Continuing my trip from my
HatYai Sawadee Day 1post and
Hatyai Sawadee Day 2post:
Let's start Day 3 (last day in Hatyai) with a picture of colorful plates of pulut =)
Today's mission is to visit the morning market (no more sightseeing already). Mom already know her way and she even brought lunch boxes to buy stuff back! We start by eating breakfast in the hotel.
Cute mini fried crullers to eat with fish porridge. I just ate them like that. Crispy and guilt-free. LOL
This is the tastiest thing ever. Can someone tell me what is this shrimp thingy that is super crispy and sweet and taste mega awesome when eaten with fried rice? This bowl of tiny shrimp is placed next to the fried rice so I assume you eat them together.
Fried rice that looked flat but taste like the fried rice I ate at Yuen Long, HK's famous Tai Wing Wah fried rice and they don't even put lap cheong or shrimp! OMG!! I ate two plateful of these. I wanna fly to Hatyai just to stuff myself with a plate of these yummy fried rice right now!! *drool drool drool*
After eating too much for breakfast, we decide to walk to the market instead of taking tuk-tuk. It's around 15 mins walk, I didn't mind at all because there are so many things to look at.
A lot of small restaurants along the way.
Are these salted eggs? I like, cuz it's pink.
Pass by some chicken rice stall that's packed with people.
A noodle shop with vintage plates display. I love!
Stitch paw slippers!
Okay we reached the market already!! There are like about 3 streets, selling food, fruits and flowers.I didn't see any wet market selling fishes and meat, maybe they're at another streets by the corner. Mom went straight to her favorite stalls , while I snap here and there.
Bahulu stall. Freshly made.
Pork satay! I love when you can buy and eat satay in the morning. You can find satay in the morning at Kota Bharu too! Meat on skewers are awesome!
Lobak stall.
Gorengan stall. The sweet potato balls looked yummy!
So long I never had these childhood kuih. Wait, I think I ate a pack before at Tai Chung, Taiwan last year but the color was not as nice :)
Siew Mai.
Fried mini crullers! Look exactly like the one I had at hotel! Mom says it's the same, cuz the she saw one of the hotel worker walked in the restaurant with a bag of these and poured it into the tray. 10 Baht for 10. Food in this market cost around 10-20 Baht.
Corn stall.
Fried pork stall. Look like perfect topping for soup noodle!
Rice dumplings. Cheap and nice. Mom bought quite a lot of dumplings here.
The seller know how to talk in Hakka!
Mom bought like 30 of these pink Teo Chow kuih. 7 Baht for one.
She bought unfried ones.
Yakult lady was selling cultured milk drink on the streets too.
Behind those stalls, you will see coffee shops like this. Locals enjoying breekie.
So pretty! These fa-kou is the prettiest I've ever seen! So much nicer than our local white ones with a pink blob on top. ><
Mini mini trays of pulut in radioactive colors! Mom says it's offerings during prayers. Not sure if people will eat it. I love purple rice!
Mini mini pastel fa-kou.
Mini mini pineapples. All nicely peeled.
Sweet pomegranates, just 10Baht each!!!!
Fresh flowers for sale.
Pink roses.
Daisies.
I can't believe that I did not buy anything and we walked back to the hotel. Lesson: Never visit a market with full tummy LOL
Time to check out and leave Hatyai. While on the bus, I panicked cuz I haven't tried their famous fried chicken yet and today I haven't had any coconut icecream yet!! So mom grabbed some for me during the immigration checks while I guard our luggages. I ate one, not nice cuz it's cold and oily.
And I had more pineapples and mangoes cuz mom can't find coconut icecreams.
Our bus stopped at the Duty Free shop in Malaysia. Check out the prices. Are they a lot cheaper?
We had dinner at Hai Ping Seafood in Penang, included in the tour fee.
Tasty assam fish!
Seafood tofu.
Mixed vege.
Steamed lala with lots of garlic.
Sweet sour prawns.
Chili Crabs!
We reached home around 8pm. I enjoyed myself alot during this trip because I don't have to worry anything about planning and itinerary, just eating and shopping all the way. The weather is awesome too, windy at night and not so hot in the daytime (in December). The people are so friendly, no one bat an eyelid when I snapped away at their goods
unlike Hong Kong.Just bring empty luggages if you planning to visit Hatyai!
All pictures on this post are taken with my Jayple (my iPhone). With exception of few pics where I had to ask people to take pic of me and my mom where I used my Sony camera, hehe, can't trust most people to hold my Jayple!
Remember to read my adventures
HatYai Sawadee Day 1and
Hatyai Sawadee Day 2if you only stumbled on this third installment post. Don't forget to
Kool my posts ya, thanks!
Continuing my trip from my
HatYai Sawadee Day 1 post:
Let's start Day 2 with a picture of yummy Coconut Icecream!
We had breakfast at the hotel, I was hungry and didn't take much picture. Stay tuned out for Day 3, where I took pics of our yummy breakfast from the hotel! Ah Lung sang some soulful Thai songs while we're on the way to see the famous Songkla mermaid at Samila Beach.
Urban legend says that if you touches the mermaid's *beep* you can find soulmate! People just
find excuses to misbehave on public places. Tsk!
Hatyai's mermaid is combing her hair while Copenhagen's mermaid is just santai on the beach.
Which one do you prefer? The mermaid here is more realistic with natural background, IMO.
Source : Wikipedia
Careful while you climb up the rocks! Ah Lung was pretty helpful, helping people to take pictures.
Nearby the mermaid, there is a statue of a cat and mouse. But where is the dog?
According to the local legend, a cat, mouse and dog were traveling on a Chinese ship, when they attempted to steal a crystal from the merchant. Swimming ashore with the crystal, both the cat and the mouse drowned and became the two islands, while the dog reached the beach, but died and become the hillKhao Tang Kuan. The crystal turned into the white sandy beach.
Source: Wikipedia
It's really a hot day. So..
It's a time for Coconut IceCream!! What? Again?! Well this time it's not the same, cuz I asked the vendor to omit the bread cubes and gimme more icecreams cuz soggy bread cubes are really not nice. Here I pay another 10Baht for a coconut cup/ bowl instead of plastic cup. See, I get 3 scoops of ice cream!!
Close-up of the dessert of life. When I grow up, I wanna be coconut icecream vendor! A pink colored one!
Next up, we went to thehillKhao Tang Kuan (the dog that didn't drown turned to this hill). Mom has been here many times so she stayed in the bus eating roasted corns, watermelons and mangoes. I've never been here so I paid the entrance fee 60Baht to ride the slanted lift up. It's really a lift, not a cable car. Everyone got on the lift and it will slowly move uphill.
Proof picture that I've been here.
View from the top.
Hungry! Time for lunch! Our tour ended here. Ah Lung dropped us in front of a restaurant and we're free to wander to the local market after lunch.
Mom's favorite. Glass Pheonix Salad (chicken feet salad). Not my favorite.
My favorite. Tomyum Kung! Secret: I love to eat onions inside tomyum. Can I order tomyum with just onions?!
Best steamed chicken ever! And I'm not even a fan of steamed chicken! The soy sauce with fried garli is super awesome!
Sweet sour fish. Nay.
Stew pork. Nice and tender! A restaurant's specialty.
There are some other dishes too but I shy to take cuz have to eat with a table of other tour members. But I remembered a very tasty egg omellete too :)
After the meal, we hire a tuk tuk to go to market. Around 10Baht per person cuz 10 of us shared the tuk tuk. Mom's specialty lies here. She marched straight to her favorite sundries store to buy stuff like dried squid, cashew nuts, dried guava, pork floss, dried scallops, dried fish belly.. everything dried or fried. The price very cheap if you compared to Malaysia's price, according to Mom. The quality is better too!
Baht 100 (RM 10) for a pair of shoes. OMG! The quality is good too, as proof, the shoes I bought there, I'm still wearing now. Muahhah!
There's rows of shops and stalls selling bags, clothes, shoes too. Trust me that you need a trolley bag when shopping here. I stopped photographing the moment I entered into shopping mode. So no photo evidence.
Tip: Please go there early as they closes around 6pm.
Although the dry food market is closing soon, on the street, some food vendors are just setting up their stalls. Maybe they will open till the night. Here's a roadside chap fan (mixed rice).
Hatyai famous fried chicken. Must try street food!
Some ulam stall. Hatyai has high Muslim population, one of the shop I went to buy tops, I spoke to the cute guy in Malay! I asked him if he's a Malaysian, but he is not. He learned Malay in school too. Awesome. I bought 5 tops from him. Muahaha!
Yummy bottle of Meiji outside 7-11. They're having some Doreamon promo. I love Thailand's 7-11. Super well stocked!!
We have so many shopping bags, mom suggested to go back to the hotel. So off in a tuk tuk and we went back to the hotel. I speed showered and try all the clothes that I just bought. All of them fits! And I went back to the market alone to buy more, muahahah! Hard to flag a tuk tuk at 6pm..but this friendly tuk tuk agreed to send me for Baht 20 only! But.. the clothing and dry food market is closed! That's how I learn that it's not an all day market. Just the cooked food market is still on.
Cheap donuts! 10 Bath for one.
So many choices!
Cupcakes! Different stall but same price! I bought one, but there is a sad story to it.
So many fat dogs in Thailand, I made a collage of plump dogs in Thailand. They love their dogs, even strays are very well fed! While busy playing with a dog, I put my cupcake box aside and forgotten about it. :( I hope one of the dog ate it or something.
I walked back to Lee Garden Plaza without map! I'm tough! On the way, I saw painted movie posters. Yah, that's Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie!
Shopping didn't stopped here. There's a lot of department stores in Hatyai, mostly around Lee Garden surroundings. So I also shopped from Boots, bought lots and lots of toileteries. Imagine this, Colgate toothbrush normally RM 12 in M'sia only Baht 65 (RM 6.5) here!! Swipe those cards! I also bought containers of
Koh Kae Crunchy Shell Coated Peanut.IMO, best flavor ever is Coconut flavor and it's the hardest to find cuz it's all sold out! I got mine from a
Noodle from Lee Garden Plaza's food court. Cheaper and nicer than eating from street's stalls outside.
I had McD. With Teriyaki Pork burger! Corn and Yam pie FTW!!! Eh. Yam pie is what I ate in Guilin and Japan. But the corn pie is sooooo good! It's like eating corn custard!! 30Baht for 2!
I intro my mom to this dessert called Mun Cheum, which is sweetened boiled potato with coconut cream. She loved it but also say 'This is the most expensive dessert I ever had in Hatyai'. Thai 25 for two small piece.
Loot! Not pictured: Smal hills of food related purchases
Totally happy with today's purchases!
Teaser for Day 3's post: More colourful food and
coconut icecream!!
