P for Phyllis: Sawadeeka!

It's been almost a month since I last blogged :O Yes I've been friggin' busy with my internship, I don't even have a couple of hours during the weekend to post something. (And partly it's also because I'm lazy... and also coz I'm a natural procrastinator.)

So sometime in August, I went to Hatyai with my family. A particular Monday was a public holiday - can't remember what was the occasion - so thankfully for that, I managed to escape work for a while.

We took the coach to Penang on Saturday, stayed at my grandma's house for the night and woke up reaaally early the next morning. I think we left at 5am ._.

After a couple of hours' drive in the van, we arrived at the border of Malaysia & Thailand! Well, almost. Took this pretty snapshot of the sky before we head on to immigration (few more hours spent there...).

Amazing colours all in one stretch! ;D

My arrival card! Thai characters are intriguing.

It was super duper jam on the way to immigration. And it was only 8am or earlier... - freaky traffic. See, the sun was just beginning to rise.

The jam was so bad, we actually went down and walked to immigration! Whoa talk about being adventurous lol. It was quite a distance, though not really that distance. Quite refreshing walk in the morning as well, if not for the carbon monoxide emitting from the vehicles just next to you -_-

Passed through Malaysian immigration, now moving on to Thailand immigration.

Andddd we're on Thai roads! Breathing Thai air!

Such a different feeling. Even though it's just a short while away from my home country. I feel weird...

...But excited nonetheless :D

First sighting of a tuk tuk!

I laughed at this. LOL so cute.

On the other side of the road. Oh btw we were waiting in the middle of two roads for our van, so I just did what I always do - snap pictures.

Super cute drink packets! Couldn't resist the urge to buy them... mostly coz of the packaging rather than quenching my thirst :p

The first stop in Hatyai at some restaurant selling only bird's nest and shark fin's soup :O

100 baht = RM10 so you work out the costs.

Oh they have fish maw as well. I only tried the soup coz I just don't fancy having squishy stuff that isn't squid in my mouth. We ordered bird's nest with longan and another one with gingko (but I forgot to take a picture of it lol). I prefer the one with gingko better :D

Next we went to this place - just beside the restaurant - to have a quick look. Nothing to my liking, as the products on sale were just bags, purses, souvenirs, stuff like that. To say that stuff in Thailand is cheaper in Malaysia is not quite true, as the value simply turns out to be the same after converting the currencies.

One must always buy snacks when in Thailand - or in any place, for that matter.

We came out of it armed with bags of goodies - some to give away to friends and some to keep in the house much to my contentment hahaha.

After satisfied of buying enough snacks, it was time for lunch! I got a delightful surprise as I thought we were having lunch in some random, stuffy restaurant off the streets in Hatyai.

It turns out that we're eating in a pleasant-looking house! Or at least, a restaurant that looks like a house :D

...I was starving and we were taking lotsa pictures...

The ambience feels so warm and home-y to me. I wanna have a house like this too!

Oh and Thailand's time is one hour earlier than ours, so my watch says 11am but it was actually only 10am over there.

That explained why we were the only ones there at that time of the day :p

Coconut drinks to refresh our bodies! Aaahhhhhhh I can literally taste the sweetness of the juice on my tongue now.

According to our tour guide, this restaurant is the only place in Hatyai that cooks their rice in clay bowls. Really interesting! And it's got the blue-ish colouring too. Gosh I absolutely love the food here! First dish was kailan (as you can see in the picture) cooked with salted egg. I can proudly say that this is my first time loving kailan :p

Second dish served was fish! Can't remember what species but it's delicious as well. The meat was actually cut in cubes already, mixed with cucumber and pineapples and onions. So you see, the body is just for decoration - how creative is that! You can opt to eat the meat together with the leaves as well, using them to wrap up :)

We had tomyam soup as well. Ahh pure love for authentic Thai tomyam! Absolute richness of flavour combine with the right amount of sour-ness - keeps me yearning for more!

We also ordered pork knuckle, and to me it seemed a bit weird eating that in a Thai restaurant lol. It was overall good, but it tastes better if you eat it together with the soy sauce and spicy sauce :p

After lunch, we went to get some Thai massage. I didn't want to (okay, I was scared) but my dad wanted to try it out so in the end the whole family went. Well, I can't help but to agree that it IS freaking cheap over in Thailand...

This is what the room looks like...

Me in pyjamas LOL. Was kinda nervous (as it was my first time) LOL. And uhh, I actually laughed out loud during the start of the massage oh my gosh it was so ticklish! After that, I practically spent the whole hour trying my best to contain my laughter.

And I think I fell asleep for a moment... The room was dim, the atmosphere quiet, and having someone to soothe your mucles - well, I think it's only normal if you doze off :p

Thennnn we went to town! Spotted more tuk tuks :D

So after that terrorist incident at the Grand Plaza Hotel *shudders* , security was really tight there. There were security guards at the entrance of the hotel, and even if you wanna enter the shopping malls opposite the hotel, you gotta open your bags and let the guard peer into them before they let you pass :O

These are freakishly huge prawns! But our tour guide says they are fake :( As in, inside those prawns are actually other stuffing :( I was disappointed.

Next, we went to the markets!

Do you even know what fruit is this? :O It's a mix of apple and guava! It was not bad, but kinda weird for my taste buds... probably not used to it.

I love this shot! It portrays the vibrant markets of Hatyai well :D Nyehehe, having a shiok sendiri moment.

More and more tuk tuks! I love tuk tuks! (I just love saying the word 'tuk tuk' for some reason.)

It rained in the afternoon and the guide said we wouldn't be able to go to the floating market - I was disappointed because that was something I'd looked forward to. But thank goodness, the drizzle gradually stopped and yay we were able to go!

On the way back I spotted these really old-school bottles :D

Here we are at the floating market!

Puddles were everywhere as it was just after the rain, making it hard to walk :(

Lots of cute things were on sale, but I didn't browse through every shop there la.. coz of the difficulty of walking and also time constraint.

Do you know that you can take these mugs home? :O And you only need to pay the price of the drink! That's like, killing two birds with one stone huh, by having a drink and also taking back a souvenir :p

The floating market for real! For real!!!! The Asian version of Venice :p

This lady is cooking eggs on the boat! Omgosh... SO COOL.

Another one is making drinks on the boat! That's sooo coool...

The path along the river was absolutely packed. We were only there for a while because I can't stand the heat (it was around 6pm I think), the people, the sweatiness etc etc :/