
The taxi left us at the central town where a biggest red mail box of the world was standing. It was very big and tall. My friend and I did not forget to take a photo. We spent the times here until the sun dazzled over the mail box top.
That day, I visited many interesting places for example, hot spring water, Piyamit tunnel, Mongkollit tunnel, Betong central mosque, and many other interesting places. However the most impressive place of this trip was a winter flower garden. It was settled on the high mountain near the hot spring water where the air was cold. Various kinds of winter flowers were planted. It looked colorful and nice. At the top of the mountain, the garden was designed in many shapes such as circle, heart, and flower shapes.
Looking at the bottom, a garden was designed as a web. There was a small stream passing below the shelter and a various kinds of fish were swimming. Here, there were also Christmas trees. In addition, nice bamboo bungalows and beautiful design accommodation have been provided for tourists. The weather was cold and nice even it was at noon. It was a wonderful place I had visited.
My friends and I took many hours to take photos. The friends’ smiling were still in my memory. We are planning to visit here again on February which we will see a great colorful winter flowers are blooming and touching the mist town.