Destination: Hatyai, Thailand
Duration: 2 Days 1 Night (Dec15~Dec
16, 2012)
Day 1: Queue,
Food & Rain
What would you do if you are in Hatyai, Thailand?
Massage? Shop? Food? Well, I asked the same questions to my friends and they
told me – Eat & Shop. Hence our mission statement was being born – “To eat and shop till your wallet falls apart!”
We arrived to our rendezvous in the early morning of 6am
for our van to Hatyai. By 6.15am, we were restless… apparently, as quoted by my
friend Michelle “That stupid driver just woke up! I just called him!!!” Hmm…
not really a first good impression there… OTD failed!!! The driver Loong
finally picked us up and we continued on.
Here was the 1st step of our weight gain
program – what would you eat for your breakfast? Well, for us breakfast was big
slices of leftover Secret Recipe Crème Brulee Cheese cake from last night.
Carbo – yes, Protein – maybe, Fiber – unlikely, Calories – tons, FAT –
DEFINITELY!!! Weight Gain – 2 pounds…
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| Here is the Unburnt Creme Brulee Cheese Cake! Photo Courtesy of Christina aka Char Koay Teow! |
Our van stopped at Changlun for a short break but our
driver just kept talking to his friend and we waited like 30 minutes
there. We did manage to do some money changes there. The rate there was RM10 =
99baht. By the time we continued to the Malaysian Immigration – we faced a long
queue of traffic jam! UGH! Our van finally reached the immigration and we were
told to get off the bus for the custom. There was quite a queue there and we
managed to get though after some time.
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| Welcome to Changlun! Apparently their Mascot is waiting right outside... |
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| Long Queue for Money Changer! |
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| The Rate |
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| He is looking at Someone Eating... But that person ignores him!!! |
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| Our Van |
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| Jam Jam Jam!!! |
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| Queue!!!! |
We continued to the Thai Immigration and holy moly! If you think the queue in Malaysian Immigration was bad – this was much much worse!!! The fact that the queue was so unorganized didn’t help either – there were like 3-4 rows of people for 1 queue and everyone had to squeeze into 1 queue when near the Thai custom booth. *facepalm* I kind of felt like a illegal immigrant who had been deported to Thai in a chaotic situation.
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| What is this?! A Riot? |
After the frenzy in Immigration, we finally carried on our journey into Hatyai. By the time we reached the hotel, it was already around 12 noon at Thai timing. After a short check-in in New Season Hotel, we all headed out for Lunch at 59 Restaurant. The tuk-tuk fee was quite standard at 20 baht per pax and that was when funny stuff happened.
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| New Season Hotel |
The tuk-tuk stopped at a traffic junction…
Us: Are we there yet? Are we stopping for traffic light or is this the destination?
Vic (Our self-proclaimed Tour Guide): I think we are here!!! Let’s go!!!!
We all rushed down from the tuk-tuk with Vic leading, happy that food was within our grasp… then…
Vic: *emergency stop* WAIT!!!! I think we are at the wrong place! Quickly!!! Stop the driver!!!
Us: WTF??!!!!! *puzzled* We are never ever going to appoint you as tour guide anymore!!!
Thankfully we stopped the driver in time, apparently there were two 59 restaurants in town, the one that we wanted to go was supposed to be the one further away. We finally reached the destination safely without any additional charges from the driver and started with the order.
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| 59 Restaurant |
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| Bye! Tuk-tuk! |
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| Let's have some Drinks first! |
Koh loh pork was the 1st dish to be served and it was sweet and sour pork with cucumber, pineapple, onion and capsicum. The pork was with bones and frankly speaking it was quite hard and very less meat. Our fried vegetables arrived and it was quite normal as well. The only special part about the vegetables was there was a worm in there... *facepalm*
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| Koh Loh Pork |
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| Vegetables for Fiber!!! |
Then our seafood tomyam arrived – this was yummy!!! The soup was really SOUR & SPICY and it was so addicting! There were prawns, fish meat, squid and mushroom inside the soup along with the herbs. Definitely the best tomyam I’d ever had.
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| Seafood Tomyam! |
Next was the fried tanghoon with prawns – it was great as well! It didn’t look so well outlook wise but the taste was to die for – so much better than Khunthai’s fried tanghoon (link). The black pepper taste was so strong and so appetizing and we were trying to get more.
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| Fried Tanghoon! |
Our last dish being green curry fish – the gravy was sourly and it was nice overall. I guess I would rank it no.3 after tomyam and fried tanghoon.
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| Green Curry Fish! |
The meal along with our drinks cost us around 230 baht per pax. When our wallet gradually losing weight, let’s not forget what we’d gain! Let’s see! Carbo – yes (All the rice!!!), Protein – Yay (All the meat!!!), Fiber – A little (We had vege too!), Calories – Countless, FAT – What do you think?! Weight Gain – 2 pounds…
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| Heavy Downpour... =( |
The rain was pouring heavily when we were in the restaurant and it was clear that we wouldn’t be going to floating market. We continued to Odeon with tuk-tuk (20 baht/pax) to burn some calories after our heavy meal. Odeon was quite a small departmental store – kind of like Gama in Penang. We stopped there for an hour due to heavy rain and decided to run for Lee Garden. There was a 7-11 nearby and as quoted by my friend Penny: “7-11 is HEAVEN in Thailand!”, we ran into it to grab some milk/cultured milk with special flavor. We also managed to grab the Sausage wrapped with bacon. However, the sausage was quite salty and not quite met our expectation. Carbo – I think not, Protein – Yes, Fiber – NONE, Calories – I guess 300kcal?, FAT – YES!!! Did you see that fat layer on the bacon? Weight Gain – 0.5 pounds…
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| Odeon |
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| Sausages in 7-11 |
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| Bought some Drinks from 7-11 too! |
Once we reached Lee Garden, the 1st thing that popped into our eyes was… SWENSEN!!! As quoted by Penny again: “Swensen is a must try!!! It’s so cheap in Hatyai!!!!”. And try we did! We ordered the Christmas Fondue set and it only cost us 199 baht. There were 4 scoops of ice cream – 2 vanillas and 2 strawberries along with banana, small pieces of brownies, jelly, whipped creams and Santa Claus! There was of course the chocolate fondue. The chocolate fondue was quite thick and tasted well with brownies and banana. The ice cream along with other stuffs was quite common though. Let’s see: Carbo – TONS!!! See all the sweet stuffs, Protein – a bit, Fiber – NONE, Calories – Lots, FAT – Absolutely!!! Weight Gain – 0.5 pounds…
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| Lee Garden |
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| Well It's almost Christmas! |
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| The Christmas Fondue Set... |
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| Look at that Santa Claus! |
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| Central Shopping Center... |
We met the gang again at around 7.30pm and headed out to Greenway night market. There were lots of clothing, shoes and accessories stall but our eyes were set on the food court. There were lots of stalls as well and we simply had no idea what to try. We finally settled on these few things since we saw quite a lot of locals were ordering them as well.
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| Greenway Night Market |
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| Cute Sushi!! |
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| Lok-Lok in Hatyai |
The 1st thing that we ordered was noodle soup (35 baht) – I had no idea what it was called in Thai. Basically you got to choose what kind of noodle or vermicelli you wanted - the cook then cooked it along with minced pork, fishball, fried wantan skin and some fish cake. The best part was: you could add chili flakes, chili sauce and whatever powder the stall provided as much as you wanted. For us, we added TONS of chili flakes. The chili flakes were really spicy and made the already flavourful soup even better. Thumbs up!!!
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| Noodle Soup Stall with all Thai Words - How to Order? Use your Finger to POINT! |
The 2nd thing that caught our eyes was fried pork on a stick (Black pepper or garlic) – lots of locals were buying this but we were still skeptical. We bought black pepper pork at 15 baht a piece and tried a bite… GOSH!!!! Dsfnwenwnljjsldkd!!! The pork was marinated so well and it was totally aromatic! The pork was soft and lean and easy to bite. It was so nice that we went to get another right after we finished the 1st. *facepalm*
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| Fried Pork Stall |
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| The Noodle Soup & Fried Pork! Look at the Chili Flakes!!! Yummy! |
The last thing we ordered was some fried rice noodle stuff (45 baht) – the rice noodle was fried along with dried shrimp, egg and lots of bean sprout. Of course you would add all the chili flakes, chili sauce or peanut powder that you wanted. The dish was quite sweet originally without the condiments and actually stood quite well. We still preferred the noodle soup and fried pork though.
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| The Fried Rice Noodle Stall |
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| Here is the Fried Rice Noodle... |
Total Damage: Carbo – TONS!!! Noodle & Vermicelli! Protein – YES!!! All the PORK!!!, Fiber – I guess bean sprout counts? Calories – Infinity, FAT – Totally!!! All the FRIED PORK!!! Weight Gain – 2 pounds…
After night market, we took a tuk-tuk (20 baht/pax) to the Tesco Lotus to grab some stuff. The driver didn’t understand a word we said but with a bit of sign language, I guess he understood we want BIG Tesco. We grabbed lots of Lays (29 baht/pack) there with strange flavours and also bought some alcoholic drink. Apparently the alcoholic drink here was much cheaper than Malaysia. We wanted to try the KFC egg tart in Tesco at 20 baht a piece but it was sold out. We had no choice but to get back to Hotel with tuk-tuk (20baht/pax) again.
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| OMG!!! Dogggie on a Motorcycle with a Basket!!! |
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| KFC Egg Tart - Out of Stock though... |
At around 10.45pm, we walked out to the night market around Lee Garden and Odeon again – there were more shops late at night so we bought some chestnuts before going back to 7-11 (where else?) to grab their frozen foods. In case you didn’t know, 7-11 in Hatyai sold lots of frozen food which can be prepared within minutes with microwave. We bought quite a lot to get them back to Malaysia and heated Japanese curry rice there.
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| Hawkers near Lee Garden... Looks like our Hawkers at New Lane... |
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| Lots of Stalls... |
We called it a night after eating the Japanese curry rice along with our alcohol drink in our hotel room. The Japanese curry rice was YUMMY!!!! Why didn’t 7-11 sell this stuff? Last calculation before sleeping: Carbo – Lots of rice and sweeten alcoholic drink! Protein – A bit with the meat in curry, Fiber – does potato in curry counts? Calories – higher than you think!!! FAT – YES! Weight Gain – 1 pound since we got to sleep right after the meal… *bangwall*
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| Our Supper! |
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| Japanese Curry Rice from 7-11!!! |
Next Day (Market, Queue & HOT)
