Not far north of Penang we came to the old Thai border, for the new border given to Thailand by the Nips contained the four northern states of Malaya and no Thais. We halted for some while at this little boundary station and were able to look around us and try to notice any differences from Malaya. In the first place a slight racial difference between the peoples was immediately apparent. The Thais were a tough looking lot, of broad physique, lighter in colour than most Malays and with a rather more Chinese cast of countenance. Most of them wore a scarf of sorts tied round their waists and over their shorts, which was turned down in a kind of bow that hung over their stomachs. The better class Thais were immaculately turned out in snowy white shirts, perfect shorts and plenty of Brylcream. We noticed too, some very attractive girls. Also the first Buddhist priests we had seen were standing on the platform; mostly they looked intelligent, clean and humorous young men, their heads shaven, and wearing only sandals and the yellow robes common to the Buddhist priests throughout that part of Asia. One of these priests offered me a couple of dollars for a belt I was wearing. The Thai army, in their brown uniforms, were also in evidence, and they were sporting Lee-Enfield rifles handed over to them by the Nips; they seemed to be greatly amused by the whole business and never interfered with us.

The part of Thailand through which we passed now was as dull as Malaya, for we steamed through seemingly endless flat paddy fields. We saw the paddy, half ripe, standing about the same height as barley; we saw it much less ripe, and occasionally we noticed the little plant nurseries from which the big fields were planted out. These nurseries were always a solid wedge of little green close-packed seedlings. Each paddy field was quite small, and separated from the next by little ridges; the water lying in them was about ankle deep, and we learnt that in some parts of the East almost as much money was made from the sale of the paddy fish that abounds in the mud and shallow water, as from the rice itself. Periodically we passed a craggy mass of limestone, like single irregular tables jutting up from the flat lands, and quite unlike any normal range of hills.