Boat ride through the waters of "Kuala Patani"

Continuing from Patani town from the 5th floor of a main hotel.

The day was spent attending a forum then visiting a number of historical places within a 20 km radius or so of the town of Patani. Late in the afternoon we were brought to a riverside.

We were taken for a boat ride.

It goes along a river which I can't remember the name except that it is not the main Patani river.

The boat's mast...

After the river mouth we arrived at a vast part of open waters.

I heard one of the locals say these are the waters of Kuala Patani which means the mouth of the Patani river.

But a check with Google Map and Google Earth shows that this is more like a gulf defined by a long narrow strip of land extending out 14.5 km from mainland Patani out into the South China Sea. The green seen in the background is part of that strip of land.

A check with Google Earth also shows that the strip of land is about 1.67 km at its widest and 80 metres at its narrowest.

Looking back towards the mainland we left behind. The point on mainland from which the strip of land juts out is situated about 4.6 km to the north-east,

There's actually a number of rivers flowing out into this gulf including the Patani river.

This is me enjoying the ride in full traditional Malay clothing with the keris, the Malay wavy blade tucked nicely to my left waist.

As I remembered it the boat ride was just for us to enjoy the views and waters of this "Kuala Patani".

Then someone suggested we checked out a village which lies at one part of the land strip.

Closing in to the village.

It is situated about 4 km from the river mouth we left behind and a further 800 metres or so from where we started the boat ride.