1941, Friday 10 October;
They had told him he was due a holiday, a sightseeing one, and had he ever been to Thailand, what a lovely place that was. Well, he said, he hadn’t really contemplated it really, and with the money he was sending back home monthly, he wasn’t really sure he could afford it. He mentioned the 15th Field Company of the Madras Sappers & Miners, the company he commanded, was still struggling to absorb the large intake of new recruits, as well as the two new British ECO’s he’d been given. So, they said, his senior lieutenant had enough seniority and experience to be considered for Captain, it would give him a chance to show he could step up, and it would only be for a couple of weeks. And the holiday would be on them, all expenses paid, well how could he say no.
He’d met his two companions in Penang, in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, along with a staff officer from Malaya Command. The Indian infantry major he’d recognised from one of the battalions attached to the same brigade as himself, the other chap was a civilian, who was introduced as Collins, Irish, grey hair, red face, tall, big set guy who must have been about 50, a rice importer apparently. The staff officer, a young lieutenant called Ringer, patiently explained that Collins would be taking the two of them on a fishing holiday, starting on the upper reaches of the Pattani river, working their way down from the border to a lovely little town called Yala, before pushing onto the small seaport of Pattani.
Collins would take care of all the travel details, dealing with the locals, finding accommodation, buying supplies etc, all the staff officer asked of the two officers was to make good notes of the areas they fished and camped in, including not only the fish to be found but also the road conditions, places to camp, potential bottlenecks, what weight of car might a bridge carry, so a traveller’s guide might be produced for others who wanted to fish these areas.
They had crossed the border, Collins driving a lovely Morris eight, a four-door saloon, in a deep cherry red and black, their fishing rods tied on the roof. It was all a bit strange calling each other by their first names, and making no references to the military life. The clothing Collins had given them was both comfortable and practical, and his endless string of tales, stories and jokes had kept them entertained. Nevertheless, he was well organised and seemed to know what he was doing. It probably helped that he’d already done this type of thing twice before, but they didn’t know that.
The road was narrow and winding, single track, with passing points, and few straight stretches, not as well maintained as the roads in Malaya, and after about 20 miles they had reached the Pattani river, the road following its course, but along the contours of the hillside, about 150 feet or so up. A stretch of this had been deeply cut into the hillside with an almost vertical drop, and had the nickname of ‘The Ledge’, a particularly difficult piece of road with just a couple of passing points for two vehicles. They reached the other end, and parked up, spending the next two days checking the fishing below, and making notes, which meant for him, with his engineering knowledge, an inordinate amount of time checking the cliff faces both above and below ‘The Ledge’ for potential rock falls, to ensure they were safe.
The following three days were spent travelling the 60 odd miles into Yala, again a number of difficult points in the road with narrow bridges, and short sections of road cut into the hillside, but the fishing hadn’t really improved much, if fact despite all his other skills, Collins didn’t seem very adept at catching fish, having a couple of times paid local Thai’s for caught fish, so he could display what could be fished, for the camera.
In the morning before they arrived in Yala, they crossed the Pattani, by cable ferry, the river too wide for a single span bridge. They had shared the ferry with a couple of wooden carts, laden with rice, fruits and dried fish, along with their bullocks, which was just about all the ferry could carry, the loading and unloading along with the crossing taking nearly 20 minutes and clearly fatigued the crew, who would take an hour’s rest.
Yala held a great interest for the infantry major, who displayed an unexpected knowledge of trains. Collins introduced him to the station master, and interpreted the conversation about train times and size of trains they might expect. The major though it would be most useful for the traveller’s guide, along with a local map of Yala, which over the next two days he drew, marking on it the locations of the Railway Station, Post Office, Police Station, hotels and other useful buildings, along with some sites where a sizeable body of men could be camped.
The 25 miles of road from Yala to Pattani was travelled in a day, changing from the previous mountainous terrain and winding road, to a land farmed, with padi fields, plantations of pineapple, palm and coconut, and pastures for cattle, with straighter roads.
They stayed in Pattani for three nights, in a small but well-established hotel, and found Pattani to be a thriving riverport, with a regular steamer service to Bangkok, merchant junks, and numerous fishing boats. Again, it was mapped, with buildings of interest marked for the traveller’s guide, including the Thai Army barracks. The first two nights they ate without Collins, who was out meeting some old friends, but on the third night, having spent most of the day visiting the site where a new airfield was being built, they ate with him. They had only finished the first course, when four Asian gentlemen entered the dining room and sat at another table, across the room, ordering dinner. Two were Thai’s, one, Collins knew to be the contractor building the airfield, the other a local dignitary, the other two, it quickly became clear, were Japanese, one translating for the other.
Then it was back to Malaya, two days of steady motoring, before they found themselves back in the Eastern & Oriental greeted by the staff officer ‘Ringer’, and two colleagues who showed great interest in their travels, notes, maps and the dozen or so 35mm film cassettes taken with the Kodak camera Collins had provided. It had been a holiday quite unlike any other Major Muir had ever known.
