Mermaid in Songkhla

Everyone knows the mermaid statue in Kopenhagen, but the one in Songkhla has become a local tourist attraction already as well. It is located at the northeastern tip of the peninsula which contains the city of Songkhla, at the Samila beach.

Of course the statue does not depict the mermaid from Hans Christian Andersens fairytale, but a character from the tale Phra Apaimanee by Sonthorn Phu. The statue was created in 1966 by Jitr Buabus, director of the Art & Craft College, Bangkok.

This beach has quite a lot of statues. A little bit west of the mermaid is a statue of a cat and a mouse, which refers to the name of two islands off the coast named cat and mouse island. It look especially nice when seen through that gate, which is kind of an entrance to the beach.

South of the mermaid at the circle ending of the street is a statue of a reading man. I have no idea what is the meaning of that one, as unlike the mermaid it had no English description on the plate next to it, and at the time we went there my knowledge of the Thai letters was also almost zero so I could not write down the name of the statue either.