Hatyai - Day 2, May 22 2011

(Very short post on Day 2)
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.

Hatyai - Day 1, May 21 2011

I've never been to Hatyai even though we live just about 3 hours away. So when my aunt asked if we wanted to go I jumped at the chance, knowing fully that it falls right on the next day after I get back from Mt K.

Extremely. Bad. Decision. Reasons? 1. High sleep debt 2. I can walk but going up and down steps was plain torment 3. Had to wake up at 4.30am - I hate getting up early (the plus side: saw the moon and felt like I was back on Mt K).

Since the journey was a few hours I slept all the way to the border. Lucky for us we were early so there was only a short queue at the immigration kiosks. Our Thai guide boarded the bus and gave a brief outline of our itinerary. He spoke fluent Mandarin and Hokkien, albeit with a Thai twang and regaled the entire busload of people with dirty jokes and teaching us Thai phrases that sounds absolutely wrong in Hokkien. Ah leave it to the South East Asians to mess up all languages.

First stop was at a shop selling honey products. The thing I don't like about guided tours is that you spend a lot of time at stores instead of at interesting places...argh. As my legs were very sore, I didn't enjoy myself as much as I'd like.. =(

- The honey store where we got to sample propolis, raw honey and bee pollen.

- View from the bus; look at the number of lines running from the poles!

- Well-preserved, dried sting ray sitting on a shelf at the second store we visited. It was a dried goods place selling local snacks.

- Hatyai, view from our hotel room, Siam Center Hotel

- Tuk tuk, seen outside our hotel

After lunch, we were taken to our hotel to rest and freshen up. We took the opportunity to walk around the nearby area. Hatyai is very chaotic, with lots of motorbikes, tuk tuks racing around among the cars. The funny thing about people on bikes is that only the rider wears a helmet while the pillion rider does not. And it seems to be the norm to have three people on a bike, minimum.

Later we were taken to the Klonghae Floating Market, the main attraction being food were sold on boats secured by the riverbank.

- There's the river, the place was very crowded as it was a Saturday

- The row of boats by the river with almost all sellers being women. Everything is 20 baht, which is about RM2.

- And this is how you pay and get your food - she puts it in a basket and hands it to you and you put your money in it

- All the ladies are nicely dressed with elaborate hats. Here she's selling lime juice (I think) and it comes in a clay mug.

- Mostly sold are snacks, finger food, noodles and eye-catching colorful fruits

- Extravagantly decorated double decker buses, seen only in Thailand

We got back to the hotel around 8pm (Msian time; Thailand is an hour behind). Severely lacking in sleep, I was very grateful for the early rest and didn't join the others for the after dinner stroll.

- Beautiful sunset seen from our room; I was strongly reminded of Mt K which I'd started to miss..