First off, a very very belated Merry Christmas to all of you.
If you follow me on twitter, you’d know by now that I went to Hatyai with my friends for Christmas.
But that wasn’t me and fatty’s initial plan.
Weeks ago, he went to Singapore with his family for a day for some reason and he came back telling me that the streets on Singapore are all decorated with Christmas lights and tress.
He told me Singapore looks really beautiful and that he would want to bring me over for Christmas and of course upon hearing this I was mad excited.
We did some research and realized that it was quite costly for the both of us to spend our Christmas there.
And as you all know, it’s Christmas which means everything will be much more expensive especially the accommodation.
The cost for a room per night itself can already cover my Hatyai trip expenses.
Which explains my trip.
We were still deciding on where to go until Gavin came up with the idea of going to Hatyai.
And off we go, the eight of us.
We departed on the 23rd, Friday midnight after our super at Jalan Alor. The guys drove for seven to eight hours, all the way to Thailand’s border.
I think we reached the border at about 11am (I was busy sleeping).
We parked our car at the duty free car park and get a van to fetch us to our hotel.
Before that, we had to line up at the immigration to get our passports stamped and the amount of people waiting in line shocked us.
We were all like, ‘Fck do we really have to go through this!?’.
Then there came a savior or money-eater we called it.
He said for Rm20 per pax we would be able to stamp our passports immediately without having to wait in the line.
Greedy man!! RM20 is hell lot and we said no. We bargained and he agreed to Rm15 per pax.
Still a greedy man but we, the lazy men agreed to it.
After getting our passport stamped we told the van driver to bring us to a famous chicken rice shop which is just along the way to Hatyai.
I researched it on the net but I do not know what the restaurant is called. Also my friend told me that there is really a famous chicken rice shop and they said it’s good.
But I guess he brought us to the wrong one!
* There’s crowd in it and I thought, ‘YES’ because I’m hungry!
* Our sugarcane drink.
One thing good about Hatyai is that there are still some people who speak Mandarin/ Hokkien and that ease the trip a little.
None of us knows how to speak Hokkien except for Ben, so whenever we’re not able to communicate we would ask him to try to speak in Hokkien and see if they understand him.
Thank god for the fat translator.
* Very dry chicken. Seriously I think the van driver brought us to the wrong chicken rice shop. ):
* But the siu yuk is pretty good. Very crispy skin they have.
After our breakfast/ lunch we slept all the way till we reach our hotel at Songkhla.
Why Songkhla is because by the time we wanted to book our hotel in Hatyai town, it is already fully book so we’re left with no choice.
We stayed at Pavilion Hotel in Songkhla and the first thing we did upon reaching the hotel is sleeping like there’s no tomorrow after the very long ride before going out for dinner.
Take note: Do not book hotels in Songkhla if you’re not as desperate as we are because honestly speaking it’s a waste of time and money.
From our hotel to Hatyai town cost us about 500 to 600 Baht and it takes about half to one hour, depending on the speed of the tuk tuk.
The first tuk tuk we took to Hatyai town is mad slow and according to Gavin who sat in front, next to the driver, he only drove like 40 to 50 km/h. Not to mention that the roof of this tuk tuk we picked is extremely low, makes it hard for the boys to sit.
Hatyai’s tuk tuk is very much different from Bangkok’s. I did not take a picture of it but here it is, from google.
* Bangkok’s tuk tuks are motorbikes which maximum can probably only fit in 3 people but Hatyai’s tuk tuk is a van or mini lorry which can fit in about 8 people.
* Fatty looks like he’s lost, haha.
* Bff
* Alvin and his girlf Mai, camwhoring?
* Gavin and Zoe, the entertainer. :D
We walked around Hatyai town looking for a suitable restaurant for us to have our dinner.
Passed by one restaurant that has chinese words all around and is very packed with people but we figured that it might be very costly because they target people like us, tourists.
As we continue walking we saw another restaurant, ‘Hong Gei’ and the lady knows how to speak Cantonese, so this restaurant it is.
* Very refreshing guava juice.
* Something you must order no matter which restaurant you’re in, Tom Yam.
* Deep fry pork knuckle, extremely delicious.
Everything from that restaurant is pretty good, from their Thai steam fish to fry green leaves.
One of the best meal we had there.
* And THIS!! Is of course, our second best meal! Extremely large prawn!
We walked around the town after our dinner, giving it some time for digestion before we head to massage parlor.
We walked into one, somewhere around Lee Garden Hotel named Sawasdee and all of us went for Thai full body massage.
That is by far the cheapest massage in my entire life. 200 Bath per hour for a full body massage.
Oh you gotta be kidding me.
We all enjoyed the massage session especially fatty.
After massaging, we decided to take away whatever we can from the street and have another eating session at Mc Donalds.
Of course, one of the must do in Thailand is visiting their Mc Donalds because theirs’ are more awesome than ours’. Pfft.
Pork burger!
But this time, pork burger isn’t the champion.
I shall reveal at the end of my post.
* Durian sticky rice that I did not try. Durians over there are HUGE, just do a comparison with that white styrofoam in the picture.
After our meal, the alcoholics bout beer and off we go back to our hotel.
We picked a different tuk tuk this time, we picked one with speakers and we party our way back to hotel.
* That’s where the party begins.
* That’s Alvin, attempting suicide haha.
* Gavin, Zoe, Fatty and me. (:
Went back to hotel and it’s time for gift exchange.
I bought a pair of monster socks from Topshop and Alvin got mine, while I got the best gift of the day.
A Starbucks tumbler. Hehehehe.
* Look at bff, that’s her present. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
We end our night with laughter and cheap beers.
I should have just down some beers and sleep soundly but I did not.
I lay on bed feeling extremely scared (yah yah I’m afraid of ghost and I scare myself often wtf), so I just grab fatty as close to me as possible and keep praying.
Amitabha!!! Thank god nothing happened, I heard too many stories no thanks to people who told me.
The next day all of us woke up feeling oh-so-okay but that 40/50 km/h tuk tuk driver has to ruin our mood!
Not knowing where to eat I asked the receptionist and she wrote us the name of the restaurant just somewhere nearby our hotel.
We were reluctant to go for that slow ass tuk tuk at first but there wasn’t any more tuk tuk for us to choose from.
And this slow ass tuk tuk is seriously a cheater because he brought us to the wrong restaurant and that bloody restaurant is bloody expensive with food that is not even half as nice to begin with.
Kena conned! We were all so pissed at that tuk tuk driver, seriously.
He should have told us that he do not know where the restaurant is instead of just dumping us just like that.
But we figured the restaurant owner is his friend, pfft!!!
After our kena-con-lunch we went to a temple located at Songkhla called Chedi Thaimongkhon.
The temple is located uphill and we have to pay 30 Bath each for the cable lift ride.
Yes, not cable car but cable lift.
* That’s how we roll.
* Me and Zoe.
* By the beach.
No pictures of temple because I was busy praying and by the time I’m done with my praying it rained!! There were so much more that I have yet to explore but it rained! What on earth ):
* This is all I’ve got, hahahah.
* Kepala senget.
* Boyf #likeaboss.
* Some floating market it seems.
After our praying x raining session we went to Hatyai again to eat and to shop.
First we went to floating market but there’s nothing floating on that day because it rain.
* Fried quill egg.
* Would you like to try some!? Worms and more worms. Disgusting!
Shopping in Hatyai IS NOT FUN and it just makes me miss Bangkok even more! Rawr!
First they have ugly clothes or okay clothes, then their ugly clothes are really expensive comparing to Bangkok’s.
I can get a dress for 10 Bath in Bangkok but in Hatyai a top cost 20 Bath!
For reals!!???
It’s okay it’s okay, fatty said we’ll go to Bangkok together in the future because he knows how much I love that place! (:
Overall, Hatyai is quite a boring place but a boring place can still be fun when we have friends around.
The whole trip cost me 4000 Bath, it should be cheaper if not for the tuk tuk service from hotel to Hatyai town.
* Mc Donald’s Spinach pie, the best pie on earth I swear!!! MC DONALD Y U IS NO HAZ SPINACH PIE IN MSIA!?
Two Bangkok post here and here if you’d like to know more.
I AM MISSING THE SPINACH PIE ALREADY!!!
