Everyone
travelling through Southern Thailand is fascinated by the limestone
mountains, which often pop up unexpectedly in the midst of
rice paddies and thus appear alien and strange. They are indeed
so strange-looking that there is no proper term for them
in European languages. The term "mountain" seems inappropriate
because they are elevations of only a few hundred metres and you
can often take a walk around them - in European terminology a
mountain is bigger. But to call them "hills"
doesn't seem correct either, because thinking of a "hill"
one inadvertently imagines a softer elevation. However, many of
those "mountains" or "hills" in Southern Thailand
feature steep cliffs as can be found in the Dolomite range
of the Alps.
Finally,
to call them "rocks" also seems incorrect, because they
are too large and covered with vegetation. The fact is,
that in European languages no fitting word exists for the
Southern Thai "mountains" or "hills", simply
because this kind of topographical formation cannot be found in
Europe.
Many travellers
passing through Southern Thailand by train will find it difficult
to properly estimate the height of as well as the distance
to these rock mountains. As the rock walls appear to the Western
visitor as if they belong to high mountains one usually tends
to estimate the height too high and the distance too far, compared
to what actually is the case.
