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A trip down South
Life, Melalin Mahavongtrakul, Published on 13/09/2017
» The audiences looked on eagerly as throngs of classical musicians from the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO), all smartly dressed in black, slowly filed onto the stage of Yala Rajabhat University's auditorium. Once the men and women in black were seated, and the conductor flicked his baton, the first melody struck. The powerful sounds of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No.5 soon engulfed the hall, filled with locals of Thailand's southernmost province.
Beyond the bullets and bombs
Life, Melalin Mahavongtrakul, Published on 27/09/2016
» The morning breeze was cool on our faces as we cruised past a gleaming mosque. Traffic was light and the town was quiet and peaceful, except around the fresh market occupied by women in hijab. Local shops selling bak kut teh and dim sum were opening their doors. It was a typical, lazy Sunday morning in Yala -- known to the rest of Thailand as the land of insurgency and unrest.