Iman and friends

Salam!

I've been thinking a lot about whether I should write about my trip to Hatyai  few weeks ago. I mean, let's be honest, I'm just lazy!!!! I don't feel like writing anything nowadays. But the trip was great I can't let it pass without writing it down- so that I can recall it one day.

Watch the spec

Pantai songkla...the mermaid beach. Too hot. 

It was a trip that actually exceeded my expectations. I did not expect anything at all; all I wanted was to be with my friends, eat some good food (because Thai food is amazing), and just follow wherever the travel agent took us. I did not even care how touristy it might be. we were a tourist anyway.

I am actually someone who doesn't trust people easily, so I am always the one who plans everything—from the flight, itinerary, and entrance tickets to everything else. But at the same time, I got really tired of having to plan and do everything and complained on why no one was helping...ugh. I also have a silly belief that package tours are only for groups of makciks, so I don't prefer them because I want to use my youth energy to the max la konon lol. pastu penat sebab sesat. 

but I think after few trips that I've went to, and after few bad tragedies from my diy trips (read: tersadai in a foreign country in snowstorm), I kinda grow tired of it, BUT im not giving up. I'll still plan for more in the future, cause i cant help it, im too excited. But i'll definitely will give chance to package tours after this. (from future me: maybe not) 

So, that was one of the biggest reason, if not the only reason, for me to join this trip -bcs i want to jalan-jalan without planning. Oh and i was craving for pad thai. 

Tuk tuk was.....breezy....but its quite expensive?

It was actually a school trip that we joined as iman (the teacher there)'s friends. Sikit lagi nak tukar nama trip "Iman dan kawan kawan".  I think ive went to Hatyai before when i was much younger with my family, the only thing I remembered was the tomyam, the night market and the location of our hotel (which was the same as this one). Oh and I remembered how fun it was cause I bought like a bag or something. 

The immigration line going in and out was like the snake in the old nokia phone game, being soo long and having so many turns(?) idk. They said it was a peak time, and yea it was a long weekend. Malaysians love to travel dont they. They really love to travel until tenggelam semua org thailand dekat situ, i didn't even speak a single thai, it was fuuuull of malaysians. which, is not a bad thing. maybe if it's Bangkok there'll be a lot more thais. Our tour guide was thai but soo fluent in malay?? i dont get it.  Funfact: 70% of hatyai's economy is from Malaysians. 

First day

Our first day started late at night- we started our journey by bus from Cheras to Kedah. It was after work and everyone just took the whole journey as their night sleep before the next day. Besides the very limited leg space and the back pains I had, the long journey was easy for me. Thanks to the long journey to Kelantan im so used to, this was nothing.

After the immigration, which took around 30 minutes, we had lunch at kedai nasi campur at Danok. A little far from Hatyai still. It was meh. Nasi campur biasa je, like in Malaysia but less and should I say, weirder choices. I'll give 5.1/10, 0.1 for not being so crowded, the food was not bad but not good. Quite a dissapointing start for my self thai food hunt. but Alhamdulillah (grateful for everything). 

The milk tea was so manis

We then continue our journey to Songkla beach, skipping Hatyai city since it was crowded on Saturday. I dont mind cause beaches will always be better than cities. We've arrived when it was scorching hot so we hurriedly went to the coconut ice cream stall for a quick refreshment and we had to try it since they are famous for it. I've learnt one thai word after hearing and observing people ordering, "me-au", which means "don't want". Basically the ice cream comes with a lot of complimentary toppings and Iman don't want any of it, she was like, "Coconut, one, me-au, me-au, me-au" while pointing to every toppings and it made everyone laughed. #thai101. The ice cream was nice! 7.8/10. It was not my first time though, i've tried it here but there was so much better.

It was so good. Quite different from the one we can get in Malaysia. 4/5

We've walked along the beach, saw the infamous Mermaid statue from afar, bcs there's too much people lining up to take a photo with it. Which I don't really get, its just............a mermaid...............I dont think it's worth lining up. And went back to the bus en route to the floating market. 

I remember eating quail eggs there before and they were so delicious so that was all I could think about in the bus. "I'll run for it" -was all in my head. Right after we arrived, I bought some, but they weren't as good as I remembered................................dissapointment #2. I've been telling my friends they were good when it tasted just like a normal sunny side up eggs only smaller and cuter. 

But then, my favorite food of mine saved the day: dimsum. There were no lines, (quite offended), cheap and delicious, easily the best thing there. Bought it twice. 

The mall have security check at the entrance. we took photo bcs we're nice ppl. 

My memory of the floating market was much livelier, more fun and bigger than what i was welcomed with. It felt over commercialized, poorly maintained, and the boats were lesser than I expected. I dont know if boring grown up mind and using my own adult money is the factor though, might be. 

My friends bought a lot and we all shared our foods. I remember one food in particular famir bought, it was a coconut pancake. It tasted somehow like an apam balik but healthier(?), chewier and comforting lol i dont know, but that seems sounds like the right word. Whether its because it was not mine so its free, or because we shared it, either way, it was so good that the taste still lingers in my mouth. 

Full of.....malaysians.

We then checked in to the hotel, the room was nice, enough to make me feel safe and rested, and it was in the middle of the town(?) so we went out for some night stroll. You just can't be in the room while travelling. Bought some foods to eat in the room bcs outside was too crowded. No pad thai found yet though. 

2nd Day 

Since thailand is GMT+7, the day started really bright. The sun was blazing at 7 like it's 8. I get the GMT+8 timing complains now, the day starts earlier making it easier to arrange our day-to-day schedule.

Anyway,  we did some shopping. The travel agent, expectedly brought us to "their" places (dapat komisen). I didnt want to shop much but.....idk, the whole currency thing and us having the higher value unconsciously or consciously made me cray cray. Or i am just normally crazy  

Cool #1

Cool #2

                             

Cool failed. 

Had lunch at a steamboat buffet, thought i would eat the steamboat the most? i ate the best pulut mangga ever. the way it was plated as bite sized, i cleared 5 plates of it. i swear it was the best pulut mangga ever and its one of my favourite dessert ever since. The buffet was okay, i dont really like stemboat much bcs i like my food dry.....

(all over the place, this restaurant was the day after) 

We had lunch at an infamous dimsum place -why, bcs its not that great. you can have better dimsum somewhere else. but who goes to thailand for dimsum?

Don't be fooled by its look. 2/5

The journey then continued with visiting those souvenir shops, including those where the tour guide earned commissions—typical tourist spots. 

In the afternoon, we finally got the time to ourselves to  plan our own itinerary. We first went to the hatyai shopping mall and stopped at the thailand "watson" to buy thai makeups and oh my god we were obsessed with it and actually spent all our time there and went back to the hotel right away. Later that night we took our last chance to ride tuk tuk again to go to the night market. I was on a hunt for a padthai cause this is no thailand trip without padthai nuh uh and Alhamdulillah I found it, and bought it 5 seconds after i spot it. 

My love padthai 10.9/5

Iman being clingy #1

Iman being clingy #2

It was so busy, and the shops there actually sells everything i saw in Kelantan's market. I can't recall if I visited this market when I was younger, but it was definitely more exciting back then.. Maybe adulthood has stripped away some of my sense of excitement, curiosity, and innocence idk. But going with my friends made it better no doubt (done ambik hati). We ate some foods, stroll around, and rode the Tuk tuk back to the hotel. 

I was actually quite tired after the long day but i couldnt resist having my friends coming over to my room for some chats. My eyes actually got heavier when iman started playing chess on my bed. She's so clingy. 

I actually am going to end the story here cause the next day were just us going back to Malaysia and had a veeery long journey we actually arrived at 4am in the morning and the worse part was having to work the next day. So....thats it. 

The spec was hers actually. Really need to buy one. 

I dont know what actually possessed us to buy one for each, one is enough for 3. 3/5

Thats it for my post this time. Thank you to everyone who were in this trip, I had fun. Lets see if our next plan will only remain as a plan. Sorry if my writing this time is quite all over the place. It actually reflects my current state of mind. suprise suprise

ps: hi, this is from future me revisiting this draft and I actually ter-skipped one place we went, which is the elephant park thing. But its okay, cause not recommended #stopanimalabuse