Hat Yai trip~~

Couple of days ago I went to Hat Yai for a short trip with mom. She randomly decided to go there since it's been years she's been there. As for me, that's my first trip to that part of Thailand. Some years ago, I did went to Golok but had vague memories of the place(was still a kid!).

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oh~la~la~[/caption]

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reaching da border~[/caption]

Hat Yai's an hour drive after crossing the border. Upon arrival at Hat Yai, we were greeted by dozens and dozens of tuk tuks there. You can see some tuk tuks around the border too but they weren't as many as they were in Hat Yai. It's basically the most common public transport available and convenient too provided it didn't rain I guess...

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one of the dozens tuk tuk in Hat Yai~ such an interesting transport.[/caption]

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Hat Yai~! Arrived at around 11am Thailand local time~[/caption]

Checked into our hotel first~ It's called Diamond Plaza Hotel which is located at the heart of Hat Yai. The famous Santisuk market and Kim Yong market are located just walking distance away. Also, there're 3 departmental stores nearby Santisuk Market too_Central Plaza, Lee Gardens Plaza and Odean.

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interior of Diamond Plaza Hotel[/caption]

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Our room~[/caption]

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Hat Yai from my hotel room~[/caption]

Lunch time at some kopitiam along Thanoo Saneha Nusorn road. I actually ordered something else(or so I thought I was) but I guess due to some language miscommunication of some sort, the waitress brought me koey teow soup. I was like, is this my food? Really?? Damn it. I hate koey teow soup٩(*A*۶)Don't even remembered the last time I had one before this.

Worse still, it tasted so bland I dumped in loads of dried chili flakes, vinegered chili sauce and sesame oil into my noodles. Better spicy than tasteless.

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super bland koey teow soup...[/caption]

We ordered tom yam soup as a side too but forgot to snap photo. It's not bad but I think maybe it's a lil' pricey...

After lunch, we went shopping around Santisuk and Kim Yong market. There were many small stalls but they were basically selling the same thing_either selling CDs/DVDs, watches or electronics stuff. There're a couple others selling apparels, one or two spy gadgets stalls and long rows of stalls selling fruits or local snacks and loads of souvenirs.

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first tuk tuk ride to Hat Yai's 'Big Market'[/caption]

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only 20baht per person to get around Hat Yai![/caption]

Later in the evening, we decided to check out Hat Yai's 'Big Market' 'cuz another tourist from Indonesia who we were hanging out with wanted to get some Zebra brand steel wares which is famous in Thailand. Shopping with aunties thereX(

LOLOL. Apparently Thailand's Zebra brand wares have always been famous among tourist. Malaysians tourist used to get loads of this Zebra wares too before they started to import them into the countries years ago.

Hat Yai's 'big market' is quite a distance away from where we were staying so we took a tuk tuk to get there. It's just pretty much similar with Santisuk Market only there were more shops selling clothes, bags and wallets. Mom decided to get this in my opinion fake  smuggled in apparently according to the shop keeper Kippling duffle travel bag and a backpack for 2000baht.

So expensive!(,X-X,)

 As for me, I got myself a really pretty floral shorts there for only 190baht! Best bargain for shorts I ever got and it's pretty too! (^v^/)

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Hat Yai 'Big Market'[/caption]

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stalls lined alongside the road near Hat Yai 'Big Market'[/caption]

 Spent quite a while looking around... Did find some shops selling cute tees and dress but the stuff are pretty similar to the clothes you can find in Malaysia and there wasn't much of a bargain so I didn't get any.

Took a while there I guess, then we decided to find a restaurant for dinner. We found one close by our hotel and ordered fried rice and tom yam soup(again, lol) . Forgot to snap photos 'cuz I was too tired from all the walking and lack of sleep by then... Still, after dinner we decided to explore the area around Lee Gardens Plaza~ Here's the view at night_still bustling with activities.

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Lee Garden Plaza @ night[/caption]

I actually wanted to go shopping at Asian Trade market, Hat Yai's night market 'cuz I heard they've got lots of apparels and stuff to see. But I just found out that the night market only opens on Thursday to Sunday. And we went on a Tuesday... (,T^T,)

Anyway, there're loads of stalls selling souvenirs around this area so we were checking them out and among those were cute, small tuk tuk models~! Hung out around Odean and Lee Gardens Plaza too before heading back to our hotel for a good night's rest~

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night view~[/caption]

~♥~

Day 2 begins with breakie at McDonalds before exploring further down the street behind our hotel and checking out Central Plaza. I kinda like the plaza 'cuz there were more branded items and something more up to date. I found some nice outfits from brands like deFry 01, Lolita and some other local/international brands but the stuff I like mostly were way over 1990baht.... (≥A≤/)

I was also very tempted to grab a couple of printed tees including a Hello Kitty one from FOX... Acck! Why are they all so expensive lah??

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prawn glass noodles~[/caption]

Lunch time at a kopitiam opposite the Pink Lady Plaza/Hotel. I ordered this fried glass noodles with prawns and the aloe vera juice 'cuz I find it interesting but it tasted like sugared water wtf.

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aloe vera juice~[/caption]

The portion of the food serve in that restaurant were humongous and very, very pricey. I'm not sure if they're overcharging us knowing we're tourist or what.

Last minute souvenirs shopping in the morning in front of Lee Gardens Plaza and I found this one stall selling handmade handbags, drawstring bags and hp casing. Got the handbag 'cuz it's so cute (//v//)/ We also bought most of the souvenirs here.

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one of the souvenirs from hat yai~ v(^v^,)[/caption]

That's pretty much what we were doing around Hat Yai~ If we had more time I actually wanted to explore more places like the KlongHae floating market and go for elephant trekking but I guess I'll have to leave that for next time. Hehehe ,(^v^,)