Hat Yai Trip : Part 1

Say hello to my bus. I said my bus because we chartered the 26 seater bus for this trip. We wanted free and easy so it made sense chartering a bus for the trip. I got a pleasant surprise when Lily told me the price would include a local guide that would be joining us when we reach Sadao (the thai side of the border that we shall be passing through).

The bus we chartered

I must say, despite the looks, the seat was really comfortable

We started our journey at around 1am and reached Bukit Kayu Hitam which is the transit point to Thailand at around 6am. Since we were pretty early, there was hardly any queue. While queuing to have my border pass stamped, I happily took a few pictures only to be stopped later on by an immigration officer. Apparently we are not allowed to take pictures. I was a bit puzzled to be honest since I don't see why we are not allowed to do so.

It was after this shot that I heard a shout "hei! tak boleh ambil gambar disini!!"

And what do you do the first thing you are at the immigration centre? Duty free shop!

I ended up not buying any booze since I could not bring them back tax free due to my short stay there.

Once we pass the Thai immigration point, we met Ah Sun, our Thai tour guide. He is a middle aged Thai Chinese that speaks fluent Cantonese.

We were asked what we wanted to have for breakfast and out of a sudden Lily shouted Bah Kut Teh. I was wondering to myself, "why Bah Kut Teh, I want TOM YAM!". Anyways, Bah Kut Teh it was for our breakfast. That's what I like about personalized tour like this, we decide what to do and the guide just brings us there.

The "no name" Bah Kut Teh shop

As you shall be seeing later on in my blog, I realised that many coffee shops type eateries do not have signboards in Hat Yai. But instead you see banners of all sorts hung all over.

I am not sure if it was due to hunger but the Bah Kut Teh was excellent. Its very mild compared to our Bah Kut Teh's back home in the sense that you don't have as much herbal taste in them. They come in a choice of 2 type of rice, plain white rice or "wu tau" race (yam rice). We also had "Mui Choi Kao Yoke" and Curry Fish. The curry fish was really good and somehow the taste reminisce "Rempah Nanas" (an Indonesian curry fish dish).

Bah Kut Teh

Yam Rice

"Mui Choi Kao Yoke" - That's Cantonese by the way, not Thai

Curry Fish that costs us RM80. They use the expensive "bawal" fish (Tau Tai). So after hearing that I wasn't too shocked from the bill given to us

Thai Teh Ais, taste the same as the one in Malaysia =))

To be continued...............