Woke up early to make the most of the day. We went to the morning market to grab breakfast. Thai time was only 6+am but there were already many people up and about. What's amazing is that most sellers speak some Hokkien and/or Mandarin due to the large number of visiting Malaysians and Singaporeans. They know the numbers and some simple phrases.
-Crowded morning street market - pedestrians, bikes and cars share the road
While having breakfast, we saw a monk walking by and people going up to him and offering food. He would put it in a pot hidden under his robe and then bless the person who did the offering. Monks are highly venerated in Thailand and the people gladly offer what they can but never in the form of money.After getting breakfast, we took a tuk tuk to another market to shop. There were 4 of us and the driver was saying 20 baht per head. My aunt negotiated with him and said 10 baht each, to which he made a sad face and said it's too low. My aunt then offered 15 baht each and desperate for business he half agreed and took us. When we arrived, my aunt counted 60 baht and gave them to him and kept saying "That's it, that's all we have" and walked away. It was actually quite funny. The driver shook his head, and before driving off, called her, gave her a thumbs up and said, "Sis, you are unbelievable!" Haha!
- On the tuk tuk counting out 60 baht, haha!This second market is the shopping heaven for cheap shoes, clothes, bags, Zebra stainless steel ware and all sorts of knick knacks. There are knockoff Guccis, LVs and Burberrys everywhere. I watched a lady buy a knockoff LV bag for 320 baht, reduced from 600 baht. This is the place where good bargaining skills come in useful. We spent the entire morning there, with my aunt buying loads of stuff and she ended up buying a weaved bag to put all her stuff in!
We took another tuk tuk back to the hotel (20 baht each this time!) and freshen up. When we came down to the lobby, it was quite a sight to behold (stupid me forgot to take pix) as most people have bought suitcases-full of stuff to bring home. Shopping spree trip to Hatyai, looks like it!
Had lunch, visited a temple and headed back before a storm rolled in.
After-thoughts: I am not sure if Hatyai has much attractions..but it looks like most people go there to shop, eat and have massages. I would probably not be back for a while as there isn't much to see. But the Thai people are friendly and their women work hard as we saw mostly women sellers at the market. I don't think we saw any caucasians, probably the least popular place in Thailand with caucasians.
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