It was a long drive from Kuala Lumpur to Hatyai but the journey got less boring with chit-chatting and snacking. We stopped at Bidor for breakfast (wantan noodles) and Butterworth for lunch (Ong Cheng Huat Seafood Restaurant). We arrived at Sadao checkpoint at about 2pm. If you plan to start your journey during midnight and arrive at wee hours, be expected to wait as the checkpoint doesn't operate for 24 hours.
After another hour of drive from custom, we finally arrived at Hatyai. Yay!
Accommodation
Centara Hotel Hatyai
Address: 3 Sanehanusorn Road, Hat Yai District, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
Situated at Hatyai main street, the location is highly convenient. The room was clean and spacious. Couldn't remember the exact price as my aunt did the booking. Nonetheless, it's rather affordable from what I remember.
Food
1. Kan Eng Restaurant
Address: 50/3 Kimpradij Road, Hat Yai 90110, Thailand.
Opening Hours: 10.30am - 2pm, 5 - 9.30pm
Easily accessible by Tuk Tuk, just tell the driver Kan Eng and he will know instantly. I like the tom yum soup very much. Fried prawn cakes were crispy but not oily, it is another must-order dish here!
2. Street food
Good food can be found everywhere, just get your stomach ready for the feast!
4. Samurai Pork Burger from McD
My younger brother is a typical carnivore and he had been yearning for this. We decided to fulfill his wish. Worth trying since pork burgers are not available in either Malaysia or Singapore.
5. 黑记螃蟹
Address: Soi chum uthit3 Rajyindee Rd, 90110 Hat Yai, Thailand.
Opening Hours: 2pm to 9pm
Don't expect for meaty crabs or fancy sauces. This restaurant is famous for its crab butter or 膏蟹. I love the claypot crabs with glass noodles. The glass noodles absorb the crab taste, so yummy! The crab meat fired rice was kinda disappointing as it tasted quite bland.
7. Thai-styled Popiah and Pork Noodles
Thai popiah is very different from the popiah in our impression. It is served with thick brown sweet sauce and spring onions. Egg strips, chopped mushrooms, ground meat and bean sprouts are some ingredients being used in Thai popiah. We tried popiah from both stalls and we had come to a conclusion that one stall offered better sauce while the fillings from the other stall were more flavourful. Don't forget to try their pork noodles also. Adding the homemade chilli made the noodles even more tasty.
Attractions
1. Khoa Kop Cave
Very thrilling boat ride. If you think that Khoa Kop Cave is another ordinary limestone cave, then you are completely wrong. It is required to take a boat ride along the river through the cave alternating with walking to admire the beauty of stalagmites and stalactites. What's more is that everyone will have to lie down, imagine that! Hence, there are special rules applicable, for example, 5 to 6 people for one boat as the boat cannot sink enough to pass through the cave if it carries insufficient weight. It was a fun experience though we were so worried that we would get hurt as the cave ceiling was just few centimetres away from our faces at certain parts.
This place is rather far from Hatyai main town. People usually stop by here while travelling from Hatyai to Phuket. For us, we didn't want to miss the opportunity to visit this place even though it took us almost 3 hours to reach there. Trust me, it's worthy.
2. Stainless Steel Temple
As the name suggests, the temple is completely made from stainless steel. The advice is to come in the evening as the temple looks totally different during daytime and at night. When the sky turns dark, the temple will glow in green (according to my aunts). If you are using a phone camera, the green glow is very obvious in the photo, but not for my camera.
3. Four Face Buddha (Bucha)
Address: Hat Yai, Hat Yai District, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
Witnessed the man shooting off the firecracker. It is a tradition to bring lucks and virtues. Afterwards, the red cloth will be hang on the tree. The higher it goes, the more luck is gained.
Shopping
1. Asean Night Bazaar
Easily accessible by Tuk Tuk (again, basically you can go anywhere with Tuk Tuk by paying 20 baht per person). The stalls can get repetitive but this place does offer some good deals to be grabbed. I highly recommend getting your customized passports here, because each only costs you 100 baht as compared to 120 baht at Hatyai main street. Other leather products are also cheaper here and we bought 3 laptop bags here at 120 baht each!
Lastly, let's me end this post with some random photos.
After another hour of drive from custom, we finally arrived at Hatyai. Yay!
Accommodation
Centara Hotel Hatyai
Address: 3 Sanehanusorn Road, Hat Yai District, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
Situated at Hatyai main street, the location is highly convenient. The room was clean and spacious. Couldn't remember the exact price as my aunt did the booking. Nonetheless, it's rather affordable from what I remember.
Food
1. Kan Eng Restaurant
Address: 50/3 Kimpradij Road, Hat Yai 90110, Thailand.
Opening Hours: 10.30am - 2pm, 5 - 9.30pm
Easily accessible by Tuk Tuk, just tell the driver Kan Eng and he will know instantly. I like the tom yum soup very much. Fried prawn cakes were crispy but not oily, it is another must-order dish here!
2. Street food
Good food can be found everywhere, just get your stomach ready for the feast!
The mango sticky rice was very delicious and we ended buying one packet per night. The mangoes were sweet and soft.
Please try the tapioca cake! Say "wow" to the natural sweetness of tapioca!
A good treat especially at a hot and humid night. One complaint was too much ice and it got diluted towards the end.
3. Chokdee Dim Sum and Bak Kut Teh
Address: 58/25 Lamai Songkrew Rd., Hat Yai 90110, Thailand/
People must be wondering why must we go to Thailand for dim sum and bak kut teh? I was questioning at first as well until I tried the food. Even though I agree that bak kut teh in Malaysia is richer in flavours, I like the spam of enoki mushrooms here. When you request for additional soup, it comes with additional tau poks and mushrooms, how generous! A great start for morning!
4. Samurai Pork Burger from McD
My younger brother is a typical carnivore and he had been yearning for this. We decided to fulfill his wish. Worth trying since pork burgers are not available in either Malaysia or Singapore.
5. 黑记螃蟹
Address: Soi chum uthit3 Rajyindee Rd, 90110 Hat Yai, Thailand.
Opening Hours: 2pm to 9pm
Don't expect for meaty crabs or fancy sauces. This restaurant is famous for its crab butter or 膏蟹. I love the claypot crabs with glass noodles. The glass noodles absorb the crab taste, so yummy! The crab meat fired rice was kinda disappointing as it tasted quite bland.
6. Thai-styled Roasted Pork
Recommended by our local tour guide. Couldn't read Thai at all, hence I couldn't tell the name of the stall. We had it during our journey to Khoa Kop Cave. According to tour guide uncle, there are a lot of stalls selling this around the area and the roasted pork is supplied by same distributor. Don't worry if you are not able to locate this. We found a similar stall in Kim Yong Market. The pork tastes like the combination between crispiness of 烧肉 (Chinese roasted pork) and sweetness of 叉烧 (cha shao).
7. Thai-styled Popiah and Pork Noodles
Thai popiah is very different from the popiah in our impression. It is served with thick brown sweet sauce and spring onions. Egg strips, chopped mushrooms, ground meat and bean sprouts are some ingredients being used in Thai popiah. We tried popiah from both stalls and we had come to a conclusion that one stall offered better sauce while the fillings from the other stall were more flavourful. Don't forget to try their pork noodles also. Adding the homemade chilli made the noodles even more tasty.
8. Lee Garden Buffet
Address: 29 Prachatipat Road, Hadyai, Songkhla, 90110, Thailand.
Only 169 baht per person, where else could you look for such an attractive deal? A decent range of local dishes such as green curry chickens and tom yum soup as well as international dishes such as salad are served. Moreover, the breathtaking sunset view is definitely a "plus" point, Wouldn't say the food is very outstanding but it is a good place to visit if you are running out of food options.
9. Breakfast at Kim Yong Market
Any traditional kopitiam in Kim Yong Market will be a perfect place to have your breakfast. You can also "dabao" food from outside!
10. Ching Jie
Address: Hat Yai, Hat Yai District, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
Opening Hours: 7.30am to 2pm
My favourite in Hatyai so far. The pig's organ soup contains intestines, blood, belly and etc. No stinky smell, no funny textures, every bite brings you to heaven. This place only serves 3 dishes, namely roasted pork, pig's organ soup and braised pork leg. Just order all of them!
Pig's organ soup.
Stewed prok leg.
Attractions
1. Khoa Kop Cave
Very thrilling boat ride. If you think that Khoa Kop Cave is another ordinary limestone cave, then you are completely wrong. It is required to take a boat ride along the river through the cave alternating with walking to admire the beauty of stalagmites and stalactites. What's more is that everyone will have to lie down, imagine that! Hence, there are special rules applicable, for example, 5 to 6 people for one boat as the boat cannot sink enough to pass through the cave if it carries insufficient weight. It was a fun experience though we were so worried that we would get hurt as the cave ceiling was just few centimetres away from our faces at certain parts.
This place is rather far from Hatyai main town. People usually stop by here while travelling from Hatyai to Phuket. For us, we didn't want to miss the opportunity to visit this place even though it took us almost 3 hours to reach there. Trust me, it's worthy.
2. Stainless Steel Temple
As the name suggests, the temple is completely made from stainless steel. The advice is to come in the evening as the temple looks totally different during daytime and at night. When the sky turns dark, the temple will glow in green (according to my aunts). If you are using a phone camera, the green glow is very obvious in the photo, but not for my camera.
3. Four Face Buddha (Bucha)
Address: Hat Yai, Hat Yai District, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
Witnessed the man shooting off the firecracker. It is a tradition to bring lucks and virtues. Afterwards, the red cloth will be hang on the tree. The higher it goes, the more luck is gained.
The cable car was (temporarily) closed down.
Looks like cendol but doesn't taste like cendol.
4. Standing Buddha Temple and Guan Yin Temple
Located on top of hill, this place offers great view over the city. The sunset was beautiful and we snapped a lot of photos.
Fell in love with the colour of the sky.
The standing Buddha.
1. Asean Night Bazaar
Easily accessible by Tuk Tuk (again, basically you can go anywhere with Tuk Tuk by paying 20 baht per person). The stalls can get repetitive but this place does offer some good deals to be grabbed. I highly recommend getting your customized passports here, because each only costs you 100 baht as compared to 120 baht at Hatyai main street. Other leather products are also cheaper here and we bought 3 laptop bags here at 120 baht each!
2. Big C Supermarket Extra
Do not buy snacks from the street! To our surprise, even 7-11 sells snacks at a lower price than the random stalls on the street. So do not buy snacks from the street! Important reminder needs to be stated twice. We learnt this in a hard way, sob! Big C is the place to go. From Bento squid snacks, Pocky, MAMA instant noodles to groceries, Big C has everything that you need and the best thing is they are really cheap! **Odean does offer better deals for certain products, continue reading to find out more.
3. Odean Supermarket
Our picks include Lay's chips, Milk Plus facial mask (only 150 baht) and lipsticks (only half price of Singapore for brands such as Maybelline and L'oreal Paris).
4. All 7-11
Our favourite place to hunt for snacks and drinks (my beloved yogurt drinks). Recommend Gery cheese biscuits which couldn't be purchased anywhere else.
5. Kim Yong Market
My parents bought a lot of dried goods such as longan and almonds from here. The trick is to bargain hard. However, generally the prices are still cheaper than our home country. Oh yeah, my aunt also recommended buying rice milk soaps from local pharmacy. She specified the brand "K-brother" and the cheapest price we managed to get was 90 baht per packet consisting of 6 bars of soaps. Oh well, you can also purchase a lot of other medicinal products (including steroid creams, antibiotics etc) without doctor's prescriptions here.
Dare you?
Don't like Thai durians, tasteless =/
Our shopping haul!
Lastly, let's me end this post with some random photos.
Comments
Post a Comment