Sa wat dee krap!! Last year's summer i got to travel to the southern part of Thailand (Hadyai) which is not really far from Penang, where i'm from, together with my friends and my favorite uncle. Though it was a short trip of 2 days and 1 night but it's more then enough. What can 1 do there u might ask? well mostly eat, shop, massage, more eating and hell a lot more of shopping. :D. That is what alot of Malaysian do when they head up to Hadyai
Driving from Butterworth to the border of Thailand took us about 2 hours. On the way, there are also kind of like a food court where u can fill in the "white card" and also money changer. Tip: the rate are normally way better at this food courts which is near to the boarder.
here is where we parked our car (Duty Free complex) before crossing the boarder between Malaysia and Thailand
overnight parking cost about RM15/night. It's safe because at night there will be security and the area is securely gated
bye!! Malaysia, Hello!! Thailand
checkpoint
from the checkpoint we walking about 500m straight down the road to the 7-11 convenient store
here is where we took a van to Hadyai city center. 1 Person cost about 57baht, the van was quite comfortable. From the boarder to Hadyai is about 1 1/2 hours away by van
the van drop us @ Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel
our hotel Yong Dee Hotel, which is about few blocks away from Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel. If i'm not mistaken i remember the single bed room cost about 600baht, good for 2 person because the bed is quite spacious. for double beds room cost about 800baht. Fit up to 4 person if u r not really that big size
it's not really the luxury type kind of hotel, well what do u expect from a 20 US$ room/ night?
view from our room
time to hunt for food
street vendor @ the market
ginko
flowers
finally we settle for a bowl of steamy tomyum soup noodle. It was just ok but i love the condiments...very spicy!! my lip burn up like Angelina Jolie but i love it!!
and a nice cup of ice tea (teh tarik)
one of my favorite tit-bits, Deep fried sesame balls with sweetened bean paste filling...yum yum. i\m drooling all over again thinking of it. A must have!!!
tummy filled, time to shop!!!
one can find all kinds of $h!t here in Hadyai from sweets,
exotic fruits ( i think they call this Snake fruit or in Malay we call it Buah Salak)
to exotic clothes. You name it, they got it
mobile street vendor :)
in Thailand, pictures of their king is everywhere
we walked and walked till we reached the big market. Lot's of things to buy here... i got my 50Baht flip flops here and also a $h!t lots of other stuff ^^
Hence not much photo here :D haha
wow they still paint their own billboard for the cinema... how old skool!!
after hours of walking, shopping and price negotiating, it was time for a break! Dinner time. This restaurant just behind our hotel, i totally recommended! The food was good and the price was personable
see all empty
the only down side was that after we suck dry our tomyum soup. i found a hair :S
after dinner, continue to shop!!!
the size of the prawn is damn scary...a giant prawn
time to call it a day!
early morning we went to hunt for our breakfast @ this busy market
interesting corn
quail's egg....emmmm yum yum
sweet potato and nuts
uhhhh fried chicken
some sweet desserts wrap in banana leaf
another favorite of mine. Sticky rice with spicy coconut shrimp filling wrap with banana leaf grilled (Pulot Panggang)
you tiao
the pineapple here are also very sweet and juicy....even the bees likes it!!!
after a heavy breakfast and some last minute shopping, we headed home. From our hotel we took the tut tut to the main van stop kind of place. Cost about 20baht /pax
again we took the local van back to the boarder....same price 57baht / pax
@ platform 26
the van is quite frequent, so no worries
everyone was happy, relax and broke. We shall do it again! next round when i'm back in town
when we got back to the Malaysia boarder thank god the car was still there!!! :D
~ sa wat dee ~
