Family Outing @ Puchong IOI Mall

Today even though is the last day of the year of 2019, Alvin still have to go to work because he has already apply too many leaves for our year end trip. The children and I were staying at home and unpacked the luggage and the stuffs we bought from Hat Yai.

Due to today is the last day of the year 2019, Alvin brought us to IOI Mall to have the dinner and we intended to watch a night movie. Unfortunately, there is no suitable movies that at the time we were there.

We had our dinner at the Ah Cheng Laksa. Issac had the Herbal Chicken Soup with Rice. Annabelle had the Butter Milk Chicken Chop with Rice.

Alvin had the Curry Chicken with Rice and I had the Curry Laksa. And this is how we spent 31st December 2019 together as a family!

The children were laughing at me as their mum is still in Hat Yai mood – snap the food photos before we eat. I paused for a while and only realised that may be my ‘Vacation On’ button not yet switch! Hahaha…

Greenway Night Market Hat Yai 24 Dec 2019

When we reached Greenway Market it is just 5.00pm. The stalls were not opened yet. Nevertheless we just walked in to the area to check if there is any other shops that already open.

To our surprise we saw a sign with the Greenway Food Station and food pictures. This made us super happy as we were hungry for food. The food court it-self is very spacious and have 2 floors.

Ground floor is mainly the food and beverages stalls and some dining area too. 1st Floor is mainly dining area and a beverage bar.

It is a good timing as well that we can have our dinner before all the stalls open at the market.

Greenway Food Station using the cash card system. We need to buy the cash card at the entrance and order the food we want and pay with the card and collect our own food.

There is a long stroll of food stalls selling different types of eye-catchy Thai street food, all priced at unbelievably wallet-friendly price tags.

Traditional Thai food stall – all about Thai salads. All kinds of salads can be seen here.

I noticed and surprised that even sushi is their street food, because I can see sushi being sell at the side of the road whenever we were walking.

All kinds of noodle soup especially Tom yam. I ordered Tom Yam Seafood noodles, to be frank I was a little disappointed or may be what should I order is the Tom Yum Gong soup instead.

Alvin ordered the Pad Thai, it is not bad too. Topped with pinch of sugar, roasted peanuts, and a little bit of chili flakes, make the Pad Thai so savoury.

Issac ordered a pork noodle soup and it taste just nice. It’s come with minced pork, pork ham and meat balls. Issac loves the pork meat balls, he said is different from what we have in Malaysia.

As usual Annabelle ordered rice, it is the cheese omelette with sausages.

We particularly enjoyed their Som Tam / Green papaya salad, not only it packed a flavourful punch but the crunchy element was so strong that one would need to chew for at least a few seconds before swallowing, maybe a tad too spicy for some though.

After our dinner, we start to explore the night market. The area is big enough that you would want to spare at least a couple hours to explore.

There are plenty of things to explore at Greenway Night Market, not only food and beverage but street fashion, cafes, phone casings and even pets!

It segregate to few zones. Some is indoor with roof cover and some are without. We were keep on walking until we were tired and just on the benches prepared in the market.

We did not buy anything as we noticed that the price not even cheap as well, or may be because of our Malaysian Ringgit was weaken.

There are a lot of women fashion kiosks or stalls. The dresses are nice, unfortunately I think I am too old for those types of dresses anymore. Huhu…

Finally we walked towards the end of the market where it is open-air and just like the flea markets.

We just called it off for the day, and I took a last photos for the night scene of the Greenway Night Market. I love the evening dusk or evening sky in Hat Yai – pinkly purple colour!

We called grab car and went back to our hotel. It was already 8.00pm when we reached the hotel.

Khao Tom Mat

But it was not enough for me and Alvin. Later in the night, Alvin and I went out to find food again with Issac and Annabelle stayed in the hotel. He brought me to a place near our hotel and we eat Khao Tom.

It is grilled sticky rice wrapped with banana leaves. It is made from steamed sticky rice with sugar and coconut milk wrapped with banana leaves into triangle shape and it has to be grilled before being served.

We ordered a plain only sticky rice, a banana filling and a mung beans or black beans filling. It is sweet as it is a dessert in Southern Thailand. Well, it is a good try to taste their local authentic Thai street food.

Central Festival Mall Hat Yai 24 Dec 2019

After about 15-20 minutes ride, we had arrived at the Central Festival Mall. The Central Festival Hat Yai which opened in December 2013 is the largest shopping mall in Southern Thailand.

It is centrally situated in the middle of Hat Yai and can be access from the train station, airport and bus terminal. The modern architecture of the mall is just like the shape of a crystals with reflection of lights in prism which combines with modern graphics.

We were hungry looking for food. We just walked in to the lower ground floor that and we just realised that all the shopping malls in Hat Yai has tight security check.

We did not expect to see the lower ground arcade can be so vibrant and filled with people!

We do not expect that there are so many Japanese food inside the Tops Supermarket! There even has fresh sashimi and the salmon looks so fresh!

All these are the sushi sets and ready to go bento sets! Looks so delicious!

Here are all kinds of salads to grab!

Here are the cut fresh fruits that packed!

Or may be I was too hungry till I see everything is so yummy and delicious!

There were a lot of tourists as we can see at the lower ground arcade, it is because due to Malaysia and Singapore school holidays and it is Christmas holidays as well.

There are numbers of kiosks selling fruits, traditional Thai food, dried seafood or meat, fresh fruits and juices too!

Here is a stall selling Som Tam which is green papaya salad.

These are fried bananas, steamed taro and steamed potatoes. These are normally eat together with the caramel dressings.

Here is another stall selling pork meat, pork fat and pork sausages. Later then I know that sometimes these can be used as ingredients for the Thai salad.

We bought 1 packet of pork sausages that cost 100 Baht. It taste so different with the sausages I bought at Village Grocer back home then.

Here are the seaweed but I do not know and do not understand what it is written up there but I know it is delicious when eat together with the Thai spicy sour sauce and it is nice to eat together with the raw salmon too!

After we had filled up our stomach with some samplings on the floor… Haha… then we started to explore to the mall itself. When it comes to food, there are plenty in the mall, but I personally feel that the lower ground is the best for us because we are looking for the authentic local food.

It is Christmas! So the mall is decorated with the Christmas decorations and there will be a New Year celebration at the mall at the eve of New Year.

Through the mall, there are crescent shaped kites which is a symbol of the South of Thailand that adds a soft touch to the shopping complex.

It is actually the Wau Bulan which is Terengganu and Kelantan’s Malays traditional folk games.

The design provide a modern and atmoshpheric blend of lights and colours within the complex.

The interior of the shopping complex has a unique combination of local culture and mordern design.

There are a lot of international brands here. It is actually just like back home the Mid Valley Megamall, or 1U or Suria KLCC or KL Pavilion Mall.

We just window shopping in the mall, then we came to the Cineplex.

The mall has a Cineplex that has 10 movie theatres of international standard and IMAX 3D theatre.

They are using the E – Ticketing system just like back at Kuala Lumpur. Purchase the movie tickets by kiosks.

The waiting area is huge and very cosy and comfortable. We did check the price of the movie ticket, compare back in Kuala Lumpur, watching a movie is way more expensive here!

Central Festival Mall also consist an ice-skating arena which is also the first in Southern Thailand, a Convention Hall, a bowling arcade, an entertainment centre, a karaoke centre and more. But we did not go and check the places because all that we can find it back home.

We left the Central Festival Hat Yai around 4.30pm. We walked down towards the Greenway Night Market as it is very near, only 20-25 minutes walk from Central Festival Mall.