After a tiring day (we did wake up at 5am in order to get onto the bus for our Hatyai trip), it seemed that everyone would be tired, right?
And this was after an afternoon of wandering about the pseudo floating market in Hatyai.
But the Uncle who was our tour guide decided that we should take in another form of entertainment before we adjourned for dinner near our Lee Gardens Plaza hotel. It was still early and we surely needed something exciting to tell our families about.
He thought we would like the Ice Dome which was really about going into a hall full of ice sculptures. Personally, I don’t like the cold (look, I couldn’t even stand the spring weather of 15C in Hong Kong, ok, what more minus zero!) and secondly, I don’t like wearing jackets which the whole Hatyai town has been wearing.
You see, to bear the cold, you had to wear a loaned jacket from the Ice Dome people.
A few of us declined going into the ice sculpture exhibition and Uncle tour guide thought we were too stingy with our baht.
Pfft! I’d rather spend it on a good foot massage in town that night so Cecilia, me and a few others just sat around the public park when the whole group went into the freezing dome. Give me a museum and I’d be more than happy but an ice dome full of cold sculptures? No way.
Luckily that little detour at the ice dome lasted less than 2 hours and in no time, we were on our way back to town and dinner! I was ravenous and kept thinking about the little shopping adventure I’d have once dinner was done.
We took up 2 tables at this Chinese restaurant just a few steps away from our hotel. My travel companions took this as a chance to really eat and let their hair down. With Thai beers and some suckling pig (of course with other dishes as well), the ladies literally toasted the town. The 2 male tour guides (one was our Malaysian Uncle and the other was Thai-Chinese tour guide, his counterpart) probably thought we were the best group ever. We didn’t need to be guided. The ladies as I mentioned are old hands in finding their way in Hatyai. They knew this town like the back of their hand!
Hatyai town is full of cheap, kitschy stuff – the kind we all like once in a while. I’m horrible at bargaining because I always think, “Never mind lah, let the vendor earn a little more.” That’s why I am such a supermarket shopper. Even when I am not shopping at the supermarket!
Anyway, after dinner, everyone dispersed to do their own thing which was really one thing – SHOPPING! The streets were bursting with people and smells of food and honking tuk-tuks and cars. I decided to go off on my own to check out the night bazaar. We agreed to meet up again for foot reflexology in a few hours’ time.
I’m not crazy about shopping in the regular way so I was just browsing and looking around. If an item caught my eye, I’d look at it closer but here’s the problem with shopping in Hatyai (especially the night bazaars), you cannot try the outfit! You go for a hit or a miss so you better know your size. If you shop in the shopping malls, it’s OK – you can go to the fitting room.
Thai clothes vendors on the street are smart. When you sigh about not being able to try the blouse/skirt, they whip out their measuring tape and measure you and pick out the size for you. If it does not fit, they say in Thai-accented English, bring it back the next day (they KNOW you are visiting Hatyai for the weekend). With such low prices, you hem and haw a bit but you know even if it doesn’t fit, it’s OK, you won’t be losing much. It’s just a piece you buy for the heck of it!
My travel companions shared a tip – when you come to Hatyai, come with an empty bag. You don’t need a change of clothes because you can buy your clothes and wear them immediately. Your bag is going to be full of your shopping items later so save yourself the trouble of bringing clothes! Isn’t it cool or what?
It was almost 11pm when I got back to our hotel room. After a lovely cool shower, I heard a knock on my door. The ladies invited me to go out to get a foot massage. Two of them were already in their PJs but we thought, heck, it’s still early. Getting a Thai foot massage was definitely on my list. In fact I had wanted to engage a masseur to come to my room and give me a body massage.
So 8 of us women literally swamped a tiny reflexology shop (which doubled as a hair salon – don’t ask me why but Thais are damn enterprising) for an hour’s worth of reflexology. After a day of shopping and walking and eating, this was my personal piece of heaven. I’m a veteran at this – wherever I go, I must sample the local massage. It turned out rather good or maybe I was buoyed by my happiness at having bought a beautiful white cotton blouse.
It was almost 1am when we got back to our hotel rooms. Sleeping after a good foot workout was simply divine!
More shopping to come!
food in hatyai
Hatyai With Dancing Ladies, Part 2
If you read Part 1, Part 2 is where it gets interesting.
We were spending a two-day, one-night weekend in the Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel in the heart of Hatyai town.
It was a clever idea to get this hotel as it was smack dab in the midst of all the activity of the town and surrounded on all sides by malls, shops, restaurants, Western cafes and roadside stalls.
With such a great location, it’s just minutes away from all the shopping and eating we could all indulge in. (Later I found out that these ladies wrangled this hotel at the last minute due to knowing one of the directors of this hotel, who was an ex-student of Han Chiang High School. Normally this hotel is fully booked and packed to the gills with Malaysians.)
In fact, it’s built right on top of a shopping mall. I had a good view of the town from the hotel lobby.
I decided to take a quick nap after we checked in although the ladies decided to succumb to the shopping bug downstairs. I think a bit of shut-eye would make me more alert as I knew we would be staying up late (at least I knew I’d be!).
Around 4.30pm, we were again in our tour bus, shuttled to the Hatyai Floating Market.
Now I know and you know that this is really a tourist gimmick. Trust the enterprising Thais to create a way to give tourists something to do and something to eat and something to see. After all, if you really think about it, Hatyai isn’t exactly Disneyland. Spend more than 2 days here and you’d be bored to tears. It’s great for a weekend but anything more is overkill.
It was a bit of a let down because the market vendors had lined up sampans along the embankment of a river and seated all the food business folks into these sampans. It wasn’t as if these sampans were cruising the river and you could stop one to get your food.
Ah well. Maybe it was just jaded old me.
In typical Thai style, the food was enticing and presented well. Even drinks were sold in cute clay Doraemon mugs you could take home! But like Cecilia noted, who knows if the unglazed clay mugs were washed? They could be dusty and dirty. True.
We decided to just browse around. The rest of the market showed just how creative and enterprising the Thai people really are.
One stall had items such as handbags and cowboy hats made from aluminium or beer cans.
This lady was deftly putting together a cowboy hat made with flattened pieces of aluminium beer cans.
I also chanced upon fresh tamarind fruits. Tamarind is high in Vitamin C and the fruit is encased in a brown shell which breaks easily. Unlike the tamarind used for cooking, fresh tamarind is sweet and sticky, much like a fresh date.
It was a warm afternoon with the last rays of the sun beating down on us. I decided to quickly walk across a bridge where I soon came upon a stall selling fried bugs and fried worms.
Now I’ve seen enough of this on TV and was eager to bite into one. I had to know what the texture of a fried bug would be.
A number of people gawked at the bugs on the trays, stopping to snap photos but none were buying.
I decided to buy a packet (it was only 20 Baht or RM2). I asked the seller if I could mix 2 types of bugs into my one order. He was too happy to do so. I chose fried worms (looked a bit like the worms you get in pet shops to feed birds) and fried grasshoppers. I figured at least the grasshoppers ate proper green stuff unlike cockroaches, which was also for sale but the cockroach was huge and I didn’t know if I could bite it in half!
To make the bugs more palatable, the seller sprinkled some seasoning with a squirt of soy sauce.
Everyone looked at me, even strangers who were milling about and snapping photos of the bugs. I just speared one with a toothpick and popped one into my mouth. The fried worm tasted like dried prawn or “hae bee” albeit with a softer texture. It wasn’t bad at all.
Next I tried the fried grasshopper, about an inch long. This offered a crunch and it was also rather tasty. No icky taste at all. This could be the start of my love affair with bugs!
As I was happily munching on my bug snacks, Noel and BL were watching me. It looks horrible if you’re not eating it – your imagination powers up your innate fears about worms and creepy crawlies. It’s like Fear Factor – voyeurs tend to be more emotional than the people who eat those taboo things.
I offered Noel and BL some and they sportingly took some, though Noel wanted to have some water ready before he swallowed his fried worm. I told him that it was not fair to swallow it – he had to chew it and taste it.
It was a novelty all right but it was something exciting and fun and it capped the day for me. It was far more exciting than any pseudo floating market.
More to come… shopping on my own in Hatyai’s night market and a late night surprise!