Hat Yai

It's been long since I last updated my blog. Well something came up and that's how it happened.
Ok, come back to the topic. I just came back from Hat Yai, a city in southern Thailand. Saw a disted guy and my high school schoolmate during the trip, so coincidence huh.

FIRST DAY IN THAILAND
After we been through 2 custom check, we are now in Thailand. I did took some photos at the custom there, but the M'sia tour guide said that it is forbidden so I'm not gonna post it up here. Here's our Thailand tour guide, singing a Thai song for us as entertainment.

FIRST STOP: 大聖古廟
The tour guide brought us there to pray for wealth and health, but mostly wealth because she gave us 4 digits number after finish visiting the temple. Wanna know what's the number? Don't really feel like telling :P.

HM--HL--HH

SECOND STOP: 华园饭店

Had our first lunch in Thailand there. There were so many chili sauces, some were too sour, some too spicy, some too salty, some too sweet and some taste like 豆浆, weird.... . We ordered roasted duck rice but they ended up giving us 'cha siu' rice, saying that roasted duck was sold out =_=''. Ok then we just accepted what he offered us. The rice didn't taste bad, it was better that ok.

THIRD STOP: Souvenirs shops
Went to souvenirs shops selling local handmade products and local food. Saw a nice pillow case with elephants prints on it and bought it for mom with 135 baht. While waiting for others in the bus, I started snapping photos of the surrounding objects and I saw this motor selling ice cream. Well, I wanted to try some but too lazy to get down of the bus. Some of the people in the bus bought it and said that it tasted nice. Well, a little regret didn't get to try it.

FOURTH STOP: Golden Crown Plaza Hotel

The design of the hotel room is not bad, I like the coach especially. Three of us were supposed to have a room with three beds but there's only two beds. So my sis coworker asked the trip organiser to get us an extra bed and an extra pillow. They said that they will put them in our room after their lunch time, so we went for shopping. Oh ya, there is this building in front of the hotel which only sell motorcycles. The whole building selling only fancy motorcycles.


FIFTH STOP: The so called Big Pasar

Went to the Big Pasar with the local transportation, Tuk-tuk by paying 15 baht. It added up to be 30 baht the whole journey forth and back.

Tuk-tuks

HH.HL--HM.HH

Wee...... feel the wind of Hat Yai...haha

The five of us in the tuk-tuk

Well, there's nothing much to buy but many things to see there. Sis coworkers bought lots of stuff but the three of us didn't get to buy any. The clothes and shoes there are not nice clothes are similar from shop to shop and not my cup of tea, while the shoes are too 'aunty' to me, one word---UGLY. Mens polo T are better. I saw the first ever camera I get for my 12nd birthday there.

And saw some Thai women selling worms and insects. So eww cause the worm are still alive and moving lively in front of me. We bought a pack of jelly with just 10 baht at some stall there.

Worms and insects

We went back to the hotel with Tuk-tuk and found out that the hotel staff put the extra bed in the wrong room, which is my sis coworkers' room. So we switched our room with them. We had a nap before we went out for dinner.

SIXTH STOP: Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel
Had our dinner at the 33rd floor of Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel. We walked our way there as it is not far from the hotel. Buffet at there was not expensive, only 159 baht per adult and only 99 baht per children (if not mistaken and must be within the specific range of height).

Dinner in Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel, 33rd floor

Desserts: Cakes and ice cream(five flavours!)

Night view of Hat Yai from 33rd floor of Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel

After dinner, we went shopping in the plaza. Sis wanted to buy shoes while I wanted to buy slippers. Well, no luck for me as the slippers I wanted to buy don't have the size that fit my giant foot. As for sis, she asked me and 2nd sis for opinions but since we don't like it, she decided not to buy it. Then we went to Boots Pharmacy. Things there are cheap, way cheaper than what you get in M'sia. Sis bought a Mangosteen hair shampoo and conditioner which cost 150 baht each. Mangosteen formulated shampoo is good for your hair :P. After that, we went to Central Department Store, opposite Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel. We bought another souvenir for mom, a blouse which cost us 448 baht after 50% discount. Headed back to the hotel after finish shopping.

Back to our hotel, we ate the jelly we bought from the pasar which we put into the fridge. It tastes nice. After a nice bath, we watched TV for a few minutes then went to sleep. We didn't use the extra bed that night, the three of us slept together in the beds originally in the room. The extra bed was damn hard.

SECOND DAY IN THAILAND
Woke up before getting the morning call. Got ourself ready and went to the place nearby the hotel for breakfast.

FIRST STOP: Pasar nearby
Saw many people bought food for the monks, the Thai women asked us to buy too but we didn't. We walked our way just to the food stall....haha..... . Bought 'zhu chang fen' which is different than what we have in Penang and mini 'yao zha guai' for 20 baht and 10 baht respectively. Sis coworker bought a lot and they are so good for sharing them with us. The food is nice but the coffee is not. Both sis ordered 2 crab meat 'wan tan mee', one is dry and one is soup. The crab meat is real crab meat but it is damn small and with only one piece. And it cost 30 baht for one bow.

Our breakfast

In the pasar

[1] flower wreath made by local
[2] beautiful lotus sold in the market
[3] sandwich with egg? sandwich with ham?
[4] a cute doggy sitting on the motorbike (the lady purposely stopped her bike after seeing me snapping the photo of her dog)

SECOND STOP: Places around the hotel

After we had our breakfast, we went to walk around the place as there's so many shops selling different things. And we saw 7-eleven. So we went in to buy some milk to drink cause I wanted to drink.

[1] choosing which milk to buy
[2] bought our milk, 4 for 4o baht.
[3] our milk in the fridge
[4] Thailand Slurpee

After we bought our milk, we went back to the hotel to put them into the fridge and then had another walk at the other side of the hotel. I got to buy the slippers I wanted to buy last time, with the size I want for 170 baht (expensive? well, I don't know how to bargain the price). Then saw an old man selling IQ games made of wood. Sis saw a wood stacker(something like Uno Stacker). The old man offered 300 baht for the stacker and sis was bargaining the price for 280 baht (I thought she's going for 250 baht). The old man started to say something in Thai which we assuming him saying something like "it's only 20 baht..... I'm just an old man?". We just went off without buying. After walking until 12 something (M'sia time) we headed back to the hotel and bought some souvenir on the way.

When we arrived at the hotel, we saw the ice cream man again. So we decided to buy ice cream from him. The ice cream was special because of the combination. The layers of the ice cream from bottom to top: vanilla ice cream > glutinous rice > yam ice cream > sweet potato > atap chi > peanuts.

The ice cream

Southern Thailand's Coca-cola can with nice design on it.[click for a clearer and larger view]

THIRD and FOURTH STOP: Moon Restaurant | Tesco Lotus
Had our lunch at Moon Restaurant, restaurant of the hotel. After that, we make our way to Tesco Lotus before headed back to Penang.

I asked sis to use her Tesco card since they are both Tesco. So she took it out and handed it over to the cashier. The cashier look at the card for several seconds and said that it is not usable with a not sure tone. Then she slided it over the machine and said that it is not usable again. Haha so funny.

After that, we headed back to Penang. Like before, we gone through 2 custom smoothly. Then we are back in Penang safe and sound.

~End of journey~