Good Bye, Hat Yai 30 Dec 2019

We will be leaving Hat Yai and travelled back to Malaysia. Initially we would like to take the train going back, but it seems like all the train have to pre-book online and there were no more seats.

We checked for the express coach too, it is the same. As we were lucky that there are still seats available for 4 of us, we immediately purchased the tickets yesterday. The time is around 9.30am. Thus, we had arranged Yuri to come to collect the rental car from us.

We had our breakfast at one of the coffee shop nearby. We just had a simple noodle soup then we went to the express coach tickets agents there to board to our coach back to Malaysia.

Along the way we can see the green paddy fields when the coach passing by Perlis and Kedah. The scenery is so beautiful. We can rarely see this scenery in the middle of Kuala Lumpur.

We came back quite late to home from our Hat Yai and Phatthalung trip. Well, it is not saying that late but it was almost 10 hours of journey on bus. We started around 10.00am and when Alisan Golden Coach reached TBS, it was almost 7.30pm.

We had almost 45 minutes LRT rides from TBS Station to Puchong Prima Station. It was merely 9.00pm when we reached our home sweet home.

Well… this trip is worth while for us as the monies that we spend and we had almost 1 week holidays with travelling to Hat Yai and Phattalung. Overall we were very happy and satisfy with our year end holiday trip this year.

Songkla City & Last Night at Hat Yai 29 Dec 2019

We woke up early in the morning and checked out from Palm Payom Village Resort. We would drive back to Hat Yai today thru Songkla City.

On the way to Songkla, we just stopped by a beach nearby and walked down to check the scenery and the seaside.

Then we continued our journey about another half an hour then we came to the jetty as we were taking the car ferry across into Songkla City.

It was a fun experience for us too. We just parked our car after we drove into the ferry. Then, we walked out from our car and took some photographs on the ferry.

The journey did not take long, after we docked at the other side, along with us were the motorbikes and pedestrians as well. The first destination at Songkla City is the Great Serpent Naga.

The Great Serpent Naga is regarded by locals as a sacred site, but spiritual reasons aside, the majestic Naga head does indeed have a monumental beauty that makes it a magical must-see in Songkhla.

Divided into three separate parts, the serpentine head faces Songkhla Lake and pulls double duty as a 9-meter high water spewing fountain. Created in 2006 the serpent’s sea green patina perfectly belies its age and has a beguiling power over visitors.

Unfortunately, it was under renovation and it is hoisted up and we were unable to go near to take the photo together with the Naga head. We just took the nearest that we can.

After which we stop a while at the park as there is a figure monument there to remember the Prince of Chumphon for his contribution to the country. There are some write up about him and torpedo displays.

The serpent’s mid-section is in Sculpture Garden Chaloem Phrakiat as a mysterious u-shaped metallic structure. We managed to find the mid-section and took a photo.

Then we hunted for the tail section. The tail emerges even farther south with even less fan fair, totaling a three-kilometer length from head to tail.

Thus, we came to the famous Samila Beach. Songkhla’s Samila Beach has not succumbed, like so many seafront communities, to mass development.

Its natural beauty and local charm has been well preserved. The length of east coast shoreline is an endless golden sand beach with plenty of shady pine trees.

It is a magnet for locals as well as tourists, especially on the weekends and holidays. We were surprised to find that no one donning swimwear, then only to know that because sun bathing does not seem particularly encouraged or discouraged.

Many of the visitors seem content to simply enjoy the festive, relaxed environment fully clothed. But the shallow sea is calm and relatively clear and certainly splash-worthy on a sunny day.

There are less populated stretches of Samila Beach for visitors to explore and have more privacy. Head north towards Laem Son On (Pine Tree Cape) or south of the Golden Mermaid Statue as Samila Beach becomes Chalatat Beach.

Some areas are more isolated than others, so exercising common sense, safety precautions would be wise. The majority of the beach scene is concentrated in the area of the iconic Golden Mermaid Statue.

It is the most prominent of the statues and sculptures that make their appearances throughout the seafront areas of Sculpture Garden Chaloem Phrakiat and nearby Seri Park.

We can see plenty of vendors congregate along the beachfront, selling everything from cheap eats to Songkhla souvenirs. To our surprise there were so many tourists that wanted to take photo with the golden mermaid statue.

And the golden mermaid statue is not so huge that we thought. It is just a small one. We just took from far the mermaid statue. In the end, we were unable to locate the tail section of the Naga.

It was too hot for us to wonder around the city. We drove through the Songkla Old Town and we were pleasantly surprised to find lots of street art adorning various walls and sidewalks.

At a glance I thought I was at George Town Penang as the art work is of equal quality and variety as the higly popular street art of Geroge Town and Ipoh. I just took some photos in the car during passing through all those streets arts. 

The Old Town community art project apparently began in 2016, thus they have only just started and have plenty of room to expand their impressive efforts.

It was already 12 noon when we passed through the Songkla Old Town and headed to our next destination – Khlong Hae Floating Market. It was kind of far from the city, and it took us about an hour to reach there.

We were a little dissapointed as the Floating Market not opened yet. The market itself is can split to 2 parts – one is along the river whereby all the merchant boats are parked along the river and selling the local streets food in the boat.

Another part is at the land whereby all sorts of things from clothing, shoes, soveniors to food can find there. All of the stalls were not open and we were told by one of the vendors that it is only open from 5.00pm onwards.

It was only 1.00pm when we were there. So we decided to drive back to Hat Yai straight after seeing no point that we waited there and we felt as it actually enough for us to see the Khlong Daen Floating Market on this trip.

Thus, we just continue back to Hat Yai and checked into Grand Plaza Hotel, where we spent the last night at Hat Yai. We had our late lunch around 3.00pm near the hotel, then we had a rest and took a bath at the hotel.

We had our dinner around 7.00pm at our favourite McDonald’s at Lee Garden. Grand Plaza Hotel is actually just next to Lee Garden. There is a Lee Garden Hatyai Walking Street just outside the Lee Garden at night.

There were so many variety of streets food here. It is just like a mini Asean Bazaar whereby we can find most of the Asean food here.

We were too tired for the night. We sleep early this night as it is the last night at Hat Yai. Tomorrow we would be leaving and back to Malaysia.

Palm Phayom Village Ranot 28 Dec 2019

Palm Pahyom Village is located in Ranot District, Songkhla Province. We booked this hotel during when we planned our itinerary.

As we know that it would be late when we come back from Khlong Daen Floating Market, so we need a hotel that located somewhere in the middle of Songkla and Khlong Daen. So here we were.

It was kind of far drive from Phatthalung to Palm Phayom Village as we need to drive a big route. It is actually located near to sea side.

Palm Phayom Village is a 15 to 20 minute drive from Floating Market. It was already late when we arrived back to the hotel. We just took our bath and sleep. Only when we woke up in the morning, then we able to see the hotel outlook.

The design of the hotel itself are all the rooms are built beside or along a pool that every each room can have the individual private balcony at the pool side. It is kind of cosy.

The rooms with air conditioning and the convenience of a 24-hour front desk. The front desk actually is the home of the owner of Palm Phayom Village. Free WI-Fi is available in all areas.

Parking is provided and there is ample parking space in front of the rooms. Rooms here are equipped with a private balcony, a seating area and a cable TV. Shower facilities are in an en suite bathroom.

It is not the best hotel but it was what we need at that time with the affordable price for a short trip for us.

Khlong Daen Floating Market 28 Dec 2019

It was almost 5.30pm when we arrived at Khlong Daen. We drove here according to the direction that Waze directed. We parked our car near the police station. Then, we walked towards the bridge.

Khlong Daen Market is located in Khlong Dan Sub-district, Ranot, Songkhla. It is also connected to Ramkaew Sub- district, Huasai, Nakhon Si Thammarat. Khlong Daen is situated at the main intersection of three canals, which are Ranot Canal, Cha-aud Canal, and Pakpanang Canal.

Such three canals flow along to the end then merge into a small canal named Khlong Daen, which is considered a natural boundary of two provinces. It used to be prosperous in the old days. At that time, this market had the long row houses along the river.

There were many merchant boats from other places and the local culture called “Pook Kleaur” which was the significance culture of the southern people since Khlong Daen people were “Kleur Muang” who worked as the trading connectors between “Kleur Kaun” and “Kleur Lay”.

The change happened after there was the gravel road. A lot of Khlong Daen people moved to town so that the rental row houses were left alone, the house stilts could be seen around the community as the evidence of the prosperous time.

The old buildings along the canal in the market area are well kept. We walked on the wooden bridge which was built for the market visitors. This floating market only open during Saturday, and that is the reason why we arrange our itinerary that we are able to come here on Saturday evening.

There are mainly eatery stalls that sell all kind of Southern Thailand street foods or local street food. The stalls at one side of the wooden bridge and there are low tables and chairs for market visitors to have their dinner at the side of the river.

The first stall that we came to is selling fried tapiocas. basically is fried sweet potatoes for the Malaysians. Then we came to the fried food stall. Be it fried chicken or fried Wanton, it is ultimately irresistible normally for me. And they can make it abundantly scattered across the streets and lanes in Thailand would be fried food.

Thais are very inventive with their frying and it seems like that thy will fry just about anything: seafood of all kinds (shrimps, fish, squid), meats (pork in many forms, duck, chicken), kanom (bananas, bread, dumplings), appetizers (shrimp and fish cakes) and even leafy vegetables (such as holy basil – bai kaprao).

Alvin ordered a set of braised Pork Knuckle Rice and we shared among ourselves, as we want to taste more different kind of street food that here have to offer. The pork knuckle rice indeed is the most delicious that we had tasted so far!. We love it very much!

There is one street food that we were quite surprised that can be found here is the Banh Khot which we thought is the Vietnamese street food. We found that the Banh Khot here is much more savoury than the ones we had in Saigon, may be the it is filled with lots of toppings such as fried shrimps, squids, oysters, spring onions, carrots and they fried it more crispy. It looks much more attempting!

After then we came to a unique place which is a living house which turned into a museum – Khlong Daen Museum Learning Centre. The owner of the Museum is a retired teacher himself.

There are display items that from the early days of the Khlong Daen living, such as the fishing equipment from the fishermen, cooking utensils, agriculture equipment and so much more.

Around 7.00pm there was a dance performance which is performed by the children in the village. This Monora Thai traditional dance is the highlight of the floating market too. The dancers dance on the wooden bridge that can be seen by the visitors at both side of the river during they are having their dinner beside the river.

This is one of the reason why we want to come to Khlong Daen Floating Market too. It is a brand new experience for us as well. The street light at both side of river lighted up when the sky become darker, the whole evening scene of the floating market seems so beautiful and nice! The place is getting crowded by the people that visiting.

We left about 7.30pm as it was late and tired for us as our itinerary was started at very early of the morning. We back to our hotel at Ranot.

Khlong Daen Floating Market looks more charming during evening when all the street lights and the stalls are lighten up. It is such a nice place. We found out that we are the only tourists there and we were please with the local hospitality.