First of all, I would like to make a special space on my first blog to pay the special thanks to ICMA, LGMA,  and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for providing me the great opportunity to  participate in the Legislative Process and Governance Professional Fellows Program! My name is Aphakorn Trairekpan. I work in Songkhla Municipality, local government organization. I am a community developer, a project manager, responsible for social welfare and community development by considering community as a key stakeholder.

Folk way

Songkhla City is a small coastal city located between Songkhla Lake and the Gulf of Thailand. That’s why it’s well-known as “The City of Two Seas”. Songkhla City is also called Singora, its ancient name. The city is so natural and peaceful with total population of 68,000. The total area is 9.27 sq.kms , with natural pine forest, a 9 kms long beach, and small hills. Cultural landscape is the combination between beauty of natural and human cultural that reflects to all human habitats and identifies the uniqueness of people and places. The concept of cultural landscape is recently accepted in worldwide. Hence the old town in Songkhla has been nominated as one of cultural heritage site. The mixture between three of races of local Thais, Thai-Chinese and Thai-Muslim has reflected to their built environment on unique topology of Songkhla.

Songkhla Ancient Gate

 

Golden Mermaid, A symbolic of Songkhla City