warzone (deep southern thailand)

We don't need to ride very far to realise that there is a lot of tension in the very southern tip of Thailand - army control points are stopping traffic every 10 km or so, barbwire and barricades are part of the scenery, the army is absolutely everywhere, weapons become another element of the environment here...

We had hesitated to ride through this region - the situation had become more unstable in 2004. An important muslim minority lives in this part of Thailand, and they, with the help and support (it seems) of neighbouring Malaysia, are wanting more recognition, status and a more important role to play in Thailand's buddhist state. They make themselves heard by fighting, with relatively limited resources, setting bombs or using automatic rifles against places representing the state and the government: army, police, local government... Confronting them, the Thai government has so far answered with force - the outcome is about 400 deaths in 2004, including 100 in the one day (on April 28) when government forces killed 100 members of the insurection group who had planned several coordinated attacks throughout the region that day.

What should we do? The only alternative is to get on a bus - but that's not necessarily less risky. Or to go back down to Kuala Lumpur, get on a plane to Bangkok and keep riding from there. .. After having read and read again the latest news about the region, we decide to go. We do not want to take unnecessary risks, we will go through quite quickly (keep pedaling!). The places that are targeted are representative of the government - we will avoid them as best we can - et something pushes us to go at a time when the media entertain a climate of fear, that makes manipulating of populatinos so much easier.

The reality is double: the face and presence of the army cannot hide the fact that the situation is tensed, that the response from the government to insurection is harsh - whether to declare curfew is being discussed at the moment -, that the check points and the over/ever-presence of the army make this region look more like a warzone than anything else... But the other reality, which we also experience on the bikes, is almost disconcerting! Smiles and great, spontaneous welcome, people sharing fruit or a bit of food with us along the road, joy, begginings of conversation in our primitive thai, big conversation with our arms, hands and legs, burst of laughter... There is so much life! Even if we get a bit caught by surprise at times: when wanting to share some of our cashew nuts and pineapple with this man who's let us camp in his paddock and who, showing us his best toothless smiles, explains to us he cannot actually share the food with us; when trying to explain our route from Singapore to France on a map to this family that let us sleep in their coconut farm and realising that they cannot actually see - the map is like a big colourful blur to them...

So, we left the south well and healthy, loaded with smiles and enthusiasm. This country gives us energy by being so alive! At a time when the elections are just over (last week end), and the prime minister just got reelected with a vast majority of the votes, EXCEPT in the deep south where people's disagreement with the current government's policies was very clearly voiced, we leave behind us a troubled zone; and we can only wonder again why religions are too often at the heart of violence...